Sensex ends flat; Bank Nifty up 1%, Tata Motors falls 3%

3:45 pm Market closing: The market ended on flat note while PSU banks stock added strength to the indices. The Sensex is up 15.60 points at 20513.85, and the Nifty is up 15.80 points at 6089.50.  About 1511 shares advanced, 1045 shares declined, and 205 shares were unchanged. Tata Steel , Tata Power , GAIL , M&M and Bharti Airtel were top gainers in the Sensex. Among the major laggards were Tata Motors , HDFC , NTPC , Hero Motocorp and Bajaj Auto .

3:35 pm Market outlook: The Indian equity market will be confronted by three major issues the whole of 2014- politics, Quantitative Easing taper concerns and the situation in infrastructure sector, says Sanjay Sinha, founder, Citrus Advisors. Sinha says that irrespective of whatever happens in the aforementioned parameters, IT and pharma are likely to outperform this year. On the IT sector, however, Sinha is more bullish on the madcap names like MindTree and Persistent Systems . ''This is because not only do they have good momentum in their earnings, they also have good corporate governance to give you that comfort,'' he adds.

3:25 pm Results:  Auto component maker Motherson Sumi Systems , the flagship company of the Samvardhana Motherson Group, recorded best ever performance on every parameter in the third quarter of FY14. "The company has delivered its best ever results in revenues as well as operating margins for a quarter. This is exceptional performance both in domestic and overseas businesses in current market conditions," VC Sehgal, Chairman. Consolidated net profit jumped 2.4 times to Rs 249.6 crore, aided by forex gain and strong operational performance. Total income from operations grew 20 percent to Rs 7,988.7 crore compared to a year ago period.

3:15 pm Exclusive: BJP leader and former finance minister Yashwant Sinha said he was all for a citizen identification process and the direct cash transfer mechanism. However, he said the Aadhar scheme introduced by the UPA government was flawed, and would not be the basis for transferring cash directly to those eligible for subsidy, in case the BJP came to power at the Centre this year. Instead, Sinha said the National Population Register (NPR) floated by the BJP when it was in power would be revived and be made the instrument for direct cash transfer. He was participating in a discussion with CNBC-TV18's Latha Venkatesh and Sonia Shenoy in the show 'Business of Governance'. "You mess up things first and then want to withdraw," Sinha said, responding to the UPA's decision that Aadhar would not be the basis for cash transfer.

The Nifty is rangebound between 6070 and 6090. The Sensex is up 14.25 points at 20512.50, and the Nifty is up 19.25 points at 6092.95. About 1499 shares have advanced, 1031 shares declined, and 204 shares are unchanged. PSU banks lead the Bank Nifty higher. IT, real estate, metals and media are the big sectoral gainers. Auto stocks are negative. It is a dull day for Asia despite the overnight recovery on Wall Street. The Chinese markets are shut for New Year holiday. Rupee is higher tracking strength in equities. However, slight weakness in the euro and some emerging marker currencies weighs. Gilts fall further on concerns of subdued demand from long term investors at today's auction.

1:50 pm Big gain: Shares of Marico jumped 2 percent on the back of strong December quarter results. Motherson Sumi is up around 9 percent as it recorded best ever performance on every parameter in the third quarter.  "The company has delivered its best ever results in revenues as well as operating margins for a quarter. This is exceptional performance both in domestic and overseas businesses in current market conditions," VC Sehgal, Chairman. Consolidated net profit jumped 2.4 times to Rs 249.6 crore, aided by forex gain and strong operational performance. Total income from operations grew 20 percent to Rs 7,988.7 crore compared to a year ago period.

1:40 pm FII view: Richard Titherington, CIO & Hd-EM Equity, JPMorgan AMC is overweight on the Indian market and sees it as one of his favourites among the emerging market (EM) pack. He sees no huge up or downside moves in the market for the next few weeks. Sharing his views on the recent currency rout, he said that the Indian rupee is likely to perform better than other fragile economies. From a three-five years horizon, the rupee is undervalued, he told CNBC-TV18 in an interview. Meanwhile, he is bullish on export-oriented stocks and prefers IT to pharma sector. From the auto space, he is positive on two-wheeler stocks. According to him, the worst is over for the Indian economy.

