Market Live: Sensex rallies over 350 pts as exit polls suggest BJP win in Gujarat

10:28 am Buzzing: Zee Entertainment gained nearly a percent on positive sentiment after Walt Disney Co on Thursday agreed to buy film, television and international businesses from Rupert Murdoch’s Twenty-First Century Fox Inc for USD 52.4 billion in stock.

Motilal Oswal has maintained buy call on the stock with increased price target of Rs 690 from Rs 630 per share.

10:15 am FII View: Indranil Sengupta of Bank of America Merrill Lynch said the research house continued to advise investors to play consumption over investment in the run up to the summer 2019 polls.

Farm loan waivers, in particular, should double to USD 40 billion from USD 20 billion so far, he feels.

This, along with a possible La Nina, will help support rural demand, he said.

Second, States will likely speed up the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission and the Center will also want to extend it to public sector undertakings by the 2019 polls, Sengupta feels.

This will likely add a consumption stimulus of 0.2-0.5 percent of GDP for the next 2 years, he said. Finally, he expects Union Budget 2018 to raise the income tax exemption limit.

10:01 am Listing: Ahmedabad-based multispeciality hospital chain operator Shalby started off first trade at Rs 243.80 on the National Stock Exchange, a 1.7 percent discount to issue price of Rs 248 per share.

Though soon after listing it recovered to hit a day’s high of Rs 254.80 (up 2.74 percent), it continued to hover around issue price.

Here are the top headlines at 10 am from Moneycontrol News’ Anchal Pathak

9:55 am Rupee Trade: The rupee jumped 19 paise to 64.15 against the dollar today on exit poll findings that the BJP is set to win in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly elections.

According to the findings released yesterday, the BJP is set to retain Gujarat and wrest Himachal Pradesh from the Congress. This led to a ripple effect on the stock market, which zoomed, impacting in turn the rupee sentiment.

The dollar lost some mojo against the euro after the European Central Bank left its policy rates and stimulus measures intact. The Bank of England, too, kept key interest rates unchanged.

Yesterday, the rupee bounced 10 paise to end at 64.34 a dollar.

9:52 am Pre-opening: Shalby Limited settled at Rs 239.70 per share in pre-opening trade on the NSE, lower compared with issue price of Rs 248.

9:47 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks extended rally in morning with the Sensex rising 369.38 points or 1.11 percent to 33,616.08 after the latest exit polls suggested BJP win in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.

All sectoral indices were higher. Nifty Bank, Auto, Metal, PSU Bank and Realty indices gained 1-2 percent.

The 50-share NSE Nifty rallied 116.10 points or 1.13 percent to 10,368.20. About 1,542 shares advanced against 338 declining shares on the BSE.

9:41 am Market Outlook: Sanjeev Prasad of Kotak said most exit polls suggested a victory for the BJP in Gujarat. This will be received well by the market while a surprise defeat would be a large negative surprise, he feels.

In the former case, he sees a modest rally and in the latter, a moderate correction as the market will also start focusing on India’s weakening macro position.

India’s macro has weakened significantly in the past few months, he said. The equity market seems to be much more sanguine about India’s macro than the bond market, Prasad feels.

“We do not like the absolute valuations of the bulk of the market with most of the consumption stocks trading at rich valuations and discounting FY19E earnings fully and even FY20 in several cases,” he said.

9:32 am Listing: Multi-specialty hospital chain Shalby, which recently concluded its Rs 504 crore initial public offering, will list its shares on the exchanges today.

The equity shares will be listed on the NSE as well as on the BSE.

The IPO, which opened for subscription from December 5-7, was subscribed 2.8 times at a price band of Rs 245-248 per share.

The portion set aside for qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) was subscribed 4.47 times, high net-worth individuals 43 percent, retail investors 2.97 times and employees 1.43 times.

The initial public offer (IPO) comprised a fresh issue of shares aggregating up to Rs 480 crore and an offer for sale of up to 10 lakh equities.

Proceeds of the IPO will be utilised towards repayment of borrowings by the company, besides purchase of medical equipment for the existing, recently set-up as well as upcoming hospitals.

9:21 am Sale of pledged shares: HDFC has sold 1.29 crore shares of Unitech in the open market and invoked nearly 8.2 crore pledged shares of the crisis-hit realty firm.

HDFC has sold 1,29,19,566 shares carrying voting rights worth 0.49 percent stake, and invoked 8,19,88,820 pledged shares worth 3.13 percent stake, according to a regulatory filing.

Promoters hold 17.92 percent stake in Unitech, of which 73 percent is pledged, as per the shareholding pattern at the end of the second quarter of this fiscal.

9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks opened sharply higher on last day of the week Friday after the exit poll results indicated that the BJP is likely to be winner in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly elections.

The 30-sahre BSE Sensex was up 286.89 points at 33,533.59 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 91.40 points at 10,343.50. About 981 shares advanced against 185 declining shares on the BSE.

Adani Ports, Vedanta, Tata Steel and Bajaj Auto were early gainers while Kotak Mahindra Bank and Infosys were flat.

Nifty Midcap as well as Nifty Bank indices gained 1 percent each.
VIP Clothing was up 10 percent while Religare Enterprises, Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports and Adani Power rallied 3-5 percent.