Nifty ends below 6150, Sensex sheds 426 points; HUL up 2%

03:40 pm Market closing:
It was a dismal trading day at the Dalal Street as market was butchered on weak global cues, ahead of RBI policy scheduled on January 28. The Sensex lost 426.11 points or 2 percent at 20707.45, and the Nifty fell 130.90 points or 2.09 percent to end at 6135.85. About 632 shares advanced, 1933 shares declined, and 193 shares were unchanged.

03:25 pm Management speaks:
DCB expects to end the year with around 23 percent growth in loans and 27 percent rise in deposits. Murali M Natrajan, MD and CEO, DCB Bank says he is trying to make sure that cost income ratio consistently improves. The bank is making an attempt to deliver income growth at 20-22 percent every year, while controlling cost at 11-12 percent, he adds.

One of the biggest positives for the bank has been its improvement in asset quality. However, he says if the economy remains like this for another 12-18 months, across banking even retail portfolio might come under some stress. "At this stage I find that there are some stresses in our Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) book and at any point in time you have two-three accounts in the corporate loan book which is only about 24 percent of our book under stress,'' he says.

03:15 pm Results:
FMCG major Hindustan Unilever reported stable numbers with the third quarter net profit growing 22 percent year-on-year supported by strong operational performance, beating analysts' expectations.

Revenue grew 9.4 percent to Rs 7,038 crore in the quarter ended September 2013 from Rs 6,433.7 crore in a year ago period, which was slightly lower than forecast.

According to CNBC-TV18 poll, analysts had expected the company to report net profit of Rs 939 crore on revenues of Rs 7,116 crore for the quarter.

02:59pm Broader markets too under pressure:
The broader markets too widened losses with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices falling 2.8 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively.

In the midcap space, Kaveri Seed, Tube Investment , Hindustan National Glass, Shriram City and Solar Industries gained 1-4 percent while HDIL , IRB Infrastructure, ABG Shipyard , GMR Infrastructure and Dewan Housing plunged 10-14 percent.

Among smallcaps, Opto Circuits surged 12 percent followed by Symphony , Sasken Communication, Setco Auto and Finolex Industries with 5-6 percent upmove.

However, Unno Industries , Astra Microwave , Balaji Telefilm , Dishman Pharma and Heidelberg Cement lost 9-17 percent.

02:50pm Movers and Shakers:
Interest rate sensitive stocks extended fall in last hour of trade, especially ahead of RBI's third quarter monetary policy review on Tuesday.

BSE Realty Index hit quite hard, falling 6.5 percent followed by Bank and Metal indices with 4 percent loss. Power and Capital Goods fell nearly 3 percent while Oil & Gas lost over 2.4 percent.

Tata Motors and Tata Steel are biggest losers, shedding 6 percent each. Private sector lender ICICI Bank and car maker Maruti Suzuki dropped over 4.5 percent.

Shares of HDFC Bank , Reliance Industries , Axis Bank , Sesa Sterlite and Coal India declined 3-4 percent. However, HCL Technologies , Wipro , Cipla and ITC are only gainers in the Nifty.

02:40pm The 50-share NSE Nifty broke the 6150 level weighed down by interest rate sensitive and commodity stocks while the rupee tested the 63 level against the US dollar.

The Sensex fell 414.15 points or 1.96 percent to 20,719.41, and the Nifty plunged 125.65 points or 2.01 percent to 6,141.10. Three shares declined for every share advancing on the BSE.

Independent market expert, Anand Tandon says the market does not have much on the upside. He is concerned that none of the fundamental issues have changed substantially, earnings are unlikely to increase and interest rate will potentially continue to remain higher in real terms.

Meanwhile, the rupee breached the 63-mark for the first time since November 22, 2013, falling 33 paise to 62.96 against the US dollar as foreign institutional investors are buying dollars that putting pressure on the rupee.

2:00 Market advise: Deven Choksey, MD, KR Choksey Shares and Securities feels this is a buying opportunity particularly in auto and some large cap companies. ''The market has distinctly shown weakness in some of the front-line stocks without fundamental demerits into them. The rupee factor, which is being played largely, is because of the issues pertaining to some of the funds particularly who may probably, due to some amount of collateral losses, have unwind some of the position,'' he said in an interview with Ekta Batra, Latha Venktatesh and Anuj Singhal on CNBC-TV18.

