Sensex, Nifty at record high; Sesa Sterlite surges 7%

03:30 pm Analysis
Crisil Research in its recent report says it expects the Indian economy to grow by 6.5 percent annually between 2014-15 and 2018-19. However, it clearly states this kind of growth will be possible only if there is a decisive mandate in the Lok Sabha polls. This is good news for the Indian economy considering the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted around 4 percent global growth for calendar years 2014-18. However, GDP growth at 6.5 percent is in no way close to the 9 percent growth seen 2003-04 to 2010-11, which was briefly hit by the global financial crisis in 2008-09.

03:20 pm Interview
India's top IT-services exporter Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) today inked a pact with Japanese major Mitsubishi Corporation to form a single IT services unit. This merger aims to create a new IT services company of significant scale in the Japanese market, the company said.

This merger is expected to close by June 2014. TCS will hold 51 percent stake in the merged entity and Mitsubishi 49 percent. The entity will have an annual turnover of over USD 600 million. The management of TCS said that the Mitsubishi deal will add USD 300 million to revenues in FY15.

"TCS Japan has annual revenues of USD 100 million, so it straightaway gives us a company which has additional revenues of USD 500 million. TCS will have 51 percent holding in this company and Mitsubishi Corporation will be a key client with annual revenues of USD 250 million plus. It also gives us access to a large number of Japanese multinational companies as clients in different revenue brands," N Chandrasekaran of TCS says.

03:10 pm Exclusive
According to CNBC TV18 sources, the company is likely to have revisited valuations of the plot and has slashed the per acre price by Rs 3 crore per acre to now Rs 12 crore per acre. The company that was expecting to make a consideration of almost over Rs 1800 crore on its sale will gain a make Rs 1500 crore on the total land sale.

Sources add, that Raymond chief, Gautam Singhania is taking keen interest in the sale process and has personally met up with six developers to ensure the deal goes through this time. It's been over four years the company has not been able to sell the said land parcel. Raymond is hoping to receive 60 percent of the payment upfront which has been one of the key reasons why there has been no development so far.

02:59pm Market Update
Equity benchmarks surged further with the Sensex rising 158.99 points to 22787.83 and the Nifty climbing 43 points to 6822.40. About 1677 shares have advanced, 953 shares declined, and 184 shares are unchanged.

Shares of Larsen & Toubro, BHEL, BPCL, M&M, Axis Bank and Punjab National Bank gained 3-4 percent.

02:50pm Sesa Sterlite up 6%
Supreme Court today has lifted iron ore mining ban in Goa. The court has allowed resumption of iron ore mining in Goa with riders.

It says iron ore mining in Goa should not exceed 20 million tonne per annum and the government must consider all leases expired post 2007.

Supreme Court further says Goa government must issue policy on dumping within six months.

02:40pm Raymond in focus
According to CNBC-TV18 sources, Raymond has revived its plans to sell Thane land at slashed rates.

The company is likely to garner around Rs 1500 crore from this land sale. It is learnt that the asking price per acre has been reduced by Rs 3 crore to Rs 12 crore.

02:30pm LIC Housing Finance Q4 earnings
Net interest income of the company was Rs 533 crore, registering a growth of 16 percent over the same period last year. Net profit after tax for the Q4 FY14 was Rs 370.02 crore as compared to Rs 316.16 crores in the corresponding period previous year, thus showing a growth of 17 percent. Net interest margin stood at 2.40 percent as against 2.16 percent for Q3FY14.

02:20pm Natco Pharma up 8%
US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts denied an application by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries to stay a lower-court ruling to prevent launch of generic version of Copaxone.

''This is the second time that the Chief Justice has denied Teva's request for such an injection,'' it said.

Teva is the innovator of the multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone. Natco's launch of the drug was expected in May 2014.

''The Supreme Court Chief Justice has denied Teva's request for an injunction relating to generic Copaxone clearing legal hurdle for Mylan and Natco to launch the same in that market,'' Natco said in a company statement to the exchanges.

