Market Live: Sensex, Nifty continue to be rangebound; Europe lower

1:15 pm Mutual Fund News: Principal Mutual Fund has changed the fund management responsibilities for 4 of its schemes with effect from Jan 1, a newspaper notice from the fund house said today.

The fund management for the following schemes of Principal Mutual Fund will be changed as below:

1:00 pm Management Outlook: The government is likely to increase the funding for the farm and rural sectors in the upcoming Budget. One of the beneficiaries could be Godrej Agrovet.

Balram Yadav, MD of the company said we have got into a situation in Indian agriculture that when we have a drought, we have a problem and now because of meltdown in global commodity prices, even when we have good monsoon there is a problem.

So, it is expect that government will focus on agriculture in the upcoming Budget and what they have done in past Budgets would continue, said Yadav.

12:40 pm Order win: Larsen & Toubro (L&T) today said its construction arm has won orders worth Rs 3,355 crore.

“The buildings and factories business of L&T construction has bagged orders worth Rs 3,355 crore,” the engineering and construction major said in a BSE filing.

The orders include design and construction of India International Convention & Expo Centre (IICC) in the national capital.

The business also secured a contract to construct a major retail development in Navi Mumbai for IKEA. The construction for the proposed development will start in early 2018, it added

12:15 pm Market Check: The market continues to trade rangebound, with a hint of negative bias.

The Sensex is down 16.74 points or 0.05% at 33923.56, and the Nifty down 0.50 points or 0.00% at 10492.50. The market breadth, however, is positive as 1624 shares advanced, against a decline of 846 shares, while 147 shares were unchanged.

Bajaj Auto, Sun Pharma and Bosch were the top gainers, while NTPC and M&M lost the most.

Here are the top headlines at 12 pm from Moneycontrol News’ Anchal Pathak

12:00 am Business optimism level: Business leaders in India remained largely positive, but their level of optimism has dropped to its lowest level in four years even as it has hit a two-year high in the Asia-Pacific, says a report.

According to the latest Grant Thornton’s report, Asia Pacific business optimism has hit a 2-year high, largely driven by improvements from its two biggest economies, China and Japan, and region-wide positivity on prospects for increased trade.

However, not all trajectories are heading upwards, the report titled ‘Asia Pacific: trading and thriving’ stated, adding that India’s optimism mostly remained positive at 75 per cent, but “has dropped to its lowest level in four years”.

11:50 am Fresh order win: Shares of Welspun Corp added 13.5 percent intraday Tuesday as it has bagged an order for supply of 124 K MTs pipes.

With the addition of these orders, the company has current order book of at 1,198 K MTs valued at Rs 74 billion.

Recently in the month of December, the company bagged an order from customer in India for supply of 57K MTs pipes for water project in India.

11:30 am Buzzing Stock: Share price of Coromandel International touched 52-week high of Rs 558.60, gaining 4 percent intraday Tuesday as it is going to acquire bio-pesticides business of EID Parry for Rs 338 crore.

The company has signed a term sheet to acquire a bio-pesticides business of EID Parry together with its wholly owned subsidiary Parry America, Inc, USA, through a slump sale.

The said transaction is subject to receipt of approval of the shareholders and other relevant authorities.

11:15 am Stock view: Credit Suisse has maintained ‘Outperform’ rating on Tata Steel with a price target of Rs 830 per share, implying a potential upside of 16 percent from Friday’s close.

Tata Steel’s 5 million tonne brownfield capacity expansion will cost Rs 23,500 crore over four years and rights issue will keep leverage ratios at a comfortable level for organic expansion.

Capex will lead to higher debt, no EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) generation at a point making the stock look expensive, Credit Suisse feels.

11:00 am Bond outlook: The 10-year bond yield has spiked close to 7.3 percent this morning. In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Sanjaya Gupta, MD of PNB Housing Finance assessed the impact on their cost of borrowing.

Gupta said that increase in borrowing cost will rise slowly and not immediately.

He further said that about 82 percent of company’s portfolio is on variable interest rate.

