BSE Sensex, Nifty end flat; IT index adds 2%, Rel Comm up

3:40 pm Market Closing: After a weak trading session, the market ended on flat note. The Sensex is down 37.00 points at 20851.33, and the Nifty is down 10 points at 6211.15.  About 1258 shares have advanced, 1167 shares declined, and 619 shares are unchanged.

IT stocks outperformed the market with TCS and Infosys as big gainers in the Sensex.  Maruti Suzuki, Sun Pharma and HDFC Bank are other gainers.  Infra, oil & gas, metals and auto stocks were big laggards. M&M, Tata Power , Tata Motors , L&T and NTPC dragged during the day.

3:30 pm Interview: After Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressed a press conference where he discussed widespread concerns over the government's performance in the growth, inflation and corruption areas, CNBC-TV18 spoke with Rajiv Bajaj, MD, Bajaj Auto .

Bajaj said that the recent disappointment with the state of politics will lead to a change in affairs. ''There is enough reason to believe that after the crisis comes the resolution,'' he said. ''What we are seeing in recent weeks or recent months is a build up of a positive crisis as opposed to a situation where everything seemed dead, at least there is some energy around us now,'' Bajaj added.

3:20 pm Stock in news: Investors are buying shares Reliance Communications as the telecom operator has fully repaid syndicated ECB loan of USD 500 million (Rs 3,100 crore approximately) on the scheduled due date today. The stock gained as much as 2 percent intraday on Friday.

"We had earlier this year made full scheduled repayment of two other syndicated external commercial borrowing (ECB) loans aggregating USD 1 billion (Rs 6200 crore) and bilateral ECB loans of more than USD 310 million (Rs 1900 crore approximately)," the company said in its filing to the exchange.

The market is almost flat. The Sensex is down 28.37 points at 20859.96 and the Nifty is down 5.05 points at 6216.10. About 1257 shares have advanced, 1147 shares declined, and 634 shares are unchanged.

Asian markets end negative, the yen strengthens to 104. Europe opens with losses, the euro dropping to 1.36.

In his first media conference in three years prime minister Manmohan Singh takes credit for India's 9 percent growth but blames the global financial crisis for India's slowdown. He admits that unemployment, inflation and corruption remain the unfinished agenda. He assures that the government will do everything it can in the next five months to battle inflation.

The focus on inflation gives Indian market the impression that further cuts in diesel subsidies may be in jeopardy. An already weak rupee falls to a one month low of 62.53 per dollar.

02:55pm Reliance Communications repays ECB loan
Reliance Communications (RComm) has fully repaid another syndicated ECB loan of USD 500 million (Rs 3,100 crore approximately) on the scheduled due date today.

RComm had earlier this year made full scheduled repayment of 2 other syndicated ECB loans aggregating USD 1 billion (Rs 6,200 crore) and bilateral ECB loans of more than USD 310 million (Rs 1,900 crore approximately).

With these repayments, RCOM has now fully liquidated the borrowings from 23 foreign banks and financial institutions. The stock gained 1.7 percent.

02:45pm Prabhudas Lilladher retains buy on Infosys , Wipro , Tech Mahindra

The brokerage house also maintains buy rating on MindTree, NIIT Technologies and Persistent Systems and upgrades Geometric to accumulate.

According to Prabhudas Lilladher, Indian IT vendors continue to invent and reinvent themselves to identify the next growth drivers. It expects an agile strategic approach and adoption of new technological trend to drive mid-to-high-teen growth in FY15-16.

02:35pm Anand Rathi's Q3 earnings expectations on healthcare sector

The brokerage house says companies under its coverage are likely to post 12 percent year-on-year revenue growth. "However, excluding Wockhardt (FDA issues) and Fortis (divestments), revenue growth is expected to be 19 percent Y-o-Y," the report adds.

Anand Rathi further says the growth will be largely driven by US generics, expected recovery in domestic formulations and favorable currency. Sun Pharma,  Dr Reddy's Labs, Cipla, and Ipca are expected to drive most of the revenue growth.

"We expect EBITDA margins to improve 70bps Y-o-Y, to 23 percent, led by higher US generics growth and favourable currency. Better margins, along with lower interest cost, would result in adjusted PAT growth of robust 20 percent Y-o-Y, higher than revenue growth. Sun, Lupin, Dr Reddy's Labs, Cadila, Pfizer, and Ipca will register higher net profit growth," Anand Rathi report said.