1:30 pm Big downgrade: The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has downgraded India's aviation safety ranking, which means Indian carriers cannot increase flights to the United States and face additional checks for existing flights, a business newspaper reported, citing the Indian aviation regulator. The FAA has downgraded India to Category 2 from Category 1, Prabhat Kumar, India's director general of civil aviation, was quoted by the paper as saying. Jet Airways and state-run Air India operate flights from India to the United States.

The market is in a tight range but with a positive bias.The Sensex is up 15.81 points at 20514.06, and the Nifty is up 10.65 points at 6084.35. About 1386 shares have advanced, 935 shares declined, and 190 shares are unchanged. Investors are keenly watching banking sector December quarter earnings. Punjab National Bank reported good third quarter earnings as net interest income rose to Rs 4,221 crore with improvement in asset quality. Gross non performing assets improved to 4.96 percent versus 5.16 percent quarter-on-quarter. UB Group stocks are in focus today. The supreme court will be hearing UB Group and Diageo's plea on stake sale. British liquor company Diageo has moved the Supreme Court against Karnataka High Court order terming its stake purchase in Vijay Mallya's United Spirits as null and void. Mumbai real estate companies like Oberoi Realty and Godrej Properties gain more than 5 percent after Supreme Court's order to free private forest land in Mumbai for real estate projects.

01:05pm Syndicate Bank gains 3% post earnings
Syndicate Bank's third quarter net profit fell 25.2 percent year-on-year to Rs 380 crore on low net interest income (as well as high base last year), but asset quality was stable. In Q3FY13, there was a minimum alternate tax credit of Rs 141 crore, which was not available in Q3FY14. "If the same is excluded, there is an increase of Rs 13 crore in net profit in the quarter gone by," the bank said in its release. Operating profit of the bank declined 6.71 percent on yearly basis to Rs 806 crore during December quarter as the net interest income during the quarter is less by Rs 52 crore. Net interest income fell 3 percent to Rs 1,358.5 crore in the quarter ended December 2013 from Rs 1,400 crore in same quarter last year.

12:59pm Market Expert
Richard Titherington, CIO & Hd-EM Equity, JPMorgan AMC is overweight on the Indian market and sees it as one of his favourites among the emerging market (EM) pack.  He sees no huge up or downside moves in the market for the next few weeks. Sharing his views on the recent currency rout, he said that the Indian rupee is likely to perform better than other fragile economies. From a three-five years horizon, the rupee is undervalued, he told CNBC-TV18 in an interview. Meanwhile, he is bullish on export-oriented stocks and prefers IT to pharma sector. From the auto space, he is positive on two-wheeler stocks. According to him, the worst is over for the Indian economy.

12:50pm Gainers and Losers
M&M and Tata Steel are top gainers with 2.5 percent upmove followed by TCS , Bharti Airtel , SBI , Sesa Sterlite, GAIL , Axis Bank , Tata Power and Hindalco with 1-1.9 percent gain. Shares of Reliance Industries , ICICI Bank , Larsen and Toubro and Infosys climbed over 0.5 percent. However, HDFC and Tata Motors lost 2-3 percent. Sun Pharma , Bajaj Auto , Hero Motocorp , NTPC and BHEL slipped 1-2 percent.

12:40pm Neyveli Lignite talks to CNBC-TV18
Neyveli Lignite on Thursday reported a 120.6 percent rise in net profit to Rs 489.02 crore for the third quarter ended December 31 on the back of an increase in other income. The company's net profit in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year stood at Rs 221.65 crore.

B Surender Mohan, Chairman, Neyveli Lignite Corporation says the company managed to control expenditure, which helped in performing on the operating profit side as well. The company's margins rose 2 percentage points. It witnessed good growth on the production front in Lignite between October and December and hopes to continue to maintain the same level of output.

In the power generation business, from December, January to June, Mohan says there won't be any shutdown. So for the next two quarters there will be bumper power generation - production.

