Sensex loses 101 pts; Nifty holds 6200; banks & IT slide

3:50 pm Outlook: David Lennox, analyst, Fat Prophets expects gold to rally in the time to come despite the massive fall seen in April 2013 on the back of the quantitative easing (QE) scare. ''We have seen jewellery demand increase quite significantly and even in industrial sector, there is a moderate increase in demand as well. The pressure from those two regions or sectors will certainly play to stabilise and perhaps increase the gold price in the future,'' adds Lennox. Furthermore, Lennox says Brent Crude is likely to have a good year as the demand in China, US and Europe is likely to grow well.

3:40 pm Market closing: After a volatile session, the market ended on a weak note. The Sensex ended down 101.33 points at 21032.88, and the Nifty closed at 6241.85, down 30.90 points. About 1197 shares have advanced, 1457 shares declined, and 295 shares are unchanged. Pharma stocks Cipla, Dr Reddy's Labs were top gainers in the Sensex, followed by Infosys, HDFC and Reliance. Tata Steel, Sesa Sterlite, TCS, ICICI Bank and Wipro were major losers.

3:30 pm Results impact: Shares of CMC plunged 11 percent after reporting flat revenues in the quarter ended December 2013. Consolidated net sales were flat at Rs 561 crore as against Rs 560.7 crore quarter-on-quarter due to less growth in systems integration business that contributes 64 percent to total revenues. "We have had a flat revenue growth quarter-on-quarter growth but that was in line with what we had also anticipated because the third quarter is always traditionally weak in terms of international growth given the furloughs and the holidays," R Ramanan, CMD told CNBC-TV18. Revenues from systems integration business, which grew 24 percent in earlier quarter, dropped 1 percent sequentially to Rs 358 crore and IT enabled services business declined 13.6 percent Q-o-Q to Rs 72.5 crore (that rose 15 percent in Q2).

3:20 pm Market news: Leading stock exchanges BSE and NSE will transfer stocks of several companies, including Kingfisher Airlines and Moser-Baer to the restricted trade category from January 17. The move is part of a surveillance review to safeguard investors' interest, the exchanges said. The BSE would shift 117 securities to the trade-for-trade or 'T' group, while NSE would transfer 48 stocks to this segment, the two stock exchanges said in separate circulars. Only delivery-based transactions are allowed in this segment and traders can't take intra-day positions. Among stocks which would be shifted to the 'T' Group segment on both the bourses included Kingfisher Airlines, Moser-Baer (India), Usha Martin Education & Solutions,Acropetal Technologies Ltd, Nagarjuna Oil Refinery and Omax Autos .

The market slips after trading rangebound in the earlier part of the day. Nifty manages to hold 6200-level. Metal, realty, bank stocks drag during the day. The Sensex is down 74.34 points at 21059.87, and the Nifty is down 20.05 points at 6252.70. About 1146 shares have advanced, 1432 shares declined, and 308 shares are unchanged. Asia is down on US crash, Nikkei drops to 1-month low as trade numbers there hurt. European equities trade in red after a negative lead from Wall Street overnight. Shares of Coal India rise as market eagerly awaits the quantum of dividend that the company will declare. The stock has rallied more than 5 percent in the past four trading sessions.

02:50pm YES Bank to declare earnings on Wednesday Motilal Oswal expects the bank to report a 11.4 percent growth year-on-year in net profit at Rs 381.3 crore while net interest income is expected to increase by 15.2 percent Y-o-Y to Rs 673.3 crore. "Loan growth is expected improve on a sequential basis. However, on a Y-o-Y basis, it is expected to be largely in line with industry average at 15 percent. Deposit growth to outpace loan growth and be at 25 percent+ Y-o-Y. NIM is expected to moderate as cost of funds remains high and bank has refrained from increasing its base rate. We factor a 5bp+ Q-o-Q decline in NIM," Motilal Oswal report said. "Fee income (ex-financial markets) growth is expected to moderate as the higher base of financial advisory catches up. Expect Y-o-Y decline in financial advisory income. Growth in transaction banking and fees from third party distribution is expected to remain strong."