02:25pm Credit Suisse overweight on India
Sakthi Siva of Credit Suisse says overweight call on India is based on the GE (General Election) acting as a catalyst for a potential inflection point on return on equity.

Credit Suisse regional portfolio is overweight on cyclicals in India, and top picks are HCL Technologites, Wipro, Tata Motors , Reliance Industries , Sesa Sterlite and Cairn Energy.

02:15pm The market has not showing any sign of rebound in afternoon trade as major sectors like banks, capital goods, oil and gas and power stocks are under pressure.

The Sensex slipped 85.07 points to 20,803.26, and the Nifty declined 26.50 points to 6,194.65. Declining shares outnumbered advancing ones by a ratio of 1325 to 998 on the BSE.

Tata Power continued to be a top loser in the Sensex, falling nearly 5 percent followed by Tata Motors, and Mahindra and Mahindra with a 3-4 percent loss.

Shares of Coal India , Larsen and Toubro , BHEL and NTPC lost more than 2 percent while Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank , State Bank of India , ONGC and Axis Bank dropped 1.5 percent each.

However, technology stocks like TCS and Infosys bucked the trend, extending gains to 2.6 percent. HDFC Bank , Bharti Airtel , Hero Motocorp , Maruti Suzuki and Wipro are other gainers.

1:50 pm Interview: Escorts Agri Machinery may see a run-rate of 6,000 units per month from February or March of this year, says Chief Sales and Marketing, Sameer Tandon. The company clocked sales in December 2013 at 3809 tractors as against 3988 tractors in December 2012.

The exports for the month of December 2013 was at 43 tractors as compared to 18 tractors in December 2012.

Tandon says the company grew more in north and east regions than south and west regions of the country. However, growth predominantly for last few months has been coming in from the southern market. Moreover, he expects January to be better month for the company than December.

"We will launch new products by FY14-end," he told CNBC-TV18 in an interview.

1:40 pm Market outlook: Credit Suisse says "overweight" on India, noting return on equity in the country could be at an "inflection point" after three consecutive months of upgrades in consensus earnings-per-share (EPS) forecasts.

Cyclicals could continue to outperform defensive stocks, adds the investment bank.

"We believe valuations, EPS revision trends, and rises in US bond yields and the ISM (Institute for Supply Management) suggest cyclicals could have further to outperform," Credit Suisse says in the report dated Thursday.

1:30 pm Udayan Comments: The market may be volatile but within that broader range seen over the last few weeks, essentially since the Nifty hit its all time high, it has not made much headway on the way up or on the way down.

Udayan Mukherjee of CNBC-TV18 says the market is right now giving the illusion of moving at a great pace but essentially it is marking time and that too with fairly volatile moves on either side. So on bad days, it has market gone down all the way to 6000-6100 and on good days it has flirted with 6400. But it has broadly been within that 6000-6400 kind of range.

1:20 pm Buzzing: Shares of Nestle India jumped over 5 percent intraday as its parent company Nestle may invest up to USD 1 billion to hike stake in its Indian arm. As per CNBC-TV18 sources, the Swiss-based food and beverage company Nestle may invest up to USD 1 billion to hike stake in its Indian arm.

Currently, the parent company holds 62 percent in its India arm. It has a window to hike stake by up to 13 percent.

The market remains under pressure as PM Manmohan speech did not assure anything new. The Nifty has hit a two-week low slipping below 6200.  The Nifty is down 43.95 points at 6177.20. The Sensex is down 136.32 points at 20752.01. About 814 shares have advanced, 1307 shares declined, and 633 shares are unchanged.

Capital goods, metal and power stocks see big sell-off. Tata Power loses 6 percent while M&M, Hindalco , ICICI Bank and L&T are top losers in the Sensex.  Meanwhile, IT stocks are firm with TCS , Infosys and Wipro as major gainers in the Sensex.

Meanwhile, rupee hits 1-month low trading at 62.53 to the dollar extending losses for third straight day in a row. Weak equity markets also add to pressure.