12:30pm The market remains lacklustre in afternoon trade after a 875-point fall on the Sensex in previous five consecutive sessions. The Sensex rose 33.02 points to 20,531.27, and the Nifty climbed 15.35 points to 6,089.05. Advancing shares outnumbered declining ones by a ratio of 1337 to 854 on the BSE. Prabhat Awasthi of Nomura Financial Advisory & Securities recommends buying the market on every dip as he sees the Sensex touching 24,700 by December-end. "Our targets are based on a multiple approach and earning. These are fundamentally set targets. Unless something drastically changes in the overall trajectory of economy as has been envisaged, there is no reason to cut our estimates of Sensex targets. Given that where we are currently and given the upsides to the market, obviously we will be recommending buying the market," he elaborated. Shares of Punjab National Bank ( PNB ) gained more than 5 percent as the asset quality of the bank improved sequentially, though it reported 42 percent degrowth (higher-than-expected) in net profit in the third quarter year-on-year.

12:00 pm Results:  Punjab National Bank ( PNB ), reported higher-than-expected degrowth of net profit at 42 percent (year-on-year) in December quarter, but asset quality of the bank improved sequentially. Net profit fell to Rs 755.41 crore from Rs 1,305.62 crore on account of higher provisions and tax expenses, and lower other income. Gross non-performing asset (NPA) as a percentage of gross advances declined 18 basis points (up 35 bps year-on-year) to 4.96 percent and net NPAs too slipped 27 bps (up 51 bps Y-o-Y) to 2.80 percent sequentially.

11:50 am Outlook: Prabhat Awasthi of Nomura Financial Advisory & Sec recommends buying the market on every dip as he sees the Sensex touching 24,700 by December-end. He is bullish on IT, pharma and banking stocks. He recommends buying private banks like ICICI Bank and Axis Bank because he feels that asset quality stress has been priced-in. However, he added that stress in banks might continue, but valuations are attractive. Continuing his bullish tone, he told CNBC-TV18 that the macro landscape is likely to improve this year.

11:40 am Poll: State-owned lender Canara Bank will announce its third quarter (October-December) earnings today. The CNBC-TV18 poll expects net interest income to rise 15 percent year-on-year to Rs 2,283 crore but profit after tax may fall 11 percent to Rs 633 crore in the quarter gone by on higher provisions.

11:30 am Exclusive: On tepid response to SBI 's qualified institutional placement of shares, SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya said the recent sell off in emerging markets weakened demand from institutional investors. The bank was looking to raise around Rs 9,500 crore through the QIP, but had to settle for Rs 8,032 crore and that too mainly with support from the LIC and treasuries of other state-owned banks, which pumped in close to Rs 5,000 crore between them. She said the QIP would have got better response if it had been launched a week later. ''I don't think we need to raise capital over next 2 years,'' she said adding that the capital adequacy ratio post QIP will be 13.2 percent.

The market is flat but getting strong support by technology and metal stocks. The Sensex is down 18.61 points at 20479.64, and the Nifty is down 1.70 points at 6072.00. About 1193 shares have advanced, 729 shares declined, and 166 shares are unchanged. M&M, Tata Steel , TCS , Bharti Airtel and Sesa Sterlite are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are NTPC , Tata Motors , HDFC , BHEL and Bajaj Auto . The rupee opened up tracking strength in global equities. Government bond prices are steady supported by gains in the rupee however it was capped ahead of the supply auction of Rs 15000 crore today. Most of the Asian currencies such as the Philippine peso and Malaysian ringgit remain steady to marginally lower today barring the Thai baht that continued to remain under pressure due to troubling political conditions. Asian markets are lower with the Nikkei below 15000. Volumes are thin as some key markets like China are shut for the Lunar New Year. Commodities saw gold lose its sheen due to risk on sentiment. Gold was down 2 percent for the week and is set for its first weekly loss after a five-week rally.

10:59am Market Update
Equity benchmarks are directionless but the broader markets gained a percent. The Sensex slipped 16.26 points to 20,481.99, and the Nifty declined 1.70 points to 6,072.00. About 1198 shares have advanced, 630 shares declined, and 161 shares are unchanged. Index heavyweights HDFC, HDFC Bank and ITC extended losses, falling between 0.5-1.4 percent.

