Rallis India Surges As Q1 Net Jumps Four-Fold

Shares of Tata group company Rallis India surged as much as 8 per cent to hit intraday high of Rs 224.90 after the agrochemical company's net profit surged in the June quarter. 

The Mumbai-based company's net profit jumped over four times to Rs 174.20 crore, aided by an exceptional gain of Rs 158 crore on sale of land parcel in Mumbai.

Rallis India's net sales jumped 7 per cent to Rs 467.66 crore on annual basis

As of 10:21 a.m., shares of Rallis India traded 5 per cent higher at Rs 219.35, outperforming the Nifty which was down 0.07 per cent.

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Asian Shares Near 9-Month Peak, Dollar Shines

Tokyo: Asian shares held near nine-month highs on Monday as worries over the impact of Britain's Brexit vote eased amid efforts to maintain growth, while the dollar was buoyed by a run of solid U.S. economic data.

Policy makers from the Group of 20 countries agreed to work to support global growth and better share the benefits of trade, in a weekend meeting dominated by the impact of Britain's exit from Europe and fears of rising protectionism.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.1 percent to stand just below its nine-month peak hit on Thursday. Japan's Nikkei rose 0.4 percent.

U.S. stock prices marked four straight weeks of gains last week, supported by renewed strength in the tech and telecom sectors and a stronger-than-expected report on manufacturing.

The S&P 500 set another record closing high on Friday.

"At the moment, U.S. markets are attracting global funds. Globally there remain risks, such as European financial institutions or the Chinese yuan," said Koichi Yoshikawa, executive director of finance at Standard Chartered Bank in Tokyo.

"We have to see if investors are ready to diversify to other markets than the U.S. in coming weeks," he added.

The strength of U.S. economic data in recent weeks has revived speculation that the Federal Reserve may raise interest rates around the end of year.

Dollar interest rates futures, which had priced out any chance of a rate hike this in the days that followed the UK referendum, are now pricing in about a 40 percent chance of a 0.25 percentage point increase by the end of year.

That is boosting the relative attraction of the dollar in the currency market.

The dollar's index against a basket of six major currencies hit a 4-1/2-month high of 97.543 on Friday and stood at 97.426 in early Monday trade.

As the dollar gains, the euro has been put on back foot, trading at $1.0970. The single currency hit a one-month low of $1.09555 on Friday.

The British pound is also under pressure after surveys showed on Friday business activity had wilted in the wake of the Brexit vote.

The pound traded at $1.3141, near last week's low of $1.3065.

The yen traded at 106.23 per dollar, off last week's six-week low of 107.49.

The yen showed la imited response to comments from Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda on the sidelines of the G20 meeting.

Kuroda said he would ease policy further if necessary to achieve its 2 percent inflation goal, but also said there was no discussion on "helicopter money" - a radical policy of expanding fiscal stimulus financed by printing money.

Oil prices hovered near 2-1/2-month lows after having lost about 4 percent last week on renewed worries about a global crude glut.

Brent crude futures traded at $45.83 per barrel, near Friday's low of $45.17, its lowest since May 11.

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Sensex Trades On Lacklustre Note; Broader Markets Outperform

9:51 a.m.: Oil & gas stocks were witnessing buying interest. The BSE Oil & Gas index was the top sectoral gainer, up 1.3 per cent; Indian Oil, HPCL, Bharat Petroleum, Indraprastha Gas, Petronet LNG and Oil India were among the gainers.

9:41 a.m.: Banking stocks were witnessing selling pressure. The Nifty Bank index was down 0.3 per cent or 52 points at 18,638; Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank and HDFC Bank were among losers.

9:29 a.m.: The broader markets were outperforming the benchmark indices. The BSE Mid-cap and small-cap indices were up 0.5 per cent each. Mphasis was the top gainer from the mid-cap space, up 3.4 per cent to Rs 558.60. MRPL, Indiabulls Housing Finance, HPCL, Bajaj Finserv, Sriram City Union Finance, Oberoi Realty and Oriental Bank of Commerce were also among the gainers, up 1.8-3.3 per cent each.

