Sensex, Nifty end mildly higher; SBI lifts PSU Bank 4%

3:30 pm Market Closing: Equity benchmarks ended mildly higher on Friday after volatile trade throughout session ahead of September industrial output and October inflation data due next week.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 63.63 points at 33,314.56 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 12.80 points to 10,321.80.

About 1,480 shares declined against 1,197 advancing shares on the BSE.

3:25 pm Market Update: Benchmark indices gained strength amid consolidation in late trade, after SBI earnings and GST meet.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 109.59 points at 33,360.52 and the NSE Nifty rose 33.50 points to 10,342.50.

3:15 pm Citi on SBI Life: Global research firm Citi has initiated coverage with buy rating on SBI Life Insurance Company and set a price target at Rs 800 per share, implying a potential upside of 22 percent from Thursday's close.

SBI Life looks well positioned to capitalise on increasing share of financial savings in India, it feels.

The brokerage house said franchise strengths would drive robust growth. It expects 200 basis points improvement in value of new business margin by March 2020.

It also expects value of new business to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 32 percent and average return on embedded value of 20 percent by March 2020.

3:05 pm Market Check: The Sensex was down 42.92 points at 33208.01, while the Nifty was down 22.30 points at 10286.70. The market breadth was negative as 1037 shares advanced against a decline of 1524 shares, while 140 shares were unchanged.

2:49 PM GST rate cut: The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council on Friday decided to slash rates on more than 175 items, reducing taxes on these from the existing 28 percent in one of the biggest tax reductions since the new system kicked-in from July 1.

The council, which is currently meeting in Guwahati, has decided to cut keep only 50 luxury and `sin' goods like tobacco in the highest slab, paving the way for price cuts in a raft of commonly used goods from furniture to sanitary ware.

The tax cuts will have a revenue implication of about Rs 20,000 crore.

The council is set to approve sweeping changes including simpler procedures, a single return filing form for small firms and several changes to make composition scheme more attractive.

2:30 pm Results: Car and utility vehicles manufacturer Mahindra and Mahindra posted a better than expected performance for the September quarter, with profit rising over 22 percent.

The company posted a profit of Rs 1,411 crore against RS 1,156.7 crore it posted during the same quarter last year. A poll of analysts by CNBC-TV18 had seen this figure to be around Rs 1,228 crore.

Revenues were higher by 19.4 percent at RS 12,018 crore against Rs 10,065 crore year on year.

At an operational level, the earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) soared 35.1 percent at RS 1,923.4 crore against Rs 1,423.6 crore last year, while the operating margin came in at 16 percent, higher than last year's 14.1 percent.

2:08 pm Bonus issue: Mahindra & Mahindra, the utility vehicle and tractor maker, has announced bonus issue in the ratio of 1 share for every share held.

2:05 pm Market Check: Equity benchmarks extended gains amid volatility in afternoon, led by banks after SBI earnings.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 65.51 points at 33,316.44 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 12 points to 10,321.

The broader markets continued to outperform benchmarks, with the Nifty Midcap index rising 0.4 percent and Smallcap up 0.75 percent.

Here are the top headlines at 2 pm from Moneycontrol News' Anchal Pathak

1:57 pm Auto sales: Festive season failed to bring cheers to automobile manufacturers as domestic passenger vehicle sales dropped marginally in October, the first decline in four months with companies resorting to inventory correction.

Passenger vehicle (PV) sales declined to 2,79,837 units in October from 2,80,677 units in the same month last year, according to the data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) today.

Car sales were also down 5.32 percent to 1,84,666 units last month as against 1,95,036 units in October last year.

This is also the first decline since June this year when car sales declined by 11.24 per cent.

1:40 pm Stake buy: Petronet LNG is eyeing a stake in the planned LNG expansion projects in Qatar as it looks to venture overseas to diversify its portfolio, its MD and CEO Prabhat Singh said.

Petronet, India's biggest LNG importer, wants to buy a stake that will give it a position on the board of the Qatari company, he said.

It currently buys 7.5 million tonnes of LNG per annum from RasGas of Qatar under a 25-year contract. RasGas had in the contract promised to give 5 per cent stake to Petronet or its nominee in the liquefication plant in the Gulf nation.

But Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) which was assigned to pick up the equity hesitated in making the USD 135 million payment. The stake is now worth USD 2 billion.

1:25 pm Delta Corp in focus: US-based SmallCap World Fund has
hiked its stake in real estate and hospitality firm Delta Corp by 2.79 percent through an open market transaction for an estimated sum of Rs 210 crore.

According to a regulatory filing, SmallCap World Fund, which held 2.36 per cent stake in Delta Corp earlier, bought 74.62 lakh shares representing 2.79 percent of equity stake.

The shares were bought on November 7 and based on the weighted average price of Rs 281.9 of the sock, the transaction is estimated to have been valued at Rs 210.37 crore.

Ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and his wife Rekha Jhunjhunwala also hold over 8 percent stake in the company.

1:10 pm Expansion: DCM Shriram will invest Rs 838 crore for expansion of its sugar and chemical business, according to the company's quarterly report.

Already, the company is implementing projects involving investments of Rs 350 crore for setting up of a distillery and aluminium chloride units besides expansion of its chlor-alkali unit. These will be commissioned in the second quarter of the next fiscal.

In its quarterly report, DCM Shriram said the board has given nod for additional investment of Rs 838 crore for expansion projects.

Out of this, Rs 500 crore is estimated to be invested for expansion of its DSCL Sugar-Hariawan unit. With the capacity enhancement, total sugar business capacity will increase from 33,000 tonnes crushing per day (TCD) to 38,000 TCD.

12:55 pm SBI in focus: State Bank of India's second quarter standalone profit missed analyst expectations, falling 37 percent year-on-year to Rs 1,581.55 crore from Rs 2,538.32 crore crore.

Net interest income grew by 27.3 percent to Rs 18,585.9 crore from Rs 14,600.2 crore YoY, which was slightly higher than CNBC-TV18 poll estimates of Rs 19,088.7 crore.

Gross NPAs were lower at 9.83 percent against 9.97 percent QoQ.

12:45 pm Results: Public sector lender Bank of India's second quarter earnings beat analyst expectations, and even the asset quality improved, but the loan growth was tepid.

Profit for the quarter stood at Rs 179.1 crore, which was higher compared with Rs 126.8 crore in year-ago despite lower other income and operating income. It was driven by net interest income, lower provisions and improvement in asset quality.

Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest expended, grew by 6.9 percent year-on-year to Rs 2,908 crore for quarter ended September 2017, with slow loan growth (0.3 percent YoY).

"Total advances increased to Rs 3.64 lakh crore in Q2FY18, compared with Rs 3.63 lakh crore in year-ago," the bank said.

12:30 pm Earnings: Auto ancillary products maker Motherson Sumi Systems has reported better-than-expected profit growth of 23.7 percent for July-September quarter, but operational numbers missed estimates on Friday.

Consolidated profit increased to Rs 593.4 crore in quarter ended September 2017, from Rs 479.8 crore in year-ago. It was estimated at Rs 498 crore for the quarter, according to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18.

Revenue from operations during the quarter grew by 32.7 percent year-on-year to Rs 13,431 crore, the company said in its filing.

Operating profit grew by 26 percent to Rs 1,251 crore with margin shrinking by 50 basis points to 9.3 percent in Q2 YoY, which were below CNBC-TV18 poll estimates of Rs 1,328 crore and 9.8 percent, respectively.

12:20 pm Mineral Auction: Minerals worth at least Rs 50,000 crore can be auctioned from 13-15 blocks in the remaining four months of the current fiscal with the upcoming proposed amendments in the auctioning rules, a top official of the Ministry of Mines said.

These 13-15 mines could include limestone, iron ore, emerald and molybdenum among others.

"We would like the progress to pick up. We are certainly hoping that we will easily cross the Rs one lakh crore figure for the current year, with new 13-15 blocks expected in the remaining four months of FY18," Union Mines secretary Arun Kumar said here last evening.

12:05 pm Buzzing: Just Dial share price was off day's high in afternoon after its clarification over the news that US internet giant Google showed interest to acquire the company.

The stock rallied nearly 20 percent in early trade to hit an intraday high of Rs 549.85 on the BSE, but trimmed gains to trade with gains of 7.75 percent at Rs 494.55 per share at 12:17 hours IST.

