Nifty races towards 8650, Sensex up over 200 pts; L&T gains

1:30 pm Buzzing: Shares of JP Associates fell over 3 percent intraday after its losses further widened in December quarter. Its net loss widened to Rs 116.09 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2014. The total income from operations during the quarter came down to Rs 2,583.35 crore, from over Rs 3,163.64 crore in the same quarter of the previous financial year.

Morgan Stanley says collapse in the real estate division led to weakness in revenue and margins. The EBIT margin fell 670 basis points Y-o-Y to 22.9 percent for the quarter, the lowest level in the last seven quarters.

Given the pain across divisions, the company reported its worst quarterly EBIDTA margins in a decade at 16.3 percent (down 720 bps Y-o-Y) in Q3 FY15, resulting in a decrease of 43 percent Y-o-Y in EBITDA.

Macquarie maintains underperform rating on the stock with a target of Rs 27.30. Despite recent steps by the company on de-leveraging, Macquarie believes much more needs to be achieved for the company to have a comfortable balance sheet position.

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Buying interest seems to continue in the market with Sensex gaining 227.34 points at 28582.96. The Nifty is up 73.10 points at 8638.65. About 1501 shares have advanced, 1011 shares declined, and 208 shares are unchanged.

L&T, ICICI Bank, Maruti, Axis Bank and NTPC are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are ONGC, BHEL, Bharti Airtel, M&M and Tata Motors.

Gold inched up as the dollar took a breather after recent sharp gains and as caution prevailed in financial markets regarding Greece's future in the euro zone. The uncertainty over Greece debt issues has somewhat helped gold in recent days, but the metal is still down nearly 4 percent so far this month as a strong dollar and expectations of an interest rate hike in the United States have hurt the metal. Economic and financial uncertainties tend to boost demand for gold, seen as a safe-haven investment. More information please visit this site www.bigprofitbuzz.com