SBI & HDFC drag 2%, HUL soars 8%; Nifty, Sensex end flat

03:50 pm  FII view
Most of the election rally gains have already been made and the Indian markets are quite likely to see profit-taking at these levels, feels Jan Dehn of Ashmore Investment Management.

With the markets trading at all-time high levels and most FIIs thinking it to be ''overvalued'', Dehn feels even at these levels, ''stocks are still quite cheap''.

He said he will buy India on every dip with a three-year horizon.

Dehn does not expect a long period of consolidation in the Indian markets. ''I think we are going to start seeing quite significant initiatives from the new administration, which I feel are likely to translate into better sentiment. This in turn will show up in better earnings. The first test of this will probably be around Diwali.''

Positive on government's ability to deliver on reforms, he said Ashmore has been buying high-beta stocks.

03:40 pm Market closing
The market opened on a flat note but in red trajectory. The Sensex ended down 16.81 points at 24217.34, and the Nifty was down 5.70 points  at 7229.95. About 1561 shares have advanced, 1406 shares declined, and 131 shares are unchanged.

HUL was up 7 percent, followed by NTPC, M&M, Sun Pharma and Tata Power. Among the gainers are SBI, HDFC twins, Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki.

03:30 pm International markets
Global shares steadied on Friday after hitting record highs as investors positioned cautiously on the last trading day of the month, with the market's focus on next week's European Central Bank policy meeting.

The MSCI world equity index, which tracks shares in 45 countries, was down 0.04 percent after scaling a new lifetime high earlier in the session as investors positioned to shield themselves from any disappointment from the ECB, which is widely expected to ease policy significantly on June 5.

"The market will hold at current levels until the ECB meeting next week. Should the ECB disappoint the market, then I expect a negative reaction and equities will run into a consolidation that could hold in the summer months," Christian Stocker, equity strategist at UniCredit in Munich, said.

03:20 pm Value of gold
Gold premiums in India almost halved this week on hopes the new government would ease restrictions on imports of the precious metal, while demand in rest of Asia failed to pick up despite a drop in prices.

Indian premiums fell to USD 30- USD 40 an ounce over the global benchmark, from USD 80-USD 90 last week, dealers told Reuters.

India - the world's second biggest consumer of gold after China - imposed curbs on bullion imports last year, including a record 10 percent duty on overseas purchases in a bid to control its ballooning current account deficit.

The government also introduced the so-called 80-20 rule that required a fifth of all imports to be exported.

03:10 pm Stake sale
Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd (KMBL) announced in Mumbai that Kotak Trustee Company Private Limited, a promoter group entity, has sold approximately 2.5 crore shares amounting to around 3.24 percent shareholding in KMBL to Canadian Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

The Bank had received a communication from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to bring down its promoter shareholding to 40 percent by September 30, 2014 and 30 percent by December.

The present sale reduces shareholding of the promoters to 40.33 percent. Kotak Group held total 43.5 percent stake in the bank. Commenting on the development, Paul Parambi, Head - Group Strategy, KMBL said, ''The present sale by the promoters helps us substantially to meet the RBI requirement for promoter dilution by September 30, 2014.''

02:55pm AirAsia to fly on June 12
AirAsia India CEO Mittu Chandilya says the first flight is scheduled to fly on Bangalore-Goa route on June 12 and the ticket price is at Rs 990. He expects AirAsia to break-even in next few months. "We are aiming for 10 percent domestic market share in the next 1 year," he adds.

02:50pm Monsanto falls 2%
Monsanto posted a net loss of Rs 6 crore in fourth quarter (January-March) as against profit of Rs 1.5 crore in same quarter last year and net sales increased to Rs 75 crore from Rs 69 crore during the same period.

02:45pm M&M in focus
Utility vehicle maker Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) has reported a 0.9 percent growth in net profit of Rs 896.9 crore in the quarter ended March 2014, driven by tax reversal and income from sale of investments. Net profit in the year-ago period was Rs 889.2 crore.

