Nifty hits 6800, Sensex up 359 points; banks roar, IT sulks

3:50 pm Nod: Lupin has received final approval from the US health regulator to sell generic diabetes management drug Pioglitazone Tablets in the American market. Lupin said its US subsidiary, Lupin Pharmaceuticals has received final approval for its Pioglitazone tablets from the US Food and Drugs Administration to market generic version of Takeda Pharmaceuticals USA Inc's Actos tablets. The company said in a BSE filing that its subsidiary will shortly commence marketing the product.

03:40 pm Market closing: After a slow trade, the market made a dramatic ending hitting record-high as Nifty touched 6800. The Nifty ended up 101.15 points or 1.51 percent at 6796.20 while the Sensex jumped 358.89 points or 1.61 percent at 22702.34. Banks, metals, capital goods and pharma stocks led the rally. Sun Pharma was star of the day with a gain of 7 percent. Tata Motors, Axis Bank, Hindalco and Axis Bank were major gainers in the Sensex. Technology stocks were under heavy selling pressure. Infosys, TCS and Wipro were top losers.

03:25 pm Market outlook: The momentum in the market is very much intact eyeing the election results on May 16, says Harendra Kumar of Elara Capital. The Nifty is likely to get closer to 6900-7000 levels, which could be the euphoric peak or an intermediate top, says Kumar in an interview to CNBC-TV18 He thinks if one wants to look at stock ideas beyond election coutcome and Narrendra Modi then there are global companies for whom the tailwinds from weak currency and strong global markets are huge. One can look at Tata Group companies' like Tata Global Beverage, Indian Hotels, Tata Motors, even Tata Steel is coming out of its restructuring and showing high EBITDA per tonne in Corus, he adds. Moreover, one can also look at Triveni Turbine, Crompton Greaves, and Bharat Forge from the capital goods spaces, which have expanded globally.

03:19 pm Record high: Nifty hits 6800, for the first time, up 105.55 points or 1.58 percent. The Sensex is up 371.34 points or 1.66 percent at 22714.79. About 1654 shares have advanced, 711 shares declined, and 102 shares are unchanged.

03.05 pm Market check: The market is on a roar as the Sensex is up 345.34 points or 1.55 percent at 22688.79. The Nifty gains 98.35 points or 1.47 percent at 6793.40. About 1612 shares have advanced, 733 shares declined, and 103 shares are unchanged.

02:59pm Interview
Gulf Oil promoters recently increased stake in the company by nearly 5 percent. Subhas Pramanik, managing director of the company says Gulf Oil International (Mauritius) Inc, the promoters of Gulf Oil, now holds 54.96 percent stake in the company, up from 49.96 percent. Gulf Oil is now a subsidiary of Gulf Oil Mauritius post the stake hike, he adds. He says the fact that the parent company decided to up stake in Gulf Oil suggests confidence in the growth potential of the Indian company. Going ahead, he sees growth in both turnover and bottomline. Pramanik says the company has been able to maintain volumes and increase market share. The company is witnessing strong growth in lubrication business.

02:50pm FII View
Prabhat Awasthi, Nomura says the brokerage house believes that an NDA win would lead to a further positive knee-jerk reaction. ''A sustained rally in growth cyclicals will be hard, but we expect rate cyclicals to benefit,'' he adds. He further says, the brokerage house sees 5-10 percent upside to its December 2014 Sensex target of 24,700 in the case of a strong election outcome.

02:40pm Clariant Chemicals in News
Clariant Chemicals (India) today announced the successful closure of acquisition of the masterbatch business of Gujarat-based Plastichemix Industries. "Clariant in India will now be one of the leading masterbatches producer that will offer a wide range of products," Clariant Chemicals (India), which is a part of Swiss speciality chemical giant Clariant AG, said in a statement.

