Market Live: Sensex opens higher, Nifty eyes 10,100; Tata Steel, Tata Motors lead

10:15 am Buzzing: Tata Steel shares touched a fresh 52-week high of Rs 594.70, up 3.3 percent intraday ahead of June quarter earnings due later today.

Analysts feel earnings are expected to be strong on year-on-year basis, though sequentially numbers may be weak.

Consolidated profit in April-June quarter is likely to be at Rs 1,100 crore against loss of Rs 3,183 crore in year-ago quarter, according to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18.

Sale of investment in Tata Motors will aid profitability during the quarter. The company sold stake in Tata Motors at a price of Rs 453 per share to Tata Sons and that will realise income to the tune of Rs 3,700 crore.

Revenue from operations may increase 9.5 percent to Rs 28,902 crore compared with Rs 26,406 crore in same quarter last year.

Operating profit (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation – EBITDA) is seen rising 30 percent year-on-year to Rs 4,200 crore and margin may expand 220 basis points to 14.5 percent in the quarter ended June 2017.

9:55 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks erased early gains, with the Sensex down 27.38 points at 32,298.03 and the Nifty down 3.45 points at 10,062.95.

TCS, Infosys, HUL, Reliance Industries, HCL Technologies, Yes Bank and ONGC were under pressure while ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, Maruti Suzuki, Hero Motocorp and Vedanta gained strength.

The broader markets outperformed benchmarks, with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rising half a percent each. About two shares advanced for every share falling on the BSE.

9:40 am Earnings Estimates: Amara Raja Batteries’ first quarter profit is seen falling 9 percent year-on-year to Rs 118 crore on weak operational performance.

Revenue during the quarter is likely to fall 3 percent to Rs 1,424 crore on year-on-year basis but it may be supported by increased prices in the OEM segment. Telecom segment is expected to post flattish revenues in Q1.

Operating profit may decline 7 percent to Rs 212 crore and margin may contract by 60 basis points to 14.8 percent compared with same quarter last year due to increase in raw material prices, according to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18.

Lead prices increased more than 25 percent since January 2017.

9:27 am: FII View: With foreigners turning net sellers in eight of the last nine days, Sakthi Siva of Credit Suisse the research house highlighted net foreign selling in Emerging Asia ex-China ex-Malaysia of USD 2.6 billion.

While MSCI Asia ex-Japan recently hit the year-end target of 640 and Credit Suisse has highlighted poor seasonals in August, the silver lining from this foreign selling is that on a rolling 12-month basis net foreign buying has dropped from a recent high of 0.7 percent to 0.3 percent in August.

9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks opened moderately higher on Monday, with the Nifty inching towards 10,100 level following positive global cues.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 51.89 points at 32,377.30 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 14.10 points at 10,080.50.

Tata Steel gained 2 percent ahead of Q1 earnings. Tata Motors rose 1 percent despite weak JLR’s UK sales.

Nifty Midcap was up 0.5 percent as about two shares advanced for every share falling on the BSE.

L&T Finance Holdings, Jaiprakash Associates, Sarda Energy, Apollo Tyres, Bhushan Steel, Wockhardt, Sintex, Eros International, Cadila Healthcare and Torrent Power rallied up to 10 percent.

Repco Home Finance, GSFC, HPCL and SPARC were down up to 5 percent.
Asia markets were mostly higher, with investors’ risk sentiment likely improving from Friday’s better-than-expected US jobs number as they await to hear Pyongyang’s response to UN sanctions over the weekend.