Nifty ends short of 5,250; defensives FMCG gains 2 percent

4.00 pm: Markets are far off from making up for losses yesterday but at least, ended in green for the day. Nifty is flat at 5243, still below that 5,250 mark. Sensex is up 21 points at 17,243.

The biggest gainer of the day was the FMCG index, up almost 2 percent. Stocks that pulled up the FMCG index were Nestle India (up 4.45 percent), Emami (up 3.3 percent), HUL (up 2.63 percent) and ITC (up 2.19 percent).

Capital goods, IT, Metal and Oil and Gas has been the biggest losers.

Indraprastha Gas which received a jolt this morning with a 60 percent revision in tariff, ended down 33.7 percent. Nomura, Standard Chartered and Citi have Buy targets on the stock with target price of Rs 550, Rs 473 and Rs 420 respectively. Only HSBC has downgraded the stock with target price of Rs 150. They say, if the new tariff holds, the networth of the company will be completely eroded.

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Patni was up 2 percent after iGate accepted the delisting offer at Rs 520 a share, higher than current market price of Rs 505.65. The management has said they have managed to get $265 mn bank loan required for the delisting.

Reliance Communication is evaluating a potential IPO of Flag Telecom. Moneycontrol Sources say that Flag Telecom is valued around Rs 7,500-10,000 Cr and equity offering of up to 75 percent could be considered. The stock ended up 3.3 percent.

ITC, HUL, Tata Motors pull Nifty back to 5,250

3.00 pm: Sensex turns positive, though marginally so, up just 35 points at 17,259. Nifty is up 15 points at 5250. It will be worth seeing if it manages to end the day above 5250 mark. The rest of the week will see RBI’s policy review, IIP and inflation data and Infosys results: host of things that have kept the market in wait and watch mode.

Europe is also in bad mood today with Dax (-0.75 percent), FTSE (-0.76 percent) and CAC (-1.07 percent) all in red.

Sensex has however recovered with Reliance Industries turning positive up 0.3 percent. Markets have been helped by cigarette major ITC (up 2.25 percent), commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors (up 2.7 percent), FMCG major HUL (up 2.5 percent) and Tata Power (up 3.3 percent).

Hindustan Zinc doubles output in Q4; stock up 2%

1.45 pm: Metal companies Cairn India, Sterlite, Hindustan Zinc and Sesa Goa have come out with their output for the fourth quarter and the whole year. Hindustan ZInc is the only company whose refined lead output was up 110 percent at 37,000 tonne. the stock quickly gained 2 percent as a result.

Sesa Goa and Sterlite suffered as Vedanta posted a drop in full-year iron ore output, as a ban on mining in Karnataka and logistical bottlenecks continued to bite. In the fourth quarter, Sesa Goa reported iron ore sales of 5.2 million tonnes, down by 21 percent from the 6.6 million tonnes in the corresponding quarter. The Bombay High Court has also slapped a notice on Sesa Goa for violating ore transportation norms. The stock is down 2.54 percent while Sterlite is down 2 percent.

Hindalco and Sterlite are suffering on concern demand and prices of aluminum and copper may decline as China, the world’s biggest base metals buyer, reins in stimulus measures, Bloomberg reported. Hindalco is down 1.6 percent.

Infosys has fallen nearly 3 percent ahead of results that schedule to be announced on Friday.

Sensex and Nifty has been range-bound through the day. Sensex is down 24 points at 17,198 while Nifty is flat at 5,228.

Cairn up 2.4% on approval for doubling output

12.45 pm: Cairn India for raising output from its largest fields in the Rajasthan block by 25,000 barrels per day. Mangala oilfield, the largest of the 25 oil and gas finds Cairn has made in Barmer block in Thar desserts of Rajasthan, currently produces 125,000 bpd.

Mint earlier reported Cairn believes Bhagyam has an ultimate potential of 60,000 bpd which can be reached with after making some more investment. The stock gained 2.35 percent almost immediately after PTI reported the approval.

Sensex is hovering around the day’s low points down 50 points at 17,173. Nifty is trading at 5,222.

