Sensex, Nifty end lower amid volatility; metals surge

03:30pm Market ends: After a volatile session, the market has ended in negative terrain. The Sensex ended down 50.45 points at 27440.14 and the Nifty was down 11.25 points at 8320.70. Metal stocks jumped with top gainers like Vedanta and Tata Steel. ONGC, Hindalco and HUL were other gainers in the Sensex.

Among the losers were M&M, Bajaj Auto, HDFC, SBI and Coal India.

02:50pm South Indian Bank falls: South Indian Bank disappointed street on Tuesday with the fourth quarter net profit falling sharply to Rs 16.3 crore compared to Rs 124.6 crore in the year-ago period due to higher provisions.

Net interest income too declined 4.8 percent to Rs 347.1 crore from Rs 364.7 crore during the same period.

Provisions for bad loans jumped 4.9 times to Rs 137.7 crore during January-March quarter compared to Rs 28.3 crore in the corresponding quarter of last fiscal.

02:25pm Welspun Projects in focus: Welspun Projects today said Merrill Lynch Capital has raised its stake in the company to 7.55 percent . Prior to acquisition, Merrill Lynch Capital Markets Espana's stake in the company was 3.80 percent , Welspun Projects said in a regulatory filing.

The mode of acquisition was market purchase, it further said, adding that the buyout of 15 lakh shares by Merrill Lynch Capital took place on April 30.

Welspun Projects (WPL), formerly known as MSK Projects (India) and part of the Welspun Group, is into engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) projects across sectors like roads, water and industrial structures. 

02:00pm Market Check

The market remained volatile with the Sensex falling 84.39 points to 27406.20 and the Nifty declining 21.90 points to 8310.05.

About 1237 shares have advanced, 1391 shares declined, and 182 shares are unchanged on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Neelkanth Mishra of Credit Suisse says their FY16/17 Nifty EPS estimates have been cut by 2 percent & 1.3 percent, respectively, with bulk of the cuts from energy stocks like Cairn, industrials like BHEL & cement. Second half of earnings season will be weaker than first half in FY16, he adds.

Asian market hit by weakness today. Shanghai closed with a 4 percent cut, its biggest loss in the last 4 months on news reports that several Chinese brokerages have tightened requirements for margin financing. Hang Seng lost more than 350 points today.

In stock action, Kotak Mahindra Bank surged 5 percent post reporting earnings better than estimates with profits of Rs 527 crore, a growth of 30 percent. The bank also announced bonus issue of 1:1. NIIT Technologies gained 4 percent on fourth quarter earnings. For more information please visit this site www.bigprofitbuzz.com

Sensex & Nifty volatile, Midcap outperforms; metals shine

10:25am SKS Microfinance rallies 5%: SKS Microfinance has registered over 49 percent rise in its net profit at Rs 40.54 crore for the last quarter ended March 2015 compared to Rs 27.11 crore in the corresponding last quarter in the previous fiscal.

"Total income increased from Rs 147.38 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2014 to Rs 226.20 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2015," it said in a filing to the BSE.

For the full fiscal ended March 31, 2015, company's net profit rose by over two-and-a half times to Rs 187.66 crore. It had earned net profit of Rs 69.85 crore in 2013-14. Full year income increased from Rs 544.84 crore for the year ended March 31, 2014 to Rs 803.07 crore for the year ended March 31, 2015, it said.

10:00am Market Check

The market continued to see profit booking amid consolidation. The Sensex fell 37.40 points to 27453.19 and the Nifty declined 15.90 points to 8316.05.

However, the broader markets outperformed benchmarks with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rising 0.4 percent each. Advancing shares outnumbered declining ones by a ratio of 1052 to 754 on the BSE.

HDFC, ITC, Infosys, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Auto, Cipla, NTPC and Coal India lost 1-2 percent while Tata Steel topped the buying list on Sensex, up 3.4 percent.

TCS, Larsen & Toubro, ONGC, HUL, Vedanta and Hindalco gained 1-2 percent. For more information please visit this site www.bigprofitbuzz.com

D-St on fire: Sensex soars 479 pts, Nifty ends above 8300

03:30 pm Market close: The market was on fire fueled strongly by oil, FMCG and pharma stocks. The Sensex ended up 479.28 points or 1.8 percent at 27490.59 and the Nifty scaled the 8300-level. The 50-share index closed up 150.45 points or 1.8 percent at 8331.95. About 1954 shares advanced, 838 shares declined, and 153 shares were unchanged.

