Sensex at new closing high, Nifty ends Oct expiry at 8169

03:30 pm Market closing
The market ended with hefty returns. The Nifty ended at 8169.20 up 78.75 points or 0.9 percent, after breaking the all-time high of 8180. The Sensex was at record closing high, up 248.16 points or 0.9 percent at 27346.33. About 1569 shares advanced, 1354 shares declined and 120 shares were unchanged.

Reliance gained 3 percent while TCS, Hindalco, Infosys and GAIL were top gainers. On the losing side were Sesa Sterlite, M&M, Cipla, Tata Power and Hero.

03:16 pm Market data
Nifty Put Call ratio is at 1.25 versus 1, highest in this series. Total market turnover above is Rs 10 lakh crore for first time ever. All IT stocks on Nifty trading in the green in range of 1-4 percent. NSE F&O turnover above Rs 5 lakh crore. ICICI Bank, Axis Bank are biggest contributors to Bank Nifty gain.

03:07 Market breaks record
The Nifty has hit record high on October F&O expiry day. The Nifty broke its all-time high of 8180. The 50-share index is up around 90 points. The Sensex is up 290.22 points or 1 percent at 27388.39. The Sensex is up 290.22 points or 1 percent at 27388.39. The market turnover is at record high.

02:30pm Interview
In an interview to CNBC-TV18 Gurunatha Reddy, CFO, said that Astra Microwave's strong order book led to business growth and it executed a huge order in the quarter which had higher margins.

The company has won fresh orders worth Rs 50 crore in this quarter, he said.

The company's net profit surged to Rs 23.4 crore in Q2 FY15 versus Rs 11.6 crore seen in the same quarter a year ago. Its net sales also rose to Rs 190.1 crore versus Rs 115.3 crore, on a year-on-year basis. The company maintains 12 percent PAT guidance for FY15.

02:00pm Market Check
Equity benchmarks continued to see strong buying interest in afternoon trade supported by oil & gas, FMCG, technology and HDFC group stocks. The Sensex rose 241.27 points to 27339.44 while the Nifty climbed 74.65 points to 8165.10.

About 1493 shares have advanced, 1318 shares declined, and 118 shares are unchanged.

In key earnings today, Maruti Suzuki hit a new high of Rs 3,297 after reporting a solid 28 percent growth in profit while ICICI Bank reported a 15 percent growth in profit to Rs 2,709 crore with weak asset quality. The stock declined marginally.

From the midcaps, YES Bank reported a strong quarter with 30 percent profit growth and Jubilant Foodworks disappointed with a 13 percent fall in profit.
 
Mark Mobius of Templeton EM says India has seen a revival in spirits, with GDP growth expanding at a robust 5.7 percent in the quarter ended June 30. He says, optimism surrounding Narendra Modi has been reflected in the equity market.

Global markets are cheerful today post the FOMC outcome. Asian markets like Japan's Nikkei and China's Shanghai rallied more than 0.5 percent while Europe climbed 1 percent.

However, the currency saw weakness with the rupee falling to 61.50 as the Federal Reserve ended its monetary stimulus.

1:50 pm Resuls: India's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki beat street expectations with the second quarter net profit rising 28.8 percent to Rs 863 crore led by other income and higher revenue. Profit in the year-ago period was Rs 670.2 crore.

"Growth in domestic sales and cost reduction initiatives contributed significantly to bottomline growth during the quarter," said the company in its filing.

Revenue grew by 17.5 percent to Rs 12,304 crore in the quarter ended September quarter 2014 compared to Rs 10,468.1 crore in same quarter last year driven by higher sales volumes.

The company sold 3.21 lakh units in July-September quarter, reporting a solid 17 percent growth Y-o-Y (and 7 percent Q-o-Q) compared to 12.6 percent growth in Q1FY15.

Profit was expected at Rs 837 crore on revenue of Rs 12,242 crore for the quarter, according to the average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18.

1:40 pm Buzzing: Shares of Emami touched record high at Rs 810.95 per share, up 7 percent intraday . The FMCG firm saw a 16 percent increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 92.76 crore for the second quarter that ended on September 30, 2014 driven by higher sales.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 79.96 crore for the corresponding period a year ago. Net sales rose to Rs 489.60 crore during the quarter under review, up 20.37 percent from Rs 406.74 crore a year ago, Emami said in a filing to the BSE.

The management is hopeful of sustaining volume growth trend of 11 percent in the second half of FY15. NH Bhansali, CEO of Emami Group says that better scale will ensure margin expansion in the future.

