Sensex, Nifty end flat after a choppy session; Nifty PSU Bank index falls

Catch all that happened in the market here

1:20 PM

83% of money-laundering cases since note ban related to shell firms, realty

 

The Enforcement Directive (ED), after investigating 3,700 cases of money laundering involving tainted assets worth Rs 9,935 crore, found that the Indian economy faces a bigger threat from cheating and corruption than it does from drugs and arms smuggling.

 

ED conducted a risk assessment exercise of these cases to show the number and type of cases booked after Narendra Modi-led demonetisation drive. Surprisingly, 83 per cent of the cases registered by the ED in the past one year related to financial institutions and real estate, reported The Times of India.  READ MORE

1:06 PM

Interview of the day

 

Ratings upgrade is a welcome move as it will bring down the cost of overseas borrowings for Indian corporates, especially the ones with high-cost domestic debt on their books, ARUN THUKRAL, managing director and chief executive officer at Axis Securities tells Business Standard. He also shares his market outlook for the next year and the sector preferences in this backdrop. READ FULL INTERVIEW HERE

12:54 PM

Buzzing stock

 

Eris Lifesciences has surged 7% to Rs 628 on the BSE after the company announced that it has acquired Strides’ India branded generics business for an aggregate cash consideration of Rs 500 crore. READ MORE

 

12:40 PM

How long can HDFC Life maintain the IPO zing?

 

Coming from the HDFC stable and that too an initial public offering (IPO) after 22 years, hopes were high on HDFC Standard Life (HDFC Life).

 

The company, too, didn’t disappoint its investors one bit. In fact, with listing gains of 19 per cent, HDFC Life’s stock market debut has far exceeded the show put up by ICICI Prudential Life Insurance (I-Pru Life) last year, or even the recent entry of SBI Life.  Interestingly, I-Pru Life is the market leader in the private life insurance space, with SBI Life taking the second spot, while HDFC Life trails both. READ FULL ANALYSIS

12:15 PM

Cement shares trade weak

 

Shares of cement companies were under pressure with most of the stocks down in the range of 2% to 5% on the BSE.

 

JK Lakshmi Cement and Shree Cement were down 4% each, while JK Cements, Birla Corporation, India Cements, HeidelbergCement India, The Ramco Cement, ACC and Amubja Cements were trading lower in the range of 2% to  3% on the BSE. On comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading flat at 33,334 at 11:06 AM. READ MORE

12:01 PM

Mayuresh Joshi on Moody's rating upgrade

 

The fact that India could sustain high growth at a time when the entire world was struggling is a testimony to the economy’s resilience. Remember, all this was done without letting the fiscal deficit out of control and adhering to the strictest standards of fiscal responsibility. To be fair, the one redeemable feature of this upgrade was that it was better late than never. READ FULL VIEW 

11:43 AM

Broader markets outperform 

The S&P BSE Midcap and the S&P BSE Smallcap indices gained 0.3% and 0.6%, respectively. 

11:37 AM

Markets check 

At 11:35 am, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 33,367, up 25 points, while the broader Nifty50 was ruling at 10,284, up 0.75 point.

11:17 AM

HDFC Standard Life extends gain

 

HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company rallied 4% to Rs 359 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in intra-day trade, extending its Friday’s 19% gain on debut, after the foreign institutional investor (FII) bought the stake in the company through open market.

 

HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company soared as much as 27% to Rs 369 on Friday on its debut listing. The share closed at Rs 345, up Rs 55 or 19% from its Initial Public Offer (IPO) allotment. The company issued shares at price of Rs 290 per share. READ MORE

10:57 AM

India Inc faces commodity rally challenge to manage costs

 

The rally in commodity prices is about to complete two years and there are indications that prices will either consolidate or reach higher levels.

 

However, the rising commodity prices have posed a challenge for companies, especially consumer firms, which have to manage raw material costs. In the past two years, prices of most commodities are up between 30 and 100 per cent, and many companies are now working on active price management and hedging raw materials to protect both costs and margins. READ FULL REPORT

10:43 AM

Edelweiss Securities on Moody's rating upgrade

 

A rating upgrade is more than symbolic even as investors have remained upbeat on India for a long time (even when it was at Baa3) as was evident in the robust capital inflows! Recently, China was downgraded by Moody’s (Sep’17), South Africa was downgraded by Moody’s (Jun’17), Brazil’s outlook was revised to negative from stable – all of this suggests that India would definitely stand to gain from this development as it bolsters investor sentiment and allows investors to invest (or add to portfolio) in Indian local currency bonds. In fact, once some of the overhangs are behind us or even recede, the negative bias that has pushed yield on the 10Y north of 7.0% (from the levels of 6.50% seen around 3M ago), yields should recover to lower levels. The upgrade will also have a beneficial impact on corporate India borrowing, both onshore and offshore, as corporate will find it easier to borrow via the bond markets and diversify their investor base.

10:16 AM

Buzzing stock

 

Biocon surged 7% to Rs 420 on the BSE in early morning trade after the company said its facility received Establishment Inspection Report (EIR) with VAI (voluntary action indicated) status and closed the inspection.

 

The stock is trading close to its 52-week high of Rs 424 touched on July 19, 2017 in intra-day trade. READ FULL REPORT

10:06 AM

Marketc check at 10:05 am

Index	Current	Pt. Change	% Change
S&P BSE SENSEX	33,339.30	-3.50	-0.01
S&P BSE SENSEX 50	10,715.94	-0.66	-0.01
S&P BSE SENSEX Next 50	35,454.28	-71.61	-0.20
S&P BSE 100	10,739.39	-3.99	-0.04
S&P BSE Bharat 22 Index	3,728.03	+4.82	+0.13

Source: BSE

9:47 AM

Moody's milder on India than S&P, Fitch

 

Moody’s Investors Service, which upgraded India’s rating by a notch after almost 14 years, has been more liberal over recent years in terms of rating the country’s ability to service debt, compared to peers Fitch and Standard & Poor’s. READ FULL REPORT

9:36 AM

Oil PSUs betting on natural gas as next big thing

 

India’s state oil refiners are planning an aggressive push into natural gas in coming years to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goal of making the fuel a bigger part of the country’s energy mix.

 

State-owned oil companies - Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum - are planning to raise gas contributions to between 5 and 15 per cent of their incomes over the next few years, up from nearly none now, company executives said. READ FULL REPORT