02:30pm Jaypee Infratech up 7%
Jaypee Infratech is in talks with private equity players to raise up to Rs 3,000 crore for the Yamuna Expressway project. PE players in the race are Macquarie PE, IDFC PE and IDBI. According to sources, the company will also be initiating talks with other PE players. The PE players will be given part equity in the project. The Yamuna Expressway project is a 6-lane, extendable up to 8-lane project. It is 165 km long and connects Greater Noida with Agra. The total project cost was Rs 12,839 crore. The Yamuna Expressway was formally inaugurated on 9 August 2012, about two years of delay from its original target completion date. The capital will also be used to replay long-term debt. JP Infra's current debt stands at around Rs 6,776 crore.

02:20pm Bharat Forge in focus
Shares in Bharat Forge rose as much as 1.73 percent to their highest level since April 2006 after Goldman Sachs upgraded the auto components maker to "neutral" from "sell" as part of its preference for cyclical shares over defensive ones. The investment bank said Bharat Forge would benefit from improved truck demand from the European Union and the United States, as well as favourable raw material and currency exchange rates, reports Reuters.

02:10pm Technical expert on market
The Nifty has broken from its five-year range and now is likely to move towards 7400, says Regan Homavazir, Senior Associate VP - Equity Research, Darashaw. He believes 6400 is a good entry point for the Nifty. Sector-specific, he is positive on banking and capital goods.

02:00pm Equity benchmarks extended gains in afternoon trade with the Sensex surging 200 points supported by banking and financial stocks. The Sensex rose 193.51 points to 22536.96 and the Nifty climbed 53.45 points to 6748.50. More than two shares advanced for every share declining on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Sun Pharma continued to keep its top position in the buying list, rising nearly 7 percent as brokerage houses upgraded the stock after the company decided to buy Ranbaxy for USD 4 billion. Commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors, private sector lender Axis Bank and aluminium major Hindalco rallied 4 percent each. Shares of top lenders State Bank of India and ICICI Bank soared 2.6 percent each while rival HDFC Bank and housing finance company HDFC gained over 1.6 percent. Shares of Tata Steel, Coal India, Maruti Suzuki, Sesa Sterlite, Tata Power and GAIL advanced 1-1.5 percent. However, technology shares are under pressure ahead of Infosys' fourth quarter earnings on April 15. Infosys, TCS and Wipro lost 1-1.5 percent.

2:00 pm Exclusive: After Sun Pharmaceutical announced its mega acquisition of crisis-ridden Ranbaxy Laboratories Monday, the biggest question on investors' mind is: how will Sun take care of the latter's ongoing troubles with the US Food and Drug Administration. Sun chairman Israel Makov said , ''Sun has proven its ability to remedy any problem that it has encountered in the past and we are confident we can do the same with [Ranbaxy's] current problems,'' he said.

1:50 am Interview: Kamal Baheti, CFO of McLeod Russel does not see a negative impact of El Nino on tea production per se going by what happened in 2009. Overall, there could be a 2-3 percent impact on production for the whole industry as such but it is yet too early yet to gauge its impact on tea prices, he adds. There is an impending threat of El Nino disrupting rainfall in India according to international forecasters and thereby impacting agriculture productions In spite of 2012 seeing the lowest ever production and 2013 seeing highest production in India, there was not much impact on tea prices because of strong consumption growth. Therefore he expects tea prices to remain strong in India throughout 2014 with an expectation of 5-10% increase. Globally, the consumption of Green tea has also steadily increased says Baheti.

1:40 pm Market outlook: Kotak Securities cautioned that the market may have run up way ahead of fundamentals, and that gains from current levels could be limited. In a note to clients, the brokerage said stock prices were discounting current year earnings, and in some cases, even those for next year. In addition, the market was ignoring risks from possible weak monsoons and a slower-than- expected revival in growth. ''The reward-risk balance is quite unfavorable in general, based on the binary outcome of national elections alone,'' the Kotak note to clients said. Also, the brokerage warned that investors could be setting themselves up for disappointment because of the widespread re-rating of sectors without any visibility.

1:30 pm FII view: Dhiraj Agarwal, Director (Institutional Equities) at Standard Chartered Securities does not expect any sell-off in global markets this year. He says HNI participation is increasing in the market, but retail is still missing. ''We expect 12-13 percent growth in earnings this fiscal,'' he told CNBC-TV18 in an interview. Agarwal says the mood is still optimistic amongst global investor regarding India on reform hopes from the new government. Also, the higher voter turnout has been taken as a positive trigger. He says the time is right for cyclicals to move higher. However he adds that the fourth quarter results will be decent and nothing spectacular.