ONGC was up 8 percent while Bajaj Auot, Cipla, M&M and BHEL were major gainers in the Sensex. Among the laggards were ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and Tata Motors with marginal losses

03:20 pm Big fall: Shares of Shriram Transport slumped 16 percent intraday after it announced disappointing March quarter results. Its net profit declined 73 percent to Rs 84.23 crore in Q4 of FY15. During the period, its net interest income stood at Rs 1,105.57 crore against Rs 975.95 crore year-on-year.

Morgan Stanley has also downgraded the stock to underperform from equalweight. The brokerage has slashed target price to Rs 900 per Rs 1230 per share. “Non-performing loan (NPL) ratio at the equipment finance subsidiary is likely to almost double in F1H16, after increasing 5 times in Q4 FY15. A weak monsoon could delay growth and asset quality recovery in the parent vehicle financing business. We view risk-reward as poor with valuation above mean,” it says in a report to clients.

03:05pm Market Update: The Sensex jumped 475.77 points or 1.76 percent to 27487.08 and the Nifty rose 148.60 points or 1.82 percent to 8330.10. About 1890 shares have advanced, 821 shares declined, and 152 shares are unchanged on the BSE.

02:50pm IPOs in focus: PNC Infratech's up to Rs 488-crore initial public offer (IPO) will open on Friday, making the infrastructure firm sixth company to hit the capital markets this year. The Agra-based firm's issue will open on May 8 and closes on May 12, PNC Infratech said in a statement.

The company, which specialises in construction of highways, bridges, flyovers and airport runways, is making a public issue of up to 12,921,708 equity shares of face value of Rs 10 each including a share premium per equity share.

The price band is fixed from Rs 355 to Rs 378 per equity share. The infrastructure-firm would raise around Rs 488 crore at the upper end of the price band and Rs 456 crore at the lower end.

Meanwhile, apparel and lifestyle accessories firm Numero Uno Clothing has approached capital markets regulator Sebi to float an initial public offer (IPO). The proposed public issue comprises fresh issue worth Rs 65 crore and an offer for sale up to 84 lakh from its promoter and AA India Development Capital Fund.

02:30pm Brent crude update: China, the world's second-largest oil consumer, posted its biggest drop in factory activity in a year to 48.9 in April, a private business survey showed on Monday.

The sub-50 point level indicates a contraction compared with the previous month.

The data came on the heels of a top government think tank's forecast that China's economic growth could slow further to 6.8 percent in the second quarter.

Oil supplies from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which produces about 40 percent of oil supplies, climbed 0.2 percent to a more than two-year high in April, a Reuters survey showed.

02:00pm Market Check

The Sensex continued to rally more than 300 points and the Nifty gained more than 100 points led by banking & financials, FMCG, healthcare, select auto and oil stocks.

The Sensex jumped 341.71 points or 1.27 percent to 27353.02 and the Nifty rose 103.20 points or 1.26 percent to 8284.70. About 1839 shares have advanced, 789 shares declined, and 155 shares are unchanged.

In market opinion, Ridham Desai of Morgan Stanley says the government's biggest achievement in the last one year is control on inflation while Ramesh Damani says investors should continue focussing on buying good businesses.

The fiscal has started off on a strong note with auto sales growth across OEMs picking up in April. Maruti registered a solid 30 percent growth in sales while Bajaj Auto saw rise in sales for the first time in 4 months.

ONGC, Cipla and Bajaj Auto topped the buying list, up 5.5-6.5 percent followed by HDFC, Dr Reddy's Labs, Bharti Airtel, Hindalco, GAIL, ITC, Reliance Industries, Infosys and SBI with 1-2.5 percent upside. However, ICICI Bank and Tata Motors fell over a percent.

Future Retail and Bharti Retail have announced the merger of their retail businesses. They said the combined entity will have over 570 retail stores in 243 cities. The stock rallied 14 percent. For more information please visit this site www.bigprofitbuzz.com

Sensex, Nifty drag 1%; rupee weak, infra & FMCG stocks skid

1:30 pm Big bull: The Indian stock market has corrected enough over the past few weeks and the thesis remains that local equities are in a sustainable long-term run, as compared to countries like China where shares have seen a ‘poor quality’ rally.

