Sensex manages to keep head above water; Bharti up over 4%

The Sensex rose on Wednesday, led by gains in Bharti Airtel after the company raised call prices, but sentiment remain constrained ahead of key earnings results and an impending central bank's critical decision on interest rates next week.

The Sensex provisionally ended 0.33 percent higher and the Nifty rose 0.22 percent.

Bharti Airtel, India's top mobile phone carrier, said it has raised voice call prices to account for rising costs, sending shares of telecommunication companies higher as investors bet that rivals will follow the market leader.

Idea Cellular, India's No.3 carrier by revenue and No.4 by customers, also said on Wednesday it had effectively raised voice call prices in some parts of the country after withdrawing promotional offers. It gave no details.

The price increases come as mobile phone carriers in India face billions of dollars in airwave surcharges after the government overhauled its system of spectrum sales in response to a massive scandal in 2011 over an alleged below-market-price sale of permits and airwaves three years before.

Shares in Bharti Airtel rose more than 4 percent after the news. Idea was up 4 percent and Reliance Communications gained as much as 3 percent, although both fell into negative territory later in the day.

Shares in Housing Development & Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) fell as much as 15.8 percent on Wednesday after Vice Chairman and Managing Director Sarang Wadhawan sold a partial stake in the company.

HDIL said on Tuesday Wadhawan sold 5 million shares worth Rs 57 crore in secondary markets, reducing his stake to 0.99 percent from 2.19 percent.

Key equity benchmarks including midcap index were trading deep in the red, pummelled by Real Estate, Banking, Oil & Gas, Metal and Engineering stocks. The choppiness has made Nifty a no trading zone today, say traders.

IndiaBulls (-1.5 percent), HDIL (13 percent), Unitech (1.08 percent), Peninsula Land (3.3 percent) were top real estate losers.

Among the midcap banks, Syndicate Bank and Karnataka Bank were trading with 7 percent cuts, while Allahabad lost 3 percent, Andhra Bank fell 2.27 percent and Dena Bank dwindled 2.17 percent. Largecap banks names like SBI, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra and Axis Bank were trading with marginal to half-a percent losses.

At 14.39 PM , the Sensex was down 47.92 points at 19933.65, and the Nifty held at 6025.55 after going down 22.95 points.

Airline stocks also were down after the Supreme Court bans airline companies from collecting transaction cost.

Despite Finance Minister P Chidambaram hard selling the India story in HongKong, equity benchmarks back home have been void of investor interest. In early afternoon trade, the BSE benchmark Sensex and NSE Nifty stayed rangebound; lack of interest was compounded by disappointing HUL and Dish TV results as well as poor performance in rest of Asia. US futures were trading mixed.

At 12.49 PM, the Sensex was trading 30.34 points up at 20011.91, and the Nifty gave up most of its gains to stay barely 3.40 points up at 6051.90. Midcap index was down half a percent. Bharti remains top gainer on the index. 

HUL fell nearly 6 percent on the Nifty and remained biggest loser on the index. ONGC, NTPC, Tata Motors and TCS were other big index losers, falling in the 2-4.6 percent range.

Midcaps have turned in the red with HDIL, Karnataka Bank and Jaypee Infra falling 4-5 percent each. Smallcap index was bleeding due to deep cuts in specific stocks like Ajanta Pharma (-20 percent), and Sasken (-11 percent).

BSE Sensex and wide-based NSE Nifty were trading quiet but stayed in the positive territory, aided by Asian markets. Midcaps were trading flat.

At 11.06 AM, the Sensex moved up 49.51 points at 20031.08, and the Nifty rose 10.40 points at 6058.90. Midcaps were trading flat.

Bharti Airtel flared up in today's trade after it announced hike in voice call prices . The stock moved nearly 4.5 percent on the indices. Idea Cellular and Reliance Telecom also gained 3.80 percent and 2.6 percent tracking Bharti.

Besides Bharti, other key Nifty movers were DLF, HDFC Bank, UltraTech Cement and HDFC; all moved up more than 1 percent.

Meanwhile, rupee opened higher tracking overnight gains in euro. The Reserve Bank of India has allowed exporters to access the foreign exchange market without having to first exhaust funds in their foreign currency accounts, reversing a previous restriction imposed to prevent a sharp fall in the rupee. Dealers say the RBI move on easing access to foreign exchange for exporters is unlikely to have much impact on the pair, but signals greater comfort of the central bank on INR levels.

Key indices were firm early Monday, buoyed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram's positive comments at a gathering of global fund managers in Hong Kong Tuesday.

Index heavyweight Hindustan Unilever tumbled 5 percent to Rs 457 as leading brokerages cut their ratings and earnings estimates for the stock after disappointing third quarter numbers.

The Sensex was at 20032, up 50 points and the Nifty at 6063, up 15 points. Disappointment over HUL's numbers did not affect sentiment for most other FMCG shares, which were steady in early trade.

Market breadth was positive on good demand for midcap and small cap shares.

However, brokers caution that any upside from current levels will be gradual as market has discounted most positive developments. The immediate trigger now is Tuesday's monetary policy review in which it is widely expected that RBI will cut benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points.

Gainers in early trade include United Breweries, Muthoot Finance, JSW Energy,Apollo Hospitals, and Indiabulls Financial Services, up between 2-4 percent.

Other than HUL, key laggards included OIL India, JP Infratech and Ashok Leyland, down around 2 percent each.