02:10pm FII View
Samir Arora, Founder & Fund Manager, Helios Capital remains 'super bullish' on Indian equities and foresees a three-five year rally. Explaining the rationale behind the view, he said emerging market (EM) index has seen gains of almost 7 percent in last one month, but the Indian indices have not risen that much, so there is more steam left in this pre-election rally.

Continuing his bullish tone, he expects the Indian equity market to rise 10-15 percent by May-end. In fact he is hopeful of a 2007 type rally in 2016-17.

According to most market experts, this rally is largely driven by higher prospects of the BJP-led NDA coming to power at the Centre. Arora sees the market rising 20 percent from hereon if the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) gets more than 260 seats. On the flip side, the market could be in for a big setback if NDA gets below 200 seats.

02:00pm Equity benchmarks extended upmove in afternoon trade with the Nifty hitting fresh record high of 6822.60 supported by capital goods, auto, banks and metals stocks.

The index rose 136.19 points to 22765.03 and the Nifty advanced 38.50 points to 6817.90. About 1638 shares have advanced, 947 shares declined, and 171 shares are unchanged.

The broader markets outperformed benchmarks with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap gaining 0.9 percent and 1.35 percent, respectively.

BSE Capital Goods Index surged 3 percent as L&T and BHEL gained 3-3.6 percent. Utility vehicle maker M&M rallied 3.5 percent and top car maker Maruti Suzuki climbed over 2 percent.

However, Wipro fell 6 percent as the street disappointed with company's Q1FY15 guidance. It expects Q1 dollar revenue at USD 1.72 billion to 1.76 billion.

2:00 pm Tower business: Telecom arm of Reliance Industries Limited, RJIL, signed an agreement with American Tower Corporation for utilising the mobile towers for its telecom network.

"...we are committed to creating a cutting edge network for high speed 4G. Our relationship with ATC will accelerate the roll-out of these services across India," Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited Managing Director, Sanjay Mashruwala, said in a statement.

ATC has a portfolio of 11,000 towers in India.

1:50 pm Market outlook: The logical thing to do right now, post the sharp run up in the market, would be to consolidate at present levels, says Sangeeta Purushottam, founder and managing partner, Cogito Advisors.

"At this point it makes sense to tilt towards the cyclicals. You do need to keep some of the defensives in your portfolio to give a balance to the portfolio. But if we have to get supernormal returns then they are really going to come from the cyclicals which have been beaten down and where there has been considerable value," she said.

1:40 pm Gold check: Gold fell to a two-and-a-half-week low in choppy and thin holiday trade on Monday, hurt by sharp outflows from the world's biggest bullion-backed exchange-traded fund (ETF) and a stronger dollar.

The metal was also hurt by a spurt of technical selling after it was unable to hold on to the USD 1,300-an-ounce level hit early in the trading session.

Spot gold fell to a two-and-a-half-week low of USD 1,281.40, before pruning the losses to trade down 0.6 percent at USD 1,286.30 by 0641 GMT.

1:30 pm Big bull advice: Samir Arora, Founder & Fund Manager, Helios Capital remains 'super bullish' on Indian equities and foresees a three-five year rally . Explaining the rationale behind the view, he said emerging market (EM) index has seen gains of almost 7 percent in last one month, but the Indian indices have not risen that much, so there is more steam left in this pre-election rally.

Continuing his bullish tone, he expects the Indian equity market to rise 10-15 percent by May-end. In fact he is hopeful of a 2007 type rally in 2016-17.

Arora is not buying PSU banking stocks now. He is positive on sectors like IT, pharma and private sector banks. On specific stocks, He recommends buying Adani Port & SEZ on strong fundamentals.

1:20 pm IPO analysis: The 1.45 crore shares public issue of Wonderla Holidays, Bangalore-based amusement park operator, has opened for subscription. The price band for the issue, which closes April 24, is at Rs 115-125 per share.

Wonderla Holidays operates two largest amusement parks in Bangalore (started in 2005) and Kochi (opened in 2000) under the brand name Wonderla and is in the process to open third one in Ranga Reddy district of Andhra Pradesh (AP), Wonderla Hyderabad that is the objective of this issue.