1:20 pm Buzzing: Shares of OnMobile Global rallied as much as 11.7 percent intraday after the company said it has executed a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the potential divestment of its group company, Voxmobili SA. Voxmobili SA specialises in mobile telecommunication products. "If the proposed deal were to consummate, OnMobile could realise an amount ranging between USD 23 million to USD 26 million for the divestment of the said company (which is around its book value), subject to escrows and other conditions customarily contracted as a part of such a deal," the company said in its filing.

The market consolidates with the Nifty above 6,700 and the Sensex gaining over 60 points. The Sensex is up 76.45 points at 22419.90, and the Nifty is up 20.70 points at 6715.75. About 1430 shares have advanced, 763 shares declined, and 98 shares are unchanged. Banks, metals and FMCG stocks gain while IT is the top sectoral loser. Meanwhile, FOMC meeting minutes will be released today. These are the meeting minutes of Yellen's first decision, in which a third taper of QE to USD 55 billion was announced and forward guidance was dropped. More importantly, markets will look for hints about the timing of a rate hike.  Japanese stocks stumbled 2.1 percent to a three-week low after the Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda raised doubts over whether the central bank will ease its policy stance anytime soon, sending the yen higher. The benchmark Nikkei extended its losing streak to a fourth day to close at 14,299.69, dropping 307.19 points in the biggest fall since March 14. The index shed more than 5 percent in the last four sessions and down 12.2 percent this year. The slide was triggered after Kuroda on Tuesday offered few signs the central bank was ready to launch additional stimulus in the short term. Real estate and financial plays, which have benefited from the government's reflationary policy, as well as currency-sensitive exporters experienced a broad sell-off, with all of the Topix's 33 sectors sinking.

12:50 pm Buzzing: Investors continued to show buying interest in shares of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries after the company on Monday said it would buy Ranbaxy, which has been rapped by the USFDA over quality issues. The stock gained as much as 8 percent intraday today, in addition to 3 percent gains in previous trading session. After the announcement of this acquisition deal, brokerage houses upgraded both the stocks. UBS has upgraded Sun Pharma to buy with a target priec of Rs 720 and Ranbaxy to buy with a target price of Rs 576. CLSA maintains buy on the stock. It said combined entity has better growth potential than Sun Pharma alone, hence it does not foresee further contraction in Sun's valuations.

12:40 pm Macro economy data: Samiran Chakrabarty Standard Chartered Bank expects India's macro data to improve in the second half of 2014 and forecasts a GDP growth of 5.3 percent in FY15. Speaking to CNBC-TV18's Ekta Batra and Anuj Singhal regarding his report on elections, Chakrabarty says Manifestos are just promises, the key is implementation. ''None of the manifestos really promise a very new idea,'' he adds. According to him, only when basic concepts, basic ideas will be implemented on the ground, it will lead India to a better economic environment rather than new ideas that remain untouched.

12:30 pm Buzzing: Shares of GVK power and infrastructure rose to 52-week high at Rs 13.10 per share in intraday trade. In a significant development the Land Court of Queensland in Australia has granted conditional clearance to USD 10 billion Alpha Coal Mine project being developed by the GVK Group there. "We fully understand the significant benefits our projects will bring to the region and will continue to work with the environmental regulators in relation to these recommendations," GVK said in a statement. In 2011, GVK had acquired 79 percent stake in the Alpha Coal and Alpha West projects and 100 percent stake in the Kevin's Corner project in Queensland from Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd. GVK's Alpha Coal Mine is located in the Galilee Basin with the first coal expected to be extracted by 2016.

12:20 pm Market outlook: The Nifty has broken from its five-year range and now is likely to move towards 7400, says Regan Homavazir, Senior Associate VP - Equity Research, Darashaw. He believes 6400 is a good entry point for the Nifty. Sector-specificically, he is positive on banking, capital goods. He says banking stocks like HDFC Bank , SBI and ICICI Bank are looking good. Among the capital goods stocks, he is positive on L&T and Voltas . He says L&T has moved above its critical level and now has a target of Rs 2,300 a share. Besides these, he is upbeat on Infosys , HPCL , BPCL and UltraTech Cement .