Reliance Industries is down 0.3 percent and state-owned oil & gas producer ONGC lost 1.2 percent. If the regulators, following the IGL tariff revisions, start curbing marketing margins, RIL would also be affected. The oil and gas sector has recovered some of its losses and is down 0.7 percent now.

SBI after seeing some seeling yesterday has gained almost 1 percent today, while ICICI Bank continued its losses and is down 1 percent today.

Patni up 2% ahead of results, Sensex in red

11.30 am: Markets have come off the day’s high and is in the red now. Sensex is down 12 points at 17,209 while Nifty is flat at 5,233.

FMCG index is up 1.4 percent, while auto which saw heavy selling yesterday being a rate sensitive sector is up 0.3 percent today.

Oil and gas undoubtedly is the worst performing sector after the IGL tariff revision while metal and IT also shed 0.6-0.9 percent in today’s trade.

Metal stocks like Tata Steel (-1.4 percent) and Sesa Goa (-1.9 percent) continue to do badly after a selling session yesterday as well.

Patni Computer is up 2 percent ahead of results today. The IT index is however not doing so well with Infosys losing about 1 percent and HCL Tech losing 1.8 percent.

Thomas Cook up 9% on stake sale report, Sensex flat

10.30 am: Sensex still has not recovered from previous day’s losses and is just 17 points up in early trade today. Nifty is up 9 points at 5243, which is lower than the crucial mark of 5250.

Thomas Cook has touched a 52 week high of Rs 74.90 and is currently trading at Rs 69. Thomas Cook saw heavy buying after Business Standard reported that Travelex has appeared as a top bidder for its stake sale offering price between Rs 90 and 95.

The major focus is on gas stocks after Indraprastha Gas was asked to lower the tariff by around 60 percent. IGL has recovered some of its losses and is trading around 30 percent lower. Other gas stocks have also began suffering with Petronet LNG down 3.8 percent and Gujarat gas down 6.7 percent and Gail India down 3 percent.

HSBC has already downgraded the stock to Underweight with a target price of Rs 150.

The index leader has been FMCG stocks with Nestle India gaining more than 5 percent.

Some stocks like Union Bank, Andhra Bank, Hindustan ZInc, JSW Steel that had seen heavy selling yesterday have recovered gaining 1.5-3 percent.

Sensex flat, IGL crashes 46% on likely Rs 1,000 cr hit

9:30 am Indian markets start flat as investors resort to some short covering a day after severely pounding the equity indices. While the Sensex opened up 28 points 17250, thee Nifty was at 5243, up 9 points from yesterday’s close.

Markets are a bit on the edge as uncertainty looms over the GAAR provisions amid reports that FIIs have asked the government to remove the applicability of GAAR to foreign portfolio investment.

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Wipro, TCS, DLF, Tata Power, Bharti Airtel, Cipla, were among the notable leaders in and Coal India, ONGC, HDFC Bank, Maruti, Gail India,BHEL,Tata Steel, were among the notable losers.

Indraprastha Gas Ltd (IGL) crashes 45 percent to Rs 188 in opening trade after the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board directed IGL to reduce prices for Delhi consumers with effect from Monday after factoring in the reduction in both network rates (levied on CNG, PNG and industrial consumers) and the compression charges on CNG. The Hindu Business Line reported that the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board asked the company to refund excess tariff.

Besides, the textile stocks are in focus today as government has refused to lift the ban on cotton exports while allowing traders to fulfill their pending contracts of about two million bales of the commodity.

Meanwhile, a RBI data showed Indian companies raised $2.6 billion through external commercial borrowings and foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) in February marginally lower than $2.7 billion mopped up in January.

Department of Disinvestment could be looking to list subsidiaries of central public sector enterprises to reach the Rs 30,000 crore divestment target for FY13.

I-Gate agrees to buy out the minority shareholders of subsidiary Patni Computer Systems and will pay Rs 520 a share and delist the Indian software services company from Indian stock markets.

Bharti Airtel is likely to become the first company to deploy a commercial high-speed wireless broadband service in India. Sources suggest that Airtel, paid Rs 3,314 crore for fourth generation wireless spectrum in the four circles of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab and Kolkata.

Tata Steel’s Jan-Mar total sales come in at 1.77 million tonne versus 1.71 million tonne.