M&M says adjusted net profit (ex-MTBL merger) was Rs 975.6 crore during the quarter. The company merged Mahindra Trucks & Buses (MTBL) with itself in March quarter.

"Due to the merger, the past unabsorbed tax losses related to the trucks business of MTBL became available to the company and there was a one time tax saving during the current year," says the company.

02:35pm Pharma stocks gain
Aurobindo Pharma, Ranbaxy Labs, Lupin, Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy's Labs, Ipca Labs, Wockhardt and Cipla rallied 1.5-4 percent. CNX Pharma Index surged over 2 percent.

02:30pm Economy
Indranil Pan of Kotak Mahindra Bank says the comments from the Reserve Bank governor in recent times infuses confidence. RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan believes that the new government will be able to combat fiscal deficit.

However, Pan doesn't see any immediate drop in inflation and hence doesn't expect a change in the monetary policy stance on June 3.

He has a full year GDP target of 4.8 percent, slightly lower than the government's estimates. But he feels in the fourth quarter GDP will come in at 5.1 percent on better performance of the core sector.

02:15pm Market Expert
In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Deven Choksey of KR Choksey Securities shared his reading and outlook on the market. Key macro event - Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy on June 3, pre-budget expectations and monsoon in the wake of El Nino risks would be key market triggers in the June series, he said.

"A lot of long only funds are keenly looking at Indian markets and enquiries have started from investment perspective. We see market excitement continuing next month. The amount of funds, which could come from the FIIs side could be relatively on the higher side, may be in second half of month of June, post June 10," he added.

He recommends investors to look for buying opportunities at lower levels."This market is giving some sharp corrections in individual stocks," he said. Individual stocks with good fundamentals can be bought at dips and June would give opportunity to make smart gains in following months, he added.

02:00pm The market remained directionless in afternoon trade but the broader markets continued to outshine benchmarks. The Sensex slipped down 10 points to 24224.15 while the Nifty gained 0.70 point to 7236.35.

The BSE Midcap Index advanced 0.4 percent and Smallcap rose 0.7 percent. About 1534 shares have advanced, 1337 shares declined, and 116 shares are unchanged.

Hindustan Unilever gained more than 7 percent, biggest gainer in the Sensex followed by ONGC, NTPC, Dr Reddy's Labs and Cipla with 2-3 percent. Sun Pharma and Bharti Airtel gained over 1.5 percent.

However, top lender State Bank of India and housing finance company HDFC fell 2-3 percent. Shares of ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Tata Motors, TCS, Axis Bank and Maruti Suzuki declined 1-1.5 percent.

1:50 pm Maret outlook:  Deven Choksey of KR Choksey Securities said, "A lot of long only funds are keenly looking at Indian markets and enquiries have started from investment perspective. We see market excitement continuing next month. The amount of funds, which could come from the FIIs side could be relatively on the higher side, may be in second half of month of June, post June 10."

He recommends investors to look for buying opportunities at lower levels."This market is giving some sharp corrections in individual stocks," he said. Individual stocks with good fundamentals can be bought at dips and June would give opportunity to make smart gains in following months, he added.

1:40 pm Results:Utility vehicle maker Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) has reported a 0.9 percent growth in net profit of Rs 896.9 crore in the quarter ended March 2014, driven by tax reversal and income from sale of investments. Net profit in the year-ago period was Rs 889.2 crore.

M&M says adjusted net profit (ex-MTBL merger) was Rs 975.6 crore during the quarter. The company merged Mahindra Trucks & Buses (MTBL) with itself in March quarter.

According to CNBC-TV18 poll estimates, analysts had expected the company to report net profit of Rs 818 crore on revenue of Rs 9,805 crore for the quarter.

Revenue grew 5 percent to Rs 11,000.7 crore during January-March quarter from Rs 10,486.53 crore in same quarter last year.

