Nifty ends at 8551, Sensex flat; Tata Steel up 5%, Infosys slips

3:30 pm Market closing: The market has ended flat with the Nifty up 6.25 points at 8551.10. The Sensex is up 16.86 points at 27714.37. About 1440 shares have advanced, 1262 shares declined, and 163 shares are unchanged. Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Adani Ports, Bharti Airtel and Hero MotoCorp are top gainers while Asian Paints, Infosys, Lupin, Coal India and Cipla are top losers in the Sensex.

2:58 pm Market Update: The consolidation continued in late trade. The Sensex was down 2.31 points at 27695.20 and the Nifty down 2.35 points at 8542.50.

About 1349 shares advanced against 1291 declining shares on the BSE.

2:40 pm Roadmap for GST implementation: Setting a target of April 1, 2017 for rollout of the Goods and Services Tax, the government today unveiled a detailed roadmap for its implementation and said it is aiming for an "optimal" rate of taxation though the final decision will be taken by the GST Council.

"What we need is an optimal (GST) rate," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said while addressing a press conference a day after the Rajya Sabha approved the historic Constitution Amendment Bill, paving way for a complete overhaul of the indirect tax regime in the country.

Once implemented, the GST will subsume various taxes including excise, services tax, octroi and other levies and the proceeds will be shared between the Centre and states.

2:20 pm Anti-dumping duty on steel: An Indian government body has recommended provisional anti-dumping duty on imports of cold-rolled steel products, a government statement said on Thursday, to protect domestic mills.

The Directorate General of Anti Dumping recommended a tax of up to USD 594 a tonne on steel products from China, Japan, South Korea and Ukraine, the statement said.

Indian steelmakers such as the Steel Authority of India , JSW Steel , and Essar Steel had lobbied for protectionist measures to prevent cheap overseas purchases that were undercutting local mills and squeezing margins.

2:00 pm Market Check
Equity benchmarks as well as broader markets continued to consolidate after investors digested the passage of GST Bill.

"GST will mean moving to a more single-market structure which is very good for long-term growth potential," Jan Dehn of Ashmore Investment Management said.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 47.75 points at 27649.76 and the Nifty declined 19.55 points to 8525.30.

Tata Motors surged nearly 4 percent after strong US sales growth in July by Jaguar Land Rover followed by Tata Steel (up 3 percent), Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel, Adani Ports, Bank of Baroda and Hero Motocorp.

ICICI Bank, Asian Paints, Infosys, ITC, HDFC, Lupin and SBI were under pressure.

1:50 pm When is GST?: India should be able to implement a new Goods and Services Tax (GST) in April 2017, a senior finance ministry official said after parliament's upper house passed a key enabling amendment to the constitution.

Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said his target was for the necessary majority of states to ratify the constitutional change in next 30 days, allowing a new GST Council to finalize legislations that will set the rate and other terms of the tax.

Adhia also told a news conference that it would be "premature" to expect the GST's standard rate to be 18 percent, as proposed by the government's own chief economic adviser, saying this would imply significant revenue losses.

1:30 pm GST: Currently, taxable services attract around 15-15.5 percent of tax. With services constituting 60 percent of the overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a higher rate of 18-20 percent will have an inflationary impact on the middle class, says Ajit Ranade, Chief Economist, Aditya Birla Group.

He feels the Goods and Services Tax (GST) rate should be kept at around 15-16 percent. He says New Zealand, which kept its GST as low as 10 percent and still saw its tax revenues go up by 42 percent. Similarly, he feels high revenue neutral rate for India will be regressive and it may lead to low tax collection due to compliance issues.

The market is still flat as the Sensex is up 10.63 points at 27708.14 and the Nifty is down 0.95 points at 8543.90. About 1349 shares have advanced, 1083 shares declined, and 174 shares are unchanged.

Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Hero MotoCorp, Adani Ports and Sun Pharma are top gainers while Lupin, ICICI Bank, Coal India, HDFC and Asian Paints.