That’s the view of Samir Arora of Singapore-based Helios Capital, who has upped the net exposure of his long-short hedge fund by 5-7 percent. (Arora’s current net long exposure is not known but in February this year, he said his position then stood at 63-64 percent.)

“As opposed to 2014, which was a long-only year, we expect this year to be long-short,” he said, while maintaining that investors should expect 12-15-18 percent kind of returns from stocks this year.

On the issue that has had investors the most worried, Arora said that even if earnings were muted in the current fiscal year (at about 10-12 percent growth), they will likely make up for it in the following year and that on a 2016-17 basis, shares were priced at a reasonable 16-17 times earnings.

Don't miss: Axis Bank rises 5%, brokerages say 'buy' post Q4 nos

The market is slipping away, as the Sensex is down 295.90 points or 1 percent at 26930.03. The Nifty is down 85.35 points or 1 percent at 8154.40. About 1031 shares have advanced, 1369 shares declined, and 147 shares are unchanged.

Bharti, Tata Power, HDFC, Coal India and Dr Reddy's Labs are among major laggards while Axis Bank, Vedanta, Cipla, Reliance and ONGC are top gainers in the Sensex.

The rupee pared its initial losses, but was still down by 17 paise at 63.47 against the American currency in late morning trade on sustained bouts of month-end dollar demand from banks and importers amid weak equities.

The dollar was lower against its major rivals in early trade over the doubts about the strength of the US economic recovery. For more information please visit this site www.bigprofitbuzz.com

Nifty holds 8150 amid pressure; HDFC, Bharti, HUL plunge

10:40am Biocon reaction to Q4 nos: Biocon's fourth quarter profit after tax climbed 78 percent year-on-year to Rs 201 crore led by exceptional gains of Rs 105.06 crore (on account of sale of shares of Syngene).

Overall it was a pleasant surprise on earnings as the street was expecting another dismal quarter but numbers were better than expectations. Though the profit was fueled by exceptional inflow, the topline indicated pure organic improved performance.

Revenue grew by 14.5 percent to Rs 854 crore during January-March quarter compared to Rs 746 crore in the year-ago period and expectations of Rs 791.1 crore.

"Biocon closed the year with a stronger performance in Q4 on the back of a record quarterly performance by our Research Services subsidiary, Syngene and an improved performance of our Biopharma business," said Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairman and managing director. 

10:25am FII View: Sakthi Siva, Credit Suisse said, "In our recent client visits in Singapore, a question that is coming up often is whether foreign investors are selling India/ASEAN to buy North Asia. For April, foreigners are now net sellers of India, Indonesia & Philippines, while they are net buyers of Korea & Taiwan."

"Year to date, foreigners are now net sellers of Indonesia, Thailand & Malaysia," she added.

10:00am Market Check

The market remained under pressure on the day of expiry of Nifty April derivative contracts. The Sensex fell 234.98 points to 26990.95 and the Nifty declined 69.05 points to 8170.70, dragged by FMCG, banking & financials and technology stocks.

The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices outperformed benchmarks, down marginally. About 813 shares have advanced, 1045 shares declined, and 117 shares are unchanged on the BSE.

Shares of HDFC, TCS, HUL, Bharti Airtel, Mahindra & Mahindra, Dr Reddy's Labs and Coal India topped the selling list, down 2-3 percent. ITC, HDFC Bank, Infosys and L&T declined over 1 percent.

However, Axis Bank bucked the trend, up 5 percent following good set of numbers in Q4. CLSA, which has maintained buy rating on the stock, expects earnings to grow at 21 percent CAGR over FY15-17. For more information please visit this site www.bigprofitbuzz.com

Nifty above 8250, Sensex flat; Bharat slips 2%, ITC drags

9:55 am Buzzing: Shares of KPIT Technologies tanked 20 percent intraday, hitting lower circuit at Rs 124.05 per share on poor March quarter results. Its disappointing Q4FY1 earnings were dragged by revenue de-growth and a sharp drop in margins. Revenue de-growth was led by the US, manufacturing, energy & utilities, IES and SAP SBU, says ICICIdirect.com.