02:40pm NIIT Tech gains 3% after falling more than 4% on Q3 earnings Software services provider NIIT Technologies disappointed the street with the third quarter consolidated net profit falling 14.9 percent sequentially, higher-than-expected, to Rs 53.1 crore due to forex loss. "There was a loss in other income as a result of revaluation of foreign currency assets and liabilities due to period end exchange difference resulting in a decline in net profits," the company said in its release. According to CNBC-TV18 poll, analysts had expected profit after tax of Rs 54.3 crore and revenues of Rs 591 crore in the quarter ended December 2013. Consolidated revenues declined 1.7 percent to Rs 587.3 crore in the quarter ended December 2013 from Rs 597.3 crore in previous quarter. Overall revenues for the quarter remained flat as a result of reduced purchase for resale (PFR) in domestic Government business while revenues from services grew 4.3 percent sequentially.

02:30pm Tech Mahindra to focus on growth Speaking on CNBC-TV 18 ahead of its Q3 results the company said it will continue to focus on growth.   The company, which is currently in the silence period, said though it can't give guidance for FY15, but it expects to maintain a steady profile. CEO & MD CP Gurnani said the company is on the right trajectory and they hope to maintain that. According to Nasscom, the outlook for the IT sector is positive. Nasscom had estimated 12-14 percent growth for the Indian software services industry in FY14, and it aimed to achieve revenue of USD 300 billion for the IT industry by 2020. Gurnani said though the market is clearly better for the IT sector, especially Europe and the emerging markets, the growth won't be dramatic for IT spends, "but clearly the digital enterprise solutions and the digital storm we are seeing around us will benefit companies like Tech Mahindra".

02:15pm HCL Tech talks to CNBC-TV18 IT player HCL Technologies, which was honoured with the outstanding company of the year award by CNBC-TV18, said that it is seeing 10th quarter of sustainable performance. CEO Anant Gupta shared the company's success with its employees and customer and said that the company will continue to reinvent itself in 2014. He added that the company is seeing balanced growth in markets like US, Europe and Asia.  Further, he said that HCL's infrastructure management service, which is an underpenetrated market, will continue to grow at a rapid pace. HCL Technologies caters to half of total re-bid market worth USD 150 billion.

02:02pm The market extended losses in afternoon trade on further profit booking in banks and FMCG stocks. The Sensex declined 106.08 points to 21,028.13, and the Nifty dropped 34.50 points to 6,238.25. The broader markets too are under pressure; the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices slipped 0.2-0.4 percent. Declining shares outnumbered advancing ones by a ratio of 1446 to 1037 on the BSE. Metal and Realty indices fell the most among sectoral indices, losing over a percent. IT, Bank and Auto indices dipped 0.5-0.8 percent while Oil and Gas and Healthcare outperformed. Tata Steel is top loser, falling over 2 percent followed by TCS, ICICI Bank and Wipro with a 1.7 percent loss. Tata Motors, HUL, Sesa Sterlite and Bajaj Auto declined 1 percent each. Cigarette major ITC erased all its gains, losing 0.2 percent after rising as much as 1.36 percent intraday due to cigarette price hike. However, shares of HDFC, Reliance Industries, M&M and Dr Reddy's Labs see buying interest.

2:00 pm Exclusive: IT player HCL Technologies , which was honoured with the outstanding company of the year award by CNBC-TV18, said that it is seeing 10th quarter of sustainable performance. CNBC-TV18 honoured the best of leaders from various fields in its ninth edition of India Business Leaders Awards (IBLA) on Monday. Speaking on this occasion, CEO Anant Gupta shared the company's success with its employees and customer and said that the company will continue to reinvent itself in 2014. He added that the company is seeing balanced growth in markets like US, Europe and Asia.  Further, he said that HCL's infrastructure management service, which is an underpenetrated market, will continue to grow at a rapid pace. HCL Technologies caters to half of total re-bid market worth USD 150 billion.

1:50 pm Aviation industry: India will seek the cabinet's approval by next month to scrap a rule that requires local carriers to be in operation for at least five years and have 20 aircraft to be eligible to fly international routes, the aviation minister said. The ministry is also looking into a proposal to allow Airbus's A380 planes to land in local airports, Ajit Singh said on Tuesday.