1:30 pm Buzzing: Shares of YES Bank were up 5 percent intraday as it launched Qualified Institutions Placement (QIP) to raise USD 500 million (Rs 5000 crore). The QIP is priced at Rs 550 per share.

Rana Kapoor, MD and CEO of the bank says that the QIP has already got USD 2.5 billion bids in first 12 hours of launch. ''Post QIP, it will be 12.9 percent equity dilution on expanded capital base while capital adequacy will reach 18 percent. Core promoter holding at 13.5 percent will be diluted further,'' he adds in an interview to CNBC-TV18.

Kapoor is expecting return on equities to be in 23-25 percent range in 12-15 months but warns that growth in H1FY15 will be tepid.

1:20 pm Under pressure: Shares of Tata Motors slumped 4 percent intraday on Friday as its March quarter consolidated earnings were weaker-than-expected due to exceptional loss of Rs 408 crore on account of forex loss and VRS. Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) earnings were also slightly lower-than-expected.

Macquarie maintains outperform rating with a target of Rs 475 per share, even though the car maker's profits were lower-than-estimated. It remains positive on JLRs growth potential and expects 17 percent CAGR through FY14-17.

CLSA is also positive on the stock and maintains a buy rating with a target of Rs 490 per share. "JLR EBITDA was down sequentially due to forex headwinds and weaker product mix. We are on positive given multiple JLR launches.'' It said in note.

The Nifty continues to struggle below 7250, up 9.90 points at 7245.55. The Sensex is up 34.43 points at 24268.58. About 1510 shares have advanced, 1186 shares declined, and 115 shares are unchanged.

HUL, ONGC, Cipla, NTPC and GAIL are most important gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are HDFC twins, SBI, HDFC Bank, Tata Motors and Axis Bank.

The rupee is stronger at 58.9600/58.9650 versus its previous close of 59.03/04, as dollar inflows from Yes Bank Ltd's share sale for as much as USD 500 million aiding the Indian unit's gains but month-end dollar demand from oil importers may limit the rise.

Investors are eyeing the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) monetary policy review on Tuesday for outlook on inflation and expectations on the new government's Budget.

12:50pm Kotak Mahindra Bank gains
Kotak Mahindra Bank (KMBL) announced that Kotak Trustee Company Private Limited, a promoter group entity, has sold approximately 2.5 crore shares representing to around 3.24 percent shareholding in KMBL.

The bank had received a communication from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to bring down its promoter shareholding to 40 percent by September 30, 2014 as per estimates provided by the bank. The present sale reduced shareholding of the promoters to 40.33 percent. Kotak Group's total stake was 43.5 percent.

Commenting on the development, Paul Parambi, Head - Group Strategy, KMBL said, ''The present sale by the promoters helps us substantially to meet the RBI requirement for promoter dilution by September 30, 2014.''

12:40pm Infosys in focus
IT giant Infosys' search for a CEO has hit a final round, CNBC-TV18 learns from sources.

Executive search firm Egon Zehnder has given the names of external candidates for this position to the Nomination Committee. The committee may forward shortlisted names to the company's board. The company may hold a board meeting before June 10 to assess candidates, sources add.

Meanwhile, the company on Wednesday said BG Srinivas, president and member of the board, resigned.

12:30pm Jammu & Kashmir Bank down 14%
The news of J&K Bank hiding stressed assets worth Rs 2500 crore is factually incorrect and an exaggerated figure, says chairman and chief executive officer, Mushtaq Ahmad.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Ahmad says the report is mischief being played by someone and it is totally baseless. 

''Our stressed assets are in the range of Rs 500-700 crore. If we don't get three monthly installments or one quarterly installment, then an asset becomes non-performing assets (NPAs). Our total balance sheet has been audited by different audit firms and they have reached this conclusion that my NPA figure is Rs 783 crore,'' he explains.