PM Manmohan Singh says he has ruled himself out as a PM candidate if UPA comes back to power. Rahul Gandhi has outstanding credentials to be the PM candidate, he said but without any official announcement on the party's candidate for elections 2014.

12:59pm Broker Ramesh Damani optimistic on market
The market is showing all signs of a classic bull market, says broker Ramesh Damani. In an interview to CNBC-TV18, he said that there was a lot of skepticism among investors and still prices were going up. That is leading to a left-out feeling and at some stage, investors would all jump in and start buying.

''You could see this playing out over the next 3-4 months,'' Damani said.

He said the undertone of the market was quite strong, and there was every reason to be optimistic.

He said the sell-off in the last hour of trading on Thursday was more of a correction, and there was nothing to be worried about it.

12:50pm MCX gains ground post appointment of MD and CEO

Shares of Multi Commodity Exchange of India gained as much as 4.5 percent intraday on Friday after the board of directors appointed Dr Manoj Vaish as managing director and chief executive officer of the company.

The board on January 2 recommended Vaish name to Forward Markets Commission. An appointment will be done for a period of three years from the date of joining subject to the approval of FMC.

Manoj Vaish is MD of NSDL Database Management and is former CEO and executive director of BSE.

The stock was up 1.18 percent to Rs 494 apiece on the BSE.

12:40pm Rupee at one-month low
Indian rupee fell to one-month low in afternoon trade after prime minister Manmohan Singh speech.

The currency declined 27 paise or 0.43 percent to 62.53 against the US dollar.

Meanwhile, the Sensex dropped 123.76 points to 20,764.57, and the Nifty slipped 40.85 points to 6,180.30. About 847 shares have advanced, 1266 shares declined, and 632 shares are unchanged.

12:30pm PM Manmohan Sing says
India is a hospitable environment for FDI and will continue to be so.

On being called 'an overrated economist and an underrated politician'. - I have done my best. People doubted our ability to run a coalition government. We may have compromised sometime. But, we have done well.

12:20pm Escorts Agri talks to CNBC-TV18
We should start looking at 6000 numbers from February or MarchIn an interview to CNBC-TV18 Sameer Tandon,  Escorts Agri Machinery said with the launch of new products and with some of their higher horse power products doing well, growth would start to look up going forward.

He is optimistic of run-rate going back to 6000 units per month from the current 4000 units by February, March.

North and east are strong markets for the company but with the launch of new products, Tandon is hopeful of increasing the market share in southern and western regions too. "Although it may seem a very small volume but we have doubled our volumes in states of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra," he added.

12:10pm Prime Minister speaks in press conference
While addressing press conference and answering media questions, Prime minister Manmohan Singh says UPA has still got a lot of time before the elections to revive the economy. "If we can improve the situation, I will consider the job well done," he says.

"We have done reasonably well despite the global slowdown," he adds.

12:00pm Equity benchmarks remained under pressure in noon trade as weakness in global markets on profit taking dampened sentiment.

The Sensex fell 85.82 points to 20,802.51, and the Nifty declined 27.60 points to 6,193.55. Declining shares outnumbered advancing ones by a ratio of 1089 to 902 on the BSE.

The last hour sell-off seen in the market yesterday was surprising. But the Nifty did look heavy at around 6300, says Vikas Khemani, President & Co-Head Wholesale Capital Markets, Edelweiss Capital . This correction was perhaps due. He explains that though there is some improvement on the economic front, it will take time to improve in a meaningful way. The next big trigger for the market will be the elections, he adds.

He believes the worse on the macro front is behind us. However, he expects the market to continue to trade in the narrow range till elections, and maybe towards the closer end of the election time, depending on how the political scenario builds up, there might be a pre-election rally. He feels the Nifty will find support at around 6000.

Tata Power topped the selling list, falling more than 5 percent followed by ICICI Bank , Tata Motors , Mahindra and Mahindra , Hindalco Industries , Tata Steel , Larsen and Toubro and BHEL with more than 2 percent loss.

Index heavyweights Reliance Industries and ITC fell over a percent.

However, shares of TCS bucked the trend, rising more than 2 percent. Infosys too gained 1.65 percent while Hero Motocorp rose over a percent.