Equity benchmarks are firm in noon trade with the Nifty holding the 6700 level supported by healthcare, banks and metals stocks.   The Sensex advanced 48.90 points to 22392.35 and the Nifty rose 15.20 points to 6710.25. The broader markets outperformed benchmarks with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gaining over a percent. Advancing shares outnumbered declining ones by a ratio of 1340 to 691 on the BSE. Sun Pharma is the top gainer as UBS upgraded the stock to buy with a target price of Rs 720 after the company said it would buy Ranbaxy Labs for USD 4 billion. The stock surged 6 percent. Aluminium major Hindalco Industries climbed over 4 percent followed by Tata Steel and Sesa Sterlite with 1-2 percent. Commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors jumped nearly 3 percent. Among banking and financials, HDFC, ICICI Bank, SBI and Axis Bank gained 0.8-1.7 percent. However, Infosys, TCS and ONGC fell over 1.5 percent.

11:55am Suzlon in focus, up 7%
Suzlon Group, the world's fifth largest wind turbine manufacturer, today announced the strategic sale of the 240 MW Big Sky wind farm in Illinois to EverPower Wind Holdings. Suzlon group had recently acquired the Big Sky wind farm from Edison Mission Energy via its fully owned US-based subsidiary Suzlon Wind Energy Corp. "We are very pleased to welcome EverPower to the Suzlon family of customers," said Duncan Koerbel, CEO of Suzlon Wind Energy Corporation and CTO of Suzlon Group.

11:45am Emami weak
Emami declined after brokerage house CIMB says that the company continues to face a sharp slowdown in domestic growth, as seen throughout FY14. Post the management meet, the brokerage also says they see margins peaking and that along with increase in tax rate, this could keep earnings growth muted. CIMB cuts FY15 earnings per share estimate by around 6 percent to reflect lower growth and margins.

11:35am CLSA on Sun Pharma
Sun Pharma surges over 6 percent today in addition to 3 percent upmove on Monday. Brokerage house CLSA says combined entity (Sun Pharma to merge Ranbaxy with self) has better growth potential that Sun alone, hence it does not foresee further contraction in Sun's valuations. "Resolution of USFDA related issues at Ranbaxy could provide further upside kicker to the combined entity," the brokerage house report says. CLSA maintains buy on Sun Pharma while UBS upgrades to buy with a target of Rs 720 and Ranbaxy to buy with target of Rs 576.

11:20am Trading at BSE disrupted for second time this week
Share prices on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) stopped updating for about 15-20 minutes in morning trade, marking the second consecutive session in which trading has been disrupted at Asia's oldest exchange, multiple dealers said on Wednesday. The disruption, confirmed by seven traders from different brokerages, comes after BSE introduced on Monday a new trading system for shares called BOLT Plus, which the exchange is using under license from Deutsche Boerse. BOLT Plus, which promises to cut trading to microseconds, was unveiled for currency and debt trading in February without any disruptions, traders said. Traders said shares had briefly stopped updating on Monday, and said the problem had recurred on Wednesday. A BSE spokesman confirmed the disruption on equity trading on Monday but said they had not received any reports of issues with trading on Wednesday. Indian markets were closed on Tuesday for a local holiday, reports Reuters.

11:10am Brokerage view
Kotak Securities Wednesday cautioned that the market may have run up way ahead of fundamentals, and that gains from current levels could be limited. In a note to clients, the brokerage said stock prices were discounting current year earnings, and in some cases, even those for next year. In addition, the market was ignoring risks from possible weak monsoons and a slower-than- expected revival in growth. ''The reward-risk balance is quite unfavorable in general, based on the binary outcome of national elections alone,'' the Kotak note to clients said. Also, the brokerage warned that investors could be setting themselves up for disappointment because of the widespread re-rating of sectors without any visibility.