1:30 pm DLF: As it fights a Sebi ban on accessing capital markets, realty giant DLF was asked today to provide details of funds it immediately needs to get an interim relief to redeem capital locked in mutual funds .

While challenging the Sebi order barring it and six others, including top executives, from capital markets for three years, DLF had sought this interim relief on October 22, after which the capital markets regulator was asked to give a reply.

The regulator today submitted before SAT that the company can be given an interim relief, provided it gives a detailed proposal for requirement of funds it needs to redeem, by December 31.

1:20 pm Boardroom: After having posted a net loss of Rs 15.07 crore for Q2, RC Venkateish, chief ececutive officer, Dish TV says weak Q2 results were expected as the quarter is seasonally weak owing to rainy season. In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Venkateish says the upcoming quarters, however, are likely to be better as the result of the price hikes will be seen in the average revenue per unit (ARPU) during the rest of the year.

"We have recaptured a leading position in terms of incremental market share and stand at 27 percent now," he adds.

1:10 pm Resuls: India's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank met street expectations on profit and net interest income front but its asset quality and provisions hit in the quarter ended September 2014.

Net profit of the bank climbed 15.2 percent year-on-year to Rs 2,709 crore during the quarter supported by non interest income and stable net interest income.

Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest expended, grew by 15.2 percent to Rs 4,657 crore during the quarter compared to Rs 4,043 crore in the year-ago period while other income (non-interest income) shot up 26.4 percent on yearly basis to Rs 2,738.4 crore in September quarter.

Profit was expected at Rs 2,713 crore and net interest income at Rs 4,647 crore for the quarter, according to the average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18.

The market is surging ahead with major support by IT, realty and oil stocks. The Sensex hit all-time high breaching its previous high of 27354.99 on 8 September. The Sensex is up 214.25 points or 0.8 percent  at 27312.42 and the Nifty is up 65.45 points or 0.8 percent at 8155.90.
About 1435 shares have advanced, 1188 shares declined, and 106 shares are unchanged.

Infosys, TCS, Relance, Dr Reddy's Labs and L&T are major gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are ICICI Bank, BHEL, M&M, Tata Power and Sesa Sterlite.

Gold prices moved down by 0.75 percent to Rs 26,876 per 10 grams in futures market today as
speculators trimmed positions in tandem with a weak global trend where the precious metal traded near three-weak low.

Market analysts attributed the fall in gold futures to a weak global trend where the metal traded near a three-week low as the dollar strengthened after the Federal Reserve ended its asset-purchase programme. Meanwhile, gold traded lower by 0.02 percent to USD 1,211.30 an ounce in Singapore.

12:30pm Coal e-auction
The government has begun the process of shortlisting agencies to develop e-auction platform for de-allocated blocks and it will approach information technology companies for the same.

Agencies will be invited to give infrastructure proposal of e-auction method. Sources told CNBC-TV18 that Mjunction and MSTC will be amongst few companies that will be approached to prepare the e-auction platform.

Meanwhile, the coal ministry is working on collecting database of mines and assets.

Compensation will have to be made to prior allottees on investment made until March 2014. Letters have already been issues to allottees asking for details of assets.

12:00pm Equity benchmarks extended gains in noon trade with the Sensex rising 205.05 points to 27303.22 and the Nifty climbing 62.75 points to 8153.20. About 1393 shares have advanced, 1167 shares declined, and 113 shares are unchanged.
 
Technology stocks rallied after stellar performance reported by Tech Mahindra that surged 4.30 percent. Tech Mahindra surprised the street with scond quarter dollar revenue growth at 5.2 percent and a constant currency growth higher than peers.

HCL Technologies too gained 4 percent followed by Infosys and TCS with 2 percent rally.

Dr Reddy's Labs, Gail, Reliance Industries, DLF, HDFC, and Larsen and Toubro jumped 1-3 percent followed by ICICI Bank, ITC, HDFC Bank, ONGC, Axis Bank, HUL and Wipro with more than 0.5 percent upmove.

However, Mahindra and Mahindra, Tata Motors, SBI, Tata Power, Bajaj Auto, BHEL and Sesa Sterlite fell 0.2-0.8 percent.

In the midcap space, DCM Shriram, Symphony, Puravankara Projects, Emami (post Q2 earnings) and Jaypee Infra rallied 6-7 percent while State Bank of Bikaner, Pipavav Defence, Raymond, HMT and State Bank of Travancore fell 4-6 percent.