However, Independent Market Expert, Anand Tandon the market does not have much on the upside. He is concerned that none of the fundamental issues have changed substantially, earnings are unlikely to increase and interest rate will potentially continue to remain higher in real terms.

1:50 pm Macro outlook: Seeking to assuage investors worried over declining value of the rupee and falling stock markets, the Finance Ministry today said country's economic fundamentals are "very strong" and there is no cause for concern.

"Current Account Deficit (CAD) is below USD 50 billion. Foreign exchange reserves are (at) all-time high. We have very strong fundamentals...I don't think that there is any cause of worry," Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram told reporters. He was responding to a query regarding the decline in the value of the Indian rupee, which has slipped to 62.75 against the US dollar. Mayaram further said that there was no reason for the Indian currency to be impacted by something happening in Argentina. "I do not see any correlation," he added. He was apparently referring to the massive fall in the value of the Argentina's currency peso last week.

1:40 pm Result: State-owned lender Allahabad Bank reported 4.8 percent growth in net profit and 0.6 percent growth in net interest income year-on-year, but asset quality worsened in the quarter ended December 2013.

Net profit of the bank increased to Rs 326 crore from Rs 311 crore and net interest income rose to Rs 1,337.6 crore from Rs 1,330.2 crore.

The growth in profitability was largely on account of other income that jumped 59 percent to Rs 542.3 crore compared to a year ago period.

The stock iss down 6.10 percent to Rs 81.60 on the BSE.

1:30 pm Poll: Local search engine company Just Dial will declare its third quarter earnings today. Analysts expect the company to report strong results. Profit after tax is expected to be at Rs 27 crore on revenues of Rs 121.5 crore for the quarter. It had reported revenue growth of 28 percent during April-September period of FY14.

Year-on-year comparables are not available as it was listed in May 2013.

Analysts expect operating profit at around Rs 34 crore and operating profit margin at 28 percent.

The management has maintained that margin will improve in FY14 as against FY13. Analysts expect margin growth anywhere between 150-250 basis points. The key reason as more and more searches are internet based where are costs lower, it aids in margin expansion.

The market continues to fall further as rate sensitive sectors like banks, auto and capital goods drag on fears that interest rates will remain high.  The Sensex is down 300.44 points or 1.42 percent at 20833.12, and the Nifty down 90.75 points or 1.45 percent at 6176.

About 544 shares have advanced, 1743 shares declined, and 172 shares are unchanged.

Maruti falls over 3 percent as yen soars on back of emerging markets selling off. Yen rises to a seven week high against the dollar. Appreciation in yen will have a negative impact on Maruti as 20 percent of the company's revenues is yen denominated. A 1 percent appreciation in yen is likely to impact Maruti's earnings per share by 2 percent.

Tata Steel , Tata Motors , ICICI Bank , Maruti Suzuki and HDFC Bank are other laggards in the Sensex.

Asian markets see broad sell off on emerging market jitters. Concerns over Chinese manufacturing growth contracting for the first time in six months also weighs on the markets.

12:59pm Asian peers decline
Asian shares dived as emerging markets remained under pressure, with the US Federal Reserve poised to continue tapering stimulus and tighter credit conditions in China raising fears of a sharper economic slowdown.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 1.5 percent to four-and-a-half month low, after losing more than 1.0 percent on Friday. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index tumbled 2.1 percent to a five-month low.

Japan's Nikkei share average surrendered the 15,000-level and ended down 2.5 percent at a two-month low.

12:53pm Allahabad Bank Q3 announced, stock down 6%
Public sector lender Allahabad Bank's third quarter net profit increased to Rs 326 crore from Rs 311 crore year-on-year but asset quality weakened.

Net interest income grew marginally to Rs 1,337.6 crore from Rs 1,330.2 crore year-on-year.

Gross non-performing assets (NPA) widened to 5.47 percent versus 4.94 percent and net NPAs jumped to 4.19 percent versus 3.83 percent on sequential basis.

12:43pm Torrent Power plunges 6% post Q3 earnings
Torrent Power posted a consolidated net loss of Rs 35.5 crore in the quarter ended December 2013 as against profit of Rs 95.6 crore in a year ago period despite higher other income.

