HUL up 2%, Bharti Airtel slips; Sensex, Nifty consolidate

10:55am Ashok Leyland in focus

Shares of Ashok Leyland gained a percent after brokerage house Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BoAML) raised target price on the stock by 9 percent to Rs 58 apiece. It expects stock to trade at previous peaks.

The brokerage raised forecast on higher EBITDA margin assumptions. It expects margin to rise to 10.3-10.8 percent over FY16-17 compared to 7.3 percent currently.

According to BoAML, stronger than anticipated sales mix has been favouring medium and heavy commercial vehicles (M&HCVs). "M&HCV recovery and market share gains will sustain," the brokerage said.

Meanwhile, in October, its M&HCV sales grew by 43 percent to 5838 units compared to 4093 units in the year-ago period while light commercial vehicle sales declined 6 percent to 2537 units.

10:40am Crompton Greaves falls

Shares in Crompton Greaves fell about 5 percent, after a large block deal, amounting to 5.3 crore shares worth about Rs 900 crore was executed on the exchanges.

The deal, which amounted to 8.48 percent of the company’s outstanding shares, was reportedly executed by promoter Avantha Holdings, according to newspaper reports that had pre-empted the deal. Goldman Sachs was the banker to the deal, according to the reports.

Avantha, which holds a nearly 41 percent stake in Crompton, has been looking to pare its debt, and following the deal, its stake would come down to about 32 percent.

The promoter’s stake would fall to its 25 percent target, following an impending stock split.

10:20am Oil Update

Oil prices fell to four-year lows today as it appeared unlikely producer club OPEC would decide to cut output in support of prices at a meeting this week, and as increasing Chinese and US stocks boosted available supplies.

The Gulf producers within the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates - said on Wednesday that they will not propose an output cut during the offical meeting on Thursday, reducing the likelihood of joint action by OPEC to prop up prices that have sunk by a third since June.

Benchmark Brent futures dropped over USD 1 in Asian morning trading today to a low of USD 76.28 a barrel, their lowest level since September 2010, and US crude was also down over USD 1 to a session low of USD 72.61 a barrel, reports Reuters.

10:00am Market Check

The market continued to consolidate on the expiry day of November derivative contracts. The Sensex rose 9.69 points to 28395.88 and the Nifty climbed 1.65 points to 8477.40.

The broader markets outperformed benchmarks with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gaining 0.4 percent and 0.55 percent, respectively. Advancing shares outnumbered declining ones by a ratio of 1176 to 732 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Hindustan Unilever topped the buying list, rising 2 percent followed by Hindalco Industries, Infosys, Cipla, M&M, Punjab National Bank, Asian Paints and Power Grid Corporation with a percent gain.

However, Bharti Airtel, Zee Entertainment, ITC, Sesa Sterlite, DLF, Bajaj Auto and Tata Motors lost 0.5-1 percent.

Among midcaps, Gujarat State Petronet, Strides Arcolab, Jet Airways, Kalpataru Power and Gruh Finance rallied 3.5-5 percent while Crompton Greaves, Anant Raj, Jaypee Infratech, SRF and Trinity Trade lost 2-5 percent. More information please visit this site www.bigprofitbuzz.com

Market closes marginally up; DLF gains 7%, Zee Ent off 4.1%

3:30 pm: Key indices closed with a 0.15 percent gain, with DLF (up 7.1 percent) and Zee Entertainment (down 4.1 percent) being the biggest movers among the top 100 stocks.

Apart from realty, which got a shot in the arm following a Delhi government decision to boost developable area, metal stocks were among the gainers with a 1 percent rise.

IT and pharma shares, however, exhibited weakness with a 0.25 percent fall on average.

3:00 pm: Indian stocks gave up most gains they had notched up in afternoon trade to trade marginally higher as they headed into the last hour of trade.

At the time of writing, both the Sensex and Nifty were up 30 and 9 points respectively (0.1 percent), receding off earlier highs.

The climb down came as investors chose to sell shares in consumer non-durables, IT and pharma. While providing strength to the index are property shares (the BSE Realty index was up 4.1 percent) with leader leader DLF surging 8 percent following a Delhi government decision to increase the city’s floor area ratio by 200 percent.

