Indices register modest gains

Domestic stocks ended volatile trading session with modest gains, supported by firmness in index pivotals Reliance Industries, TCS and HDFC. The Nifty settled above 10,900 mark. The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was weak.

Key indices opened lower amid mixed global cues and hovered in narrow band in morning trade. Key indices traded near day's low in mid-morning trade. Key indices trimmed losses in early afternoon trade. Benchmarks hit fresh intraday low in afternoon trade. Indices sharply pared losses and were trading near flat line in mid-afternoon trade. Barometers hit fresh intraday high in late trade.

The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, rose 113.31 points or 0.31% to 36,582.74. The index hit high of 36,622.77 and low of 36,225.48 in intraday trade.

The Nifty 50 index rose 18.60 points or 0.17% to 10,912.25. The index hit high of 10,927.90 and low of 10,814.15 in intraday trade.

Broader market witnessed selling pressure. Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.82%. The BSE Small-Cap index fell 1.17%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was weak. On BSE, 781 shares rose and 1776 shares fell. A total of 204 shares were unchanged.

Among index pivotals, Reliance Industries (up 3.52%), TCS (up 0.81%) and HDFC (up 0.87%) advanced.

Bajaj Auto rose 1.67% after the company reported 15% growth in its total vehicles sales to 4.07 lakh units in January 2019 over January 2018. Total domestic sales rose 14% to 2.31 lakh units, while total exports rose 16% to 1.75 lakh units in January 2019 over January 2018. The announcement was made during market hours today, 4 February 2019.

Hero MotoCorp fell 0.22%. The company reported sales of 582,756 units for the month of January 2019. The weak market sentiment from the previous quarter spilled over to January and continued to dampen sales. The industry has been witnessing lower retail off-take in the past few months due to multiple factors, like the credit crunch and higher two-wheeler insurance costs. The announcement was made on Saturday, 2 February 2019.

Tata Motors fell 0.8%. Tata Motors said that as muted consumer sentiments continued in January 2019, the company's commercial and passenger vehicles business sales in the domestic market witnessed a drop of 8% at 54,915 units as against 59,441 units sold over last year. Tata Motors' Commercial Vehicles (CV) domestic sales declined by 6% in January 2019 to 37,089 units, compared to 39,386 units sold last year. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 1 February 2019.

Low customer sentiments caused by non-availability of retail finance and liquidity crunch in the market have also impacted the Passenger Vehicle (PV) Business. The PV domestic sales witnessed a drop of 11%, at 17,826 units, as compared with 20,055 units sold last year. The company's sales from exports (from CV and PV) in January 2019 was at 3,270 units, lower by 37% over last year, due to current liquidity crisis in Nepal, formation of new government in Bangladesh and political uncertainty in Sri Lanka.

Coal India fell 0.54%. Coal India, after market hours on Friday, 1 February 2019, announced the provisional production and offtake figures of the company and its subsidiaries in January 2019. Production increased 0.9% to 57.20 million tonne in January 2019 over January 2018. Offtake fell 2.3% to 52.44 million tonne in January 2019 over January 2018.

L&T declined 1.31%. Water & Effluent Treatment Business of L&T Construction has secured projects from the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Department, Government of Odisha. The Engineering, Procurement and Construction orders have been secured for the execution of Individual rural water supply projects in the Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj districts of Odisha. The aggregate scope of work includes design, engineering, supply and erection of 5,828 Km of transmission and distribution pipelines, construction of 3 Intake structures of aggregate capacity of 82 MLD, 3 water treatment plants of aggregate capacity of 78 MLD, pumping stations and water storage structures.

The project involves automation including measurement of input and output water quantity and quality at each level through suitable SCADA and other instrumentation works. This will cater drinking water for 919 villages in Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj districts of Odisha. The business has also secured add-on orders from some of its existing projects. The announcement was made during trading hours today, 4 February 2019.

Vedanta slipped 0.52%. The company clarified before trading hours today, 4 February 2019, that Volcan Investments (Volcan) and Vedanta Resources, the parent companies of Vedanta, holding more than 50%, have played a significant role in shaping and building Vedanta businesses in a visionary and entrepreneurial manner. Volcan owns a 21% stake (voting interest) in Anglo American Plc (AA Plc). AA Plc is a globally diversified mining business that comprises of De Beers (largest diamond producer), copper, platinum and other precious metals, iron ore, coal and nickel.

Cairn India Holdings (CIHL), an overseas subsidiary of the company, was offered the opportunity by Volcan to invest some of its surplus cash resources in a structured investment representing the economic interest in upside potential of ~24.71 million shares (~1.8% of outstanding shares) of AA Plc. The structure provides significantly higher returns compared to other overseas cash management investments that would typically return around 2%. After careful consideration of the risk adjusted returns of this opportunity relative to other available investments, it elected to invest a portion (which is less than 5% of Group's cash and cash equivalent of around US$5.0bn) of its available cash resources, as part of its cash management activity. The ownership of the underlying shares, and the associated voting interest, remains with Volcan.