Consolidated total income increased to Rs 2,005 crore from Rs 1,905 crore year-on-year while other income jumped to Rs 63.4 crore from Rs 38 crore during the same period.

12:33pm Ajanta Pharma shares rally 3%
Ajanta Pharma's third quarter (October-December) net profit nearly doubled to Rs 62 crore from Rs 32 crore in same quarter last year while net sales increased to Rs 292 crore from Rs 225 crore year-on-year.

12:23pm Movers and Shakers
ICICI Bank , Tata Motors and Tata Steel are the biggest losers in the Sensex, shedding 4 percent each followed by HDFC Bank , L&T, Axis Bank , M&M, Maruti and Sesa Sterlite with 2-3 percent loss.

Shares of State Bank of India , HDFC, Reliance Industries and ONGC dropped over a percent whereas Sun Pharma outperformed, rising 0.6 percent.

Sun Pharma has received approval from USFDA for generic of Dacogen injection that has US sales of around USD 250 million per year.

12:13pm The market extended sell-off in noon trade with the Sensex losing over 350 points on account of further weakness in interest rate sensitive stocks ahead of RBI policy on January 28.

The Sensex tanked 350.55 points or 1.66 percent to 20,783.01, and the Nifty tumbled 108 points or 1.72 percent to 6,158.75 while BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices dropped 2 percent each.

Declining shares outnumbered advancing ones by a ratio of 1658 to 521 on the BSE.

Emerging market currencies have been grabbing headlines since late last week. Though rupee is onsolid ground compared to its emerging market peers, it might be worrisome if the rupee falls to 64-65 per USD range, says Sanjay Dutt of Quantum Securities.

He does not think politics having much of a role to play as far as the markets or rupee is concerned. He sees good times ahead for India. He is confident that there won't be a repeat of the carnage that India saw in September.

The rupee fell 7 paise to 62.7 against the US dollar.

11:50 am Buzzing:Shares of Glenmark Pharma jumped 7 percent intraday on Monday riding high on its December quarter results. The Mumbai-based drug company's profit grew 1.5 percent and revenue increased 16 percent year-on-year in third quarter of FY14. Year-on-year consolidated net profit increased to Rs 216.2 crore from Rs 213 crore and revenue rose to Rs 1,601.2 crore from Rs 1,382 crore.

Numbers were better than analysts' expectations, though the net profit for the quarter is not comparable due to out-licensing income of Rs 49.3 crore reported in the previous corresponding quarter.

In a concall post earnings, management reiterated guidance of 20 percent topline growth and EBITDA of Rs 1225cr for FY14. However they believe they might exceed the guidance. Management's endeavor is to improve EBITDA margin by 100 bps every year. Management expects operating leverage to continue.

11:40 am Opinion: Adrian Mowat of JPMorgan, advises using the weakness to buy into EMs. He believes extrapolating Argentina's economy woes into other EMs is wrong. ''The story of this year is going to be a strengthening in emerging markets' economic activity helped by better developed market economies,'' he told CNBC-TV18 in an interview.

Asian shares took a beating and the yen raced to a seven-week high against the dollar on Monday, as emerging markets remained under pressure with the US Federal Reserve poised to continue tapering its stimulus and tighter credit conditions in China raising fears of a slowdown. However, according to Mowat, the quantum of EMs' downside will be shallow.

11:30 am Result poll: Telecom operator Idea Cellular will announce its third quarter (October-December) earnings today. According to CNBC-TV18 poll, analysts expect profit after tax of the company to jump 15.28 percent sequentially to Rs 516 crore and revenues to rise 4.7 percent to Rs 6,622 crore compared to previous quarter.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation may increase 5.9 percent to Rs 2,088 crore and margin is likely to expand 33 basis points quarter-on-quarter to 31.53 percent in the quarter ended December 2013.

The telecom operator is likely to see further consolidation of tariff hikes implemented in the previous quarters, which will translate into voice RPM increase.

The market continues to be under constant selling pressure. The Sensex is down 317.93 points or 1 percent at 20815.63, and the Nifty is down 97.80 points or 1.56 percent  at 6168.95.  About 520 shares have advanced, 1508 shares declined, and 167 shares are unchanged.

