Nifty hovers around 8,350; BHEL up 3%, TCS dips 2%

The first quarter corporate results season will kick off today with TCS announcing its Q1 results

Benchmark indices continue to trade in a narrow range with Sensex and Nifty swinging between negative and positive zone.

Further, investors have remained cautious ahead of the corporate results season, which will be starting from today. The first quarter corporate results season will kick off today with TCS announcing its Q1 results.

Indian data to be released in coming days is likely to show consumer price inflation nudged up slightly in June and factory output growth little changed in May, pointing to a gradual improvement in industry, according to a Reuters poll.

At 11:45 AM, the Sensex was at 27,665 levels, down by 23 points while Nifty was at 8,354, down by 9 points.

The broader markets are outperforming the benchmark indices- BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are up 0.3-1%.

Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 354.32 crore yesterday, 8 July 2015, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges.

ASIAN MARKETS

Chinese stocks rallied on Thursday after the securities regulator banned shareholders with large stakes in listed firms from selling, in Beijing's most drastic step yet to stem a sell-off that has roiled global financial markets.

As the daily drumbeat of official announcements aimed at propping up the sinking equity market continued, state news agency Xinhua said police would investigate "malicious" short-selling of stocks, and the banking regulator said it would allow lenders to roll over loans backed by stocks.

In what was at least a temporary reprieve, the CSI300 index of the largest listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen jumped 5.8% in morning trading, while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 5.3%. Both had tumbled around 6-7% on Wednesday.

SECTORS & STOCKS

BSE Capital Goods index has surged over 1.5% followed by counters like Consumer Durables, Power and Healthcare, all the gaining by 1% each. However, BSE IT index has slumped over 1%.

The poll's median forecast showed industrial production rising 4.1% in May, matching April's growth. Data released on June 30 showed core infrastructure output grew 4.4% in May, its first rise in three months and fastest in six month.

The top gainers on the Sensex are BHEL, BHEL, Bharti Airtel, L&T, Hero Moto and Hindalco.

Shares of information technology (IT) companies were under pressure, with the National Stock Exchange (NSE) CNX IT index touching six-month lows ahead of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)' April-June quarter results today.

TCS and HCL Technologies were down 2% each at Rs 2,537 and Rs 914 respectively, while Infosys (1.6% at Rs 942), MindTree (1% at Rs 1,215) and Oracle Financial Services Software (1% at Rs 3,857) were down between 1% and 2%. However, Tech Mahindra and Wipro were trading in the green, up by less than 1%.

Among other shares, Man Industries (India) is trading higher by 6% to Rs 117, extending its previous day’s 15% rally on the NSE, after investor Ashish Kacholia acquired stake in the company through open market.

Shares of 8K Miles Software Services are trading higher by 4% to Rs 883 on the NSE after the company reported more-than-double jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 7.22 crore for the quarter ended June 2015 (Q1).

Yes Bank up after raising Rs. 554 cr through bonds

Yes Bank successfully raised Rs. 554.20 crore by completing placement of Basel III Tier II bonds. The stock has advanced around 1.5 percent on the BSE.

Yes Bank has bounced back following its sharp 7.5 percent fall in trades yesterday on the back of positive news flow.

According to a release issued by the bank, Yes Bank successfully raised Rs. 554.20 crore by completing placement of Basel III Tier II bonds.

The bonds were raised at a coupon rate of 9.15 percent and with a tenor of 10 years, will be listed on the BSE.

Reports also indicate that the bank has brushed off reports of spike in bad loans as suggested by a foreign investment bank following its downgrade. Yes Bank has stated that the band was lending prudently and did not expect a spike in bad loans.

The stock so far in the day has touched a high of Rs. 820, and is now up 1.6 percent at Rs. 810. The counter has seen trades of around 134,000 shares as against the two-week daily average volume of around 313,000 shares on the BSE.

Meanwhile, the Sensex is almost flat at 27,688.

Top corporate news of the day- July 9, 2015

To strengthen its presence in the east coast, the Adani Group is likely to take over the operational and management control of Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Kattupalli International Container Terminal near Chennai.

To strengthen its presence in the east coast, the Adani Group is likely to take over the operational and management control of Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Kattupalli International Container Terminal near Chennai.