1:40 pm Opinion: Udayan Mukherjee, CNBC-TV18 says , "What worries me the most is the fact that there is no breadth since the start of 2014. You have had a handful of stocks from the IT space, from the oil and gas space which have kept the market in one place and we did see some short covering in the banking space on Monday. The midcap index, the small cap index and midcap stocks like Exide have done poorly in calendar 2014 so far. The quality of the screen has been a bit disappointing this year and so, Nifty is still very much in 6150-6350 range and you wish to stretch it out to 6100-6400. So yesterday's rally not withstanding, the market has still not made up its mind whether it wants to go below 6100 or above 6350-6400 in the near-term."

1:30 pm Interview: No sector has been as badly hit by regulators' punitive measures as the Indian pharma. The year gone by saw numerous USFDA import alerts, red flags, etc on various pharma majors that led to their stocks being hammered significantly. However, the increased inspection is a positive for the industry, opines Pankaj R Patel, chairman and managing director, Zydus Cadila Healthcare . This, despite the fact that the company has received a warning letter from the US regulator. Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Patel says that Indian pharma will start recoving from April 2014 and that a double-digit growth is likely.

The market is slipping further but Nifty manages to hold 6200-level. The Nifty is down 27.90 points at 6244.85 and the Sensex is down 87.11 points at 21047.10. About 1057 shares have advanced, 1310 shares declined, and 324 shares are unchanged. Tata Motors trades lower after LIC cut stake in October December period. Domestic institutional investors' stake is down to 9.56 percent from 11.69 percent while foreign institutional investors' stake is up at 28 percent from 26.73 percent. Ranbaxy falls further post brokerage downgrades on USFDAconcerns over its toansa plant. Macquarie has downgraded the stock to neutral, cutting its target price to Rs 450 vs Rs 500 earlier. According to Macquarie approximately USD 250 million of US sales are vertically integrated to tonsa facility. A fortnight before issuances are to start, the government pushes the new bank license timetable. The banking secretary says new licences will now be issued only by the March 31.

12:52pm YES Bank to declare results on Wednesday ICICIDirect expects YES Bank  to report a 10 percent growth quarter-on-quarter (up 19.3 percent Y-o-Y) in net profit at Rs 408.2 crore while bank's net interest income is expected to increase by 3.2 percent Q-o-Q (up 18.6 percent Y-o-Y) to Rs 693.3 crore. The brokerage house says business (credit+deposit) growth will also moderate to 20 percent Y-o-Y with advances increasing by 16 percent Y-o-Y to Rs 51,153 crore. "Margins can witness compression of 10 bps to 2.8 percent. Best in class asset quality to stay. Provisions related to NPA as well as MTM to be lower compared to Q2FY14. Hence PAT growth seen of 19 percent Y-o-Y to Rs 408 crore," ICICIDirect says.

12:42pm BSE to shift 117 stocks to trade-to-trade segment from Friday The BSE said following scrip's will be included in 'T' Group and they would be traded and settled on Trade-to-Trade basis w.e.f. January 17, 2014. These stocks would attract a circuit filter of 5 percent or lower as applicable, the exchange added. Some of them are Everonn Education , Kingfisher Airlines, Moser-Baer (India), Shree Rama Newsprint, Omax Autos , UB Engineering , Usha Martin Education and West Coast Paper.

12:32pm V-shaped recovery of economy unlikely India Ratings & Research expects India's gross domestic product (GDP) growth to improve to 5.6 percent in FY15. Expectation for improved growth in FY15 is based on a partial recovery in the industrial and services sector growth, and an uptick in investment due to project clearances by the Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI), rating agency in its report says. However, given the sluggish domestic and external environment, Ind-Ra believes that unlike the recovery witnessed during the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, the FY15 recovery is likely to be gradual. In other words, the probability of a V-shaped recovery is nearly zero, the report says.

12:22pm FII View In a run-up to the polls, local macros in India can get worse, dragging the Nifty below 6000, cautions Gautam Chaocharia of UBS. India is one of the "fragile five" emerging economies, which goes for general elections this year. Political uncertainty along with fear of impact of withdrawal of US monetary stimulus will make it difficult for investors to take a call on the market. He sees the Nifty trading in the broad range for 5,500-6,900 this year. On macros, he expects both CPI and WPI Inflation to moderate going ahead. Some moderation was seen in vegetable and fruit prices in December retail inflation which eased to a three-month low of 9.87 percent, giving the Reserve Bank of India more leeway to manage interest rates.