Bank Nifty is down 3 percent with HDFC , ICICI Bank , SBI and Axis Bank as major laggards. Top losers in the Sensex include Tata Motors , Tata Steel ,Maruti and Sesa Sterlite. Sun Pharma (up 1 percent) and Wipro are gainers in the Sensex.

The rupee recovered from the days low after opening weak in line with other emerging market and Asian currencies. Bonds hardened today on rupee weakness and caution ahead of the RBI and FOMC policies this week.

Gold rallied for a third session today to its highest level in two months due to safe haven appeal. Brent crude remained stable close to USD 107 per barrel.

Asia kicked off the weak with sharp losses as emerging markets remain under pressure on fears over monetary tightening in the US and fears of the credit conditions in China.

10:59am Idea Cellular to announce third quarter earnings
According to CNBC-TV18 poll, analysts expect profit after tax of the company to jump 15.28 percent sequentially to Rs 516 crore and revenues to rise 4.7 percent to Rs 6,622 crore compared to previous quarter.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation may increase 5.9 percent to Rs 2,088 crore and margin is likely to expand 33 basis points quarter-on-quarter to 31.53 percent in the quarter ended December 2013.

10:50am Market Expert
Market expert Sandip Sabharwal is recommending investors to use this correction to buy into Indian market. According to him, the bigger cue for the market would be general elections scheduled in May and those looking to play that theme should use this opportunity to buy . The rout seen in currency market may lead to global market correction of another 5-7 percent, he said in an interview to CNBC-TV18.

Meanwhile, he feels that the probability of a stable government has risen, which is positive for equities.

10:40am Gold Update
Gold rallied for a third session today to its highest in two months as equities fell on worries that capital outflows from emerging economies would continue, boosting bullion's safe-haven appeal.

Asian shares took a beating and the yen raced to a seven-week high against the dollar, with the US Federal Reserve poised to continue tapering its stimulus and tighter credit conditions in China raising fears of a slowdown.

Spot gold had risen 0.3 percent to USD 1,272.99 an ounce by 0341 GMT, after earlier hitting a two-month peak of USD 1,278.01.

10:30am RBI policy on Tuesday
With inflation easing in December 2013 and consumer demand remaining weak despite the uptick in the farm sector, Naresh Takkar, MD & CEO of ICRA expects the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to retain the Repo rate in the third quarter review of monetary policy.

He said, "Achieving the targeted moderation in CPI to 8 percent over the next 12 months, as recommended in the recent report on the monetary policy framework, may be feasible if the monsoon in 2014 is favourable and there are no supply shocks for food items or other commodities. However, based on the expected trajectory of the CPI, the commencement of a rate easing cycle appears distant,"

"Liquidity conditions are expected to be tight in the ongoing quarter, particularly given that Central Government spending is likely to be cautious in order to restrict the fiscal deficit to the FY14 target of 4.8% of GDP. However, the cap of 0.5% of NDTL on borrowings at the Repo rate from the overnight LAF is unlikely to be relaxed in the upcoming policy review. ICRA expects the RBI to continue to address frictional liquidity concerns through a combination of term repos and open market operations," Takkar added.

10:20am HUL to announce Q3 earnings
According to CNBC-TV18 poll, analysts on an average expect a weak quarter for Hindustan Unilever (HUL)

They believe challenging demand conditions and weak discretionary spends should keep volume growth soft at 4-5 percent. It had maintained average volume growth rate of 5 percent for the past four quarters.

Reported profit after tax of the company is expected to grow 7.8 percent year-on-year to Rs 939 crore and net sales may surge 10.6 percent to Rs 7,116 crore in the quarter ended December 2013.

10:10am FII View
Despite the sell-off in emerging markets due to the rout seen in the Argentinian currency, Richard Gibbs of Macquarie Securities believes India will be a relative outperformer because of the rupee and the very robust domestic demand that is coming through in the Indian economy. However, overall, he says the tide is turning against the emerging markets.

He expects the Reserve Bank of India to sit tight on rates given the December inflation outcome.

10:00am Equity benchmarks fell 1.5 percent weighed down by interest rate sensitive and commodity stocks. Fall across the globe in currencies and equity markets is causing selling pressure in Indian equities.

The Sensex dropped 311.08 points to 20,822.48, and the Nifty slipped 94.85 points to 6,171.90 while the broader markets declined 1.7 percent. Four shares declined for every share advancing on the BSE.

