Sensex Drops Most In Two Weeks; Idea Cellular Loses 10% After Merger Nod

Indian equities dropped the most in two weeks as investors sold technology and bank stocks after a record rally that took key benchmarks to record highs.

The S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.4 percent to 29,518 while the NSE Nifty lost 0.3 percent to end trade at 9,126. Both the indices declined the most in little over two weeks.

The market breadth was evenly spread between buyers and sellers. About 842 stocks declined, 802 advanced and 291 remained unchanged.

Jay Thakkar, technical analyst at Anand Rathi expects the Nifty should remain in a range of 9,000-9,200 until the expiry.

He said the market look sideways to positive till 9,000 levels are not broken on a closing basis. “If it breaks above 9,200 then it may head to 9,400 and if it breaks below 9,000 then it may head to 8,700,” he told BloombergQuint in a phone conversation.

Thakkar is bullish on cement, I.T. and capital goods stocks. “In terms of stocks, I like Cadila and Havells right now,” he said.

• Gains as much as 9.8 percent today, extending its winning streak to four sessions.
• Up 13.2 percent the last four days.
• Volumes at 35.6 times its previous 20-day average
• Speciality chemicals manufacturer has a market cap of Rs 130 crore.

Shares of tyre companies rose between 1 to 3 percent on reports the commerce ministry will meet tyre companies to discuss anti-dumping duty on March 28.

The Directorate General of Anti-dumping and Allied Duties, in its investigation, has found sufficient prima facie evidence of dumping of the tyres by Chinese companies, newswire PTI reported on Sunday.

Countries initiate anti-dumping probes to determine if the domestic industry has been hurt by a surge in below-cost imports.

Shares of Apollo Tyres and Goodyear India rose more than 2 percent each, MRF was up 1.2 percent, JK Tyre gained 2.9 percent while CEAT rose nearly 2 percent.

• State Bank of India has 75 lakh shares change hands in a block deal
• Reliance Industries has 12 percent equity change hands in four block deals
• Magma Fincorp has 11.9 percent equity change hands in a block deal
• Idea Cellular has 30 lakh shares change hands in a block deal
• Trent has 92 lakh shares trade in a block deal
• NCC has 52.2 lakh shares change hands in two block deals.
• L&T Finance has 56 lakh shares change hands in a blocks

Oriental Hotels' 3-Day Surge

• Gains as much as 16.3 percent today, extending its winning streak to three consecutive sessions.
• Rises 28 percent in the last three trading sessions
• Volumes at 78 times its previous 20-day average
• The hotels operator has a market cap of Rs 575 crore
• Indian Hotels Company Ltd. owns 18.91 percent stake as of 31 December 2016.

Shares of the country third largest telecom operator jumped as much as 14.5 percent and then dropped as much as 13 percent after it approved merging Vodafone India and Vodafone Mobile services with itself.

As per the company’s press release, Vodafone will own 45.1 percent of combined company after transferring around 4.9 percent to Idea founders for Rs 3,874 crore in cash concurrent with merger. The transaction is expected to be completed in 2018.

Idea founders will hold 26 percent of the combined company and balance will be with the public. The deal is subject to necessary approvals.

For more details on deal structure etc., click HERE

Pawan Munjal, Renu Munjal, Sumant Kant Munjal of promoter entity Brijmohan Lal Om Prakash Partnership Firm to transfer 8.97 percent stake to another promoter entity Bahadur Chand Investments

• Transfer of shares to be carried out at prevailing market price on March 24, 2017
• Acquisition price will not be higher than 25 percent premium to Rs 3,180 per share (i.e. Rs 3,975 per share)

The rupee strengthened by 9 paise to trade at 65.37 against the dollar in opening trade.

A weak dollar in overseas markets and selling of the U.S. currency by exporters and banks supported the rupee in opening trade, forex dealers said. Further, a higher opening in the domestic equity market and strong FII inflows influenced the rupee uptrend, they added.