YES Bank hit a record high of Rs 655.10, up more than 2 percent after reporting 30 percent growth in profit and 27.4 percent growth in net interest income in second quarter Y-o-Y.

11:55 am Result: Private sector lender YES Bank surpassed street expectations with the second quarter profit after tax rising a whopping 30 percent to Rs 482.5 crore on lower provisions and higher net interest income. Profit in the year-ago period was Rs 371 crore.

Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest expended, grew by 27.4 percent year-on-year to Rs 856.4 crore compared to Rs 672 crore during the same period.

Profit was expected to grow 18 percent and NII 19 percent, according to the average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18.

11:30 am Market outlook: With Nifty near its all-time high, Dipan Mehta, member BSE and NSE says a lot of India-centric businesses such as banks and non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) are doing well. He advises investors to go overweight on these sectors. He adds that by and large tech and pharma companies, except Ranbaxy and Infosys , have disappointed this earnings season. Mehta says a lot of new ideas have come up on the back of the quarterly numbers and a complete overhauling of portfolios may be called for.

He says many investors have large exposure to tech and pharma and low exposure to banks and capital goods and consumer-oriented businesses, that needs to change slowly. A lot of midcaps focused on consumer-oriented businesses, not necessarily FMCG, have done well, he adds.

The Nifty scaled past 8100 after a flat start on expiry day. The 50-share index is up 31.80 points at 8122.25 and the Sensex is up 93.92 points at 27192.09. About 1230 shares have advanced, 1024 shares declined, and 87 shares are unchanged.

Infosys, TCS, GAIL, Dr Reddy's Labs and Reliance are top gainers while M&M, Tata Power, BHEL, Hindalco and Sesa Sterlite are among the losers.

Globally, Asia is mostly in the green with the Nikkei at a three-week high. The rupee back home depreciates as the dollar surges to a three-week high against the yen and on account of fresh demand from importers.

Oil prices edged lower in Asia today but losses were capped on a surprisingly upbeat assessment of the US economy by the Federal Reserve, analysts said.

The Fed's policy statement, issued after a two-day meeting, cited improving labour market conditions and expressed little concern about low inflation, elements that led analysts to characterise it as more hawkish than expected. As expected, the central bank announced the wind up of its quantitative easing stimulus programme while keeping in place plans to maintain ultra-low interest rates well into 2015.

10:59am Earnings impact
Emami reported a stellar second quarter with a revenue growth of 20.4 percent at Rs 490 crore accompanied by a gross margin expansion of 300 basis points to 66.2 percent. The managmene has upgraded its guidance on gross margins, expecting gross margin to sustain at around 65 percent for FY15/16 versus 63 percent guidance earlier. Macquarie raised FY16/FYy17 EPS estimates by 12 percent / 23 percent and a higher target price of Rs 610. The stock gained 3 percent.

Mphasis is under pressure, falling 2 percent on disappointing results. Margin cracked 180 basis points to 13 percent impacted by certain one-time revenue reversals and sales expenditure and profits fell 8.3 percent to Rs 160.2 crore.

Zuari Agro shot up 14.5 percent after it reported very good numbers with total income up 8 percent at Rs 1,535 crore and EBITDA margins expanding 450 basis points at 5.3 percent and net profit at Rs 22 crore versus loss of Rs 40 crore.

10:30am Interview
Raymond reported a drop in margin and profit despite rise in revenue in the second quarter of current fiscal year. Its apparel growth too continued to be stagnant. M Shiv Kumar, CFO, Raymond says the textile segment was hit due to higher store renovation cost.

He, however, expects to see better times in the textile segment going forward. The company has planned huge ad spends in this fiscal year.

Raymond did not hike prices during the quarter.

10:00am Market Check
Equity benchmarks remained volatile with a positive bias on expiry day for October derivative contracts. The Nifty rose 25 points to 8115.45 while the Sensex climbed 71.57 points to 27169.74.

About 1069 shares have advanced, 776 shares declined, and 76 shares are unchanged on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The October F&O series, which expires today, is seen ending in the range of 8,000-8,100. Vineet Bhatnagar, MD, PhillipCapital says that foreign investors have been buying index futures, which is a positive sign and one can see strength in the index as move into the next series.

He sees immediate resistance for the Nifty at 8180 and firm support at 8030. He recommends market participants to buy 8100 Call and sell both 8200 Call and 8300 Call.

