Indices wave goodbye to 2017 on a positive note; Nifty ends above 10,500

All that happened in today's trade

12:30 PM

Soon, Venezuela to launch oil-backed Bitcoin-like cryptocurrency

 

Venezuela's cryptocurrency will launch within days and be backed by 5.3 billion barrels of oil worth $267 billion, in a bid to offset a deep financial crisis, the socialist government said on Thursday.

 

President Nicolas Maduro surprised many earlier this month when he announced the "petro" cryptocurrency, to be backed by OPEC member Venezuela's oil, gas, gold and diamond reserves.

 

Despite the scepticism of cryptocurrency experts who do not think Venezuela has the wherewithal to pull it off, communications minister Jorge Rodriguez said the first petro offering would come within days. READ MORE

12:14 PM

Sensex logs best annual gain in three years; 227 stocks rally up to 1455%

 

As 2017 draws to a close, the S&P BSE Sensex looks set to log best yearly gain in the last three years. Thus far in CY17, the index has gained 27%, while the S&P BSE Midcap and the S&P BSE Smallcap indices have surged 48% and 60%, respectively, on the back of a strong rally in metal, automobiles, telecom, banking, capital goods, consumer durables and realty shares. 

 

The strong net inflows of over Rs 1-lakh-crore by the domestic mutual funds have led the rally in equity markets. The mutual funds have made net investments of Rs 1.17-lakh crore in equities market, as compared to Rs 51,492 crore net inflows by the foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) till December 27, 2017, the Sebi data shows.

 

The year saw the Sensex, Nifty, Midcap and Smallcap indices zooming to their respective new highs. READ MORE

11:51 AM

India's 1st bitcoin trading app out; allows transaction with mobile number

 

At a time when bitcoins are in focus also for the wrong reasons, cryptocurrency dealer Pluto Exchange on Thursday announced the launch of India's first mobile application for transacting in virtual currencies.

 

At a press conference here, Pluto Exchange founder and Chief Executive Bharat Verma said his company is all set to launch the country's first app-based wallet that enables bitcoin transactions using a mobile number.

 

"The Pluto Exchange mobile app offers a solution to the coordination problem between payment processors, financial gateways and banks," Verma said. READ MORE

11:35 AM

Don't bank too much on bank stocks

 

One axiom of modern economics is that a financial crisis takes longer to mitigate than a crisis in any other given sector. Finance is the life-blood of every sector and a crisis in finance affects every other sector. At a global level, we’ve seen this since the so-called Subprime Crisis in 2008.

 

The global economy has still not fully recovered despite interventions by central banks. India has been in the middle of an unacknowledged bank crisis since 2012-13. It started with the government opening up the liquidity tap to combat the second stage of the global financial crisis. READ MORE

11:18 AM

Amulya Leasing & Finance up 5% after stake sale by promoter

 

Amulya Leasing & Finance is locked in upper circuit of 5% at Rs 624, extending its Thursday’s 5% gain on the BSE after the promoter Sameer Gupta sold his entire 35.19% stake in the company through an open market transaction. The stock is trading at its 52-week high levels.

 

On December 28, 2017, Sameer Gupta offloaded 1.76 million equity shares representing 35.19% stake of Amulya Leasing & Finance for Rs 98.22 crore on the BSE. The promoter had sold these shares at price of Rs 557.13 per share, the bulk deal data shows.

 

As on September 2017, Gupta held almost similar stake in the company, according to the BSE data. READ MORE

11:05 AM

Market Check

Index	Current	Pt. Change	% Change
S&P BSE SENSEX	33,991.86	+143.83	+0.42
S&P BSE SENSEX 50	10,961.79	+42.68	+0.39
S&P BSE SENSEX Next 50	36,937.15	+291.87	+0.80
S&P BSE 100	11,019.19	+50.37	+0.46
S&P BSE Bharat 22 Index	3,781.55	+21.98	+0.58

10:50 AM

Astron Paper makes strong debut; stock zooms 141% against issue price

 

Astron Paper & Board Mill made a stellar debut and was locked in upper circuit at Rs 120.75, up 141% against its issue price of Rs 50 per share on the National Stock Exchange (NSE). On BSE, it froze at Rs 120 with no sellers seeing on the counter.

 

The stock of paper manufacturer listed at Rs 115 on the NSE and at Rs 114 on the BSE. A combined 6.11 million shares changed hands and there were pending buy orders for 315,927 shares on the both the exchanges.

 

The stock is trading under trade-to-trade (T2T) or T segment in which no intra-day trading is allowed for shares falling in that segment, as each trade results in delivery. Transactions placed in this segment have to be mandatorily settled on gross basis i.e. by taking or giving delivery even if you have bought and sold the shares during the same settlement cycle. READ MORE

10:39 AM

Mutual funds wary of rising inflows

 

Continuous large inflows with expectations of high returns by investors are unnerving executives in the mutual fund industry, which now manages nearly Rs 23 lakh crore of assets, more than three times of what it did five years ago.   “When inflows become so large, management becomes an issue,” said a chief executive of a fund house. “The risks attached become equally important if we want many more happy investors,” he added. READ MORE

10:21 AM

China Development Bank in talks with RCom as firm plans to reduce debt

 

China Development Bank, a creditor of Reliance Communications Ltd, said it is in talks with the Indian wireless carrier, following a plan by the Anil Ambani-backed firm to reduce its debts.

 

Any progress will be disclosed in the near future, the Chinese bank told Reuters late Thursday in response to a request for comment on the Indian carrier's debt-reduction plan.

 

RCom, as the Indian carrier is known, announced on Tuesday a plan to slash its debt by 390 billion rupees ($6.1 billion) underpinned by the sale of some of its spectrum, tower, fibre and real estate assets for which the company said it has already received some non-binding offers. READ MORE

10:06 AM

RCom to sell wireless business to Reliance Jio; stock hits 52-week high

 

Shares of Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Communications (RCom) zoomed 35% to Rs 41.77, also its 52-week high on the BSE in early morning trade after Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio said it will acquire RCom's mobile business assets including spectrum, mobile towers and optical fibre network of the company. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the stock rallied 30% to Rs 40.15 in intra-day trade.

 

"Reliance Jio Infocomm, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited, today announced signing of definitive agreement for the acquisition of specified assets of Reliance Communications Limited and its affiliates," Reliance Jio said in a statement.

 

“The company expects the transactions to close in a phased manner between January and March 2018, subject to lenders’ and other applicable approvals,” RCom said in a statement. READ MORE

9:42 AM

Year-end rise in yields puts banks in the soup

 

With yields rising sharply, banks are caught between a rock and a hard place. And as the quarter for the banks ends on Friday, the treasury departments are hoping the yields scale back so that their losses, even nominal, can be minimised.

 

The yields on 10-year bonds have risen about 96 basis points since August even after a rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in that month. 

 

From the start of this quarter, the yield movement so far has been about 73 basis points. One basis point is a hundredth of a percentage point. READ MORE

9:31 AM

Sectoral Trend

Source: NSE

9:27 AM

Top Sensex gainers and losers

Source: BSE

9:19 AM

Broader Markets

Broader markets were outperforming the benchmark indices with BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap indices up 0.6% and 0.5% respectively

9:19 AM

Markets Open

At 9:17 am, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 33,941, up 93 points while the broader Nifty50 index was  ruling at 10,505, up 27 points