11:00am The market maintains its momentum with the Nifty clenching 6700. The Sensex is up 75.59 points at 22419.04, and the Nifty up 20.00 points at 6715.05. About 1199 shares have advanced, 564 shares declined, and 92 shares are unchanged. Sun Pharma continues to lead with a gain of 7 percent. Other gainers in the Sensex are Hindalco, Tata Motors and SBI. IT stocks are under pressure with Infosys and TCS losing 1 percent each. Among the laggards are ONGC, Bajaj Auto and Hero Motocorp. The rupee is higher taking cues from a weak dollar, bunched-up inflows following Tuesday's holiday and positive equity market moves. Gilts, meanwhile, are under pressure as dealers take short positions after RBI says it will auction Rs 8000 crore of gilts on Friday. The euro is firm after recent remarks from ECB officials suggested no urgency for an immediate policy action. The dollar index is under pressure against a basket of currencies. Asian markets trade are mixed as the Japanese markets are weighed down by a strengthening yen while the Hong Kong markets gain. Indonesia and Vietnam are closed for public holidays. Crude Futures rise sharply touching USD 102 for Nymex as tensions flare in Ukraine and dollar weakened. Gold rose notching up its highest level in three week.

10:59am Tata Steel up 2%
Investors are buying shares of Tata Steel after the company said it is selling its New Zealand unit. "Steel & Tube Holdings of New Zealand has agreed to acquire Tata Steel International (Australasia) (TSIAL) for a cash consideration of NZ dollar 27.5 million on April 14," the company said in its filing. TSIAL, which is based in New Zealand, is a distribution business supplying stainless steel, engineering steels and composite floor decks to the New Zealand and Pacific Island markets.

10:50am Market Expert
The momentum in the market is very much intact eyeing the election results on May 16, says Harendra Kumar of Elara Capital. The Nifty is likely to get closer to 6900-7000 levels, which could be the euphoric peak or an intermediate top, says Kumar in an interview to CNBC-TV18 He thinks if one wants to look at stock ideas beyond election coutcome and Narrendra Modi then there are global companies for whom the tailwinds from weak currency and strong global markets are huge. One can look at Tata Group companies' like Tata Global Beverage, Indian Hotels, Tata Motors, even Tata Steel is coming out of its restructuring and showing high EBITDA per tonne in Corus, he adds.

10:40am Interview
Amtek Auto's senior MD and CEO John Flintham said the Amtek group's revenue is expected to be around Rs 15,000-16,000 crore by September 2014. Year 2013 was a ''spectacular year'' for the group on the back of three acquisitions, he said. ''The revenues of Kuepper group are around Rs 1,400 crore and have been holding very steadily over the last six months prior to acquisition and we see nothing to change that going forward,'' Flintham said, adding that Neumayor Tekfor margins have risen from 6.5 percent to 9.5 percent. He said among European markets, Germany is seeing good growth.  While UK markets are growing on robust exports, Flintham sees small signs of recovery in certain pockets in Indian markets as well.

10:30am Oil India in focus
State-run oil and gas explorer Oil India (OIL) became the first Indian company to sell USD 1 billion worth of debt in its debut US dollar bond sale programme. The issue is in a dual tranche of USD 500 million each. While USD 500-million, five-year money has been priced at US treasury plus 222.5 bps, the 10-year money of the same size has been priced at treasury plus 272.5 bps, merchant bankers said today. The PSU raised the money to repay the bridge loan it had taken to buy Videocon's 10 percent stake in a Mozambique oil block in association with ONGC Videsh late last year, reports PTI.

10:20am Suzlon Energy up 7%
Suzlon Energy said its German subsidiary Senvion SE has signed an agreement in late March with a consortium of banks for syndicated working capital facilities of euro 850 million for three years. "This move enables Senvion SE to secure follow-on financing early for the credit facilities of euro 750 million agreed in May 2012 for the period upto August 2014," the company says in its filing. It further says the financing structure remains largely unchanged and primarily consists of non-fund based (guarantee) facilities.

10:10am FII View
Prabhat Awasthi, Nomura says the brokerage house believes that an NDA win would lead to a further positive knee-jerk reaction. ''A sustained rally in growth cyclicals will be hard, but we expect rate cyclicals to benefit,'' he adds. He further says, the brokerage house sees 5-10 percent upside to its December 2014 Sensex target of 24,700 in the case of a strong election outcome.