9.20 a.m.: The BSE Sensex opened nearly 60 points lower while the Nifty50 index fell as much as 20 points to 8,517.20. Auto, FMCG, infra shares witnessed buying while banks, IT and metals stocks saw profit booking.
Axis Bank was the top loser in the Nifty50 index, down over 2 per cent as it missed profit estimates in the Q1 on account of higher bad loans.

8.30 a.m.: The BSE Sensex and the broader Nifty50 index are likely to open flat on Monday, according to futures trading on the Singapore Exchange (SGX). The SGX Nifty traded 5.5 points or 0.06 per cent higher at 8,562.50 as of 08.14 a.m.

Indian stock markets are likely to get support from Asian stocks, which edged higher on hopes of a fresh round of Bank of Japan stimulus later this week. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.1 per cent to stand just below its nine-month peak hit on Thursday. Japan's Nikkei rose 0.4 per cent.

Meanwhile, US stock prices marked four straight weeks of gains last week, supported by renewed strength in the tech and telecom sectors and a stronger-than-expected report on manufacturing. The S&P 500 set another record closing high on Friday.

Foreign institutional investors continued their buying streak in domestic stock markets. On Friday, they bought cash shares worth Rs 438 crore. Domestic institutional investors however were net sellers to the tune of Rs 366 crore.

Corporate earnings will continue to be in focus, with companies such as Bajaj Corp, Canara Bank and Indiabulls Housing Finance, Info Edge reporting Q1 numbers today.

Private lender Axis Bank, which reported a surge in Q1 bad loans on Friday, is likely to make a weak start today. Axis Bank said net profit fell 21 per cent from a year earlier to Rs 1,556 crore, missing analysts' estimate.

Vedanta will also be in focus after it offered to sweeten the terms for taking over subsidiary Cairn India after an initial bid had been stymied for a year.

Under the new offer, Vedanta will give one share and four redeemable preference shares for each share in Cairn India. Earlier it was offering one share and one redeemable preference share for each Cairn share.

The Sensex had closed 93 points or 0.33 per cent higher at 27,803 on Friday, while the Nifty ended 31 points up at 8,541.

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HPCL Shares Hit 52-Week High On Bonus Issue

Shares of state-run Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) surged over 8 per cent to a fresh 52-week high of Rs 1,215 on the National Stock Exchange on Thursday after the oil marketing company's board approved a 2:1 bonus issue.


"The board of directors of the company at its meeting held on July 20, 2016, inter alia, have considered and recommended increase in authorised share capital to Rs.2,500 crore and further recommended capitalisation of reserves and issue of fully paid bonus shares in the ratio of 2 bonus equity share of Rs. 10 each for every 1 existing equity share of Rs. 10 each," HPCL said in a release to Bombay Stock Exchange.

HPCL will seek the approval of its shareholders for the bonus issue in its forthcoming annual general meeting on September 8, 2016.

Bonus share are taken positively by the investor community as it shows management's confidence to service the additional equity (increase its profits and distribute dividends).

As of 11.24 a.m., HPCL shares traded 4.13 per cent higher at Rs 1,167.30 a piece compared to a flat Nifty.

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L&T Infotech Shares Make Weak Debut, Slump 6%

L&T Infotech shares made a weak debut in stock markets on Thursday, falling as much as 6.2 per cent to Rs 666 against their issue price of Rs 710. L&T Infotech, part of the diversified Larsen & Toubro group, joined the list of about a dozen other companies that have come out with their IPOs so far this year.

However, L&T Infotech bucked the trend of stellar listing-day gains seen in case of companies such as Dr Lal PathLabs, Alkem Labs, TeamLease Services, Thyrocare Tech and more recently Mahanagar Gas.

L&T Infotech is a midcap IT company, in the league of Tech Mahindra, Mindtree and Hexaware. Analysts attributed the weak listing of L&T Infotech shares to the current cautious sentiments around the IT sector.

Frontline IT companies such as TCS, Infosys and Wipro have missed Q1 earnings estimates, leading to a selloff in IT stocks. Midcap companies such as Mindtree have also reported weak numbers in the June quarter.

IT companies have reported sluggish revenue growth on account of global headwinds. Concerns around Britain's decision to exit the European Union have also hit IT stocks.

