Sensex snaps 3-day loss, Essar Oil gains on pact with IGL

The Bombay Stock exchange finally snapped its losing streak after three consecutive weeks and closed 2.1 percent up at 17507 led by gains in ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Larsen and Toubro.

In the last hour of trade Essar Oil spurted amost 6 percent, but closed four percent up at Rs 57.65 after inking an agreement with Indraprastha Gas (IGL) to put up the latter’s CNG pumping facilities at Essar Oil’s outlets in the National Capital Region (NCR).

MCX pares gains after a 35% premium debut

2:30 pm Multi Commodity Exchange of India debuted at Rs 1,387.00, up by 355 points or 34.40 percent from its issue price of Rs 1,032 on the BSE.The scrip is currently trading at Rs 1,311.00, up by 279 points or 27.03% after touching a high and low of Rs 1,426.00 and Rs 1,302.25 respectively. So far 4058273 shares were traded on the counter.

ICICI Bank trades 5 percent higher at Rs 900 on plans of setting up infrastructure debt fund. ICICI Bank with other financial insitutions, including Bank of Baroda and Life Insurance Corporation is likely to set up an infrastructure debt fund as a non-banking finance company (NBFC), under the company route.

Metals, capital goods & banks pull Sensex higher

1:30 pm Hindustan Construction Company rises 3.01 percent to Rs. 27.40 on BSE after the company said its board has decided to approach bankers through the corporate debt restructuring process for a re-alignment of the company’s debt.

Axis Bank is trading in the green and is up 3.14 percent after rating agency CARE assigned ‘AAA’ rating to Rs 1,500 crore lower tier II bonds of Axis Bank.

SEAMEC gains 2.32 percent at Rs 95 after the company entered into charter party with National Petroleum Construction Company, Abu Dhabi (NPCC), for charter hire of its vessel ‘Seamec Princess’ in Bombay High. The contract is for a firm period of 30 days with option for extension. The contract value for the firm period would be $1.66 million approximately.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17,450.68 up by 305.16 points or 1.78% after trading as high as 17,508.45 and as low as 17,325.82.

Market focus shifts from L&T to Tata Steel, Cairn India

12:30 pm: Tata Steel is up 5 percent at Rs 443.65 after it increased price of some long products by at least Rs 1,000 a tonne in March. The move will have a positive impact on the company’s operational profits.

Cairn India surges 5.09 percent to Rs. 374.95 on BSE as crude oil futures rose for a third straight day today on speculation that fuel demand will increase as the US labor market improves and on hopes of easing Europe’s debt crisis.

Rajesh Exports is up almost 6 percent at Rs 135.15 after the company said it cleared its obligations towards the issue of foreign currency convertible bonds within the stipulated time.

Around eleven metal shares have surged in the last one hour as China inflation cools to a 20-month low, giving policymakers room to further loosen monetary policy to support slowing growth. Jindal Steel & Power (up 5.36%), JSW Steel (up 5.02%), Nalco (up 4.34%), Tata Steel (up 4.26%), Sesa Goa (up 3.71%), Hindustan Zinc (up 3.61%), Sterlite Industries (up 3.57%), Sail (up 3.03%), Hindalco Industries (up 2.59%), Bhushan Steel (up 2.04%) and NMDC (up 1.07%), edged higher.

Why Kingfisher is flying after falling 6 percent

11:30 AM L&T shares jump 5 percent after AM Naik, the chairman, announced that the company will appoint K Venkataramanan as the CEO and MD. Venkataraman is a L&T veteran and has been with the company since 1969**.**

Bharti Airtel rises 1.55 percent on introducing one-day Bridge DataRoam Unlimited -an all new international data roaming plan for its postpaid mobile customers.

ICICI Bank rises 4.6 percent and bigger rival State Bank of India gained 3.3 percent on hopes the central bank would further reduce the cash reserve ratio – the proportion of deposits that banks must keep with the central bank

Meanwhile, the Sensex has gained around 2 percent on broadbased buying. The pullback seems to be largely driven by short covering after the market appeared set for a third weekly decline.

Why is Jet shooting up when Kingfisher’s woes are its peak?

10:30 am Jet Airways is currently trading 5 percent higher at Rs 292.70 on the Bombay Stock Exchange after the airline said on Thursday it has paid February salary dues to 75 percent of the staff**.** Remaining staff to be paid on the designated date as per schedule in thie first week of March. The company also said it has conveyed salary disbursal schedule to all staff and will honor all obligations to cos employees and external stakeholders.