12:20pm YES Bank QIP
Private sector lender Yes Bank has raised USD 500 million through an institutional placement of shares for funding its expansion, sources said.

The global Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) of shares received a response of USD 2.5 billion, getting oversubscribed by five times the offer size, they said.

Investors from USA and Europe accounted for 40 percent of the USD 2.5 billion in subscriptions, while Asia and domestic investors were at an equal 30 percent, they added, reports PTI. The stock gained 2.5 percent.

12:10pm FII View
Most of the election rally gains have already been made and the Indian markets are quite likely to see profit-taking at these levels, feels Jan Dehn of Ashmore Investment Management.

With the markets trading at all-time high levels and most FIIs thinking it to be ''overvalued'', Dehn feels even at these levels, ''stocks are still quite cheap''.

He said he will buy India on every dip with a three-year horizon.

Dehn does not expect a long period of consolidation in the Indian markets. ''I think we are going to start seeing quite significant initiatives from the new administration, which I feel are likely to translate into better sentiment. This in turn will show up in better earnings. The first test of this will probably be around Diwali.''

12:00pm Equity benchmarks continued to be lacklustre in noon trade today, the first day of June series. The Sensex rose 18.69 points to 24252.84 and the Nifty gained 7.40 points to 7243.05.

The broader markets beat benchmarks with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gaining 0.5 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively. Advancing shares outnumbered declining ones by a ratio of 1471 to 1086 on the BSE.

FMCG major Hindustan Unilever topped the buying list in the Sensex, rising nearly 4 percent while ONGC rallied 2.5 percent after fourth quarter earnings. Shares of L&T, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, NTPC, Tata Steel, Dr Reddy's Labs, Cipla, BHEL and GAIL gained 1-2 percent.

However, housing finance company HDFC and top lender State Bank of India fell 2 percent each. Shares of Tata Motors, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, TCS, Wipro and ICICI Bank declined 0.7-1.4 percent.

11:50 am Result poll: Engineering and construction major Larsen and Toubro (L&T) will announce its fourth quarter (January-March) earnings today. According to CNBC-TV18 poll estimates, analysts expect net profit of the company to fall 5 percent year-on-year to Rs 1,700 crore during the quarter.

Net sales is seen going up 3.5 percent on yearly basis to Rs 20,960 crore in the quarter ended March 2014 while operating profit increased marginally to Rs 2,460 crore from Rs 2,450 crore but margin may fall 30 basis points to 11.7 percent compared to same quarter last year.

Analysts expect overall revenue growth (ex-Hydrocarbon) to be more than 15 percent led by domestic growth and expect infrastructure margins to sustain at 10.5 percent level.

11:40 am Rupee outlook: Edward Teather, India economist, UBS maintains that still high inflation and the potential for rising US interest rates would keep the Indian currency weak against the USD, but cautions that rupee can yet be pushed around by capital flows more than fundamentals in the interim.

Past highs on a real effective exchange rate basis (REER - CPI basis) would imply a USDINR of 58 could be sustained through end CY 2014. A move beyond 58 may take INR into uncharted territory on CPI based REER basis, potentially hurting competitiveness.

UBS sees the rupee at 62 to the dollar by the end of this calendar and 65 by the end of the next calendar

11:30 am Interview: Vikas Oberoi, chairman and managing director, Oberoi Realty says FY14 was a very challenging year for all realty companies and prices in Mumbai are flat, thereby leading to lower margins for developers.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18's Latha Venkatesh and Sonia Shenoy, Oberoi says the company will launch a residential project in Borivali, a land parcel it purchased from Tata Steel, in January 2015.

''We expect every apartment to be priced around Rs 2 crore,'' he adds.

11:20 am Poll: Utility vehicle maker Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) will announce its fourth quarter (January-March) earnings today. According to CNBC-TV18 poll estimates, analysts expect the company to report profit after tax of Rs 818 crore (year-on-year degrowth 8 percent) on revenue of Rs 9,805 crore (down 7 percent Y-o-Y) for the quarter.