"Google, a subsidiary of parent Alphabet, has been talking to Just Dial for an acquisition for some time. Both the companies entered into exclusive talks about two months ago,'' a media report said.

Just Dial, however, clarified that as of now there is no proposal in respect of acquisition of business of the company by Google and news published in newspaper is factually incorrect.

Here are the top headlines at 12pm from Moneycontrol News' Anchal Pathak

11:50 am Management Interview: "We have Achieved volume growth of 4 percent in Q2, Rajeev Mathur, MD of Mahanagar Gas said in an interview to CNBC-TV18.

"We expect that in the next quarter and in the next six months the volume growth should be much more than what we have been able to achieve in this quarter," he said.

11:40 am Earnings: Oracle Financial Services Software's Q2 profit fell 7.5 percent sequentially to Rs 342 crore and revenue declined 1.2 percent to Rs 1,189.5 crore.

Operating profit slipped 2.2 percent QoQ to Rs 513.6 crore and margin contracted by 40 bps to 43.2 percent in Q2.

11:30 am Market Check: The BSE Sensex recouped its early losses to trade flat in late morning deals while the NSE Nifty reclaimed 10,300-mark. The broader markets outperformed, with the Nifty Midcap rising 0.3 percent.

Investors await SBI Q2 earnings and GST meet outcome later today.

At 11:28 hrs IST, the 30-share BSE Sensex was up 12.24 points at 33,263.17 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 0.90 points to 10,309.90.

Aurobindo Pharma fell 4 percent and Tata Motors was down 3 percent, even as Q2 earnings were better-than-expected. L&T was biggest gainer, up nearly 4% on winning order worth Rs 4,023 crore.

FMCG was biggest gainer among sectoral indices, up 1 percent led by ITC that gained 1.8 percent.

11:05 am USFDA Approval: Zydus today, a part of Cadila Group, announced that the Mexico regulatory authority COFEPRIS (Federal Commission for the Protection Against Sanitary Risk), has granted marketing approval to commercialise Lipaglyn (Saroglitazar Magnesium) in Mexico.

The drug is used for the treatment of Dyslipidemia in patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 and Hypertriglyceridemia in patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 not controlled by statins.

10:58 am Divis in focus: Drug firm Divi's Laboratories today said the US health regulator has "closed out" a warning letter issued to a unit at Visakhapatnam following evaluation of corrective actions taken by the company at the plant.

"Divi's Laboratories has been informed by the USFDA that the agency has completed evaluation of the company's corrective actions in response to FDA's warning letter..dated April 13, 2017" the company said in a BSE filing.

"We also note from the update on FDA's website that they have closed-out the warning letter," it added.

10:45 am Auto sales: Domestic passenger vehicle sales declined marginally to 2,79,837 units in October from 2,80,677 units in the same month last year.

Car sales were down 5.32 percent to 1,84,666 units last month as against 1,95,036 units in October last year, according to the data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) today.

Motorcycle sales last month declined by 3.50 percent to 11,04,498 units compared to 11,44,512 units in October 2016.

Total two-wheeler sales in October were also lower by 2.76 percent to 17,50,966 units compared to 18,00,668 units in the year-ago month.

Sales of commercial vehicles, however, rose by 6.44 percent to 69,793 units in October, the SIAM said.

10:35 am MOSt on SAIL: Shares of Steel Authority of India (SAIL) gained 3 percent in morning as the company's net loss narrowed in the quarter ended September 2017.

The company has reported net loss at Rs 539.1 crore against loss of Rs 731.6 crore in a year ago period.

Revenue has increased by 21.3 percent at Rs 13,617 crore against Rs 11,225 crore.

The operating profit (EBITDA) was up 723 percent at Rs 914 crore and EBITDA margin was up 570 bps at 6.7 percent.

Brokerage house Motilal Oswal has maintained sell rating on the stock with increased target price at Rs 43 per share.

10:24 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks remained under pressure amid consolidation, tracking subdued global cues. Investors await outcome of GST Council meet and SBI earnings later today.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 58.78 points at 33,192.15 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 19.60 points to 10,289.40.

All the sectoral indices led by metal, auto, pharma and technology stocks were trading in the negative terrain, falling by around half a percent each.

Brokers said sentiment dampened largely in tandem with a weak trend at other Asian markets following overnight weakness at Wall Street amid fears of delay in US corporate tax cut.

