Sensex closes up 135 points; Hotel Leela, KFA soar

Key equity benchmarks ended another listless day of trade in the green. The BSE Sensex closed near the highest point of the day at 19664.04, up 0.84 percent. Meanwhile, the NSE benchmark 50-share Nifty closed up 41.50 points at 5939.70.

The first of the resistance levels has been taken out by the market, says technical analyst Sudarshan Sukhani. "The next resistance is at 5980. So, there is a tradable move, which is available to us from 5920 to 5980," he told CNBC-TV18 in an interview.

BSE realty was the best performing sectoral index with gains of 2 percent; Peninsula Land jumped 6 percent, DLF rises 3 percent.

BSE consumer durables index ended the day at the bottom of the sectoral pack with modest gains of 0.3 percent; TItan Industries in the red.

About 1668 shares have advanced, 1149 shares declined, and 680 shares are unchanged.

Shares of ACC and Ambuja Cements gained after shareholders at each of the cement makers separately approved paying technology fees to controlling stakeholder Holcim of 1 percent of net annual sales. The approvals remove an uncertainty that had been weighing on the Indian companies, as some investors had feared a protracted process over a decision that had been unpopular with shareholders.

ACC gained 2.80 percent while Ambuja Cements is up 1.55 percent. Holcim holds a 50.3 percent stake in ACC and 50.6 percent in Ambuja Cements.

Shares in Kingfisher Airlines gain by its daily limit of 5 percent after controlling stakeholder United Breweries Holdings raised the amount it can lend to the ailing carrier.

United Breweries said it had raised the limit of loans for Kingfisher to Rs 7.5 billion from Rs 3 billion, according to an exchange filing on Monday. The statement came after lenders to Kingfisher said on February 12 that they would take initial steps towards recovering USD 1.4 billion of loans in default after the company failed to come up with a viable funding plan.

UB Group, the parent of both Kingfisher Airlines and United Breweries, has told lenders it would consider using proceeds from a stake sale in a separate group company to Diageo Plc.

Hotel Leela Venture shares went up nearly 10 percent, a day after the company sold its IT park building in the city of Chennai for Rs 1.7 billion to Reliance Industries, according to an exchange filing.

Traders say the hotel operator will be able to reduce debt, a critical factor given higher interest costs led Hotel Leela Venture to post a net loss of Rs 970 million in the October-December quarter, despite what analysts called a better-than-expected top line performance.

The top Sensex losers: Bharti Airtel (-1.94 percent), GAIL (-1.37 percent), Hero Motocorp (-1.37 percent), Coal India (-1.35 percent), Jindal Steel (-0.79 percent).

DLF, ONGC sparkle in dull trade, Bharti tumbles 2%

Barring certain stocks, equity markets on Tuesday reamined largely flat slipping in and out of the red zone. At 2.30 PM, the Sensex was up 23.02 points at 19524.10, and the Nifty moved up 8.85 points to 5907.05. Stocks in the Oil and Gas, Pharma, Power, Realty, Cement  and FMCG sectors were supporting the indices. While DLF was the biggets gainer on Nifty with 3.08 percent gains, ONGC moved close to 3% on the indices.

Realty sector, in particular, was having a field day. Besides DLF,  Purvankara was a big mover in the midcap space rising 14 percent followed by 5 percent rise in Peninsula Land. Prestige Estate gained 1.5 percent.

Meanwhile telecom stocks continue to languish. In an order, Telecom Commission allowed companies with ISP licences and 4G spectrum to offer phone calls services by paying a fee of Rs 1,658 crore. However, the news has not done any good to the sector. Bharti Airtel remained one of the biggest underperformers losing 2.23 percent in the late afternoon trade. Idea Cellular and Reliance Communication lost nearly 1 percent each.

Nifty hovers around 5900, UB group stocks hold firm

The market seemed to be quiet today as the Nifty was hovering around 5900. Select commodities dragged, while pharma stocks have lend their supports.

Broader markets have performed slightly better. The Sensex was down 18.33 points at 19482.75, and the Nifty lost 6.25 points to be at 5891.95.

Top gainers on the Sensex are ONGC, Cipla, NTPC, HUL and Infosys.

UB group stocks were buzzing in trade today. United Breweries gained 4.4% while Kingfisher Airlines was still up 5%. UB holdings has sought shareholders' nod to raise the limit of its loans to Kingfisher Airlines to Rs 750 crore from Rs 300 crore. The limit for investment has been reduced to Rs 750 crore from Rs 1200 crores. The move is being seen as an attempt to bail out Kingfisher and reduce the exposure of its lenders.

On the losing side are Bharti Airtel (down 2.3%), Gail (down 1.8%), Coal India and  RIL.

Meanwhile, a meeting between power sector heavyweights, top bankers and the power minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia is currently underway, to discuss issues hurting fresh investment in the sector. Among the issues, likely to figure in the discussion, are streamlining of fuel availability for a cumulative 90,000 megawatt power capacity, a review of the national tariff policy and coal price pooling.

Nifty listless; Hotel Leela up 9%, Kingfisher rises 5%

The benchmarks opened listless and on expected lines as global cues dried up and domestic earnings floundered. The largecap space was pushed down by sell-off in TCS, Coal India, Tata Motors, HDFC Bank, and ITC. HUL, Cipla, BHEL, Sterlite, Mahindra and Mahindra, DLF were lending support to the indices.

At 09.34 AM, the Sensex was up barely 2 points at 19503.11, and the Nifty plummeted 2.50 points at 5895.70.

In the midcap segment, Hotel Leela opened with a big gap-up on news that Reliance Industries has bought its IT park building in Chennai.  The stock shot up 9 percent to trade at Rs 26.80. Sugar space too opened in the positive with Balrampur Chini, Shree Renuka Sugars, Sakthi Sugars etc trading with over 1 percent gains.

Investors cheered  Kingfisher Airlines and United Breweries after the UB management agreed to accommodate further lending to debt-laden KFA by hiking its loan limit from Rs 300 crore to Rs 750 crore. Kingfisher raced up 5 percent and United Breweries moved up nearly 4 percent.

Wishlists coming in from various sectors and associations suggest that investors will build-up some stock specific position ahead of the outcome of the Union Budget.

Meanwhile, The euro declined against the dollar on Monday after the European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said economic indicators signaled further weakness in the euro zone.