Also, what led to the drag is management’s mis-matched outlook. In March, the management had indicated that dollar revenue in January-March quarter to be flat quarter-on-quarter due to cross currency but it reported a 3.5 percent decline in the period. KPIT Technologies' Q4FY15 result was bleak, with revenues declining 3.2 percent Q-o-Q to USD 122 million

Antique has downgraded the stock to sell with a target price of Rs 113 per share.

9:40 am Market check: The Sensex is up 15.04 points at 27411.42 and the Nifty is up 0.05 points at 8285.65.  About 1015 shares have advanced, 463 shares declined, and 113 shares are unchanged.

Axis Bank, Sun Pharma, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel and HUL are top gainers while Vedanta, ITC, TCS, Infosys and Tata Motors are laggards in the Sensex.

9:30 am FII view: Geoffrey Dennis, Head-Global Emerging Market Strategy at UBS expects the US Fed to start raising rates in September. He remains invested in emerging markets and feels the India story stays intact in long-term. However, he sees some profit-taking. According to Dennis, India is unlikely to give 35 percent returns as other countries like Korea and China are attracting some money out of the country. He, however, advises Indian investors to put money into market now and expects a 10-15 percent upside in the market by 2015-end.

Don't miss: HDFC Q4 profit seen up 7.2%, NII may grow 16.5%: Poll

The market has once again opened in negative terrain. The Sensex is down 39.55 points at 27356.83 and the Nifty is down 10.80 points at 8274.80. About 309 shares have advanced, 121 shares declined, and 77 shares are unchanged.

Sun Pharma, Maruti, Wipro, Bajaj Auto and ICICI Bank are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are Bharti Airtel, HUL, Vedanta, Cipla and Tata Motors.

Bharti Airtel's earnings disappointed after profits and revenues missed estimates. The Indian operations of the company remain steady while Africa continues to drag.

The Indian rupee opened marginally lower at 63.22 per dollar against 63.15 Tuesday. The dollar dropped to an eight-week low after a weak US consumer confidence report, with investors cautious about a Federal Reserve meeting.

Himanshu Arora of Religare said, "The USD-INR pair is expected to trade lower today on expectations that Greece will reach a bailout agreement soon. Improved risk appetite along with surging equities may dampen demand of dollar. Further, World Bank's statement that India is less vulnerable now than it was in 2013, may also support the rupee in the short term.”

Among global markets, US markets close mixed as investors digested the raft of earnings and awaited the Federal Reserve's statement due later today.

In Europe, equities closed lower as investors took a breather from a stellar rally in the previous session and looked ahead to meeting by the US Federal reserve policymakers.

Among commodities, Brent crude prices hovered near USD 64 per barrel on expectations that US crude stockpiles could be at record highs for the 16th consecutive week. Gold prices rise to USD 1210 an ounce on soft dollar. For more information please visit this site www.bigprofitbuzz.com

Nifty slips below March low; Midcap, Smallcap plunge 1-2%

10:50am Market Update: Equity benchmarks extended losses with the Nifty trading at lowest level since January 9, 2015. The Sensex dropped 195.95 points to 27241.99 and the Nifty slipped 73.90 points to 8231.35.

The market breadth weakend further as about 1690 shares have declined against 433 shares advanced on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

10:35am Market Expert: The market is prone to trade between 7800-8200 due to lack of substantial triggers, tepid earnings and expectation of weak monsoons, says Harendra Kumar of Elara Capital.

According to him, there is nothing exciting in the market right now and therefore, there are not too many stocks to buy given the expensive valuations.

10:16am Market Update: The market extended losses, falling below its March low, dragged by banking & financials (except ICICI Bank), healthcare and capital goods stocks. The Sensex plunged 134.84 points to 27303.10 and the Nifty fell 54.65 points to 8250.60.

10:05am Petronet LNG dives: Discussing the results, RK Garg, Director Finance, Petronet LNG, said the company has been trying to mitigate issues raised after sudden drop in crude prices, which in turn affected customers’ buying capacity.

In an interview, Garg said the company’s long-term volumes have reduced significantly in Q4 and that 75 percent of capacity is under long-term contracts.

“Buyers not taking quantities due to fall in crude prices will pay penalty, which is paid yearly, not on quarterly basis,” he said.

According to Garg, improvement in margins will depend on offtakes. He hopes to see some (improvement) in the next two months.