10:46 am Mutual Fund View: The year 2017 was a fulfilling one for investors but as we step into 2018 valuations will remain a concern, says Harsha Upadhyaya, CIO-Equity, Kotak Mutual Fund in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

“One needs to be more cautious heading into 2018. We believe earnings recovery will gain some momentum in next few quarters but most of it is already in the price,” he said.

Upadhyaya further added investors should enter markets with a long-term horizon and also with moderate expectations from equities.

10:32 am Fund house development: Kunal M. Jain has resigned as co-fund manager of fixed income from Indiabulls Asset Management Company with immediate effect, a notice from the fund house said.

Consequently, Jain ceases to co-manage Indiabulls Income Fund, Indiabulls Monthly Income Plan, and Indiabulls Gilt Fund. Jain was appointed as the co-fund manager on Oct 7, 2016.

10:15 am Market Check: Benchmark indices are trading flat, with the Nifty hovering around 10,500.

At 10:17 hrs IST, the Sensex is up 4.82 points or 0.01% at 33945.12, and the Nifty up 0.20 points or 0.00% at 10493.20. The market breadth is positive as 1402 shares advanced, against a decline of 822 shares, while 114 shares are unchanged.

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

9:59 am Buzzing Stock: Shares of Tata Power gained over 3 percent on the back of an order win by its arm in Russia.

Tata Power’s Russian subsidiary Far Eastern Natural Resources LLC has bagged the mining licence for a thermal coal mine in Kamchatka province in far east Russia.

“The subsidiary participated in the financial auction process at Petropavlovsk, Kamchatka today (on December 22, 2017) and was awarded a license at approximately USD 4.7 million,” Tata Power said in a BSE filing.

9:46 am Gains given up: Benchmark indices have given up most of the gains and are trading flat, with the Nifty hovering around 10,500.

At 09:45 hrs IST, the Sensex is up 4.79 points or 0.01% at 33945.09, and the Nifty up 1.10 points or 0.01% at 10494.10. About 1292 shares advanced, against a decline of 695 shares, while 101 shares are unchanged.

9:30 am Buzzing Stock: Shares of Alembic Pharmaceuticals rose 1 percent in the early trade on Tuesday as its associate company Rhizen Pharmaceuticals received USFDA approval for cancer drug.

“Rhizen Pharmaceuticals SA announced that USFDA has granted orphan-drug designation for the active moiety of Tenalisib, the company’s highly selective and orally active dual PI3K delta/gamma inhibitor, for the treatment of peripheral T-cell lymphoma,” as per BSE release.

Orphan-drug designation is granted to a drug or biological product intended to treat a rare disease in the United States.

9:15 am Market Opens: The Indian market began the truncated week on a positive note, with the Nifty trading above 10,500-mark.

At 09:16 hrs IST, the Sensex is up 60.81 points or 0.18% at 34001.11, while the Nifty is up 7.30 points or 0.07% at 10500.30. The market breadth was positive as 596 shares advanced, against a decline of 163 shares, while 81 shares were unchanged.

TCS, BHEL, Tata Power and GAIL were the top gainers, while Tata Motors DVR, ITC, Infosys and Sun Pharma lost the most.

The Indian rupee opened marginally higher at 64.03 per dollar on Tuesday versus 64.05 on Friday.

Bhaskar Panda of HDFC Bank said, “The Catalan vote roiled global markets before Christmas. However, cheer in Indian markets seem to be continuing. Hence, I expect the INR appreciation trend to continue. Range for the day seen between 63.90-64.10.”

He further added, “The Indian 10-year benchmark yield has been continuously moving higher. It may continue to consolidate within a range of 7.25-7.30 percent for today.”

The dollar index held steady shrugging off upbeat Japanese economic data.

Asian markets were mixed early in the Tuesday session in what’s likely to be light, holiday-week trading.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index came under slight pressure after closing at a 26-year high in the last session, despite thin holiday trade. The index traded lower by 0.1 percent as most technology and auto names drifted lower. Energy-related companies, however, made gains as oil priced nudged higher.
Most Japanese retailers also edged higher, with shares of department store operator Takashimaya popping 3.93 percent to touch a more than two-year high. Takashimaya on Monday announced a 5.6 percent increase in operating profit for the nine months ending November, Reuters said.