12:12pm Ranbaxy slips further Ranbaxy Laboratories shares fell 1.3 percent, adding to Monday's 5.4 percent slump after the US Food and Drug Administration raised concerns about manufacturing practices at one of its factories. Macquarie and Jefferies downgrade Ranbaxy, saying the FDA uncertainty could put pressure on valuations in the near-term till further clarity emerges. Macquarie downgrades the stock to "neutral" from "outperform" and cuts the price target to Rs 450  from Rs 500, while Jefferies cuts Ranbaxy to "underperform" from "hold" with a price target of Rs 350. Ranbaxy said on Monday the FDA has filed "certain observations" about its Toansa pharmaceutical ingredients plant in the northern Indian state of Punjab. "The issue also increases the risk of delay in resolution of import alerts and launch of products," Jefferies said in a note to clients, reports Reuters.

12:02pm The market fell marginally on profit taking in noon trade after seeing 376-point rally in earlier session. The Sensex declined 70.83 points to 21,063.38, and the Nifty lost 20.50 points to 6,252.25. Technology, power, banks, auto, and oil and gas stocks are under pressure while index heavyweights HDFC , ITC , and Larsen and Toubro gained more than 0.4 percent. Shares of TCS , Tata Motors , Hindustan Unilever , ONGC , Tata Steel , Bajaj Auto , Wipro and Maruti Suzuki declined between 1-2 percent. Infosys fell 0.3 percent after rising around 3 percent in previous two sessions on third quarter earnings. Petrochemical major Reliance Industries too slipped 0.3 percent. Axis Bank , MCX India, Financial Technologies , CMC , GAIL , TCS, Infosys, ICICI Bank and Reliance Industries are most active shares on exchanges.

12:00 pm Poll: Software services provider NIIT Technologies will announce its third quarter (October-December) earnings today. According to CNBC-TV18 poll, analysts expect profit after tax to fall 13 percent quarter-on-quarter to Rs 54.3 crore due to lower other income. In the second quarter, the company had seen higher profits due to a translation gain of Rs 15.5 crore on forex front. The currency has been flat during December quarter, hence translation gain/loss will be nil, believe analysts. Revenues are expected to increase 0.6 percent sequentially to Rs 591 crore in the quarter ended December 2013.

11:50 am Downgrade: Macquarie and Jefferies downgrade Ranbaxy, saying the FDA uncertainty could put pressure on valuations in the near-term till further clarity emerges. Macquarie downgraded the stock to "neutral" from "outperform" and cut the price target to Rs 450 from Rs 500, while Jefferies cuts Ranbaxy to "underperform" from "hold" with a price target of Rs 350. Ranbaxy said on Monday the FDA has filed "certain observations" about its Toansa pharmaceutical ingredients plant in the northern Indian state of Punjab.

11:40 am Market outlook: In a run-up to the polls, local macros in India can get worse, dragging the Nifty below 6000, cautions Gautam Chaocharia of UBS. India is one of the "fragile five" emerging economies, which goes for general elections this year. Political uncertainty along with fear of impact of withdrawal of US monetary stimulus will make it difficult for investors to take a call on the market. He sees the Nifty trading in the broad range for 5,500-6,900 this year. Meanwhile, Chaocharia is bullish on ONGC , GAIL & Cairn India from the oil & gas space. He recommends buying RIL ahead of its third quarter results due this week. Bharti Airtel is his top pick in the telecom space. He continues to prefer private sector lenders over PSU banks. He is positive on MCX due to valuations and is also betting on NTPC , Power Grid and BHEL .

11:30 am  Buzzing: The Attorney General has paved the way for Hindustan Zinc residual stake sale. In his new opinion dated January 8, the AG says as HZL ceased to be a government company almost 10 years back, its shares can be sold in open market if the prevailing market price is found to be fair. The Attorney General said residual stake sale in HZL is a policy decision. As for the CBI filing a preliminary enquiry against the original divestment in HZL, the Attorney General says it's a fait accompli and not considered by him. The attorney general has also not considered the need to amend the acquisition act for the government to sell its 29.5 percent residual stake in HZL. The stock jumped 3 percent intraday.