While high-beta capital goods, metals, and oil & gas shares rose 0.4 percent to 0.8 percent.

Top gainers on the Sensex are GAIL, Hindalco and Sesa Sterlite, rising 2.2 percent to 2.8 percent while losers are Bharti Airtel and ICICI Bank, down 2.4 percent and 1.3 percent.

The market breadth, however, is holding up with advances (1676) outpacing declines (1171). More information please visit this site www.bigprofitbuzz.com

Sensex, Nifty climb into green; Oberoi leads realtors

1:30 pm: Indices have made a good comeback in the last half an hour with the Sensex now up 79 points at 28417 and the Nifty up 22 points at 8484. Market breadth too has improved with gainers outpacing losers nearly 2:1 on the NSE.

Second line shares continue to fare better than their large cap counterparts with Gujarat Gas(+ 15 percent) and Oberoi Realty (+8%) being among the key gainers.

Brokers say every rise in indices is likely to be met with profit taking as the market does not have enough triggers to sustain the uptrend.

Kotak Securities has rated Oberoi Realty as one of its top picks in the real estate space.

"Even though debt has increased, Oberoi’s balance sheet still remains strong with additional leveraging capacity to eventually raise monies for business development," the brokerage said in a note to clients.

In sectoral trends, realty, metal and FMCG shares are among the best performers, while IT shares have been under pressure right through the day.

Sanjeev Prasad of Kotak Institutional Equities feels the FMCG and pharma spaces may appear expensive, but a de-rating was unlikely as these stocks would be a good hedge in the event of the much anticipated economic reforms not coming through. He is bullish on stocks like Marico, Dabur and Britannia.

"Valuations have become pretty expensive across the board if you look at any consumer staple company or pharmaceutical company but I am willing to make a call that you may not see that kind of de-rating even if you see a big slowdown in terms of economic reforms momentum, etc. Valuations probably will hold up more in anticipation of the kind of medium-term growth as far as some of these sectors are concerned," he said in an interview to CNBC-TV18 this morning. 

1:00 pm: The consolidation in Indian equities continued in afternoon trade Wednesday, with outperformance in metals and oil & gas offset by weakness IT and pharma. The broader market, however, bucked the trend.

At the time of this writing, the Sensex and the Nifty were down 33 points and 11 points (0.13 percent each) to 28,306 and 8,451. The BSE midcap index rose 0.56 percent while the smallcap index was up as much as 0.9 percent.

GAIL, Cipla and ITC were the biggest gainers in the Sensex rising 1.5 percent to 3 percent while Bharti Airtel and Bajaj Auto were down 1.7 percent each.

The latter two were down after Nigeria, a key African market for both, devalued its currency by 8 percent today.

Power and gas shares rose after a CNBC-TV18 report said the government would today chalk out plans for gas pooling, a move in which power plants that have gas suppliers far away could enter into swap arrangement with a nearby supplier, saving transportation costs and potentially helping idle power plants with 28,000 megawatts capacity that are currently starving for fuel.

JSW Energy surged 6.6 percent, Petronet LNG climbed 4.1 percent while Torrent Power was up 8.1 percent.

Jet Airways was up 2 percent after industry official met the civil aviation minister yesterday to discuss several issues related to the industry such as the 5/20 rule, high airport charges, etc.

State-run HMT jumped 6.1 percent amid reports the government was planning a rescue package for the loss-making company.

Financial Technologies appreciated 5.9 percent after it agreed to sell stake in MCX-SX to Rakesh Jhunjhunwala among other investors.

While ITC clmbed 1.8 percent, a day after falling 5 percent, after brokerages expressed the view that the announcement yesterday -- that the government may decide to ban sale of loose cigarettes – was unlikely to come through.

A number of shares, including Asian Paints, Castrol, Container Corp and Gujarat State Petronet, have hit 52-week highs in trade today.