10:50am SBI talks to CNBC-TV18 post QIP issue
The Reserve Bank of India 's new rules on bad loan recognition and resolution is a big positive for banks, said  SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya. Among other things, the new rules reward banks for early recognition of stressed loans and also make future loans costlier for borrowers who do not co-operate in resolution of bad loans.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18 Latha Venkatesh and Sonia Shenoy, Bhattacharya said the joint lender forum will help control corporate accounts more and high provisioning is likely to keep a check on lenders. On tepid response to SBI's qualified institutional placement (QIP) of shares, Bhattacharya said the recent sell off in emerging markets weakened demand from institutional investors. The bank was looking to raise around Rs 9,500 crore through the QIP, but had to settle for Rs 8,032 crore and that too mainly with support from the LIC and treasuries of other state-owned banks, which pumped in close to Rs 5,000 crore between them. She said the QIP had got had got good response from FIIs during roadshows, but sentiment for emerging markets in general soured following the currency crisis in Argentina and Turkey. She said the QIP would have got better response if it had been launched a week later. ''I don't think we need to raise capital over next 2 years,'' she said adding that the capital adequacy ratio post QIP will be 13.2 percent.

10:40am SKS Microfinance on buyers' radar
Shares of SKS Microfinance rose 7 percent as it completed a securitisation deal of Rs 55.56 crore though a private sector bank. The country's only listed micro-lender said that this is the fifth microfinance securitisation in FY14. ''With this, the total sum of securitisations completed during FY14 (YTD) is Rs 727.37 crore. The first four substantial securitizations were: Rs 321 crore (on September 30),   Rs 80.81 crore (on December 11), Rs 215 crore (on December 19) and Rs 55 crore (on December 30),'' it said in a statement.  The company added that it has downloaded the receivables from micro loans extended to more than 60,000 rural women entrepreneurs to a special purpose vehicle, and Pass Through Certificates (PTCs) have been purchased by a private sector bank.

10:30am Arvind talks to CNBC-TV18 post earnings
Arvind Mills is confident of outperforming all its earlier guidance buoyed by the recovery seen in export markets like US and Europe. Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Sanjay Lalbhai, chairman and managing director, Arvind Mills says that the company will maintain its 20 percent growth and outperform its volume guidance of 14 percent. With capex plans of 12 metric tonne in garment business in Gujarat and Karnataka, Lalbhai is aiming at a 30-40 percent growth in FY15 topline.

10:20am PNB to declare Q3 earnings today
During September quarter, profit after tax crashed 53 percent, the lowest in six years due to provisions spiking 77 percent with mark-to-market (MTM) loss of Rs 400 crore. Hence, in December quarter, the CNBC-TV18 poll of analysts expect the decline to continue. Any growth in profit will be a positive. Asset quality is the other key concern for the bank. After the September quarter earnings, the management guided for lower slippages and restructured assets in October-March period of FY14, but analysts are still skeptical. Restructured book is expected to be lower by Rs 3,000 crore due to Rajasthan State Electricity Board (SEB) restructuring. PNB's total stressed assets stood at 16 percent of the loan book as of September quarter, the highest among PSU peers. Outstanding restructured book was Rs 34,800 crore at the end of Q2 and SEB exposure was Rs 9,695 crore. Its net interest income is expected to rise 10 percent to Rs 4,103 crore versus Rs 3,733 crore and PAT may fall 28 percent to Rs 934 crore versus Rs 1306 crore.

10:10am Market Experts
The Nifty fell almost 3 percent in the last series and having fallen continuously for the last five-six days, the market is oversold at this point of time, VK Sharma of HDFC Securities said. ''We begin the new series on a stock Futures of almost one crore fifty one lakh shares, which is the highest in 11 months. Although we do not read too much into what happened yesterday in the last half an hour trade because that is essentially a compulsion what Call and Put writers would do to take the price higher,'' he added. Sharma is positive on the current series and believes that worst is over. ''The Nifty may revisit bearish phase, if we do see a close below 5,970 otherwise, before the market begins to falter again, there is room for upside till 6,150,'' he said. On the flipside, Shardul Kulkarni, Angel Broking said that recovery in the last half trading session on Thursday has led to a formation of bullish hammer pattern on daily charts. However, given the overall chart structure and momentum oscillators, the broking firm sees the Nifty sliding to lower to 5950 over the next couple of trading sessions. ''6030 has acted as a support yesterday, however we expect that support to break overall over the next couple of trading sessions,'' he said. Kulkarni has a negative outlook on the market and suggests selling the index on any rise. One should sell, with a stop loss at 6,180 on the higher side, he said.