The market seems to be taking breather after rallying over 300-points on Monday. The Sensex is down 25.67 points at 21108.54, and the Nifty is down 6.60 points at 6266.15. About 1000 shares have advanced, 898 shares declined, and 289 shares are unchanged. L&T, HDFC , Coal India , Cipla and M&M are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the laggards are Tata Motors , Tata Steel , ONGC, TCS and Wipro , Most Asian markets fell today tracking the weakness in the US markets and poor economic data from Japan. The markets were also spooked by Fed comments. US treasury yields fell for the second consecutive session while the euro and yen fell marginally against the dollar today. From commodities space, gold traded a 1-month high at levels close to 1250 per ounce while Brent crude was subdued on expectations of return of Iranian crude supply.

10:55am FII View Neelkanth Mishra of Credit Suisse said investor interactions suggest a surprisingly widely held view of a 20 percent market swing on the day of the election results. He believes for a more than 20 percent market move one alliance must win 220 plus seats and a 20 percent decline can happen if none of the two large alliances is able to get even 160 seats. "As of now both look unlikely," he added.

10:50am CMC falls 8% post earnings IT solutions provider CMC's profitability and operational performance in third quarter (October-December) was strong, but revenues came in flat. Net profit of the TCS subsidiary increased sequentially to Rs 70.54 crore from Rs 67.3 crore while net sales were flat at Rs 560.9 crore as against Rs 560.7 crore quarter-on-quarter. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation jumped to Rs 91 crore from Rs 67.3 crore and margin expanded 40 basis points Q-o-Q to 16.2 percent. R Ramanan, CEO and MD expects to maintain Q3 margin in Q4. The stock was trading at Rs 1,576, down 8.27 percent on the BSE.

10:40am Gold Update Gold steadied near its highest in a month on Tuesday as safe-haven buying increased amid a drop in the dollar and equities, with investors fretting over the US growth outlook after a disappointing jobs report last week. Friday's nonfarm payrolls showed that US employers added jobs at a much slower pace than expected, sparking fears about the strength of economic recovery. Markets speculated that the weak report could prompt the Federal Reserve to proceed cautiously in tapering its historic monetary stimulus, prompting equities and the dollar to drop. Spot gold had fallen slightly to USD 1,252.00 an ounce by 0320 GMT, not too far from a one-month peak of USD 1,254.80, reports Reuters.

10:30am Coal India in focus Shares of Coal India climbed 0.9 percent on expectations of a special dividend. The PSU has a board meeting today to decide payment of an interim dividend. As reported earlier by CNBC-TV18, the company may pay 15-20 per share as dividend. In 2012-13, Coal India (CIL) had paid a total dividend of Rs 8,842.91 crore to the government, the highest ever in the history of the company. The government is trying to seek higher dividend from other PSUs, which are sitting on huge cash piles. At the end of the 2012-13 financial year, its cash and bank balance stood at Rs 43,776 crore.

10:15am Gainers and Losers Banks stocks gained further with the top lenders State Bank of India , ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank rising between 0.2-0.4 percent. Larsen and Toubro and Mahindra and Mahindra topped the buying list, gaining more than a percent followed by HDFC and Sesa Sterlite with 0.8 percent upmove. However, technology stocks like TCS and Wipro fell more than a percent on profit taking while rival Infosys declined 0.3 percent. Shares of Tata Motors , ONGC and Bajaj Auto too see profit booking, which lost one percent. Axis Bank , GAIL , MCX India, Financial Technologies , CMC, TCS, Infosys, ICICI Bank, and Larsen and Toubro are most active shares on exchanges.

