Sensex gains 250 points thanks to rally in IT, realty stocks

4:00 pm Indian marketsrose more than 1 percent to a three-week high as IT stocks rallied after Infosys raised the lower end of its fiscal year revenue guidance, while property developers gained after the country unveiled new real estate investment regulations.

Shares of Infosys closes at highest level since April 2011. The stock ended at Rs 3,277.50, up Rs 153.35, or 4.91 percent on the BSE.Although India’s second-largest software services exporter posted quarterly profit that missed analyst estimates, investors cheered the change to the lower end of its revenue guidance.

Shares of real estate developers including DLF L and Unitech gained after the market regulator announced draft rules to allow the establishment of real estate investment trusts (REITs) in the country.

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The Sensex rose 255 points to end at 20528, while Nifty rose 75 points to end at 6096.

Bank Nifty gained almost 3 percent to close at 10,668.

The Nifty and Sensex added more than 3 percent during the week. Sectorally, banks have been the best performers.

Rupee too strengthened in trade today to touch 61.06 against the USD.

Sensex rallies 200 points but may correct in second half of October

11:32 amThe BSE Sensex edged up 200 points on the back of gains in IT stocks after Infosys raised the lower end of fiscal 2014 revenue outlook but Vibhav Kapoor of IL&FS feels the market may correc in the second half of October due to profit booking.

" Themarkets are in that resistance zone of 6100-6200 so I would expect them to consolidate herenj and may be even correct reasonably during the second half of this month," he said in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

He expects a selloff in bank stocks, capital goods, engineering, consumer stocks and even IT. According to him, prices of IT companies have run up significantly and hence there might be some consolidation.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, he said it is essentially the rupee depreciation that has helped the index improve its upper range.

Kapoor also said that the Infosys revenue growth was much stronger than expected.

Earlier, the company announced its second quarter numbers. Net profit for the company grew by just 1.5 percent quarter-on-quarter to Rs 2,410 crore - in-line with expectations - for the quarter ended September 2013. However, the country’s second largest software services exporter revised guidance for full year revenue growth to 9-10 percent from 6-10 percent.

Sensex jumps nearly 200 points, Infosys up just 3 percent

9:20: Indian markets jumped in opening trade with the Sensex up 177 points at 204441 and the Nifty u0 51 points at 6076. infosys jumped 3 percent in opening trade after the company reported flat profits for the quarter.

Nifty up 1 percent in pre-open, Infosys jumps 10 percent post Q2 results

Expect a huge hap up opening in trade today as both the Nifty and the Sensex are up 1 percent in pre-open trade while Infosys is trading 10 percent higher after the IT majopr raised its FY14 revenue guidance to 9-1- percent from the current 6-10 percent, implying that stable growth has once again returned to the company.

A 10 percent jump is the highest pre-opening level since January 2011.

Infosys today reported aa profit after tax at Rs 2410 crore vs Rs 2374 crore in the previous quarter.

The rupee, meanwhile opened higher at 61.12 against the US dollar.

Nifty futures up on US debt talk, all eyes on Infosys

**11 October, 8:30 am:**Indian markets are expected to open with a gap-up today tracking positive global cues, while Infosys will hog the limelight today since it will declare its earnings for the quarter ended September.

At 07:30 a.m., Nifty India stock futures in Singapore were trading 68 point higher at 6139, indicating a higher opening on the domestic market.

Infosys has gained 3.8 percent in October; the company has had a good 2013 with its shares rising 34.9 percent so far this year. Analysts are expecting the IT major to report flat margins for the quarter but full year revenue guidance will be key. The stock was highly volatile and managed to gain another 1.5% on Thursday. In the past two day’s the stock has gained almost 3.5% in the run-up to its results.

Amar Ambani, Head of Research at IIFL said, “We expect Infosys to post decent Q2 FY14 numbers with revenues expanding 2.6% qoq in dollar terms. Due to strong rupee depreciation tailwind among others, we expect OPM to expand ~80bps qoq. Another key expectation is the increase in FY14 dollar revenue guidance to 9-11% (from 6-10% earlier). We remain positive on IT space with top picks being HCL Tech, Wipro, Persistent and KPIT.”

Reuters reported that Asian stocks jumped to three-week highs on Friday, propelled by gains on Wall Street as investors took a chance and cheered perceived progress to avert a possible US default, even as questions remained over whether a deal could be struck.The rally in Asia came after US stocks jumped over 2 percent in their biggest one-day gain since January 2 as investors grew confident squabbling U.S. politicians would at the very least avert a possible US debt default next week.

The Indian equity market ended with modest gains on Thursday its upmove for the second consecutive trading session. Sentiment got a boost as lawmakers in the US are likely to compromise to end the shutdown and avert a US government debt default.

Shares of Tata Motors gained over 5.5% to close at Rs373 after its UK subsidiary Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR) announced its best ever September retail sales. JLR reported record retail sales of 43,181 units during the month gone by, a growth of 17% year-on-year and 55% sequentially.

Choppy Sensex ends in green ahead of Infy results, IIP data

Indian markets had a choppy session today but ended the day in green ahead of the earning season that kicks off tomorrow with Infosys announcing its quarterly results. Analysts on an average expect profit after tax of the company to rise by 10.2 percent quarter-on-quarter to Rs 2,614 crore during the September quarter, according to CNBC-TV18 poll.

Analysts feel the company may revise its full year guidance.

“The market will watch out for and change in the FY14 revenue guidance by Infosys. The return of Narayan Murthy to Infosys has raised hopes on the medium-to-long term prospects of the company. Based on our expected revenues in Q2, we expect the company to increase the guidance range,” Kotak Securities report said.

[caption id=“attachment_1127165” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption]

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex ended 23 points higher at 20279, Nifty ended 13 points higher at 6020.

Cude oil rose to $110 per barrel on Thursday as the kidnapping of Libya’s prime minister delayed the prospect of a further recovery in production from the North African nation.

Slowing economy, election-related uncertainty and tighter monetary conditions pose risks for Indian markets and the BSE index, Sensex, is likely to hover around 20,250 by the end of this year, says an HSBC report.

Moreover, it said, valuations remain expensive compared to other emerging markets and Fed tapering and prolonged US

government shutdown could trigger outflows from India.

It also cut private banks to “neutral” from “overweight”.

“We are underweight on India within Asia,” HSBC said in a research note, adding that “Fed tapering, waning earnings momentum, and election uncertainty make us cautious on India.”

HSBC said it is positive toward exporters, namely IT and healthcare and cautious on consumer discretionary and

state-owned banks. “We cut private banks to neutral from overweight,” it said.

HSBC had last month cut the GDP growth forecast for India to 4 percent for the current fiscal, 2013-14.

On September 16, HSBC had lowered India to ‘underweight’ from ’neutral’.