Brokerage firms believe this is a good investment oppotunity for long term investors. They advise subscribing the issue, citing better valuations, strong response to anchor portion and good management of the company.

The market is holding gains boosted by capital goods and auto stocks. The Sensex is up 63.47 points at 22692.31, and the Nifty is up 16.80 points at 6796.20. About 1508 shares have advanced, 917 shares declined, and 179 shares are unchanged.

Natco Pharma is up 8 percent after US Supreme Court denied Teva's request to stay ruling that favours developers of generic versions of Copaxone.

BHEL, L&T, M&M, Sesa Sterlite and Maruti are big gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are Wipro, HUL, CIpla, ITC and Infosys.

Japanese shares climbed to a two-week high on Monday before giving up gains to end flat in thin trading due to the Easter holidays, while nonbank lenders surged on a media report the government is considering easing rules in the industry.

The benchmark Nikkei ended flat at 14,512.38, as profit-taking set in after the average had risen as high as 14,649.50, a level last visited on April 8.

12:59pm Wyeth up 4%
Pfizer shareholders approved merger of Wyeth with company.

According to amalgamation agreement, Pfizer will issue seven fully paid up equity shares of company to shareholders of Wyeth for every 10 shares held.

12:50pm LIC Housing Finance Q4 earnings today
According to CNBC-TV18 poll estimates, LIC Housing Finance's net profit is expected to rise by 13 percent year-on-year to Rs 359 crore and net interest income may jump 15 percent to Rs 529 crore during the quarter. The PAT boost may be due to provision reversals, say analysts.

Analysts believe the March quarter generally is the best in terms of business growth, asset quality and net interest margin but in December quarter, the company chose to focus on net interest margin as against asset growth. Hence, one needs to watch out for the same trend during March quarter.

Net interest margin may bounce back sequentially to 2.4 percent as against 2.16 percent in Q3FY14. The company did not make any changes in interest rates despite competitive pressures.

12:40pm Wonderla Holidays IPO
Bangalore-based amusement park operator Wonderla Holidays has opened its 1.45 crore shares public offer for subscription today. The issue constitutes 25.66 percent of the fully diluted post issue paid up equity share capital of the company.

The price band for the issue, which closes April 24, is at Rs 115-125 per share.

Wonderla Holidays operates two largest amusement parks in Bangalore and Kochi under the brand name Wonderla and is in the process to open third one in Ranga Reddy district of Andhra Pradesh (AP).

It intends to raise Rs 166.75-181.25 crore through the issue, out of which it already garnered Rs 27.19 crore by selling 21.75 lakh equity shares through anchor investors' portion on April 17.

12:30pm Reliance Industries in focus
Reliance Industries' subsidiary Reliance Jio Infocomm and ATC India signed a tower sharing agreement today. Under the agreement, Reliance Jio would utilise the telecom tower infrastructure of ATC India to launch its services across the country.

ATC has a portfolio of 11,000 towers in India.

12:20pm Nikkei ends flat
Japanese shares climbed to a two-week high on Monday before giving up gains to end flat in thin trading due to the Easter holidays, while nonbank lenders surged on a media report the government is considering easing rules in the industry.

The benchmark Nikkei ended flat at 14,512.38, as profit-taking set in after the average had risen as high as 14,649.50, a level last visited on April 8, reports Reuters.

12:10pm FII View
Samir Arora, Founder & Fund Manager, Helios Capital remains 'super bullish' on Indian equities and foresees a three-five year rally. Explaining the rationale behind the view, he said emerging market (EM) index has seen gains of almost 7 percent in last one month, but the Indian indices have not risen that much, so there is more steam left in this pre-election rally.

Continuing his bullish tone, he expects the Indian equity market to rise 10-15 percent by May-end. In fact he is hopeful of a 2007 type rally in 2016-17.

According to most market experts, this rally is largely driven by higher prospects of the BJP-led NDA coming to power at the Centre. Arora sees the market rising 20 percent from hereon if the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) gets more than 260 seats. On the flip side, the market could be in for a big setback if NDA gets below 200 seats.