12:00 pm FM's point of view: Unperturbed by the rise in the fiscal deficit, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday exuded confidence that it would remain within the target of 4.8 percent of GDP in the current financial year, reports PTI.

"We will maintain the fiscal deficit at 4.8 percent. That is the red line that will not be breached. I am confident that it will not be breached," he said at a press conference.

The minister was responding to a question about the possibility of the fiscal deficit rising after it touched 94 percent of the budget estimate at the end of November. Chidambaram said government finances will improve in December and the fiscal deficit will decline.

11:50 am Interview: Ashok Tyagi, group chief financial officer, DLF , says realty prices are unlikely to correct in the days to come.

Citing high labour and commodity prices, Tyagi says the prices, especially in the Delhi-NCR region will not decrease. He believes the long approval cycles for most of the realty projects are also a deterrent for lower home prices.

However, at a time when people are awaiting some fall in prices, thereby, lowering demand, Tyagi remains unfazed by lesser sales. The sales in Q3, October-Novermber-December, he says were flat to slightly negative, hinting to the fact that realty has not yet bottomed-out.

''Yes, demand has slowed, but we are not yet in a panic situation, as the underling demand still does exist'' he adds.

11:40 am PM's address: It will be disastrous for the country to have Narendra Modi as the PM. We have done reasonably well despite the global slowdown. I have full confidence that the next PM will be from the UPA. "Economies have ups and downs and we should not focus overly on the short term. We should recognize that even if we include the years of slowdown, the rate of growth achieved in the past nine years, is the highest for any nine year period. And it is not just the acceleration of growth that gives me satisfaction. Equally important is the fact that we made the growth process more socially inclusive than it has ever been," he said.

11:30 am Market outlook: The market is showing all signs of a classic bull market, says broker Ramesh Damani. In an interview to CNBC-TV18, he said that there was a lot of skepticism among investors and still prices were going up. That is leading to a left-out feeling and at some stage, investors would all jump in and start buying.

''You could see this playing out over the next 3-4 months,'' Damani said. He said the undertone of the market was quite strong, and there was every reason to be optimistic. He said the sell-off in the last hour of trading on Thursday was more of a correction, and there was nothing to be worried about it. Damani is bullish on IT, pharma and media stocks for 2014.

11:20 am Buzzing: Shares of Sadbhav Engineering climbed as much as 3.8 percent intraday as the company started toll collection at Navapur in Gujarat (on NH6), Pimpalkutti in Andhra Pradesh (on NH7) and Manegaon in Madhya Pradesh (on NH7).

In addition to above, Maharashtra Border Check Post Network (MBCPNL), step-down subsidiary of the company and special purpose vehicle currently collects revenue from three check posts namely Achhad, Mandrup and Saoner, the company said in its filing to the exchange.

Sadbhav received provisional completion certificate for Kharpi check post on MSH-6 with effect from December 27, 2013.

11:15 am PM's media address: PM says that the government gives highest priority to strengthening diplomatic issues.  case.Rising price rise was beyond our control, due to global factors. I feel sad that I was the one who said that spectrum allocation should be transparent. Opposition has a vested interest. Sometimes the media also plays into their hands. Rahul Gandhi has outstanding credentials to take over. I hope the party takes the decision at the opportune time. PM says he will continue till 2014 Lok Sabha elections. After that I will hand over the baton to other person.

To control food prices we need to increase the supply and their storage and distribution, responsibility of which lies with the states. Not been as successful as we would have wished in controlling inflation. Food inflation has increased. Cycles of economic growth is turning for the better. India's growth momentum will revive. Should not focus overtly on short term. the growth that we have achieved in the past nine years is the highest that has ever been achieved in a nine year period.

Selling pressure continues in the market as the PM Manmohan Singh addresses media for the first time in three years. The Sensex is down 89.24 points at 20799.09, and the Nifty is down 28.05 points at 6193.10. About 752 shares have advanced, 976 shares declined, and 623 shares are unchanged.

The PM says India is set for better times as global growth cycle is turning for the better.

Most of the stocks are in the red with Tata Power (down 4 percent) as major loser in the Sensex. Tata Motors , M&M, BHEL and L&T are other laggards in the Sensex.

Brent crude rose towards USD 108 a barrel after posting its biggest daily percentage drop in six months in the previous session, although expectations for a rise in Libyan supply and speculation of a build up in US stockpiles capped gains.

