Nifty hits 8100 on F&O expiry day; realty stocks in focus

The Nifty has hit 8100 on October F&O expiry day. The 50-share index is up 10.45 points at 8100.90. The Sensex is up 40.25 points at 27138.42. About 581 shares have advanced, 257 shares declined, and 34 shares are unchanged. Dr Reddy's Labs, Infosys, GAIL, HDFC and Wipro are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are BHEL, Tata Motors, Sesa Sterlite, Hindalco and NTPC.Realty stocks are in focus with Sobha Developer, Prestige Estate and DLF as big gainers. The Indian rupee slipped in early trade. It has opened lower by 16 paise at 61.51 per dollar against previous day close of 61.35. The dollar index rises after the Federal Reserve ended its monthly bond purchase program and signaled confidence the US economic recovery would remain on track despite signs of a slowdown in many parts of the global economy.

US stocks closed with slight losses, finishing off their lows of the session, after the Federal Reserve ended its stimulative monthly bond-buying program and expressed confidence in US economic prospects.

Major indexes were volatile following the central bank's statement, with the S&P 500 down as much as 0.8 percent before pulling back. Material shares were lower throughout the session, a decline in Facebook pressured the Nasdaq, but strength in energy and financial shares helped the market recover.

In a statement after a two-day meeting, the Fed ended its quantitative easing program of bond purchases, as had been expected. At its peak, the program pumped USD 85 billion a month into the financial system. The Fed also dropped a characterization of US labor market slack as "significant" in a show of confidence in the economy's prospects. Brent crude prices slipped to USD 86 a barrel after the Fed announced it would end its two-year-old bond-buying stimulus program. Gold prices dropped over a percent following a strong dollar.

Moody's retain negative outlook on Indian banks on high corporate leverage

In yet another worrying development for banking sector, international rating agency, Moody’s while retaining its negative outlook for the Indian banking sector, has underscored that high leverage in the corporate sector could prevent any meaningful recovery in asset quality of the banking system over the next 12-18 months, regardless of moderate rebound in economic growth. The rating agency since November 2011 has maintained a negative outlook for the banking system.

Notably, the report of Moody just comes a day after another global ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P’s), in its Country Risk Assessment report on the Indian banking sector, underscored that country’s plan to grant new banking licenses to companies could heighten the risk for banking sector as the aggressive market share gaining tactics, like underwriting standards or undercutting prices by new entrants may adversely impact the banking sector's stability.

Further, Moody’s specified that negative outlook on the Indian banking system pertains mainly to the public-sector banks, which represent more than 70% of total banking-system assets, since these banks have experienced higher growth rates in non-performing and restructured loans, as well as greater weakening in profits, than their private sector peers. 

The agency has estimated that India's corporate sector had an average debt-to-equity ratio of more than 3 times, and would need a stronger economic recovery than currently projected by the credit agency to bring down the leverage.

Moody’s in its report, highlighted that continuing poor asset quality, wherein the NPAs levels were set to touch 4.5% of the system, would require continued provisioning and strengthened capital buffer and highlighted that after provisioning, profitability of public sector banks would generate insufficient internal capital for loan growth. It added that poor asset quality and low capitalization remained to be the primary concerns for Indian public sector banks, which were not expected to improve much in the coming 18 months.

Mentha oil futures edge higher on rising demand

Mentha oil futures edged higher on MCX as speculators enlarged their positions amid rising demand from consuming industries in the spot market. Besides, tight supplies in physical markets on restricted arrivals from producing belts too supported mentha oil prices’ uptrend.

The contract for October delivery was trading at Rs 675.90, up by 0.67% or Rs 4.50 from its previous closing of Rs 671.40. The open interest of the contract stood at 1730 lots.

The contract for November delivery was trading at Rs 686.70, up by 0.53% or Rs 3.60 from its previous closing of Rs 683.10. The open interest of the contract stood at 9181 lots on MCX.

Wipro gains on plan to expand its operations in Romania

Wipro is currently trading at Rs. 555.10, up by 1.00 points or 0.18% from its previous closing of Rs. 554.10 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs. 556.50 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 560.00 and Rs. 555.00 respectively. So far 40854 shares were traded on the counter.

The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 2 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 621.50 on 07-Oct-2014 and a 52 week low of Rs. 465.40 on 27-Nov-2013.

Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 585.90 and Rs. 548.00 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 137554.74 crore.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 73.43% while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 13.64% and 10.99% respectively.

Wipro is planning to expand its operations in Romania with the addition of about 150 employees by end of next calendar year. The company is planning to increase its employee strength in Romania by 25% to 750 employees by December 2015.

At present, the company’s facilities in Romania serve more than 20 customers in Eastern Europe, supported by over 600 employees. Wipro's customers in Romania span across sectors like retail and consumer goods, healthcare, manufacturing and telecom industries, among others.

Meanwhile, the company is in discussions with local universities to partner and develop curriculum for enhancing local capabilities.