10:02am The market continued to consolidate after Monday's 376-point rally on the Sensex. It seems to be looking for trigger to get direction on either side. December WPI inflation, earnings and RBI policy are the near term triggers for the market. The Sensex declined 30.04 points to 21,104.17, and the Nifty fell 6.25 points to 6,266.50, but the broader markets outperformed benchmarks. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained 0.2 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively. Advancing shares outnumbered declining ones by a ratio of 833 to 655 on the BSE. Uncertainty surrounding general elections will keep market rangebound till they play out, Sangeeta Purushottam, Cogito Advisors said in an interview to CNBC-TV18. "With the chances of Aam Aadmi Party again jumping into the national fray, the whole story which was getting built up that we could have a strong government at the center uncertainty comes in there. So, the market will be range bound broadly as we go into the elections," Sangeeta elaborated. Shares of ITC gained gained 0.66 percent. The company raised Bristol cigarette price by 15 percent to Rs 45 per pack of 10 sticks, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting unnamed sources. Earlier a packet of 10 Bristol stocks costed Rs 38.

10:00 Market outlook: Uncertainty surrounding general elections will keep market rangebound till they play out, Sangeeta Purushottam, Cogito Advisors said in an interview to CNBC-TV18. She further said that cyclicals like capital goods may not fall too much, but may not see a sharp rise. Those looking to play the infrastructure theme can look at companies with sound balance sheets and take an Option trade. Meanwhile, her top pick in the IT space is Infosys . She expects the stock to get rerated. Purushottam believes the rally seen in Reliance Industries is basically driven by higher gas price.

9:50 am Result analysis: Analysing Exide Industries December quarter earnings, analyst SP Tulsian says that the stock may see fall in double digits in near-term and people will start shifting their focus again back on Amara Raja. ''A 30 percent drop on the EBITDA and maybe 32-33 percent drop on the PAT has come really as a shocker. If I just take the scenario maybe for last three years and if you hear the management commentary they have been giving hopes that things are looking dull maybe for this quarter, But when you compare that with the Amara Raja Batteries , why that company is performing so well and had been doing consistently better every quarter and that has been well received by the market as well,'' he explains.

9:40 am Buzzing: Shares of Coal India rise 3 percent intraday on expectations of a special dividend. The PSU has a board meeting today to decide payment of an interim dividend. As reported earlier by CNBC-TV18, the company may pay 15-20/share as a dividend. In 2012-13, CIL had paid a total dividend of Rs 8,842.91 crore to the government, the highest ever in the history of the company. The government is also trying to seek higher dividend from other PSUs, which are sitting on huge cash piles. At the end of the 2012-13 financial year, CIL's cash and bank balance stood at Rs 43,776 crore.

9:30 FII view: Neelkanth Mishra of Credit Suisse says that investors feel that the market may see a 20 percent market swing on the day of the election results. "We believe for a more than 20 percent market move one alliance must win 220 plus seats and a 20 percent decline can happen if none of the two large alliances is able to get even 160 seats. As of now both look unlikely," he adds. Adrian Mowat of JP Morgan feels fears of the impact of tapering were overdone. "Our 2014 MSCI Asia-ex Japan target of 550 implies a 15 percent return from current levels. But to re-rate, emerging markets need to deliver earnings per share growth on par with or above developed markets," he says.

After a blockbuster rally on Monday, the market opened today on a mild note with positive bias. The Sensex is down 29.87 points at 21104.34, and the Nifty is down 12.50 points at 6260.25. About 177 shares have advanced, 155 shares declined, and 203 shares are unchanged. Coal India, Sesa Sterlite, Hindalco , ITC and Tata Steel are top gainers in the Sensex. On the losing side are Tata Power , NTPC , ONGC , Infosys and BHEL . The Indian money market is closed today on account of Eid-e-Milad. Asian markets joined the Wall Street sell-off with the Japan's Nikkei 225 Average falling more than 2 percent due to a sharp uptick in the yen. Hang Seng, Kospi, Straits Times and Taiwan Weighted declined marginally while Shanghai Composite gained outperformed, rising 0.5 percent. The US markets, fell sharply drawing concerns from the weak US jobs data and the fear of the reduction in the monetary stimulus. Dow posts biggest decline in three months and loses 179 points, S&P 500 on the other hand was down 23 points. In commodities, Brent crude hovers around 106 dollars per barrel and gold holds above 1250 dollars. In other asset classes, the dollar index trades around 80.60 levels. The rupee closed flat at 61.52 against the dollar. The yen rises to 103 versus the dollar.