Gold prices fell by 0.38 percent to Rs 31,577 per 10 grams in futures trading as participants trimmed their positions, tracking a weak trend overseas. Analysts said a weakening trend in the overseas markets where gold declined for a second day before the release of official US jobs data that may confirm steady employment and throw some light on the possible timing of an interest-rate increase, mainly influenced gold prices at futures trade here.

12:20 pm Revenue secretary on GST: While addressing press conference after the GST Bill passed in Rajya Sabha, Revenue secretary, Hasmukh Adhia said establishment of legal framework needed for GST roll-out by April 2017.

He expects approval of at least 16 states in next 30 days and all the GST bills to come before Parliament in winter session.

Adhia said 17 states gave their back-end work to GST Network and should be completed by November, adding 17.3 lakh Central Board of Excise and Customs officers & 30,000 officers under states will have to be trained.

12:00 pm Market Check: Equity benchmarks continued to consolidate in noon trade with the Nifty hovering around the 8550 level as investors say the passage of GST Bill has already priced in.

"With the Govt hoping to implement GST by 1 April 2017, we think implementation challenges will now gain prominence and Q4FY17 can be particularly volatile," Sanjay Mookim of Bank of America Merrill Lynch said.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 50.14 points at 27747.65 and the Nifty gained 9.25 points at 8554.10 while the broader markets continued to outperform. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap rose over 0.4 percent on strong breadth. About 1425 shares advanced against 926 declining shares on the BSE.

12:30 pm GST impact: The unorganised sector is a large part of the market and it can benefit from the goods and services tax (GST) bill and UBS is not positive on stocks where rate differentials are expected to drive earnings higher, says Gautam Chhaochharia of UBS Securities.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18 Chhaochharia discussed the impact of GST on various sectors and how it will affect the corporate earnings.

He said that earnings downgrade is likely to continue and expects the earnings growth to be around 10 percent for FY17 rather than the Street estimate of 17 percent.

The market is still holding gains amid pressure. The Sensex is up 72.03 points or 0.3 percent at 27769.54, and the Nifty is up 17.40 points or 0.2 percent at 8562.25. About 1407 shares have advanced, 804 shares declined, and 106 shares are unchanged.

Auto, Capital Goods, Healthcare and Metal indices are up. Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp and Adani Ports are top gainers while ICICI Bank, Lupin, M&M, Infosys and Asian Paints are losers in the Sensex.

Oil prices rose, extending gains from the previous session following a large draw in US gasoline inventories and a big drop in the dollar since the end of July.

The US-dollar has lost 2 percent of its value since late July against a basket of other leading currencies as expectations of another rate increase faded. Despite the price gains on Wednesday and Thursday, though, traders said overall oil market conditions remained weak, with production overhangs in both crude and refined products continuing to weigh on markets.

10:55 am Market Update: Equity benchmarks remained marginally higher with the Sensex rising 86.98 points to 27784.49 and the Nifty gaining 24.80 points at 8569.65.

About 1363 shares advanced against 763 declining shares on the BSE.

10:35 am FIPB clears 7 FDI projects: Inter-ministerial body FIPB approved seven foreign investment proposals, including that of Tikona Digital Networks envisaging FDI of Rs 267 crore.

The seven proposals, cleared by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) headed by Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das, would bring in foreign investment of around Rs 300 crore.

Laurus Labs' proposal was also among the proposals that received board's approval.

Also, the board rejected five proposals while seven others were deferred, official sources said.

Deferred proposals included that of Financial Times, HSBC Securities and Capital Markets and Morgan Stanley lndia Primary Dealer Pvt Ltd.

10:15 am Buzzing: Credit Suisse has downgraded Lupin to underperform as the risk-reward is no longer favourable with the stock pricing in upside from clearance of Goa facility but not reflecting high profit concentration risk with gFortamet accounting for 35-40 percent of FY17 profits. The stock fell 2 percent intraday.

As competition in Fortamet enters, FY18 should be a year of no growth and next two-year profit CAGR should be just mid-single digit, the brokerage says.