10:00am The market gained some strength with the Nifty inching towards the 6100 level supported by banks, technology and metals stocks. The Sensex rose 67.55 points to 20,565.80, and the Nifty climbed 22.70 points to 6096.40 while the broder markets outperformed benchmarks. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained more than a percent. Three shares advanced for every share declining on the BSE. Shares of TCS , Mahindra and Mahindra and Tata Steel rallied more than 2 percent followed by L&T, State Bank of India, Bharti Airtel , Axis Bank and Sesa Sterlite with a percent gain. However, shares of Tata Motors and NTPC are under pressure, falling nearly 3 percent. HDFC and HDFC Bank declined 1 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.

10:00 am Poll: IDFC will announce its third quarter (October-December) earnings today. Analysts expect a flattish performance on core metrics (PAT and NII), similar to September quarter when NII grew 7 percent and PAT was up 2 percent only. The reason for the NII slowing was overall slowdown in business due to higher focus on refinancing as against fresh loans and net interest margin was declining resulting in PAT slowing. Its net interest income may rise 4 percent to Rs 682 crore versus Rs 656 crore (Y-o-Y) while profit after tax is seen going up 2 percent to Rs 463 crore versus Rs 455 crore on a yearly basis.

9:50 am Buzzing: Shares of SKS Microfinance rose 7 percent intraday as it completed a securitisation deal of Rs 55.56 crore though a private sector bank. The country's only listed micro-lender said that this is the fifth microfinance securitisation in FY14. ''With this, the total sum of securitizations completed during FY14 (YTD) is Rs. 727.37 crore. The first four substantial securitisations were: Rs 321 crore (on September 30),   Rs 80.81 crore (on December 11), Rs 215 crore (on December 19) and Rs 55 crore (on December 30),'' it said in a statement.

9:40 am Results Today: Companies that are expected to announce December quarter results today are IDFC, PNB , OBC, Marico , Canara Bank , Union Bank , Syndicate Bank , Petronet LNG , ING Vysya Bank , IRB Infrastructure,  Adani Enterprises , Motherson Sumi , NHPC , Delta Corp , Pantaloons Fashion, Bank of Maharashtra,  Alstom T&D India, Ballarpur Industries, Kansai Nerolac , Merck , Religare Enterprises , Magma Fin, PVR , Firstsource Solutions, 3i Infotech and Container Corporation.

9:30 am Exclusive: The Cabinet's decision today to increase the cap on LPG cylinders from nine to 12 got a thumbs-down from the Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan who said the government should be careful about ''expanding misdirected subsidy''. ''We need to spend on important things that we are not spending on,'' Rajan said in an exclusive, long-winding interview with CNN-IBN's Karan Thapar. The governor said one of the recommendations in the report recently submitted by a panel led by the central bank's deputy governor Urjit Patel – to create a dedicated committee to take monetary policy decisions – would enhance the credibility of the RBI. ''A monetary policy committee would create an institutional structure that would help take good decisions and would send a signal that the RBI is working on its mandate,'' he said.

After yesterday's carnage, the market kick-started February series on a mildly higher note. The Sensex is at 20521, up 17.59 points while Nifty is at 6077, up 4 points. Sesa Sterlite, GAIL , Bharti Airtel , Tata Steel and SBI are gainers in the Sensex. Among the laggards are NTPC , Tata Motors , BHEL , Bajaj Auto and HUL . The rupee gained 17 paise to 62.39 against the dollar in early trade on Friday. Yesterday the rupee closed at 62.56 to the dollar. Dollar is at one-week high against a basket of major currencies. Ashok Gautam of Axis Bank said emerging market currencies have shown sharp weakness during the last few days. "The impact was seen on rupee also, which has weakened till 63.18 in the recent move," he added. He expects a softening bias for the rupee with a range of 62.30-62.70/USD today. "Good corporate hedging seen near the daily upper Bollinger at 62.78 - 62.88/USD range. This band is to be carefully tracked for any convincing breach which might see rupee beyond 63 levels," he said. The Wall Street bounced back on Thursday boosted by positive earnings and on the back of the US economy expanding 3.2 percent. Europe too closed higher. In Asia, Japan opened positive in morning trade. However, trading volumes were thin due to the Chinese New Year holidays. Brent crude remained largely unchanged at USD 107 per barrel. From the precious metals space, gold snapped its rally and fell 1 percent as strong US economic growth boosted global equities and the dollar.