BSE Auto, Bank and Metal indices crashed 2.7 percent each followed by Capital Goods and Power with a 1.7 percent loss.

9:50 am Results poll: FMCG major Hindustan Unilever ( HUL ) will declare its third quarter (October-December) earnings today. According to CNBC-TV18 poll, analysts on an average expect a weak quarter for the company.

They believe challenging demand conditions and weak discretionary spends should keep volume growth soft at 4-5 percent. It had maintained average volume growth rate of 5 percent for the past four quarters.

Reported profit after tax of the company is expected to grow 7.8 percent year-on-year to Rs 939 crore and net sales may surge 10.6 percent to Rs 7,116 crore in the quarter ended December 2013.

During October-December quarter, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (including other operating income) is likely to rise 5.9 percent to Rs 1,153 crore while operating profit margin may decline 20 basis points to 16.2 percent compared to a year ago period.

9:40 am Gold check: Gold rallied for a third session to its highest in two months as equities fell on worries that capital outflows from emerging economies would continue, boosting bullion's safe-haven appeal.

Asian shares took a beating and the yen raced to a seven-week high against the dollar, with the US Federal Reserve poised to continue tapering its stimulus and tighter credit conditions in China raising fears of a slowdown.

Spot gold had risen 0.3 percent to USD 1,272.99 an ounce by 0341 GMT, after earlier hitting a two-month peak of USD 1,278.01.

US gold futures climbed 1 percent, while other precious metals also edged higher.

9:30 am FII view: Laurence Balanco of CLSA feels that the Nifty is in a tight trading range between 6,151-6,156 support and 6,383-6,480 resistance. "The bearish price/momentum divergence formed between the December and November 2013 peaks suggests that the Nifty is likely to remain rangebound in the coming weeks with downside risk towards the 5,870-5,880 area," he adds.

The market has skid sharply in morning trade on weak global cues. The Sensex is down 312.08 points at 20821.48, and the Nifty is down 89.85 points at 6176.90. About 132 shares have advanced, 529 shares declined, and 101 shares are unchanged.

Tata Motors , Sesa Sterlite, Bharti Airtel are down about 3 percent each while M&M and Tata Steel are other laggards in the Sensex.

In key earnings today, one can expect a weak quarter from FMCG major HUL. According to a CNBC-TV18 poll, net sales may rise 10 percent to Rs 7,116 crore. Volume growth is seen soft at 4-5 percent. Also, margins will see full impact of rupee depreciation. 

The rupee slipped in the early trade on Monday following weakness in global equity markets and currencies. The rupee fell by 22 paise to 62.88 per dollar as against Friday's closing value of 62.66.

Agam Gupta of Standard Chartered expects the rupee to trade in a range of 62.40-63/dollar today.

"We could see some more buying of dollars from the FIIs today as they might want to hedge exposures before monetary policy tomorrow. Exporters are seen selling dollars close to 63/dollar levels," he added.

Meanwhile, the dollar slipped to a seven-week low against the yen on Monday as a sell-off in emerging market currencies late last week prompted investors to seek shelter in the safe-haven Japanese currency.

Currencies from Turkey to Argentine were dumped last week, making investors nervous that the shakeout in markets could lead to a full-blown financial crisis.

Asian equities kicked off the week with sharp losses as fears over emerging markets continued to spook investors. On Friday, all three major US indices closed down 2 percent as emerging-market currencies took a beating amid growing worries about slowing Chinese growth and U.S. monetary policy.

Japan's benchmark index fell to its weakest levels since November, extending Friday's sharp 2 percent fall, after the yen briefly hit a new seven-week high at 101.77 per dollar in early trade. As global risk appetite fell, investors bought into safe havens like the Japanese currency.

Tata Motors topped the selling list, losing more than 4.5 percent as MD Karl Slym died in Bangkok. He was in Bangkok to attend a meeting of Board of Directors of Tata Motors Thailand.

Shares of ICICI Bank , Axis Bank , Sesa Sterlite, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Steel and Hindalco Industries lost 3-4 percent while HDFC Bank , L&T, State Bank of India and Bharti Airtel slipped 2 percent each.

Index heavyweights Reliance Industries and HDFC moved down 1 percent whereas TCS outperformed with marginal gains.