Meanwhile**, Kingfisher Airlines** is trading marginally higher at Rs 21 after the airline said it is unable to pay IATA as its bank accounts have been frozen. The airline has stated that the IATA suspension will not impact flight operations and that it expects bank accounts to be reactivated shortly.Kingfisher sources told CNBC-TV18 that the Income Tax department has sent a showcause notice to the KFA management.KFA owes over Rs 300 crore to I-T department over TDS dues**.**

ABB is up 1 percent at Rs 831.95 on the BSE after reports said that the company plans to foray into the engineering, procurement and construction space for solar projects in India.

HCL Technologies has gained almost 2 percent at Rs 494.80 on the BSE as it signed a $300 million, five-year contract from Finland’s UPM-Kymmene CoKp to provide information technology infrastructure services.

Meanwhile, the MCX IPO has seen a steller listing today, the stock is currently trading at a premium of 33 percent at Rs 1355.

MTNL is up 3 and a half percent as LIC plans to divest its18.81% stake in the company through private placement of shares**.**

TATA Motors arm Jaguar Land Rover plans to set up an engine manufacturing facility in the country, the stock is up 3.17 percent**.**

Block deal in RCom, MCX gains 35% in pre-open trade

9:30 am Markets are open higher with the Nifty at 5298, up 76 points after falling for three-consecutive days, helped by signs of Greece moving closer to averting a default, which could bolster global risk appetite.Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex rose 1.6 percent at 17,434, led by gains in ICICI Bank and energy conglomerate Reliance Industries .

As Firstpost noted earlier, most analysts back home expect the market to remain volatile in the run-up to the budget and the monetary policy review next week.

All metal stocks, which fell off in the last couple of sessions like Tata Steel, Hindalco, have bounced back.Even banking stocks and capital goods are performing well, raising hopes of a pre-budget rally after all.

There was a block deal of 2 crore (1% equity) Reliance Communications shares on BSE, reports CNBC-TV18. The stock touched an intraday high of Rs 94.75 and an intraday low of Rs 93. At 09:28 hrs the share was quoting at Rs 94, up Rs 1.70, or 1.84%.

[caption id=“attachment_238642” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Kingfisher Airlines , which is a dead duck now and has seen a consistent flow of bad news, is trading choppy further after the International Air Transport Association (IATA) suspended the debt-crippled carrier from its account settlement system due to non-payment of fees. Reuters”] [/caption]

Meanwhile, MCX , which raised way over Rs 660 crore in an initial public

offering, is likely to debut at a premium to the issue price of Rs 1,381 a share. MCX was at Rs 1,395 (near to expected price), up 35% over issue price of Rs 1032 in pre-opening session.

Kingfisher Airlines , which is a dead duck now and has seen a consistent flow of bad news, is trading choppy further after the International Air Transport Association (IATA) suspended the debt-crippled carrier from its account settlement system due to non-payment of fees, dealing a fresh blow to the airline as it seeks funds to stay aloft. Meanwhile, the Income Tax department a showcause notice to the airline’s top management. Adding to its woes, oil companies have stopped fuel supply to KFA for non-payment of dues. The stock closed 6.25 percent lower on Wednesday.

Financial Technologies, one of the major stakeholders in MCX, is trading 2 percent higher int he run up to the listing of MCX.

Mahindra Satyam has acquired vCustomes’s BPO business for $27 million. Meanwhile, the L&T board is set to meet today to discuss the acquisition of Hexaware . The stock isup 4 percent.

Business Standard reports that LIC wants to exit MTNL via private placement. LIC currently holds 18.8 percent stake in the company. MTNL has opened 3 percent higher at Rs 30.

Hexaware is up nearly 5 percent as the L&T board meets today to decide its bid for the company.

Jet Airways is up about 5 percent, doing much better than Kingfisher Airlines as Chairman Naresh Goyal met senior pilots at his residence at Peddar Road in Mumbai on Thursday and reportedly assured them of timely payments.

Meanwhile, China inflation has slowed to a 20-month low, giving policy makers more elbow room to try and boost economic growth.Consumer prices rose 3.2% from a year earlier last month, the National Bureau of Statistics said today. That was less than a median estimate of 3.4% and January’s 4.5% pace.