12:00pm Equity benchmarks remain firm with the Nifty hovering around the 6800 level. The Sensex rose 76.67 points to 22705.51 and the Nifty advanced 21.05 points to 6800.45. Advancing shares outnumbered declining ones by a ratio of 1453 to 841 on the BSE.

Capital goods majors Larsen & Toubro and BHEL rallied more than 3 percent. Utility vehicle major Mahindra & Mahindra too gained 3 percent followed by Maruti Suzuki and Sesa Sterlite with 2 percent.

Private sector lender Axis Bank climbed 1.9 percent and its rival State Bank of India rose 1 percent. Aluminium major Hindalco Industries advanced 1.7 percent.

TCS gained 0.3 percent as company said it has signed definitive agreements with Mitsubishi Corporation to merge TCS Japan, ITF and NTSC. TCS will hold 51 percent in the merged entity and MC will hold 49 percent. The merged entities will be operational from July 2014.

11:50 am Merger: India's largest software services firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has signed an agreement with Japanese major Mitsubishi Corporation to form a single IT services unit, the company said on Monday.

The merger, in which TCS will hold 51 per cent stake and Mitsubishi 49 per cent, will create a new IT services company of significant scale in the Japanese market with annual turnover of over $600 million.

''TCS Japan, IT Frontier Corporation (ITF) - Mitsubishi's 100 percent IT subsidiary - and Nippon TCS Solution Center (NTSC), to merge as a single new entity,'' TCS said in a statement.

11:40 am IPO: Bangalore-based amusement park operator Wonderla Holidays has opened its 1.45 crore shares public offer for subscription today. The issue constitutes 25.66 percent of the fully diluted post issue paid up equity share capital of the company. The price band for the issue, which closes April 24, is at Rs 115-125 per share.

Wonderla Holidays operates two largest amusement parks in Bangalore and Kochi under the brand name Wonderla and is in the process to open third one in Ranga Reddy district of Andhra Pradesh (AP). It intends to raise Rs 166.75-181.25 crore through the issue, out of which it already garnered Rs 27.19 crore by selling 21.75 lakh equity shares through anchor investors' portion on April 17.

11:30 am Buzzing: Investors continued to buy shares of ALSTOM India after the company received a contract worth approximately euro 30 million from Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL). The stock rallied as much as 2.75 percent intraday.

The contract is to supply components and services for the 2x660 MW Banharpalli Super Thermal Power Project (STPP) located in Jharsaguda, Orissa.

ALSTOM India says, "Out of the entire contract, company's scope of work would be Rs 161.7 crore (i.e. approximately euro 20 million)."

11:20 am Market outlook: Sanjeev Prasad, senior executive director and co-head, Kotak Institutional Equities said that the market looks reasonably valued at current levels, but will become expensive if it rallies another 10-15 percent from hereon.

Sharing views on the oil and gas sector, he said oil subsidies are likely to see major fall post recent reforms and the sector could also witness a re-rating. He expects the new government to continue deregulation for the oil and gas sector.

Further he added that sector major RIL's overall Q4 earnings were in-line with market estimates and one may see RIL share price at around Rs 1,100/ share in two years.

Meanwhile, from the banking space, he is positive on ICICI Bank and Axis Bank on expectations of economic recovery.

The market is in high spirits. The Sensex is up 82.13 points at 22710.97, and the Nifty is up 21.65 points at 6801.05. About 1415 shares have advanced, 710 shares declined, and 149 shares are unchanged.

US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has approached British rival AstraZeneca to propose a 60 billion pound (USD 101 billion) takeover, the Sunday Times reported on Sunday. The paper said, citing senior investment bankers and industry sources, that informal conversations about a deal had taken place between the two firms but that no talks were currently under way after AstraZeneca resisted the approach.

Pfizer is up 2 percent while AstraZeneca Pharma gains 6 percent in the BSE. IT stocks are weak, dragged by weakness in Wipro.

The rupee is steady in the absence of any major global cues. Slight weakness in Asian currencies lends downward bias to rupee. Gilts are steady on lack of strong cues.

