Closing Bell: Sensex ends flat, Nifty ends above 11,000; SBI up 4%

Wed Jan 24 2018
Rajesh Sharma (2068 articles)
Closing Bell: Sensex ends flat, Nifty ends above 11,000; SBI up 4%

3:30 pm Market at Close: After trading rangebound for a larger part of the day, market has ended the day on a flat note. The Sensex was up 15.75 points at 36155.73, while the Nifty was up 2.30 points at 11086.00. The market breadth favoured the declines as 1005 shares advanced, against a decline of 1895 shares, while 240 shares were unchanged.

State Bank of India, Adani Ports, and GAIL were the top gainers on both indices, while Bharti Airtel and Tata Motors fell the most.

3:20 pm Order win: Essar Oilfields Services India Ltd said it has won a Rs 32 crore contract from state- owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) to drill 30 wells at a coal-bed methane (CBM) block in Bokaro, Jharkhand.

Under the one-year contract, Essar Oilfields “will be deploying the MR#11 land rig for the job, which is expected to commence in the next few weeks,” the company said in a statement.

Essar Oilfields Services India Ltd (EOSIL), which is close to posting a revenue of Rs 300 crore in the current fiscal, has three of its land rigs currently in operation.

3:00 pm Results: Liquor firm Radico Khaitan today reported a 77.71 percent jump in its net profit at Rs 35.01 crore for the quarter ended December 2017, on account of higher income.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 19.70 crore during the same period of the previous fiscal, Radico Khaitan said in a regulatory filing.

Total income during the quarter under review stood at Rs 1,747.98 crore. It was Rs 1,243.53 crore in the year-ago period.

2:45 pm Management Outlook: MAS Financial have posted a strong growth in Q3 earnings and the asset quality has also improved. In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Mukesh Gandhi, Co-Founder and CFO of the company discussed the numbers.

Our asset under management (AUM) has grown 33 percent that is nine months compared to the previous year, said Gandhi.

He further said that within segments, small and medium enterprises (SME) has grown by 60 percent.

2:30 pm MF News: HDFC Mutual Fund will revise the dividend record date under the monthly option of HDFC Arbitrage Fund – Wholesale Plan with effect from February 1, the fund house said in a newspaper notice.

Subsequently, the monthly dividend record date for the open-ended equity scheme will be second last Thursday of every month, as against the current record date of Monday that precedes the last Thursday of every month.

2:15 pm Management Speak: Jonathan Hunt, CEO of Syngene International in an interview to CNBC-TV18 shared the details of their third quarter performance and the outlook going forward.

Biocon’s contract research arm Syngene International today posted 10.81 per cent increase in its net profit at Rs 82 crore for the third quarter ended December 2017. Revenue of the company increased to Rs 399 crore for the third quarter as compared with Rs 347 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal.

He said they were happy with the overall revenue performance, which has seen acceleration through the year.

1:55 pm Order win: Ashok Leyland has received an order for over Rs 350 crore from VRL Logistics.

At 14:18 hrs Ashok Leyland was quoting at Rs 124.05, down Rs 0.05, or 0.04 percent.

The share touched its 52-week high Rs 133.00 and 52-week low Rs 81.00 on 26 October, 2017 and 19 April, 2017, respectively.

Currently, it is trading 6.73 percent below its 52-week high and 53.15 percent above its 52-week low.

1:35 pm Results: Kitchen appliances firm TTK Prestige reported a 36 percent increase in its consolidated net profit at Rs 47.15 crore for the quarter ended December 2017.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 34.65 crore during the same period of the previous fiscal, TTK Prestige said in a regulatory filing.

Total income during the quarter under review stood at Rs 502.55 crore. It was Rs 469.28 crore in the year-ago period.

1:15 pm Stock view: Edelweiss Financial Services on Tuesday reported 52.33 percent jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 236.39 crore for the third quarter ended December 2017. The net profit of the company stood at Rs 155.18 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago.

“Its total revenue increased by 29.07 percent to Rs 2,081.33 crore in the said quarter from Rs 1,612.47 crore in the December quarter of 2016-17,” it said in a BSE filing.

The company also declared an interim dividend of Re 1.05 per equity share of face value of Re 1 each for financial year 2017-18. February 5, 2018, shall be the Record Date for the purpose of ascertaining the members entitled to receive the Interim Dividend.

1:00 pm Results: State-owned Vijaya Bank reported 65.45 percent decline in net profit at Rs 79.56 crore for the third quarter ended on December 31, 2017, due to rise in provisions.

The bank had posted a net profit of Rs 230.28 crore in the October-December quarter of the 2016-17 fiscal.

The bank’s total income also declined 7.09 percent to Rs 3,450.81 crore in the quarter under review from Rs 3,714.37 crore in the same period a year ago, Vijaya Bank said in a BSE filing.

12:45 pm Results: Telecom major Idea Cellular widened its net loss for the December quarter to Rs 1,284 crore from Rs 1,106 crore posted during the same period last year. A poll of analysts by CNBC-TV18 were pegging this to be Rs 1,292 crore.

The company’s consolidated revenue has come in at Rs 6,510 crore against Rs 7,465 crore. The poll hinted the figure to be Rs 6,738 crore.

At the operating level, the earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) was reported at Rs 1,223 crore against Rs 1,501 crore in the previous quarter. The operating margin is at 18.8 percent against 20 percent during the same quarter last year.

12:22 pm Market Check: The Sensex is up 1.58 points at 36141.56, and the Nifty down 7.30 points at 11076.40. The market breadth is negative as 859 shares advanced, against a decline of 1785 shares, while 232 shares are unchanged.