Eicher Motors-owned Royal Enfield has hopped on the e-commerce bandwagon with the commercial launch of the limited edition Classic 500. Priced at Rs 224k, 400 war-inspired camouflage Classic 500 bikes will be opened for online bookings on July 15. 

Infosys said it has won a multi-year outsourcing contract from Deutsche Bank. Infosys did not disclose the deal value or the tenure of the engagement. 

Titagarh Wagons announced that it has received an industrial license for manufacturing defence items. 

ANVISA, the Brazilian drug regulator said in a statement that it has suspended imports of all beta-lactam cephalosporin pharmaceutical ingredients and all imported drugs using these inputs, which are manufactured by Lupin.

Yes Bank said that it has raised Rs 5.54bn through a tier-II bond issue. The 10-year bonds were raised at a coupon of 9.15% and saw subscription from investors including insurance firms and pension and provident funds.

KNR Constructions Ltd has been awarded a Rs. 2.55bn road contract in Madhya Pradesh for widening and reconstruction of Mohanpur, Behat Mau, Murar Chitora, Mohana Pogri roads under the district connectivity project of the Madhya Pradesh Road Development Corporation Ltd.

Essar Oil Surges Over 5% on Rosneft Deal

Essar Oil shares surged as much as 5.1 per cent on Thursday to Rs 198.35 after Russia's Rosneft signed a deal to acquire up to 49 per cent stake in its Vadinar oil refinery.

Refining accounts for over 95 per cent of Essar Oil's overall business. Rosneft also hinted at plans to increase the refinery's capacity to 45 million tonnes (900,000 barrels per day) by 2020.

Russia's top oil producer Rosneft also said that it has also finalised a deal to supply 10 million tonnes of oil a year (200,000 barrels per day) to the refinery over 10 years.

The value of the deal was not disclosed. The deal to buy a stake in the refinery had been delayed due to difference over the price, Reuters, quoting sources, had reported earlier. The deal is subject to regulatory approvals.

Mumbai-based Essar Group business interests include steel, oil and gas, power and ports. Essar's founders own 90.5 per cent of Essar Oil, of which 65.6 per cent is in the form of overseas depository shares. Essar Oil shares have surged close to 90 per cent year to date.

TCS to announce Q1 results today

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd has announced that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on July 09, 2015,

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd has announced that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on July 09, 2015, to consider the following matters:

To approve and take on record the audited financial results of the Company for the quarter ended June 30, 2015 (Q1).

To approve and take on record the audited consolidated financial results of the Company and its subsidiaries for the quarter ended June 30, 2015 (Q1).

To consider declaration of an Interim Dividend to the equity shareholders.

Oil Prices Steady but Oversupply, China Stock Rout Drag

Crude oil prices were steady on Thursday, with U.S. contracts still down around 16 percent since a peak hit in late June, as traders fretted about China's stock market rout, Greece's debt crisis and a glut in supply.

Front-month U.S. crude futures were trading at $51.65 per barrel at 0048 GMT, unchanged from their last settlement, but prices are down over 8 percent since Monday.

Front-month Brent crude was firmer, edging up 3 cents to $57.08 a barrel, but also down some 5 percent since the end of last week.

"The China risks ... present danger for Australia and other economies which are leveraged to commodity exports to China," Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, said in a note.

"Oil is being pressured on multiple fronts, and China's equity wobble, the prospect of Iran's re-entry to the market and low liquidity all add up to an extremely fraught environment. Oil needs to establish a new range and we would see the WTI crude low around $50 with the upside capped at $58."

China's securities regulator took the drastic step late on Wednesday of ordering shareholders with stakes of more than 5 percent from selling shares for the next six months in a bid to halt a plunge in stock prices that is starting to roil global financial markets.

The announcements came after China's stock market, which has lost a third of its value since June, showed signs of seizing up on Wednesday, as almost half of the country's listed companies scrambled to escape the rout by having their shares suspended and the regulators warned of "panic sentiment" gripping investors.

Meanwhile, a surprise increase in U.S. stockpiles despite the peak demand American summer driving season added to global oversupply as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia produce at near record levels.

Iranian exports could also resume at full throttle if major global powers and Iran find a compromise in nuclear talks this week that could lead to a lifting of western sanctions against Tehran.

Nifty to See Flat Opening; Calmness Returns in China Markets

9:10 a.m.: The Sensex was down 6 points at 27,681 and Nifty was up 2 points at 8,365 in the pre-market session.