A rebalancing of commodity portfolios by asset managers also added to the volatility in oil prices.

10:59am FII View
Sakthi Siva of Credit Suisse saysoverweight call on India is based on the elections acting as a catalyst for a potential inflection point on return on equity.

"The regional portfolio is overweight on cyclicals and our top picks are HCL Technologies , Wipro , Tata Motors , Reliance Industries , Sesa Sterlite and Cairn India ," she added.

10:49am HCC on buyers' radar
Investors are buying shares of Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) as the company received order worth Rs 442.5 crore from IRCON International. The stock gained as much as 5.7 percent intraday on Friday.

HCC in its filing to the exchange said the order is for construction of one tunnel and two bridges between Aprinchala and Sumber stations on Dharam and Qazigund section of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla new broad gauge railway line project in Jammu & Kashmir.

The project will be completed in 48 months. IRCON International is an autonomous constructing agency for the Indian Railways.

At 10:49 hours IST, the stock was trading at Rs 15.40, up 3.01 percent on the BSE.

10:39am DLF talks to CNBC-TV18
In what may come as yet another negative view for potential home buyers, Ashok Tyagi, Group CFO, DLF, says realty prices are unlikely to correct in the days to come.

Citing high labour and commodity prices, Tyagi says the prices, especially in the Delhi-NCR region will not decrease. He believes the long approval cycles for most of the realty projects are also a deterrent for lower home prices.

However, at a time when people are awaiting some fall in prices, thereby, lowering demand, Tyagi remains unfazed by lesser sales. The sales in Q3, October-Novermber-December, he says were flat to slightly negative, hinting to the fact that realty has not yet bottomed-out.

''Yes, demand has slowed, but we are not yet in a panic situation,'' he adds.

10:29am Tata Teleservices on strong footing
Shares of Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) rallied as much as 14 percent intraday on Friday as media reports indicated that Vodafone is eyeing controlling stake in the company.

"Vodafone is in early talks with the Tata Group to buy its controlling stake in Tata Teleservices to create India's largest telecom company by subscribers," a media report quoting unnamed sources said.

The report also said the right of first refusal (RoFR) to the Tatas' 59.45 percent stake in Tata Teleservices rests with its Japanese partner NTT Do-CoMo, which owns a little over onefourth of the telecom company.

Tata Teleservices,  Tata Power Company and Tata Sons hold 63.14 percent stake in the company as of September 2013 while its partner NTT Docomo Inc has 11.76 percent shareholding.

10:19am Market Expert
The last hour sell-off seen in the market yesterday was surprising. But the Nifty did look heavy at around 6300, says Vikas Khemani, President & Co-Head Wholesale Capital Markets, Edelweiss Capital . This correction was perhaps due. He explains that though there is some improvement on the economic front, it will take time to improve in a meaningful way. The next big trigger for the market will be the elections, he adds.

He believes the worse on the macro front is behind us. However, he expects the market to continue to trade in the narrow range till elections, and maybe towards the closer end of the election time, depending on how the political scenario builds up, there might be a pre-election rally. He feels the Nifty will find support at around 6000.

Khemani feels sectors that are linked to economic growth or recovery of the economy such as banking and financial sector or capital goods sector where the operating leverages are very high will do well. He, however, feels these sectors offer good volatility given the not so clear macro environment but at the same time it is about risk and reward.

10:09am The market continues to slide as the Nifty sinks below 6200. The Nifty is down 24.15 points at 6197 and the Sensex is down 83.46 points at 20804.87. About 627 shares have advanced, 578 shares declined, and 604 shares are unchanged.

Capital goods and auto stocks are under heavy selling pressure. Tata Motors, Tata Power, M&M, BHEL and Axis Bank are top losers. Only IT, midcap and small cap stocks are holding firm. TCS and Infosys are major gainers in the Sensex.

In the midcap space, CMC , Birla Corp , Jyothy Labs, Sadbhav Engineering and MCX India gained 2.5-3 percent while Indian Infotech, Hindustan National Glass, Bombay Dyeing , Indian Bank and Oriental Bank fell 2-5 percent.