Operating profit is expected to be at Rs 1,270 crore and margin at 13 percent in the quarter ended March 2014.

Reported numbers are not comparable either Y-o-Y or Q-o-Q as the merger of MTBL (Mahindra Trucks and Buses) into M&M standalone entity completed in March quarter.

It is sluggish trading day as June series kickstarts. The Sensex is up 57.64 points at 24291.79 and the Nifty up 17.80 points at 7253.45. About 1439 shares have advanced, 844 shares declined, and 101 shares are unchanged.

ONGC, Bharti Airtel, BHEL, L&T and HUL are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are HDFC, Axis Bank, SBI, Wipro and TCS.

Rupee is a tad higher on rise in equities and foreign bank dollar sales. Government bond prices rose sharply post RBI Governor's comments in Tokyo that fiscal consolidation is feasible in India. He expects the government and RBI to join hands in fighting inflation.

The euro trades relatively unchanged while the yen gains on the back of data indicating the Japanese inflation rate accelerated.

Gold continued its sluggish trend trading now at USD 1257 levels. Oil prices trade firm.

Asian markets trade mostly higher mirroring gains in the US. Japanese markets reacted to economic data.

10:58am Market Expert
Deven Choksey of KR Choksey Securities says Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy on June 3, pre-budget expectations and monsoon in the wake of El Nino risks would be key market triggers in the June series.

"A lot of long only funds are keenly looking at Indian markets and enquiries have started from investment perspective. We see market excitement continuing next month. The amount of funds, which could come from the FIIs side could be relatively on the higher side, may be in second half of month of June, post June 10," he adds.

10:50am Interview
Vikas Oberoi, chairman and managing director, Oberoi Realty says FY14 was a very challenging year for all realty companies and prices in Mumbai are flat, thereby leading to lower margins for developers.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Oberoi says the company will launch a residential project in Borivali, a land parcel it purchased from Tata Steel, in January 2015.

''We expect every apartment to be priced around Rs 2 crore,'' he adds.

10:40am Tata Motors in focus
Tata Motors, India's largest commercial vehicle maker and the owner of Jagar Land Rover brand, disappointed street with the fourth quarter consolidated net profit falling 0.7 percent to Rs 3,918 crore compared to same quarter last year due to lower-than-expected growth in JLR's topline & bottomline, weak domestic business, higher finance cost and foreign exchange loss. The stock fell 1.4 percent.

10:30am Voltas rises 3%
Voltas' fourth quarter (January-March) net profit jumped significantly to Rs 100.4 crore from Rs 8.9 crore in the year-ago period. However, total income fell to Rs 1,462.8 crore versus Rs 1,597 crore during the same period.

10:20am L&T gains ahead of Q4 nos
According to CNBC-TV18 poll estimates, Larsen and Toubro is expected to report 5 percent degrowth in fourth quarter net profit at Rs 1,700 crore compared to same quarter last year.

Net sales is seen going up 3.5 percent on yearly basis to Rs 20,960 crore while operating profit may increase marginally to Rs 2,460 crore from Rs 2450 crore but margin may fall 30 basis points to 11.7 percent in the quarter gone by.

10:10am FII View
Chris Wood, CLSA says India has potential to be one of the best stories in emerging markets (EM), Asia space. ''Global investors can no longer ignore India,'' he adds.

He further says, ''Modi's win creates potential for massive outperformance of cyclicals. Investors should use any significant correction to build positions in cyclicals.''

''Not convinced that inflation will come down sharply. Investors should not expect interest rate cuts for now. Domestic investors may return to Indian equities. Would recommend ICICI Bank for potential re-rating,'' Wood adds.

10:00am: Equity benchmarks continued to be rangebound with the Nifty hovering around 7250 level. Oil & gas, capital goods, metals, healthcare and power stocks gained while banking & financials and technology stocks declined.