10:00am Equity benchmarks extended gains with the Sensex rising over 100 points supported by banks, metals and FMCG stocks. Sun Pharma topped the buying list, climbing 5 percent in addition to 3 percent rally in previous session after it decided to buy Ranbaxy for equity value of USD 4 billion. The Sensex rose 108.77 points to 22452.22 and the Nifty advanced 30.05 points to 6725.10. About 976 shares have advanced, 415 shares declined, and 60 shares are unchanged. Aluminium major Hindalco Industries jumped 3 percent followed by Tata Motors, State Bank of India, Tata Steel, Cipla and GAIL with over a percent. Index heavyweights Reliance Industries, HDFC, ICICI Bank, ITC and HDFC Bank gained 0.5-1 percent. However, Infosys, TCS, ONGC, Maruti Suzuki, Hero Motocorp and BHEL declined 0.3-0.6 percent.

10:00 am Buzzing: Suzlon gains after its German unit to get euro 850 mn as working capital from 14 banks for a three year period."Suzlon Group's German subsidiary Senvion SE signed an agreement for a loan of Euro 850 million (over Rs 7,000 crore) with consortium of banks for a 3 year period," it said in a statement.

9:50 am Rupee poll: A clear mandate at the Centre in the ongoing general elections may help the rupee rally to 57-58 level "temporarily", says a report. "If May 16 (election results day) throws up a 'market-friendly' stable coalition government, we do not rule out the rupee temporarily breaching the 57-58 levels," Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a report. However, the report does not see the rupee rallying to 55 as it has typically been far less sensitive to polls than equities.

9:40 am In focus: Maruti is under pressure on reports that the company may recall 1 lakh units of Swfit and Dzire on account of possible fault in fuel caps.  If Maruti issues a recall, it will be third one for Dzire. While the company officials declined to comment, neither confirming nor denying the development, industry sources said the firm has already initiated replacement of the faulty fuel neck filler, which is connected to the fuel tank, in unsold units at dealerships. The replacement of the faulty part in unsold inventories of dealers will not per se amount to recall but it could not be ascertained in which year those cars were manufactured. In the past Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) had proactively informed its customers about recalling cars.

9:30 am FII view: Prabhat Awasthi, Nomura says the brokerage house believes that an NDA win would lead to a further positive knee-jerk reaction. ''A sustained rally in growth cyclicals will be hard, but we expect rate cyclicals to benefit,'' he adds. He further says the brokerage house sees 5-10 percent upside to its December 2014 Sensex target of 24,700 in the case of a strong election outcome.

After a mid-week holiday, the market has opened on a higher note. The Sensex is up 93.01 points at 22436.46, and the Nifty is up 29.55 points at 6724.60. About 190 shares have advanced, 67 shares declined, and 24 shares are unchanged. Sun Pharma rises 3 percent. Hindalco, Tata Motors, SBI and Bajaj Auto are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are Maruti Suzuki and Cipla. The Indian rupee opened higher by 13 paise at 59.98 per dollar versus 60.11 Monday.The dollar languished at three-week lows against a basket of major currencies, having broken decisively lower as the yen squeezed higher and even the euro gained a tailwind. Ashutosh Raina of HDFC Bank said, "Bank of Japan decided against additional stimulus, resulting in sell off in Japanese equities and dollar-yen going below 102 levels." "Indian markets have been fairly resilient to the global factors with the dollar rupee pair breaching the psychological level of 60. Expect rupee to trade in a range of 59.50 - 60.50/USD," he added. Wall Street rebounded with the Nasdaq composite bouncing back from its worst three-day hit since 2011 as Europe closes in the red. Asia is mixed in morning trade, with Japan down more than a percent on strong yen. From precious metals space, gold gained over 1 percent yesterday as the dollar and equity markets fell on signs the European central bank may not recur to more stimulus, while renewed tensions in Ukraine kept risk appetite subdued. In commodities, Crude prices rise with Brent above 107 dollars per barrel. Meanwhile, gold rises over a percent to 1310 dollars.