9:06 a.m.: 8K Miles: 8K Miles Q1 earnings came in line with the expectations. Total income came in at Rs 50.6 crore compared to Rs 42.6 crore.

9:04 a.m.: Axis Bank, Bajaj Auto, Bajaj Finance and Eclerx will go ex-dividend today.

9:00 a.m.: Rupee opens higher at 63.54/dollar against Wednesday's close of 63.59.

8:54 a.m.: Credit Suisse has maintained outperform on Larsen & Toubro for target price of Rs 2,175 per share.

8:35 a.m.: TCS will be announcing its first quarter results for FY16. Analysts expect company to post sales of Rs 25,326 crore compared to Rs 24,219 crore during the previous quarter and net profit is expected at Rs 5,421 crore compared to Rs 5,905 crore in the previous quarter.

8:30 a.m.: Manpasand Beverages shares will be listed on the exchanges today. Manpasand Beverages manufactures fruit drinks known as Mango Sip, Fruits-Up and Manpasand ORG.

8:25 a.m.: The foreign institutional investors sold Indian shares worth Rs 354.32 crore on Wednesday while the domestic institutional investors sold shares worth Rs 346.7 crore.

In the derivative segment, the FIIs sold index futures worth Rs 270 crore and also sold stock futures worth Rs 90 crore.

8:15 a.m.: Asian equities extended losses on Thursday as concerns over China's market turmoil spread, while the safe-haven yen shot to a seven-week high as global risk appetite ebbed.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan shed 0.2 per cent, hovering near a 17-month low struck the previous day.

8:10 a.m.: Overnight, the U.S. stocks ended sharply lower on Wednesday as market turmoil in China eclipsed Greece's debt crisis, while the New York Stock Exchange suffered a major outage.

Fears that a rout in Chinese stocks could seriously harm the country's economy and spread beyond its borders pushed the S&P 500 below its 200-day moving average for the first time since October and into negative territory for 2015.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 261.49 points, or 1.47 per cent, to end at 17,515.42. The S&P 500 lost 34.65 points, or 1.66 per cent, to 2,046.69 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 87.70 points, or 1.75 per cent, to 4,909.76.

8:05 a.m.: Meanwhile, China's securities regulator took the drastic step of banning shareholders with stakes of more than 5 per cent from selling shares for the next six months in a bid to halt a plunge in stock prices that is starting to roil global financial markets.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said on its website late on Wednesday that it would deal severely with any shareholders who violated the rule.

8:00 a.m.: The Sensex and Nifty are likely to witness a flat opening in trades today on the back of weak global sentiment which prevailed after continuous selloff in the Chinese stock markets.

The Nifty which is traded on the Singapore Stock Exchange also known as the SGX Nifty was indicating a flat start for the Indian markets. The SGX Nifty was up 0.05 per cent at 8,369.

Infosys Bags Multi-Million Euro Deal from Deutsche Bank

 Country's second largest IT services firm Infosys has signed a multi-million euro deal with Deutsche Bank.

Under the terms of the multi-year agreement, Infosys will provide services like development, application maintenance, digital and mobility, package implementation and testing services across the Deutsche Bank Group, Infosys said in a statement on Wednesday.

"We look forward to further strengthening our relationship with Deutsche Bank and supporting the bank achieve its goals," Infosys executive vice-president and global head financial services Mohit Joshi said.

The Bengaluru-based firm will also be a strategic partner under Deutsche Bank's Supplier Partnership Programme, it added. The programme was launched in June 2014 to concentrate the most strategic vendors based on business impact across all categories of the bank, it said.

"Deutsche Bank is committed to applying innovative technology to enhance its efficiency and services to clients. Working with Infosys will help the bank achieve these goals," Deutsche Bank Global Chief Information Officer Kim Hammonds said.

Infosys shares were trading at Rs 962.55 apiece in the morning trade, down 1.99 per cent from its previous close on the BSE.

Greece and China Expose Limits of 'Whatever it Takes'

 For a world so confident that central banks can solve almost all economic ills, the dramas unfolding in Greece and China are sobering.

"Whatever it takes," Mario Draghi's 2012 assertion about what the ECB would do to save the euro, best captures the all-powerful, self-aware central bank activism that's cosseted world markets since the banking and credit collapse hit eight years ago.