Tech Mahindra surprised the street with its Q2 results with a dollar revenue growth of 5.2 percent and a constant currency growth higher than peers. EBIT margin improved 220 basis points on a sequential basis. Nomura raised target price to Rs 2,760 while Citi says the revenue beat could help the stock near term, especially given the disappointment from peers. The stock surged 4.5 percent.

Real estate stocks get a leg up as the government relaxed FDI norms for construction and real estate. The government reduced minimum built up area by 60 percent to 20000 square metre from 50000 square metre and reduced minimum capital requirements to USD 5 million from USD 10 million earlier. This was already decided in the budget, now clearance has come. DLF surged 4 percent.

Dr Reddy's Labs bounced back today with 2 percent gains as brokerages are still bullish on the pharma major (post disappointing earnings in Q2) with UBS maintaining a buy rating with target price of Rs 3,400/share as it believes US revenues should pick up from here with focus on non-orals. Credit Suisse maintains outperform and raised target to Rs 3,600/share as it expects October 2014-March 2015 EBITDA to be better than April-September 2014.

9:50 am Result poll: Top private sector lender ICICI Bank is expected to report a 15 percent growth each (year-on-year) in profit after tax and net interest income in July-September quarter, according to the average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18. Profit may increase to Rs 2,713 crore from Rs 2,352 crore and net interest income is seen rising to Rs 4,647 crore from Rs 4,043 crore during the same period. Loan growth is likely to moderate or similar to Q1FY15.

Analysts expect a 13 percent growth in credit on yearly basis led by retail that has picked up over last few quarter. In Q1FY15, credit growth was up 15 percent with retail up 26 percent Y-o-Y while corporate loan growth was 8 percent. Net interest margin is expected to be at 3.4 percent in Q2FY15, flat compared to previous quarter and up 10 basis points compared to same quarter last year.

9:30 am Cap infusion? The fiscal is likely to face pressure as demands for additional funds are already knocking at the government's door. CNBC-TV18 has learnt that the finance ministry is likely to seek Parliament's nod for additional spending of Rs 10,000-11,000cr for capital infusion into public sector banks in the current fiscal. The government so far has budgeted Rs 11,200cr for capital infusion into public sector banks in FY15, but this may not be sufficient to meet their capital requirements.

Hence, there could be a need for supplementary demand for grants. In the meanwhile, finance ministry is likely to seek the Cabinet's nod to lower its stake to 52 percent in public sector banks, only towards the end of November. Significantly, the Cabinet nod will also include further capital infusion over a four-year period into these banks. Simultaneously, the revenue department has also raised a demand of Rs 16,000 cr as first tranche payment for CST arrears to state governments.

The Nifty has hit 8100 on October F&O expiry day. The 50-share index is up 10.45 points at 8100.90. The Sensex is up 40.25 points at 27138.42. About 581 shares have advanced, 257 shares declined, and 34 shares are unchanged.

Dr Reddy's Labs, Infosys, GAIL, HDFC and Wipro are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are BHEL, Tata Motors, Sesa Sterlite, Hindalco and NTPC.Realty stocks are in focus with Sobha Developer, Prestige Estate and DLF as big gainers.

The Indian rupee slipped in early trade. It has opened lower by 16 paise at 61.51 per dollar against previous day close of 61.35.

The dollar index rises after the Federal Reserve ended its monthly bond purchase program and signaled confidence the US economic recovery would remain on track despite signs of a slowdown in many parts of the global economy.

Mohan Shenoi of Kotak Mahindra Bank said, "As expected QE3 and Fed's bond buying program was ended in the FOMC meet yesterday. Chances of a rate hike in US in June 2015 has increased which led to a dollar rally against major currencies."

He further added, "The dollar is expected to strengthen against the rupee as well. The range for USD-INR is seen between Rs 61.30-61.70/dollar."

US stocks closed with slight losses, finishing off their lows of the session, after the Federal Reserve ended its stimulative monthly bond-buying program and expressed confidence in US economic prospects.

Major indexes were volatile following the central bank's statement, with the S&P 500 down as much as 0.8 percent before pulling back. Material shares were lower throughout the session, a decline in Facebook pressured the Nasdaq, but strength in energy and financial shares helped the market recover.

In a statement after a two-day meeting, the Fed ended its quantitative easing program of bond purchases, as had been expected. At its peak, the program pumped USD 85 billion a month into the financial system. The Fed also dropped a characterization of US labor market slack as "significant" in a show of confidence in the economy's prospects.

Brent crude prices slipped to USD 86 a barrel after the Fed announced it would end its two-year-old bond-buying stimulus program. Gold prices dropped over a percent following a strong dollar.