Market Live: Sensex sinks 500 pts, Nifty breaks 10,900 post Budget 2018, LTCG woes

11:29 am Management Interview: The retail growth of 15 percent is in-line with the growth expectations and it is a good performance, Subbu Subramaniam, CFO of Titan said.

We are quite happy and pleased with how we have performed, he added.

India Union Budget 2018-19 Live: News, updates and highlights from FM Arun Jaitley’s Budget 2018 speech, announcements
We are still looking at a 25 percent growth in the jewellery division. For the jewellery division, our estimate or our guidance stands intact. We expect to do very well this year, said Subramaniam.

Speaking of online sales, he said that it contributes 10 percent of our volumes in India. Fastrack has been doing well in online sales, it has grown 26 percent this quarter.

We are on the path to achieve 15 percent margin in watches division, he further mentioned.

11:15 am IT Outperforms: Technology stocks bucked the trend when the frontline indices and broader markets hitting hard. The Nifty IT index gained around half a percent while other sectoral indices were down around 1-5 percent.

Even the Nifty Pharma index was flat, falling only 0.14 percent. IT as well as Pharma are playing defensive roles now.

Investors may be taking exposure to these stocks on hopes of recovery going ahead because both sectors underperformed others last year. Nifty IT index gained 12 percent and Pharma was down 6 percent while Nifty50 rallied 29 percent.

Here are the top headlines at 11 am from Moneycontrol News’ Sakshi Batra

11:05 am Market Outlook: The Budget 2018 might have left investors thinking about equity markets after the finance minister Arun Jaitley imposed LTCG tax of 10 percent but the word coming from market expert Atul Suri is “Bullish”.

“I am bullish on India for the long-term and see Nifty hitting 17000 levels in the next 3 years. However, in the short term, we could see a correction of up to 5 percent in the Nifty and up to 10 percent in Midcap index,” Suri of Marathon Trends PMS said in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

India market could see a bit of correction in the short term but the market has been correcting in the last one month even though Nifty rose in the same period. Globally, we have seen some bit of selloff, and now we are getting synced with global markets.

Corrections are part of ever bull market and the corrections have already started in the midcap stocks, highlighted Suri. He further added that if we look at the stocks giving fresh 52-weeks high have deteriorated for the last one month.

“In a larger bull market, every month can’t be positive. In fact, it is an amazing time for stock pickers. Investors who are sitting on sidelines and waiting for a correction, this is a great time. Look for companies and pockets where you see strength in the fall,” said Suri.

11:03 am Jaitley to CNBC-TV18 post Budget: Market will have to realise that India is one of the soundest economies in the world. The kind of expenditure we will take this year, will help India which is poised for a very good growth this year.

11:00 am Asian stocks Update: Asian shares came under pressure after Wall Street closed mixed and yields on US government debt rose in the last session.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 declined 0.8 percent after snapping a six-day losing streak in the previous session while China’s Shanghai Composite fell 0.5 percent.

10:55 am Buzzing: PC Jeweller crashed nearly 60 percent in morning following further correction in Vakrangee wherein the company holds some stake, but post the management clarification saying there is no business interest with the IT firm, the stock recovered half of losses to trade lower by 30 percent.

Investors in Vakrangee, which was locked at lower circuit for third consecutive session today, were spooked as reports indicated that the company is facing a probe from SEBI for alleged stock price and volume manipulation.

10:48 am Fitch on Budget: Fitch Ratings today said high debt burden of the government constrains India’s rating upgrade, a day after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley projecting a fiscal deficit of 3.5 percent of GDP against the earlier target of 3.2 percent.

The 2018-19 Union Budget unveiled yesterday contains a number of policy measures with the potential to support economic demand and social well being.

These include those leading to rise in agricultural income and the ambitious health insurance plan while setting up new medical colleges.

“If implemented well, spending on such measures would likely reach a large part of the electorate, which is not insignificant with general elections coming up,” Fitch Ratings Director and Primary Sovereign analyst for India Thomas Rookmaaker said.

10:36 am Sectoral Update: All sectoral indices barring IT were under pressure. Nifty Realty hit hard, falling 6.5 percent followed by Bank, Auto and Metal that traded lower around 2 percent.

IT stocks provided good support to the market, with the Nifty IT index rising 0.5 percent.