Wipro is a leading provider of analytics and information management solutions - enabling customers to derive actionable business insights from data to drive growth, enhance cost management and strengthen risk management.

Dr Reddy's Labs Q2 disappoints, net falls 17% to Rs 574 cr

Drug maker Dr Reddy's Laboratories ' second quarter consolidated net profit fell 16.8 percent to Rs 574 crore compared to Rs 690.2 crore in the year-ago period. Profit was slightly above estimates but topline and operational performance missed street expectations. Profit was expected at Rs 537 crore on revenue of Rs 3,702 crore (up 10.3 percent) for the quarter, according to the average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18. Net sales grew by 6.9 percent to Rs 3,588 crore in the quarter ended September 2014 compared to Rs 3,357 crore in same quarter last year. Consolidated operating profit during the quarter declined 12.2 percent year-on-year to Rs 646.5 crore and margin dropped 400 basis points to 18 percent as against expectations of Rs 800 crore (up 8.8 percent) and 21.6 percent, respectively.

IDBI Bank firms up on raising $350 million from overseas bond sale

IDBI Bank is currently trading at Rs. 68.40, up by 0.15 points or 0.22 % from its previous closing of Rs. 68.25 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs. 68.75 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 68.95 and Rs. 68.25 respectively. So far 55123 shares were traded on the counter.

The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 10 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 116.50 on 09-Jun-2014 and a 52 week low of Rs. 52.95 on 30-Jan-2014.

Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 69.00 and Rs. 65.30 respectively. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 10971.06 crore.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 76.50 % while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 13.92 % and 9.58 % respectively.

State-run IDBI Bank has raised $350 million in an overseas bond sale highlighting pick-up in forex fund raising by domestic corporates.  The city-based lender raised $350 million in overseas senior unsecured notes through its Dubai branch. Global credit rating agency, Fitch has assigned the senior unsecured notes issue due April 2020 a final rating of ‘BBB-‘.

IDBI Bank is new generation public sector universal bank that rides on a cutting edge Core Banking Information Technology platform. This enables the Bank to offer personalized banking and financial solutions to its clients through its 1,217 branches and 2,101 ATMs.

Sensex adds over 150 pts, Nifty firm; Hero up 2%, HUL gains

The market has once again opened higher. The Nifty is inching closer to 8100, up 49.45 points at 8077.05.  The Sensex is up 172.73 points at 27053.55. About 471 shares have advanced, 85 shares declined, and 16 shares are unchanged. Hero, Tata Motors, HUL, M&M and ONGC are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are Dr Reddy's Labs and TCS.
The Indian rupee opened marginally higher at 61.25 per dollar against 61.32 Tuesday.
Dollar was subdued as investors waited for the latest guidance from the Federal Reserve, while a surprisingly dovish message from Sweden's Central Bank saw the currency slump to four-year lows. 
In the US, stocks rose, with the Dow industrials extending gains into a fourth day and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite higher on the month, as investors embraced corporate earnings, a rise in consumer sentiment and anticipated the end of the Federal Reserve's bond buys. 
European stocks ended firmly in positive territory, regaining some of Monday's losses, as investors reacted to third-quarter earnings and prepared for a key monetary policy decision from the US.
In commodities, Brent crude prices were steady above USD 86 per barrel after industry data showed a rise in us crude inventories that was in line with expectations. From precious metals space, gold hovered near USD 1,230 an ounce, clinging to gains from the previous session.