The investment now has full capital and downside protection to ensure that the interests of Vedanta shareholders' are protected. The investment was made on an arm's length basis in December 2018, after meeting all governance requirements. The economic interest was valued by an independent valuer and approved by the boards of CIHL and Vedanta Ltd. This was voluntarily and transparently disclosed in the December quarter results. We remain committed at all times to act in the interest of all shareholders and look forward to continued engagement with them.

Titan Company surged 3.47% after consolidated net profit rose 43.49% to Rs 413.19 crore on 35.35% rise in total income to Rs 5934.11 crore in Q3 December 2018 over Q3 December 2017. The result was announced after market hours on Friday, 1 February 2019.

Titan Company said that there was an additional provision of Rs 70 crore in Q3 December 2018 made for investments as part of Treasury operations in inter corporate deposits in the IL&FS group. Titan Company retail chain is 1574 stores, as on 31 December 2018 with the retail area touching 2.02 million sq.ft. nationally for all the brands.

Bhaskar Bhat, Managing Director of Titan Company said that the festive quarter of 2018-19 turned out to be one of the best quarters for jewellery as well as for other businesses - watches and eyewear.

Shares of Xelpmoc Design and Tech settled at Rs 58.80 on BSE, a discount of 10.91% over the initial public offer price of Rs 66. The stock debuted at Rs 56, a discount of 15.15% to the initial public offer (IPO) price. The stock hit a high of Rs 58.80 and low of Rs 56. On BSE, 1,405 shares were traded on the counter. The IPO of Xelpmoc Design and Tech received bids for 66.40 lakh shares, as against 20.40 lakh shares on offer, National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) data showed. The issue was subscribed 3.25 times. The issue opened for subscription on 23 January 2019 and closed on 25 January 2019.

Reliance Communication (RCom) lost 34.91% at Rs 7.55. RCom announced after market hours on Friday, 1 February 2019, that its board reviewed the progress of the company's debt resolution plans since the invocation of SDR on 2nd June 2017. The board noted that, despite the passage of over 18 months, lenders have received zero proceeds from the proposed asset monetization plans, and the overall debt resolution process is yet to make any headway.

In the foreign exchange market, the rupee edged lower against the dollar. The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 71.7450, compared with closing of 71.25 during the previous trading session.

In global commodities markets, Brent crude oil futures edged higher. Brent for April 2019 settlement was up 74 cents at $63.49 a barrel.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will meet during February 5 to 7, 2019 for the Sixth Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Statement for 2018-19. The resolution of the MPC will be placed on the RBI website at 11:45 IST on 7 February 2019.

On the economic front, the total gross GST revenue collected in the month of January 2019 stood at Rs 1,02,503 crore, of which CGST is Rs 17,763 crore, SGST is Rs 24,826 crore, IGST is Rs 51,225 crore (including Rs 24,065 crore collected on imports) and Cess is Rs 8,690 crore (including Rs 902 crore collected on imports). In FY 2018-2019, it is for the third time that GST revenue collection has crossed one lakh crore. The total number of GSTR 3B Returns filed for the month of December up to 31 January 2019 is 73.3 lakh.

The government has settled Rs 18,344 crore to CGST and Rs 14,677 crore to SGST from IGST as regular settlement. The total revenue earned by Central Government and the State Governments after regular settlement in the month of December, 2018 is Rs 36,107 crore for CGST and Rs 39,503 crore for the SGST.

The collection in January 2019 is a significant increase from the collection of Rs 94,725 crore in December 2018, which was a decline from Rs 97,637 crore in November and Rs 1,00,710 crore in October. January 2019 collections are 14% above the January 2018 collections of Rs 89,825 crore. This jump has been achieved despite various tax reductions having come into force that provided major relief to the consumers. The gross GST collections over the last three-month period has been 14% higher than the corresponding period last year, Ministry of Finance said in a statement on 2 February 2019.

Overseas, European stocks were mixed, as market participants monitored another flurry of corporate earnings results. Asian markets ended mixed on Monday. China's financial markets are closed all week for the Lunar New Year holiday.

US stocks managed to close mostly higher Friday after an unexpectedly strong January jobs report. The US economy created 304,000 new jobs in January. At the same time, job growth for December was reduce by 90,000, somewhat blunting the impact of the headline number.

Among other data in the US, the ISM manufacturing index's final reading for January came in at 56.6%, above the initial reading of 54.1%. The IHS Markit final US manufacturing purchasing managers index reading came in at 54.9 in January, up from 53.8 in December.

The University of Michigan raised its reading of consumer sentiment for January from an initial print of 90.7 to 91.2. That compares to a 98.3 reading for December and was the worst final reading since Donald Trump was elected president.

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