10:25 am Market Update: Benchmark indices crashed, with the Sensex falling around 500 points and Nifty Midcap index losing 4 percent as investors digested Budget 2018.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 497.65 points or 1.39 percent to 35409.01 and the 50-share NSE Nifty declined 155 points or 1.41 percent to 10,861.90.

About 10 shares declined for every share rising on the BSE.

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

10:10 am JM Financial in focus: The company said its committee of the board today has approved the closure of the QIP issue today and the issue price of Rs 162 per share, including a share premium of Rs 161.

10:02 Buzzing: Shares of Vakrangee continued to plummet to new lows, with the stock trading at 10 percent lower circuit for the third consecutive day today.

Investors have turned cautious of the stock after media reports hint at a possible investigation by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for alleged manipulation of share price and volume.

“The company has come under Securities Exchange Board of India’s (SEBI) investigation for alleged price and volume manipulation of its own scrip at Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE),” as per Mumbai Mirror report.

According to documents available with Mumbai Mirror, the trading of the Vakrangee scrip was analysed by both the exchanges from January 1, 2016, to June 30, 2016, and September 1, 2016, to June 15, 2017, after it was suspected that certain entities were trading the scrip and increasing its market gross.

Vakrangee is the largest enrolment agency for UIDAI.

9:56 am FII View on Budget 2018: Fiscal discipline has taken a backseat in the latest annual Indian budget which contains many tinges of populism, noted Indian economist Eswar Prasad said today.

Prasad, a professor of trade policy at the prestigious Cornell University, said there were no major measures in the budget that could stimulate private investment.

“Fiscal discipline has taken a backseat in this budget, which contains many tinges of populism, as was to be expected in the run-up to a national election cycle,” Prasad told PTI.

“There are no major measures that could stimulate private investment, which has been notably weak even during the recent period of high growth,” Prasad said.

However, the proposed new health insurance scheme and other measures that will in principle directly benefit the poor are welcome, Prasad said.

“Although it is unclear how exactly some of these programs will be funded within the budget envelope,” he said.

9:47 am Rupee Trade: The rupee depreciated by 6 paise to 64.08 against the dollar in morning at the interbank foreign exchange today due to concerns over widening fiscal deficit.

The Centre yesterday introduced a long-term capital gains tax of 10 per cent on stock market gains exceeding Rs 1 lakh, resulting in volatility in forex market.

Forex dealers said that besides increased demand for the American currency from importers, a lower opening of the domestic equity market also kept pressure on the rupee.

Yesterday, the rupee had plunged 44 paise to close at a near two-week low of 64.02 against the US dollar.

9:37 am Market Outlook: Hadrien Mendonca of IIFL expects indices to enter into a phase of consolidation from here on before we could see a fresh directional move. However, not forgetting the overall scenario continues to remain pretty bullish.

The higher top higher bottom structure remains intact and the strategy would be to remain to buy on declines. The action will continue to remain among the large caps and it would be prudent to stick to big names.

A fresh breakout is likely once Nifty surpasses its previous all-time high post which we expect the northbound journey to resume towards the 11,450 zone. Crucial support is seen around the 10,910 levels.

9:28 am Order Win: L&T Construction, the construction arm of Larsen & Toubro, has won orders worth Rs 2,275 crore across various business segments.

Its water & effluent treatment business has bagged orders worth Rs 1,255 crore, power transmission & distribution business won major solar EPC orders worth Rs 590 crore and buildings & factories segment has received an order worth Rs 430 crore.

9:21 am Auto sales: Bajaj Auto said total sales in January increased sharply by 46 percent to 3.53 lakh units, with domestic sales rising 50 percent at 2.02 lakh units and exports surging 41 percent to 1.51 lakh units YoY.

Motorcycle sales jumped 36 percent to 2.89 lakh units and 3-wheeler sales increased 113 percent to 64,211 units compared to same month last year.

9:15 am Market Check: Benchmark indices opened sharply lower as investors digested Union Budget 2018 and focussed on more corporate earnings.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 270.47 points at 35,636.19 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 83.20 points to 10,933.70.

Axis Bank, Yes Bank, SBI, Indiabulls Housing Finance, Adani Ports, SBI, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Sun Pharma, Tata Steel and UPL were early losers.

Hindalco, HCL Technologies, Bajaj Auto and ITC were early gainers.

Nifty Midcap extended losses, falling 1.5 percent or 313 points.