Benchmarks trade in fine fettle in early deals; Nifty reclaims 8,000 mark

Indian equity benchmarks have made a positive start and are trading in fine fettle in early deals on Tuesday with frontline gauges recapturing their crucial 8,000 (Nifty) and 26,800 (Sensex) bastions. Some support came in with a World Bank report saying that India’s GDP is likely to expand by 5.6 per cent this fiscal as reforms gain momentum and the growth is expected to accelerate as proposed measures such as GST will give a boost to manufacturing sector. World Bank has also said that implementation of the goods and service tax (GST) is the most critical reform needed for Indian manufacturing. On the global front, the US markets ended almost flat, trading directionless for much of the trading session. While there was some profit taking on the strong performance shown by the markets last week, the traders also remained cautious ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday. The Asian markets were trading mostly in the red at this point of time tailing weak cues from the US markets where data from home sales to manufacturing fell short of estimates. Back home, sentiments got some support from report that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers to the tune of around Rs 49.14 crore on October 27, 2014. On the sectoral front, capital goods, banking and healthcare witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while infrastructure, oil and gas and power remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were trading in-line with benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1114 shares on the gaining side against 661 shares on the losing side while 72 shares remain unchanged. The BSE Sensex opened at 26788.73; around 36 points higher as compared to its previous closing of 26752.90, and has touched a high and a low of 26865.11 and 26785.89 respectively. The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26844.18, up by 91.28 points or 0.34%. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index. The overall market breadth remained in the favour of advances with 60.31% stocks advancing against 35.79% declines. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.40%, while Small cap index up by 0.52%. The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 0.82%, Bankex up by 0.77%, Healthcare up by 0.63%, Realty up by 0.43%, IT up by 0.34% while, Infrastructure down by 0.50%, Oil & Gas down by 0.40%, Power down by 0.40%, Metal down by 0.31% and Consumer Durables down by 0.19% were the losing indices on BSE. The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 1.90%, SBI up by 1.77%, ICICI Bank up by 1.76%, GAIL India up by 1.60% and Wipro up by 1.51%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 2.80%, BHEL down by 1.53%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.51%, Reliance Industries down by 0.91% and Coal India down by 0.89% were the top losers. Meanwhile, with the intent of restricting oil imports and protecting domestic farmers, the government is mulling over an issue of raising import duty on crude and refined edible oils, among other matters. In the wake of local prices of oil falling to historic lows due to cheaper imports from Malaysia and Indonesia, Industry body Solvent Extractors Association (SEA) has been demanding a duty hike in crude edible oils to 10% and on refined edible oils to 25%. Further, in the meeting held between the Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday, besides the import duty issue, problems faced by sugar mills in availing loans sanctioned through the Sugar Development Fund (SDF) along with the issue of additional budget allocation for FCI were discussed. Paswan, primarily, briefed Finance Minister about the current impasse between the UP sugar mills and the state government over cane price policy. The food minister was in the favour of relaxing certain norms so that sugar mills could avail loans easily from SDF, while seeking additional budget allocation for state-run Food Corporation of India (FCI) for giving food subsidies this fiscal. A budget allocation of Rs 92,000 crore has been made against the requirement of Rs 1,47,700 crore for this fiscal. The CNX Nifty opened at 8,002.40; around 11 points higher as compared to its previous closing of 7,991.70, and has touched a high and a low of 8,020.80 and 7,999.65 respectively. The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8018.60, up by 26.90 points or 0.34%. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index. The top gainers on Nifty were Zee Entertainment up by 2.39%, Sun Pharma up by 1.89%, ICICI Bank up by 1.77%, SBI up by 1.70% and Wipro up by 1.52%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 3.26%, Lupin down by 2.05%, BHEL down by 1.78%, Jindal Steel & Power down by 1.61% and Hero MotoCorp down by 1.48% were the top losers. Asian markets were trading mostly in the red; Nikkei 225 tumbled by 110.42 points or 0.72% to 15,278.30, KOSPI Index declined by 5.16 points or 0.27% to 1,926.81, Straits Times dropped 13.70 points or 0.42% to 3,212.41, Jakarta Composite dipped 22.27 points or 0.44% to 5,002.02 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 1.36  points or 0.07% to 1,821.79. On the flip side, Hang Seng soared 141.07 points or 0.61% to 23,284.30, Shanghai Composite spurted by 27.17 points or 1.19% to 2,317.61 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 126.69 points or 1.47% to 8,754.47.

Implementation of GST most required reform to boost manufacturing sector: World Bank

Just few days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited global firms to participate into 'Make in India' programme to spur manufacturing in the country, World Bank, in a twice yearly report on the Indian economy and its prospects, described implementation of goods and service tax (GST) as the most critical reform, which would go long way in boosting the manufacturing sector. According to the World Bank, implementation of GST would not only transform India into a common market, but will also eliminate inefficient tax cascading. Further, it emphasized that transformational impact of reform, if enhanced by a systematic dismantling of inter-state check posts, could considerably boost competitiveness and help counterbalance both domestic and external risks to the outlook. Further, World Bank which pegged India’s economic growth rate at 5.6% in 2014-15, followed by further acceleration to 6.4% and 7.0% in the next two financial years respectively, in its report added that merely halving the delays due to road blocks, tolls and other stoppages that would cut freight times by 20-30% and logistics costs by an even higher 30-40%, could strongly boost the competitiveness of India's key manufacturing sectors by 3 to 4% of net sales, thereby helping the country to resume its high growth path and enable large-scale job creation.

L&T secures order for construction of Statue of Unity

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has secured order for construction of the Statue of Unity, World’s tallest statue in the riverbed of Narmada near Kevadia in Gujarat. The work order is worth Rs. 2,979 crore. The Statue of Unity project involves construction of 182-metre tall statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The project was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 31, 2013, the birth anniversary of the ‘Iron Man of India’. Of the total contract of Rs. 2,979 crore, Rs 1,347 crore will go towards building the statue, Rs 235 crore for constructing the exhibition centre and convention centre, Rs 134 crore for research and development centres and Rs 83 crore for building the bridge connecting memorial with the mainland. The construction will take place on the Sadhu bet, an island approximately 3.5 km south of Sardar Sarovar Dam at Kevadia. As per the terms of agreement, L&T will be responsible for maintenance and management of the project site for 15 year after the completion of construction. L&T will be paid Rs. 657 crore for the same. The construction of the statue is likely to be completed in the next 42 months.