Among smallcaps, MBL Infra surged 12 percent followed by Cinemax India , Suven Life Sciences , Relaxo Footwear and Minda Industries with a 5 percent upmove. However, UB Holdings , Ponni Sugars (E), V-Mart Retail, Rupa and Comp, and Unisys Soft declined 5-7 percent.

10:00 am Commodity check: The government has reduced import tariff value of gold and silver to USD 392 per ten grams and USD 638 per kg, respectively. Import tariff value is the base price at which customs duty is determined to prevent under-invoicing.

The tariff value on imported gold earlier stood at USD 398 per 10 grams, while on silver at USD 643 per kg. The notification in this regard has been issued by the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), an official release said on Thursday.

However the tariff value on imported brass scrap has been increased to USD 3,940 per tonne from USD 3,930 per tonne.

9:50 am Buzzing: Shares of Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) rallied as much as 14 percent intraday as media reports indicated that Vodafone is eyeing controlling stake in the company.

"Vodafone is in early talks with the Tata Group to buy its controlling stake in Tata Teleservices to create India's largest telecom company by subscribers," a media report quoting unnamed sources said.

The report also said the right of first refusal (RoFR) to the Tatas' 59.45 percent stake in Tata Teleservices rests with its Japanese partner NTT Do-CoMo, which owns a little over onefourth of the telecom company.

9:40 am Outlook: Economist Nouriel Roubini, renowned for his foretelling of doom and gloom in financial markets, has turned bullish in his 2014 outlook, expecting economic performance to "pick up modestly" in both advanced economies and emerging markets. "The advanced economies, benefiting from a half-decade of painful private-sector deleveraging, a smaller fiscal drag, and maintenance of accommodative monetary policies, will grow at an annual pace closer to 1.9 percent," he said in an opinion piece on the Project Syndicate website on Tuesday. "Moreover, so-called tail risks will be less salient in 2014."

9:30 am FII view: Sakthi Siva of Credit Suisse says, "Our overweight call on India is based on the elections acting as a catalyst for a potential inflection point on return on equity.The regional portfolio is overweight on cyclicals and our top picks are HCL Technologies , Wipro , Tata Motors , Reliance Industries , Sesa Sterlite and Cairn India ."

Chris Wood of CLSA says Greed & Fear's view remains that the pursuit of zero interest rates and central bank asset purchases is a negative for the American economy. From the point of view of the corporate investment cycle, zero rates and ultra-low Treasury bond yields send a signal to the corporate sector that there is something amiss with the economy.

9:20 am Current Affairs: All eyes will be on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's press conference today- his first in three years. The timing indicates that this might be his last conference where he might list UPA II's achievements. This could also set the stage for Rahul Gandhi to be announced as Congress's PM candidate.

The market extended weakness on Friday with the Sensex opening more than 100 points lower due to weak global markets, but it immediately managed to trim early losses.

The Sensex fell 44.62 points to 20,843.71, and the Nifty lost 15.75 points to 6,205.40.

About 327 shares have advanced, 416 shares declined, and 574 shares are unchanged.

Tata Motors fell the most after December auto sales numbers, falling nearly 2 percent. Index heavyweights Reliance Industries and ITC too are under pressure.

Banks continued to see selling pressure with the ICICI Bank , HDFC Bank , SBI and Axis Bank falling marginally.

Meanwhile, Indian rupee opened marginally lower at 62.35 against the US dollar on Friday versus previous day's closing value of 62.26 per dollar.

Pramit Brahmbhatt of Alpari India feels strong dollar coupled with weak equity, poor manufacturing PMI data and high dollar demand from oil marketing companies will exert negative pressure on rupee. "However, there is a strong chance of RBI intervention above 62.50 levels to provide some respite," he adds.

According to Pramit, the range for the day is seen between 61.80-62.65/USD.

In commodities, crude prices nudge higher in early trade, steadying after a steep fall on expectations that weekly crude stocks data due later in the day will show a continuing decline in inventory levels.

The rise comes after crude prices fell 3 percent in the previous session - the largest one-day percentage drop since November 2012 - as Libya prepares to restart a key oil field.

From precious metals space gold prices trade near two-week highs this morning, holding on to sharp gains from the previous session as weaker equities spurred demand for the metal seen as a safe-haven asset.