Nifty Reclaims 9,100-Mark As Banks, Automakers Lead

Indian shares climbed as gains in banks and automakers offset losses in select energy producers and real estate companies.

The S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.6 percent to 29,409 while the NSE Nifty gained 0.6 percent to reclaim the 9,100-mark. The market breadth was skewed in favour of the buyers at 2:1.

The market continues to be driven by liquidity; the only difference is that the money is coming in from tier II and III cities, said Ajay Srivastava, managing director at Dimensions Consulting.

He said this liquidity will dry up only if there are other alternative investment options. “These could be your own business or inter corporate deposit (ICD) market or real estate. If there is nothing happening in those sectors, then quite obviously, the only way out is just keep pumping money in equities,” he told BloombergQuint over the phone.

He said the steady stream of flows at every level is lowering the risk but at the same time making investors complacent. “By and large there is consensus that valuations are stretched,” he said.

Shares of Electrical Transformer maker Marsons Ltd. gained as much as 11 percent to Rs 13.25, the highest level since February 17 this year, after the company won an order worth $118.4 million under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana in Odisha.

DDUGJY is a government scheme designed to provide continuous supply of power to rural India.

Shares of Britannia Industries traded higher by 1.2 percent at Rs 3,340 after the company announced a joint venture with Greece-based Chipita S.A. for producing croissants and other products.

The company is said to hold a 60 percent stake in the JV which involves an investment of Rs 100 crore, the company said in an exchange filing.

Shares of the infrastructure firm jumped as much as 13.9 percent after its board approved a one-time final settlement deal with SREI Equipment Finance Ltd. However, the board disapproved a similar settlement proposal with Edelweiss Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd.

It said a final settlement with Edelweiss ARC will be considered along with other banks shortly as huge cash outflow is involved into it.

Shares of biopharmaceutical company rose as much as 3 percent to Rs 172.9 after it secured a product patent in New Zealand.

The patent is for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases and is valid through 2033, the company said in a regulatory filing. With these new patents, Suven has a total of 26 granted patents from New Zealand, the company said.

A single-judge bench of the Delhi High Court held that Monsanto’s termination of BT cotton seeds sub-licence to Nuziveedu Seeds is illegal.

The court said both the companies are bound together under the sub-licence. It said Nuziveedu to pay trade free to Monsanto as per the government notification.

Monsanto had terminated the license agreements of Nuziveedu and its group companies on account of continued refusal to pay contractually agreed trait fees amounting to more than Rs 165 crore, according to a PTI report.

Monsanto has also approached the Bombay High Court over non-payment of about Rs 400 crore of royalty fees by some BT cotton seed manufacturers including Nuziveedu.

Bharti Infratel rose as much as 4 percent after it sold a 10.3 percent stake in the company to a consortium of funds advised by KKR and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. The stake was sold for a total consideration of over Rs 6,193.9 crore, at a price of Rs 325 per share, the company’s press release said.

The stock, which gained for the second day, was also the best performer on the Nifty index.

Stake Sold In Two Block Deals:

• 130.927 million shares at Rs 325
• 60.857 million shares at Rs 325

Bharti Airtel will primarily use the proceeds from this sale to reduce its debt. This transaction makes it KKR’s second investment in Bharti Infratel. Previously, the funds managed by KKR had invested in Bharti Infratel during the period 2008 to 2015. Post this transaction, the stake held by KKR and CPPIB (combined) will be the single largest public shareholder block.

Shares of the construction major gained 0.3 percent after its unit bagged an order to re-develop Mumbai’s BDD Chawls for Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority, according to a statement on exchanges.

The work includes design and construction of 20 residential towers for rehabilitation, four high-rise towers for sale and one commercial development.

The contract will be the largest residential project awarded to L&T Construction so far.

Shares of the management training company gained as much as 2.6 percent after Kotak Mahindra AMC bought 15.4 lakh shares of the company, according to Bloomberg News.

Shares of Aurobindo Pharma Ltd. gained after the company in an exchange filing said that it received a final approval from the U.S. FDA to manufacture and market Meropenem injection 500 mg/vial and 1 g/vial.

The injection is used for the treatment of complicated skin and skin structure infections, complicated intra-abdominal infections and bacterial meningitis. This was the first ANDA approval for the company's formulation facility in Bhiwadi.

Shares gained as much as 2 percent to Rs 683.85.

Shares of Dishman Pharma Ltd. hit an upper circuit of 20 percent after the company received an approval from the U.S. FDA for their ovarian cancer drug, Zejula.