From the United States to Europe and Asia, financial markets have been cowed, then calmed and are now coddled by the limitless power of central banks to print new money to ward off systemic shocks and deflation.

But even if you believe central banks will do whatever it takes - to save the euro, stop the recession, create jobs, boost inflation, prop up the stock market and so on - it doesn't necessarily mean it will always work.

Draghi himself merely pleaded for faith on that score three years ago when he added, "Believe me, it will be enough."

Critically, given the direction of events in Athens, his celebrated epigraph was preceded by "Within our mandate..."

And so the prospect of the European Central Bank potentially presiding over, some say precipitating, the first national exit from a supposedly unbreakable currency union will inspire a rethink of the limits of Draghi's phrase for all central banks.

Of course, the ECB does not want to push Greece out of the euro. But 'whatever it takes' may just not be enough to preserve the integrity of the 19-nation bloc if the ECB's mandate prevents it from endlessly funnelling emergency funding to insolvent Greek banks.

And as long as the Greek government is at loggerheads with its creditors, the central bank can't wave a magic wand of monetary support without breaking its own rules.

The ECB continues to insist it will do all in its power to prevent contagion to other euro zone markets and there's little doubt it will make good on that. But the problems stemming from a Greek exit are not of financial seepage but of political contagion to other euro electorates tiring of austerity. And that sort of contagion is beyond ECB control.

Across the planet

Switch across the planet and another test of central banking determination and effectiveness is playing out.

The once awesome ability of the People's Bank of China to micro-manage the world's second largest economy and one of the globe's biggest stock markets is being sorely challenged.

Having helped inflate a bubble-like doubling of Shanghai stocks with easy money over the past year, the PBOC, along with government regulators, is now desperately trying to control a sudden implosion that's wiped 30 per cent and $3 trillion off equity values in just three weeks.

The worrying bit is that after cutting interest rates and bank reserve requirements in late June and then last weekend injecting liquidity into a state-backed margin finance company, the PBOC barely got any market response.

Given that 85 per cent of share trading in China is conducted by small retail investors, the economic ripples on consumer sentiment could be sizeable for an economy slowing to below 7 per cent for the first time since the financial crisis.

Economists at Schroders point out, for example, that booming brokerage business saw a near doubling of the financial sector contribution to GDP growth to 1.3 per cent in the first quarter.

But the loss of PBOC control, however temporary, asks yet another question of the omnipotence of central banks.

"If the PBOC fails to support its equity markets, it will be the first major central bank to have failed trying to influence the targeted asset markets," said Stephen Jen at hedge fund SLJ Macro Partners. "Investors could wonder if central banks in general may be approaching an inflection point with diminishing returns on their operations."

Overburdened

The point is not lost on those tasked with monitoring the world's central banks.

Economists at the Bank for International Settlements warned on June 28 that a loss of control by central banks, now painfully short of new ammunition to deal with either a major market crash or a sudden world downturn, was one of the most worrying threats to the world financial system.

"Monetary policy has been overburdened for far too long," the BIS said in its 85th annual report, arguing deep-seated economic reforms must now be stepped up to take the pressure off over-easy monetary policy and highly indebted governments.

"The likelihood of turbulence will increase further if current extraordinary conditions are spun out. The more one stretches an elastic band, the more violently it snaps back."

US and UK central banks, fearing zero rates are not only causing investment distortions but also societal problems due to ballooning wealth inequality, have indeed been flagging the likelihood of interest rate rises over the coming months.

But their ability to do whatever it takes to achieve that may be more clipped than it was when they were easing.

If China or a Greece-less euro zone were to blow up into another financial shock that hit global economic confidence, the Federal Reserve and Bank of England could well find themselves trapped at zero, having never reset interest rates during one of the longest financial bull markets in history.

Buzz of L&T Selling Katupalli Port to Adani Hits Shares

Shares of Adani Ports and Larsen & Toubro were in focus today on reports that Adani Ports is in talks to buy L&T's Katupalli Port near Chennai.

L&T had invested Rs 4,000 crore at Katupalli. L&T was earlier in talks with APM Maersk to sell this port, according to media reports.

A possible deal will be beneficial for both L&T and Adani Ports, analysts told NDTV.

However, reacting to this development, shares of Adani Ports fell 3.2 per cent to Rs 322 and Larsen & Toubro's share prices were down 1.4 per cent at Rs 1,785 as of 12:40 p.m.