The Sensex rose 44.38 points to 24278.53 and the Nifty advanced 9.95 points to 7245.60 while the broader markets outperformed benchmarks with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rising 0.8 percent each. About 1130 shares have advanced, 684 shares declined, and 89 shares are unchanged.

ONGC gained more than 2 percent post fourth quarter earnings. HUL, NTPC, Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel and NMDC rose nearly 2 percent. However, Tata Motors, Axis Bank, Wipro, HDFC Bank, TCS, Kotak Mahindra Bank and HCL Technologies fell 0.7-1.7 percent.

10:00 am BRICS Bank
The five BRICS nations will likely agree to fund their USD 100 billion development effort equally, giving them the same rights in a new multilateral bank that could start lending in two years, a senior Brazilian government official told Reuters on Thursday.

Capitalisation of the bank was one of the main sticking points in the sometimes tortuous negotiations among the emerging powers to create a joint lender to finance infrastructure projects in developing nations.

The new bank would symbolize the growing influence of emerging economies in the global financial architecture long dominated by the United States and Europe through the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

Negotiations to create the lender have dragged on for two years, with some members growing weary of China's desire to have a bigger stake in the bank by putting in more capital. But this hurdle is being overcome

09:50 am GDP Poll
A CNBC-TV18 poll sees GDP growing by 4.7 percent in fourth quarter and for the whole of FY14. It will be the sixth consecutive quarter of sub-5 percent growth. Even for the full year FY14, and those numbers will also be announced tomorrow, the number is expected to be 4.7 percent compared to 5 percent year ago.

The more important point to note is that the market won't be affected by this. This is largely known. It is such a lag number, which comes 60 days after the year ends. The market is full of confidence about FY15 being well over 5 percent, may be closer to 5.5 percent and FY16 being the real big year of the economy getting back above 6 percent growth.

09:40 am Market outlook
Siddharth Bhamre of Angel Broking does not see a significant upside for the markets but neither does he see a significant downside. The market is trading in a broad range after the election verdict, which over a period of time will be a called a consolidation phase. However after this consolidation phase, he sees the market moving up.

Commenting on the upcoming June series, he says the Nifty range could narrow down from 7400 on higher side to 7200 on lower side. As a trader one has to be active in the series and an investo has to sit tight on largecap high beta space.

The house is upbeat on the top 3-4 IT stocks and would remain on their buy list. The house is positive on Tech Mahindra but not on the metal space.

09:35am GMR Infrastructure gains 3%
GMR Infrastructure's fourth quarter net profit doubled to Rs 1,170.2 crore from Rs 579.2 crore in same quarter last year on consolidated basis. Total income increased to Rs 2,961 crore from Rs 2,592.5 crore during the same period.

09:25am Defence stocks on fire
Trade ministry has approved cabinet note on hiking defence FDI cap to 100 percent. BEML gained more than 9 percent.

09:15am Equity benchmarks rebounded with marginal gains on Friday after more than 1 percent fall in previous session. The Sensex rose 50.61 points to 24284.76 and the Nifty advanced 15.60 points to 7251.25. About 681 shares have advanced, 230 shares declined, and 29 shares are unchanged.

BHEL, ONGC and Sun Pharma gained around 1 percent each while Tata Motors fell more than 2 percent post fourth quarter numbers.

Indian rupee has opened flat at 59.01 per dollar on Friday as against previous day's closing value of 59.03 a dollar.

Pramit Brahmbhatt, Alpari Financial Services says sentiment in the markets has changed as most investors think the equity markets have reached their peak and further upside is limited.

He expects the rupee to extend yesterday's weakness as dollar demand from oil importers will dent the rupee movement. "The range of rupee for the day seen at 58.50-59.50/USD," he adds.

Asian markets were mixed following fresh record close for the S&P 500 and Japan's economic data. US markets ended higher with the S&P 500 rising to an all-time high while European markets closed flat.