While Elder Pharma, Era Infra, Gujarat NRE Coke and Omaxe hit 52-week lows. More information please visit this site www.bigprofitbuzz.com

Bluechips quiet but mid-, small-caps gain 0.5-0.8%

11:00 am: Frontline Indian shares slipped marginally in early trade after a quiet start but the market marked the comeback of the high-beta trade with oil & gas and metal sectors as well as mid- and small-cap shares outperforming.

At the time of writing, the Sensex was down 39 points, or 0.14 percent, to 28,298 while the Nifty was down 16 points, or 0.19 percent, to 8,447.

Among the Nifty 50 shares, GAIL, Asian Paints and Cipla were the top gainers, with a 1.9 percent to 3.1 percent rise while Bajaj Auto, HCL Tech and Zee Entertainment were the biggest losers, with 1.6 percent to 4.6 percent losers.

Shares in metals and mining, and oil and gas companies were up about 0.4 percent on average. Utility stocks too notched up a 0.7 percent gain.

But losses in heavyweight financials and autos pressured the benchmark indexes with a 0.2 percent loss.

Small- and mid-cap shares outperformed the margin, rising 0.5 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively. A number of such stocks, such as Escorts Finance, Emkay Global, Welspun Syntex and Hindustan Everest, were locked in upper circuit filters with no sellers.

The market breadth too remained favourable with 1296 advances to 975 declines among BSE traded scrips. More information please visit this site www.bigprofitbuzz.com

Sensex ends 160 points lower amid volatile trade

3:30 pm: After starting flat and losing about 1 percent in late afternoon trading, Indian equities staged a smart recovery to recover about half the losses towards the end.

At close, the Sensex was down 161 points, or 0.57 percent, to 28,338 while the Nifty ended at 8,463, down 67 points, or 0.79 percent.

The sharp swing saw plenty of stocks being sent into a tizzy. Mid-cap stocks such as Man Infra (recovered 21 percent from day’s low), Monnet Industries (climbed 18 percent intraday) and Digjam (recovered 17 percent) saw wild swings.

BHEL, HUL and Cipla were the top Sensex gainers with a rise between 1.5 percent and 3.1 percent while ITC, Tata Steel and NTPC were the worst decliners, off 2.2 percent to 4.6 percent.

Stocks that made 52-week highs today included AIA Engineering, Amrutanjan, Atul Auto, Castrol, Dr Reddy’s, HDFC, HDFC Bank, JK Tyre, Ricoh, Torrent Pharma and Zee Entertainment.

Some analysts have expressed caution that valuations have run ahead of fundamentals. The Sensex is trading at about 19 times FY15 expected EPS of Rs 1490, higher compared to the historical average of 15-16 times.

“My sense is that the prices have definitely run-up ahead of the fundamentals,” Sanjay Dutt of Quantum Securities told CNBC-TV18. “The probability that we have touched the high for the year for this calendar year is about 70-80 percent. I think from now on we probably would see a reasonably good correction before December 31 or the first week of January because a lot of ifs and buts [with respect to earnings making a recovery] still remain.”

3:15 pm: The recovery is further gaining ground. The Sensex is down about 160 points. At its lowest point, it was down about 250 points.

3:oo pm: Indian stocks continued to trade lower albeit making up for some losses, with realty, manufacturing and utility shares continuing to trade particularly weak.

At the time of this writing, the Sensex is down 200 points, or 0.7 percent, to 28,302 while the Nifty was off 77 points, or 0.9 percent, to 8,452.

The biggest loser in the Nifty is tobacco major, an index heavyweight, which has slumped 5.5 percent amid reports the government may ban sale of loose cigarettes in a bid to curb smoking.

Other losers include NMDC (of f 3.9 percent), DLF (down 3.6 percent) and Power Grid (trading 3.1 percent lower).

About 17 stocks among the Nifty 50 are in the green, though, with the gainers’ list topped by BHEL (up 2.6 percent following a positive brokerage call) and ONGC (up 1.6 percent) after reports said the government would divest stake in it by January 2015.

The market breadth continued to remain negative with declines (2,206) topping advances (735) among the BSE traded scrips. More information please visit this site www.bigprofitbuzz.com