Dishman Pharma is the contract manufacturing partner for the drug Niraparib and hence expected to significantly benefit. According to Tesaro’s website, the U.S. commercial launch planned for late April 2017.

The shares hitting upper circuit were trading at Rs 278.70.

Indian shares climbed higher following a rebound in Asian equities led by banks and software companies.

The S&P BSE Sensex gained 0.4 percent to 29,364 while the NSE Nifty rose 0.6 percent to 9,096. The market breadth was firmly skewed in favour of the buyers. About 3 stocks advanced to every 1 stock that declined.

All sectoral indices advanced on the NSE led by the export-oriented Nifty Pharma and Nifty IT indexes.

Meanwhile, forex and money markets are closed today for 'Gudi Padwa'.

• Andhra Bank: Approves Rs 1,100 crore preferential allotment to government and fund raising via QIP, FPO
• Bajaj Auto: Says no impact of closure of sale pact with Kawasaki
• Bank of Baroda: Signs pact with Jain Irrigation for financing micro irrigation systems
• Berger Paints India: Starts output at Jejuri plant
• Fortis Healthcare: RHT Health says Fortis evaluating various restructuring options
• Godrej Industries: Buys 2.87 percent more in Godrej Agrovat
• IL&FS Transportation: JV wins 1.75b rupees contracts for four road projects in M.P.
• Indian Oil Corp: To form JV with Nepal Oil Corp for fuel retailing
• Jindal Steel: To consider fund raising via pref. allotment to founders, investors on March 30
• Kotak Mahindra Bank: To consider fund raising on March 30
• KPIT Technologies: Says founders increase holding by 2.2 percent to 18.9 percent
• Mahindra Lifespace: Says right issue to open April 12, close April 26
• Minda Industries: Says QIP committee to meet on March 29 for close of QIP & issue price
• Motherson Sumi: Said to be considering $600 million bid for Bosch unit (Economic Times)
• Mukand: Says acquired Whiteleaf Multiventures, Avista Diam
• Tata Global: Clarifies merger proposal with Tata Coffee is speculative and there is no such proposal
• Technofab: Wins 3-orders from Power Grid for Rs 225 crore and from Rwanda for $12.3 million
• Vedanta: To consider mid-year dividend on March 30 and also dividend for Cairn India shareholders

• Finance Minister Arun Jaitley introduced a range of bills to parliament, including legislation that sets out compensation to be provided to states under new sales tax law
• RBI Deputy Governor S.S. Mundra says central bank not targeting any level for rupee; says no time line for new rules to resolve bad loan problems
• India Minister Goyal asks U.P. state to replace old power plants
• ONGC, Oil India spent Rs 200 crore on shale gas exploration so far: Pradhan
• *ONGC drilled 21 wells in 18 blocks for shale oil, gas
• Putin’s interference in U.S. process act of war, says Dick Cheney
• India allows bulk exports of groundnut, sesame, soybean oil irrespective of pack size
• Qatar Air chief accelerates India push, plans new routes to U.K.
• India 2016-17 winter mustard output seen at 7.1 million tonne: SEA
• Global funds buy Rs 578 crore of local stocks; domestic funds sell Rs 594 crore yesterday: Provisional data
• Edelweiss ARC said in talks to acquire IDFC Bank’s NPA (Economic Times)
• Macquarie said in talks for Hindustan Power solar assets (Mint)
• Snapdeal investor SoftBank said to push deal with Flipkart (Times of India)

Offerings

• Mas Financial files DRHP for IPO, seeks to raise Rs 300 crore via fresh shares, shareholders OFS shares worth Rs 240 crore in IPO

Good Morning!

The Singapore traded SGX Nifty, an early indicator of Nifty’s performance in India, climbed 0.2 percent to 9,093.

Asian stocks bounced back in early trade, as the selloff in riskier assets eased after U.S. equities staged a recovery. Investors are weighing the chance of a slower inflation necessitating less need for quicker interest-rate increases from Federal Reserve.

Fed Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans said on Monday that two hikes may be the right amount of tightening for the U.S. economy this year given uncertainty surrounding the outlook for inflation and government spending.

The dollar continued to claw back from the verge of erasing the rally spurred by Donald Trump’s election victory, even as investors assessed the U.S. administration’s ability to enact reform.

Oil traded below $48 after a proposal by some of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries members to extend output cuts, and ahead of U.S. stockpiles data.

Inventories probably increased by 1.37 million barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg survey ahead of Energy Information Administration data due on Wednesday.

Gold was little changed $1,254 per ounce after rising 0.9 percent on Monday.