Brent dips to USD 109 per barrel as investors take profits after steep gains. Gold prices decline to two week lows weighed down by fund outflows and weak physical demand.

Asian markets trade are mixed as Nikkei is at two week highs on the back of a weaker yen. The trade deficit for March widened more than expected to 1.45 trillion yen vs 8.2 billion yen in February.

10:59am Persistent Systems in focus
IT services company Persistent Systems reported 29.5 percent growth in consolidated net profit at Rs 67.19 crore for the quarter ended March 31 on demand in software products development and technology services.

The Pune-headquartered firm had posted a net profit of Rs 51.88 crore in the year-ago period.

Consolidated revenue grew 33.8 percent to Rs 446.74 crore in the January-March quarter last fiscal as compared to Rs 333.96 crore in the same quarter of 2012-13 fiscal.

In dollar terms, the company's revenue stood at USD 72.64 million, representing a year-on-year growth of 17 percent and a quarter-on-quarter growth of 3.9 percent, reports PTI.

10:50am Liberty Shoes up 14%
Haryana-based footwear manufacturer Liberty Shoes' net profit of the company grew 4.4 times year-on-year to at Rs 4.3 crore and revenue jumped 35.2 percent to Rs 142 crore during January-March quarter.

For the year ended March 2014, the shoe maker's profit rose 2.4 times to Rs 13.21 crore on revenue of Rs 483.5 crore (up 34.2 percent Y-o-Y).

10:40am FII View
Samir Arora, Founder & Fund Manager, Helios Capital remains 'super bullish' on Indian equities and foresees a three-five year rally. Explaining the rationale behind the view, he said emerging market (EM) index has seen gains of almost 7 percent in last one month, but the Indian indices have not risen that much, so there is more steam left in this pre-election rally.

Continuing his bullish tone, he expects the Indian equity market to rise 10-15 percent by May-end. In fact he is hopeful of a 2007 type rally in 2016-17.

According to most market experts, this rally is largely driven by higher prospects of the BJP-led NDA coming to power at the Centre. Arora sees the market rising 20 percent from hereon if the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) gets more than 260 seats. On the flip side, the market could be in for a big setback if NDA gets below 200 seats.

10:30am TCS in focus
India's largest IT services exporter Tata Consultancy Services has signed a pact with Japan's Mitsubishi Corp to create a Japanese software services provider, the companies said in a statement on Monday.

Tata Consultancy Services Japan Ltd, Nippon TCS Solution Center and IT Frontier Corporation - a wholly owned unit of Mitsubishi - will be merged together to form a single entity, the pair said in the statement.

TCS will hold 51 percent while Mitsubishi will hold the remaining 49 percent of the entity, which will be operational from July 2014, they said.

10:20am Shasun Pharmaceuticals up 20%
Buying is frozen in shares of Shasun Pharmaceuticals as the stock has touched 20 percent upper circuit on Monday after the company says it will consider share preference shares allotment on Wednesday.

"A meeting of the board of directors of the company will be held on April 23 for considering issue of convertible warrants / equity shares on preferential basis to promoters and others subject to the approval of the shareholders," the company says in its filing.

10:10am Market Expert
According to Hemant Thukral, National Head-Derivative Desk of Aditya Birla Money, the market remains in an uptrend and he sees no reason to short now. Those holding long positions should keep a stop loss at 6,680 and buy the Nifty on any dip, he recommended.

10:00am The market maintains positive momentum supported by banks, metals and capital goods stocks. The Sensex rises 70.27 points to 22699.11 and the Nifty advances 18.35 points to 6797.75.

The broader markets outperform benchmarks with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rising 0.76 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively. About 1235 shares have advanced, 520 shares declined, and 85 shares are unchanged.

Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro and rival state-run power equipment maker BHEL top the buying list, gaining 1.6 percent each.

India's largest lender State Bank of India rises 1.2 percent while its rivals ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank advance 0.3-0.7 percent. Cigarette major ITC gains 0.6 percent.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries soars 0.5 percent after the company reported strong operational performance led by refining business and its profit in Q4FY14 was inline due to lower other income.