On Friday, the rupee had lost 5 paise to end at 65.46 against the U.S. currency on dollar demand from importers and suspected RBI intervention, ending its four-day winning streak.

(PTI)

Indian shares declined for the first time in three sessions, led by financial and technology stocks as investors take a breather after the recent run in benchmarks to record highs.

The S&P BSE Sensex dropped 0.4 percent to 29,536 after opening marginally higher. While the NSE Nifty 50 index fell 0.3 percent to 9,128. The market breadth was skewed in favour of the buyers though. About 823 stocks advanced, 672 declined and 423 remained unchanged.

Movers & Shakers: Idea Cellular, Dena Bank, HSIL, Smartlink

Early trade in Asia is pointing toward the possibility of a positive opening for Indian currency, given that most regional currencies are trading higher.

Now that's because the Dollar Index is down for a fourth day after a measure of long-term U.S. inflation expectations dropped to a record low.

India's rupee, of course, has been on the rise and it reached a 16-month high last week, and completed a fourth straight weekly gain.

And while Indian sovereign bonds joined the rupee in capping a weekly gain on Friday, the big question on everybody's minds is how much further can the currency go from here.

• Engineers India to consider a proposal for buy-back shares
• HCL Technologies to consider a proposal for buy-back of shares
• Hindustan Zinc to consider second mid-year dividend
• Jammu & Kashmir Bank to consider issuing 36.56 million shares to J&K Govt at Rs 68.39 apiece
• Oil India to consider the proposal for buy-back shares
• Adani Group: Aims to begin mining Australian coal in 2020
• HSIL: Says gets pollution board order to close Kaharani unit
• IDBI Bank: To consider preferential issue on March 21
• Indiabulls Real Estate: Says sold 1b rupees of convertible debenture
• Marico: To acquire equivalent to 45 percent in Zed Lifestyle
• Reliance Capital: CPSE second ETF FFO gets oversubscribed by 3.7 times
• MCX: Sebi plans to allow futures trading in diamond (PTI)

For a complete list of stocks to watch, click HERE

• BJP leader and five-time MP from Gorakhpur Yogi Adityanath takes over as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh
• Russia’s support to Indian defense platform critical: Jaitley
• India buys back Rs 3,060 crore of bonds: RBI Statement
• Forex reserves rise $98.6 million to $364.1 billion in week to March 10: RBI
• Software stocks: Cognizant said to likely fire over 6,000 employees (ET Now)
• Vietnam urges India to lift ban on some farm products
• Global funds buy Rs 1,530 crore of local stocks; domestic funds sell Rs 712 crore yesterday: Provisional data
• Mnuchin at G-20 plays nice while snubbing rules of world trade
• India provident fund to invest up to 15 percent in stock market (PTI)
• Indian state bans sale of Coca-Cola zero at McDonald’s (Times of India)

• Bharti Airtel close to buying Tikona’s spectrum (Mint)
• India’s Sebi says diamond futures trading coming soon (PTI)

Good Morning!

The Singapore traded SGX Nifty, an early indicator of Nifty’s performance in India, gained 0.2 percent to 9,146.

Asian stocks declined in early trade, as a dearth of risk appetite greeted markets at the start of the week. Hang Seng contracts were flat, while Japan’s stock market was closed Monday for a holiday. Meanwhile, the yen touched its strongest since February 28.

Global stocks are coming off their best week since January after central banks in the U.S. and China raised interest rates. Volatility remains low across markets from equities to currencies and fixed income as investors place faith in the emerging global economic recovery.

Oil prices held below $49 a barrel as the increase in U.S. drilling offset the prospect of Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries extending an output-reduction deal and money managers cut bets on rising West Texas Intermediate crude by a record.

U.S. shale producers extended drilling expansion into a 10th month, Baker Hughes Inc. said. Meanwhile, bets on rising WTI crude were reduced by the most on record in data going back to 2006, according to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.