L&T Infotech had raised Rs 1,243-crore in its IPO. The company's IPO had attracted more than one million applications, the highest for any share sale offer in at least five years.

L&T Infotech shares traded 2 per cent lower at Rs 695.60 as of 10.15 a.m., underperforming the Nifty traded 0.1 per cent lower.

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VRL Logistics Shares Jump 20% As Promoters Cancel Airline Plan

VRL Logistics shares jumped 20 per cent on Thursday after the Hubli-based company's promoters withdrew their plan to launch a regional airline.

"There have been several developments including the announcement of the new aviation policy by the center. The regional connectivity related aspects listed in the said policy do not augur well with our planned business model envisaged for the proposed activity," said Vijay Sankeshwar, promoter of VRL Logistics, in a statement yesterday.

The decision to not go ahead with a regional airline is seen as a boost for VRL Logistics, whose shares have been under severe pressure since the plan was announced in May. VRL Logistics shares are down over 21 per cent since May 23, when the promoters had first announced the plan to launch a  regional airline.

G Chokkalingam of Equinomics told NDTV Profit that it is certainly a positive development and the management has been taught a lesson.

VRL Logistics promoters wanted to incorporate a separate company to start a regional airline. They wanted to sell a minority stake in VRL Logistics to raise Rs 1,400 crore for the airline, according to reports.

With the airline overhang out of the way, investors expect VRL Logistics promoters to focus on the core business, analysts said.

Mr Chokkalingam however advised investors against putting money in VRL Logistics shares. Valuations of many companies in the logistics sector are "super-rich" and hence not sustainable, he added.

VRL Logistics, which came out with its IPO in April 2015, had a spectacular listing last year. Its shares gained over 50 per cent (against issue price of Rs 205) on the day of listing. VRL Logistics made a 52-week high of Rs 479 in September last year.

As of 09.48 a.m., VRL Logistics shares traded 15 per cent higher at Rs 360, outperforming the broader market that traded lower.

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Sensex, Nifty Turn Flat; Energy Stocks Outperform

9.20 a.m.: The BSE Sensex and the Nifty turned flat after opening marginally higher. The Sensex gained as much as 70 points to 27,988.76 while the 50-shares Nifty added nearly 20 points to touch a high of 8,585.20.

Energy shares witnessed buying tracking overnight gains in the crude oil. Oil marketing companies like BPCL, IOC surged over 1 per cent each. Among the Nifty50 stocks Ambuja Cement was the top gainer, up 1.25 per cent followed by ACC and BPCL.

8.35 a.m.: The BSE Sensex and the broader Nifty are likely to open flat on Thursday, according to futures trade on the Singapore Exchange (SGX). The Nifty, which closed at 8,566 on Wednesday, traded 4.50 points lower at 8,584.50 on the SGX as of 08.20 a.m.

Domestic investors will be tracking quarterly earnings closely. The June quarter has not been impressive so far, with all big IT companies - TCS, Infosys and Wipro - missing estimates. Reliance Industries is the only big corporate to outperform so far.

Index heavyweight ITC and private lenders Kotak Bank and HDFC Bank will report their quarterly numbers today.

Meanwhile, global analysts continue to be bullish on India. CLSA's Laurence Balanco said today that India is leading the breakout among emerging markets and the recent surge has bullish implications. On Wednesday, Morgan Stanley has upped its Sensex target to 30,000.

Foreign institutional investors, who have been net buyers of domestic equities this month, purchased cash shares worth another Rs 215 crore on Wednesday. Domestic investors were net sellers to the tune of Rs 45 crore.

The Sensex and Nifty are likely to get psychological boost from Asian markets, which climbed to nine-month highs on Thursday.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.3 per cent, its highest level since October 2015 after earnings overnight helped push both the Dow Jones industrial average and the S&P 500 to record highs.

"Investors are optimistic on the outlook for Asian equities compared to developed markets and despite the looming geopolitical uncertainty so we are advising clients to buy on dips," said a markets strategist at a U.S. bank in Hong Kong

Portfolio inflows to emerging market assets rose to the highest level in nearly three years last week, according to the latest survey by the Institute of International Finance.

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