Tata Motors fell by 2.4 percent even as it posted three-fold jump in consolidated profit for the September quarter. Aurobindo Pharma and Asian Paints were down 2-3 percent while Reliance Industries declined 1 percent.

10:05 am Buzzing: Shares of Larsen & Toubro (L&T) rose more than 1 percent in morning as its construction arm won orders worth Rs 4023 crore.

The heavy civil infrastructure business has won orders worth Rs 1906 crore, which includes major government order of Rs 1825 crore in JV with international partner.

The company's building & factories business won order worth Rs 830 crore for construction of a cancer hospital in Muscat, Oman.

The water and effluent treatment segment has received engineering, procurement & construction orders worth Rs 788 crore.

The power transmission segment bagged orders worth Rs 342 crore and smart world communication business has bagged order worth Rs 157 crore.

Here are the top headlines at 10am from Moneycontrol News' Anchal Pathak

10:00 am New Listing: Mahindra Logistics debuted at its issue price of Rs 429, but immediately fell 2 percent to hit early low of Rs 420 on the NSE.

9:48 am Rupee Trade: The rupee depreciated by 11 paise to 65.05 against the US dollar in morning at the interbank forex market today on foreign fund outflows.

The rupee opened lower at 65.08 per dollar against previous close of 64.94 per dollar. It dropped further to hit a low of 65.11 per dollar in morning session.

A currency trader said increased demand for the US currency from importers and banks and losses in domestic equity market weighed on the rupee.

9:38 am Results Estimates: State Bank of India, the country's largest lender, is expected to post profit at Rs 2,507.6 crore for the quarter ended September 2017, compared with net loss of Rs 560 crore in year-ago.

Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest expended, may grow 5.5 percent to Rs 19,088.7 crore year-on-year, according to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18.

The commentary from the new management will be closely watched, especially related to asset quality (slippages and watchlist) and loan growth for second half of current financial year.

Analysts feel if slippages come lower than previous quarter (Rs 30,059 crore in Q1FY18) and asset quality improves (from 9.97 percent in Q1) then that will be taken positively by the Street.

9:25 am Earnings: Drug firm Aurobindo Pharma today reported a 28.96 percent rise in its consolidated net profit to Rs 780.97 crore for the September quarter of the current fiscal mainly on account of robust sales in the US and European Union.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 605.55 crore for the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, Aurobindo Pharma said in a BSE filing.

Consolidated total revenue from operations rose to Rs 4,435.89 crore for the quarter under consideration as against Rs 3,775.45 crore for the same period a year ago.

The US formulation sales of the company rose to Rs 2,098.9 crore as against Rs 1,735.1 crore in the same period year ago, Aurobindo Pharma said.

The sale of formulations in the European market grew to Rs 1,113.5 crore from Rs 813.4 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

9:20 am Buzzing: Bank of America Merrill Lynch initiated coverage on the Britannia Industries with a buy rating and a target price of Rs 5,500. The target implies an upside of 16 percent. The stock gained over half a percent.

The research firm believes that there could be a healthy upward trend in the operating income to sustain. It also expects volume, revenue and earnings per share to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10 percent, 15 percent and 18 percent over the three financial years till March 2020.

It also said that operating income witnessed a CAGR of 32 percent during the last five financial years and for the next 10 years, operating income could grow at 15 percent CAGR.

The brokerage house also said that it expects CAGR of 20 percent in Britannia's global business, starting Nepal in the next financial years.

In terms of the stock, it said that higher profitability and market share gains will support premium valuations, while large cash generation raises chances of higher dividend payouts.

9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks opened mildly lower on last day of the week Friday, with the Nifty falling below 10,300 level. Investors focussed on GST meet outcome and SBI earnings later today.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 67.70 points at 33,183.23 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 24.80 points to 10,284.20.

Aurobindo Pharma, Jindal Steel, SBI and HUL were mildly higher. Tata Motors, M&M, BPCL, Bosch, Motherson Sumi, Axis Bank and Hero MotoCorp were early losers.

Just Dial was up 11% as media report indicated that Google is in talks with the Mumbai-based service engine to acquire its business.

SRF, TV Today and Aptech were losers. SAIL, CG Power, PTC, DFM Foods and Den Networks were gainers post earnings.