12:10 am Management Speak: Nucleus Software reported a strong set of Q3 numbers. In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Vishnu R Dusad, MD & CEO of the company spoke about the results and gave his outlook for the future.

Dusad said that we will be able to maintain margins at Q3 levels.

On the business front, he said that most of the customers we have added are for cloud computing.

Talking about cash, he said the current cash balance of Rs 430 crore will be utilised for acquisitions.

11:45 am Order win: Dilip Buildcon is in focus on the back of a National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) order win in Odisha worth Rs 1,522 crore, which is 74 kilometers in length with a construction period of about 30 months. In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Rohan Suryavanshi, Head-Strategy and Planning of the company discussed this and more.

The letter of award (LoA) for NHAI’s Odisha project should come in the next seven days, he said.

The company has entered its 17th state with this project.

11:20 am Busy route: Mumbai to Delhi air route is the third busiest one in the world with 47,462 departures in 2017, according to UK-based aviation data monitor OAG. That means, every 11 minutes, a flight takes-off along this route.

Bengaluru to Delhi air route also features in the list of the busiest air routes in the world at 12th position with 29,427 flights being operated last year.

The busiest route in the world is Jeju to Seoul Gimpo in South Korea with 64,991 departures in 2017. Jeju is the largest island off the Korean peninsula and it is sometimes labelled “the Hawaii of South Korea” thanks to dramatic volcanic landscapes, hiking trails and stunning beaches. The number of departures indicates that despite Jeju being UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site, most of the tourists are domestic.

11:05 am Market Check: Sharp swings are seen in the trade today. The market has now risen again after trading lower in the past hour or so.

The Sensex is up 71.88 points at 36211.86, while the Nifty is up 19.30 points at 11103.00. The market breadth was negative as 838 shares advanced, against a decline of 1660 shares, while 212 shares are unchanged.

10:45 am Results update: Indiabulls Real Estate on Tuesday reported a 45.82 percent rise in its consolidated net profit at Rs 85.35 crore for the third quarter ended December 31.

The company had posted a PAT (profit after tax) of Rs 58.53 crore for the same period of previous fiscal.

Total revenue from sales rose to Rs 2,164.44 crore for the third quarter as against Rs 492.90 crore in the same period last fiscal, Indiabulls Real Estate said in a regulatory filing.

10:30 am IndiGo rises higher: A year after dropping off from the list of top 10 Asia Pacific airlines on the basis of on-time performance (OTP), IndiGo has regained its place in the hallowed group. IndiGo – India’s largest airline by market share – has been ranked ninth in the Punctuality League study published by OAG, an air travel intelligence company based in the UK.

“Japanese airlines continue to perform well with three carriers in this category and India’s largest carrier, IndiGo, returns to the Top 10 Asia Pacific airlines with an OTP of 81.22%,” the report said. The first three in the list are Hong Kong Airlines, Qantas Airways and Japan Airlines.

In 2015, IndiGo was ranked sixth with an OTP of 84.57 per cent. Jet Airways too featured that year, and was ranked 9th.

10:11 am Market Check: At 10:11 hrs IST, the Sensex is up 38.61 points or 0.11% at 36178.59, and the Nifty up 5.00 points or 0.05% at 11088.70. About 704 shares have advanced, 1584 shares declined, and 192 shares are unchanged.

9:55 am Buzzing Stock: Share price of JMC Projects (India) rose 7.6 percent in the early trade on Wednesday on the back of orders worth of Rs 751 crore.

The order includes, two commercial projects and a residential project in South India totalling Rs 448 crore.

Also, two residential projects and one industrial project in Northern and Eastern India totalling Rs 303 crore.

S. K. Tripathi, CEO & Dy. Managing Director of JMC Projects said, “We continue to build on our solid base in South India with success in the EPC contracts for these projects.”

9:32 am Gains extended: The bulls have tried to carry forward the momentum from last session. After seeing a flat opening, the market has extended its gains, led by a surge in PSU banks. The Nifty is trading around 11,100-odd levels, while the Sensex is up around 100 points.

HDFC, ONGC and GAIL gained the most, while Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, and Hindalco lost the most.

9:15 am Market Opens: The benchmark indices opened lower amid mixed global cues with Sensex holding above 36, 000 mark.

The Sensex was down 16.71 points at 36123.27, and the Nifty down 16.90 points at 11066.80.

About 437 shares have advanced, 668 shares declined, and 163 shares are unchanged.

ITC, HDFC, Wipro, Maruti Suzuki, ONGC, GAIL, Indiabulls Hsg and Dr Reddy’s Labs are the top gainers on the indices, while top loser includes Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, Reliance Industries, Tata Steel, Vedanta, Hindalco and Eicher Motors.

Asian markets traded mixed early on Wednesday after Wall Street closed mostly higher as investors stateside focused on earnings releases.

US stocks advanced on Tuesday, as strong results from Netflix helped lift the S&P and Nasdaq Composite. Asian markets were trading mixed. The Nikkei 225 slipped 0.42 percent after the index hit a fresh 26-year high on Tuesday while the benchmark Kospi index rose 0.37 percent.

The Indian rupee opened higher by 4 paise at 63.73 per dollar on Wednesday against previous close 63.77.

Pramit Brahmbhatt of Veracity said, “There would be rangebound trade in the rupee in absence of any cues.”

“We expect the spot USD-INR pair to trade in a range of 63.80-64,” he added.

Rajesh Sharma

Rajesh Sharma

Rajesh Sharma is Correspondent for Stock Market of South East Asia based in Mumbai. He has been covering Asian markets for more than 5 years.