Market Live: Banks lift Sensex over 300 pts; HDFC Bank crosses market cap of Rs 5 lakh cr

11:18 am IPO Update: Software products firm, Newgen’s initial public offering (IPO) was oversubscribed over 1 times on Thursday, the last day of the issue. The issue was subscribed 70 percent on Wednesday.

The IPO, which aims to raise Rs 425 crore, received bids for 1.34 crore shares against the total issue size of over 1.22 crore scrips, data available with the NSE as of 11 am showed on Thursday.

The company had raised over Rs 127 crore from anchor investors on Monday.

11:05 am Budget Expectations: In the run up to the budget, retailers have asked the government to simplify GST system and grant industry status to the sector for easier access to finance and attract more investments.

Besides, the industry is also seeking relaxed FDI regime for multi-brand retail trade (MBRT) as also incentives to be provided for setting up warehousing and cold-chain storage facilities.

In a pre-budget wish list, the Retailers Association of India (RAI) said invoices issued to BTC (bank transfer compliant) consumers must be simplified and the need for manual signature and multiple copies to get GST refund must be removed.

10:47 am Market Update: Bulls retained their charge on Dalal Street as the market continued to trade around record highs, with the Sensex rising more than 350 points.

Nifty Bank index zoomed 500 points on buzz of allowing 100 percent FDI in banking sector.

Mindtree surged 8 percent after stellar Q3 earnings performance. Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock to overweight on improving macro & execution, and raised target price by 33 percent.

10:31 am Buzzing: Shares of Panacea Biotec added 8.6 percent in morning on signing two long term agreement with Serum Institute.

The company signed two long term agreements with Serum Institute of India and its wholly owned subsidiary, Bilthovan Biologicals B.V (BBIO).

Under the collaboration Serum Institute is entitled to manufacture & sell fully liquid whole cell pertussis (wP) and salk based injectable polio vaccine (IPV) based Hexavalent vaccine (DTwPHepB-Hib-IPV) developed and commercialized by Panacea Biotec, a first of its kind in this category.

Serum Institute of India will ensure supply of IPV bulk to Panacea Biotec, an important constituent of the Hexavalent vaccine, from its wholly owned subsidiary BBIO.

10:20 am Market Update: Benchmark indices remained strong in morning as the Sensex gained 341.16 points or 0.97 percent at 35,422.98 and the Nifty rose 76.80 points or 0.71 percent to 10,865.30, driven by banking and financials.

About 1,493 shares advanced against 850 declining shares on the BSE.

10:12 am HDFC Bank has crossed its market capitalisation of Rs 5 lakh crore, retaining third position after Reliance Industries and TCS.

10:05 am FII View: The government on Wednesday curtailed its additional market borrowing programme by 60 percent to Rs 20,000 crore as it expects more transfers of surplus cash from the Reserve Bank in the current fiscal ending March 31.

Commenting on the same, Marie Diron, Senior Vice President, Sovereign Risk Group at Moody’s Investors Service, said reduction in the borrowing is relatively small compared to the size of India’s economy. “The reduction will not really impact our fiscal deficit target estimate for India and hence is not too relevant to our sovereign rating.”

Despite concerns that the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley may breach the fiscal deficit target for the first time in four years, the rating agency expects the Narendra Modi-led NDA government to maintain its stance of gradual fiscal consolidation.

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

9:58 am Earnings Estimates: Telecom operator Bharti Airtel is expected to report weak set of earnings for October-December quarter due to continued pricing war.

Analysts expect Bharti’s India wireless revenue to decline 8 percent QoQ largely due to the 57 percent interconnect usage charge rate and expect APRU (average revenue per user) downtrend to continue, as incumbents extend freebies to a wider subscriber base to arrest churn towards Reliance Jio.

According to them, Africa Business is expected to remain insulated from intense competition in the market and the launch of additional unlimited plans is likely to impact India wireless EBITDA.

Airtel’s consolidated profit is seen falling 21 percent sequentially to Rs 271 crore and revenue may decline 4 percent to Rs 20,809 crore for the quarter ended December 2017, according to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18.

EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) is likely to slip 5 percent quarter-on-quarter to Rs 7,519 crore, but margin may expand 90 basis points to 36.1 percent in Q3.

9:50 am Buzzing: Share price of Dilip Buildcon rose 2.5 percent in morning as it has won a contract worth Rs 730 crore.

Dilip Buildcon has been declared L-1 bidder by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for an EPC road project in the state of Madhya Pradesh.

The contract includes construction of 4 laning from km 624.480 to km 653.225 of NH-7 in the state of Madhya Pradesh under NHDP phase-III on EPC mode.

The total value of the contract is Rs 730.08 crore, which to be completed in 24 months.

9:44 am Rupee Trade: The rupee strengthened by 5 paise in opening but immediately turned lower despite strong equity markets.

It was trading at 63.90 against the US dollar, down 2 paise from previous
close.

Besides, domestic equity markets soaring to new highs and
the dollar losing sheen against some other currencies overseas
also supported the local unit, traders said.

Yesterday, the rupee had rebounded by 16 paise to end at
63.88 against the US currency on bouts of dollar selling by
exporters and banks.

Foreign investors put in Rs 625.13 crore on net basis in
stocks yesterday, according to the exchange data.

9:35 am Earnings Estimates: Private sector lender Yes Bank’s third quarter profit is expected to increase 21.2 percent to Rs 1,069.4 crore compared to Rs 882.6 crore in corresponding quarter.

Net interest income during the quarter is seen rising 32.2 percent to Rs 1,992.8 crore from Rs 1,507.5 crore in year-ago, according to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18.

9:28 am IPO Subscription: The initial public offer of IT firm Newgen Software Technologies was subscribed 70 percent yesterday.

The IPO, which aims to raise Rs 425 crore, received bids for 85.54 lakh shares against the total issue size of over 1.22 crore scrips, registering a subscription of 70 percent, data available with the National Stock Exchange (NSE) showed.

The portion reserved for retail investors was subscribed 1.33 times, while that for qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) witnessed a subscription of 10 per cent.

Newgen Software’s initial public offer (IPO) comprises fresh issue of shares worth up to Rs 95 crore by the company and an offer for sale of 13,453,932 equity shares by the existing shareholders.

9:20 am FDI in banking sector: The government is thinking of allowing 100 percent foreign direct investment in private banks, sources told CNBC-TV18.

Increasing the permissible limit for FDI in public sector banks to 49 percent from the current 20 percent is also being considered, the sources said.

The proposed changes are reportedly being discussed by the finance ministry,  the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) and the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA).

At present, FDI of up to 49 percent is allowed in private banks without the permission of the government, and upto 74 percent can be invested with the government’s approval.

KC Chakrabarty, former deputy governor at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), told CNBC-TV18 that even with 100 percent FDI, RBI regulations do not permit a single entity to invest more than 10 percent in a bank.

9:15 am Market Check: Bulls kept its tight control over Dalal Street as equity benchmarks opened at fresh record high on Thursday after buzz of likely increase in FDI in banking sector.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 294.72 points or 0.84 percent at 35,376.54 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 73.60 points or 0.68 percent at 10,862.10.

About 1,004 shares advanced against 308 declining shares on the BSE.

Nifty Bank rallied nearly 600 points to hit a fresh record high after sources told CNBC-TV18 that the government is considering allowing 100 percent FDI in banking sector.

SBI, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank gained 1-3 percent.

GAIL was down 2 percent.

Nifty Midcap was up 0.7 percent. Mindtree, Adani Transmission, Thirumalai Chemicals, Jubilant Life and Bank of Maharashtra gained 3-8 percent.