Shares of Sesa Sterlite, Maruti Suzuki, Hindalco Industries and Tata Power rise 1-1.6 percent. However, Wipro tanks 5 percent after the company disappointed street with its Q1FY15 guidance.

FMCG major Hindustan Unilever and housing finance company HDFC slip 0.8 percent each.

9:50 am Infosys: Country's second largest IT firm Infosys has crossed the USD 2 billion revenue mark in Europe for the first time, driven by strong demand for consulting and system integration (CSI) services. Bangalore-based firm, which reported revenues of USD 8.24 billion for the year ended March 31, 2014, saw the European region accounting for 24.4 percent of the topline. "If you look at the last year, we have had a good growth in Europe of over 17 percent. And for the first time, we have crossed the USD 2 billion revenue mark in Europe, which is a significant milestone," Infosys President and Member of Board BG Srinivas told investors on a conference call.

9:40 am Results: State-run LIC Housing Finance will announce its fourth quarter (January-March) results. According to CNBC-TV18 poll estimates, the net profit is expected to rise by 13 percent year-on-year to Rs 359 crore and net interest income may jump 15 percent to Rs 529 crore during the quarter. The PAT boost may be due to provision reversals, say analysts. They see the company getting back Rs 22 crore on its teaser loans portfolio. In December quarter, it wrote back Rs 40 crore on its teaser loan portfolio.

9:30 am Buzzing: US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has approached British rival AstraZeneca to propose a 60 billion pound (USD 101 billion) takeover, the Sunday Times reported on Sunday.

The paper said, citing senior investment bankers and industry sources, that informal conversations about a deal had taken place between the two firms but that no talks were currently under way after AstraZeneca resisted the approach.

Pfizer is up 2 percent while AstraZeneca Pharma gains over 3 percent in the BSE.

9:20 am Gainers and losers: BHEL, Hindalco, Sesa Sterlite, Bharti Airtel and SBI are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are Wipro and Tata Motors.

After a long weekend, equity benchmarks started off Monday's trade higher with the Nifty reclaiming 6800 level supported by banks and oil & gas stocks.

The Sensex rose 66.03 points to 22694.87 and the Nifty advanced 14.45 points to 6793.85. About 580 shares have advanced, 150 shares declined, and 37 shares are unchanged.

The Indian rupee opened flat at 60.30 per dollar on Monday as against Thursday's closing value of 60.29 a dollar.

Agam Gupta of Standard Chartered says US yields and dollar are marginally stronger but at the same time global equities are a touch higher too. He expects domestic flows to drive the trading today.

According to Gupta, the range for the day seen between 60.15-60.45 /dollar.

Reliance stock rose 1 percent as its net profit in Q4FY14 grew 2.2 percent sequentially (up 0.75 percent Y-o-Y) to Rs 5,631 crore during the quarter (supported by refining business) that was expected by analysts at Rs 5,655 crore. Revenue came in below forecast at Rs 95,193 crore, down 8 percent compared to previous quarter but up 13 percent over a year-ago period.

Net gross refining margin (GRM) jumped 22 percent (down 8 percent Y-o-Y) to USD 9.3 a barrel from USD 7.6 a barrel in previous quarter. It was far better than analysts' expectations of around USD 8.6 a barrel. GRM for the year 2013-14 was USD 8.1 a barrel as against USD 9.2 a barrel in previous year.

Wipro fell more than 4 percent. Its IT services revenues met analysts' expectations and margin beat forecast but the guidance for June quarter is muted. Net profit of the company grew 10.5 percent sequentially to Rs 2,226.5 crore on revenue of Rs 11,703.6 crore (3.3 percent Q-o-Q) during the quarter.

IT services revenue in rupee terms rose 2.8 percent Q-o-Q (up 24 percent Y-o-Y) to Rs 10,619 crore and dollar revenue increased 2.5 percent (up 8.5 percent Y-o-Y) to USD 1.72 billion during the quarter. The guidance range for Q4FY14 dollar revenue was USD 1.712 billion to USD 1.745 billion and analysts had expected it at USD 1.720 billion and rupee revenue at Rs 10,541 crore.