10:00am Market Check

The market continued to consolidate ahead of expiry of April derivative contracts this week. The Sensex fell 47.74 points to 27390.20 and the Nifty declined 27.55 points to 8277.70.

The broader markets underperformed benchmarks with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices losing 1.4 percent and 2 percent, respectively. Nearly 3 shares declined for every share advancing on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Rakesh Arora, Macquarie said Indian market has been hurt due to negative sentiment surrounding MAT on FII investments.

According to him, earnings season is also panning out weak as expected and the first Met report on the monsoon is also not encouraging. He feels stocks, post a 15-20 percent correction, would be cheap and worth buying on dips.

Shares of Infosys, Larsen & Toubro, SBI, Sun Pharma, Mahindra & Mahindra, Cipla, Hero Motocorp, Tata Steel and GAIL dropped 1-1.5 percent while ITC and NTPC gained more than 1 percent. For mOre information please visit this site www.bigprofitbuzz.com

Sensex down 155 pts, Nifty below 8400; Tata Steel up 5%

3:30 pm Market closing: After a choppy session, the market ended on lower levels. The Sensex was down 155.11 points or 0.6 percent at 27735.02 and the Nifty slipped 31.40 points or 0.4 percent at 8398.30. About 1370 shares have advanced, 1442 shares declined, and 155 shares are unchanged.

Cement and pharma stocks were under pressure while a weak rupee also added pressure on the indices. Sun Pharma, SBI, Tata Motors, NTPC and Wipro were major laggards in the Sensex. Tata Steel remained top gainer, adding 5 percent at day's end. Other gainers were Coal India, Maruti, BHEL and Cipla.

3:00 pm HDFC Bank Q4 results: HDFC Bank's net profit rose 20.6 percent to Rs 2807 crore in the quarter ended March 2015 as compared to Rs. 2326.52 crore year-on-year. During the quarter, its net interest income was up 21.4 percent at Rs 6013 crore versus Rs 4952 crore on a yearly basis. Net interest margin (NIM) was flat at 4.4 percent quarter-on-quarter.  

According to a CNBC-TV18 poll, profit was seen growing 20.9 percent year-on-year to Rs 2,812 crore and net interest income rising 20.6 percent to Rs 5971 crore in the quarter ended March 2015. 

Its gross non-performing assets (NPA) was at 0.9 percent versus 1 percent (Q-o-Q) while net NPA was at 0.2 percent. In absolute terms, gross NPA stood at Rs 3438.4 crore compared to Rs 3467.9 crore in the last quarter of the same fiscal. Net NPA was at Rs 896.3 crore.

2:30 pm Market outlook: Amit Dalal, executive director, Tata Investment Corp in an interview to CNBC-TV18 said it is not right time for long-term investors to exit. neither is it the best time to invest. "I would neither be a big seller nor be a big investor right now," he added. The house has a preference for private banks over public sector banks (PSUs) because the non performing asset (NPA) problem for the PSU banks according to Dalal could worsen if government regulations impose provisioning for bad debts. The house is upbeat on ICICI Bank and plans to stay invested in it. Dalal said: “Next three years would largely be positive for banks unless something goes wrong in the economy and we are stuck with paradigm we don’t have with us.”

Don't miss: Tata Steel surges 5% after BoAML reinstates coverage

The market is still under huge selling pressure. The Sensex is down 170.99 points or 0.6 percent at 27719.14 and the Nifty is down 38.75 points or 0.5 percent at 8390.95. About 1299 shares have advanced, 1336 shares declined, and 153 shares are unchanged.

Sun Pharma, Tata Motors and NTPC are down above 2 percent while SBI & M&M are other losers in the Sensex. Among the gainers are Tata Steel, Coal India, Cipla and Maruti Suzuki. Cairn India is down 2 percent ahead of its March quarter results.

Meanwhile, the government is considering clarificatory amendments to the rules relating to Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) for the benefit of foreign investors who have been battling tax demands worth Rs 40,000 crore.

"Clarificatory amendments to MAT rules are under consideration of the government," Minister of State for Finance, Jayant Sinha, told reporters. Sinha, along with top government officials, had held meeting with Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) yesterday, pressing for government's Rs 40,000 crore tax demand, saying they should approach courts to get relief on these matters. For more information please visit this site www.bigprofitbuzz.com