It also reduced FY18 EPS forecast by 16 percent as it factors in competition in Fortamet (Mylan & Nostrum have settled and could launch before patent expiry).

The brokerage also lower target multiple, too, from 22x to 20x as it values Fortamet at a lower multiple of 10x and base business at 22x profits FY18.

Hence, the target price fell to Rs 1,450, Credit Suisse says.

10:00 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks were marginally higher amid consolidation after the Rajya Sabha passed the GST Constitutional Amendment Bill.

The goods and services tax (GST) is a landmark bill and the biggest reform since 1991, says Madhusudan Kela, Chief Investment Strategist at Reliance Capital.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 85.08 points at 27782.59 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 21.65 points at 8566.50. The broader markets outperformed benchmarks with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained over half a percent.

About two shares advanced for every share declining on the exchange.

Tata Motors continued to rally, up nearly 4 percent followed by Sun Pharma, Hero Motocorp, Bajaj Auto, Maruti and Tata Steel while ICICI Bank, Infosys, ITC, Reliance Industries and Lupin were under pressure.

9:55 am Market check: The market is very volatile. The Sensex is up 54.46 points or 0.2 percent at 27751.97, and the Nifty up 12.95 points or 0.15% at 8557.80. About 1119 shares have advanced, 675 shares declined, and 73 shares are unchanged.

Tata Motors is up 4 percent while Hero MotoCorp, Tata Steel, Sun Pharma and NTPC are top gainers while Lupin, ITC, ICICI Bank, Infosys and Cipla are losers in the Sensex.

9:45 am Result: Drug firm Cadila Healthcare reported a 22.59 per cent dip in consolidated net profit to Rs 356.2 crore for the quarter ended June 30.

The company had posted a net profit after taxes, minority interest and share of profit of associates and joint ventures of Rs 460.2 crore for the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, Cadila Healthcare said in a filing to BSE.

Consolidated total income from operations of the company stood at Rs 2,287.1 crore for the quarter under consideration as against Rs 2,382.6 crore for the same period year ago.

9:30 am Market check: The market has slipped into red after gap up opening. The Sensex is down 26.08 points at 27671.43, and the Nifty is down 10.10 points at 8534.75. About 943 shares have advanced, 576 shares declined, and 63 shares are unchanged.

Tata Motors, Sun Pharma, ONGC, TCS and Hero MotoCorp are top gainers while Lupin, ICICI Bank, Cipla, Bharti and Infosys are losers in the Sensex.

The market has opened on a strong note after GST Bill was today approved by the Rajya Sabha to replace a raft of different state and local taxes with a single unified value added tax system to turn the country into world's biggest single market.

The Sensex is up 131.39 points or 0.5 percent at 27828.90, and the Nifty up 40.55 points or 0.5 percent at 8585.40. About 707 shares have advanced, 125 shares declined, and 21 shares are unchanged.

Tata Motors, ONGC, Hero, BHEL and Maruti are top gainers while Lupin, Bharti Airtel, Infosys and HDFC Bank are losers in the Sensex.

The Indian rupee opened higher by 14 paise at 66.85 per dollar versus 66.99 Wednesday. The dollar gained, recovered from six-week lows, as investors squared positions ahead of Friday's US non-farm payrolls report.

The Indian rupee opened higher by 14 paise at 66.85 per dollar on Thursday versus 66.99 Wednesday. The dollar gained, recovered from six-week lows, as investors squared positions ahead of Friday's US non-farm payrolls report.

Asian shares are firm after a rebound in oil prices from four-month lows helped to lift Wall Street shares. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.3 percent in early trade, led by gains in resource shares, recouping some of its 1.5 percent losses on Wednesday.

Wall Street advanced modestly after a sharp rise in oil prices boosted energy shares, while better-than-anticipated data on the labor market helped financial stocks.

Oil jumped more than 3 percent and extended gains in Asian trade on Thursday, arresting its almost constant fall since early June for now, after a larger-than-expected gasoline draw eased concerns about global supply glut.