Sensex, Nifty Post Best Annual Gains In Three Years

Indian equity benchmarks rose to record closing highs on the last trading day of 2017 led by gains in Axis Bank, Tata Motors and TCS.

The S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.6 percent or 209 points to 34,057 and the NSE Nifty 50 Index advanced 0.5 percent to 10,532. The benchmarks posted their best annual gains in last three years in 2017. The Sensex rose 27.9 percent and the Nifty advanced 28.7 percent.

The gauge of mid and small-cap stocks rose a whopping 47.3 percent and 57.2 percent each respectively.

In today's session, sixteen out of 19 sector gauges compiled by BSE ended higher led by the S&P BSE Telecom Index's 1.5 percent jump. On the other hand, the S&P BSE Metal Index was the top sectoral loser, down 0.6 percent.

• GTPL Hathway: The broadband and television service provider rose as much as 5.2 percent to Rs 165.70 after it hiked stake in two subsidiaries.
• Astron Paper: Shares of Astron Paper & Board Mill made a strong debut on stock exchanges. The stock rose as much as 139 percent to Rs 119.70 against its issue price of Rs 50. The Rs 70 crore Astron Paper's IPO saw huge demand for its shares as it was subscribed 243 times.
• Tehno Electric And Engineering: The heavy electrical equipment maker rose as much as 4.3 percent to Rs 422.45 after it received EPC order worth Rs 206 crore from Afghanistan.
• Dredging Corp: Shares of Dredging Corporation rose as much as 12 percent to Rs 887 after Kedia Securities run by well-known investor Vijay Kedia bought 1.75 lakh shares (0.6 percent equity) at Rs 790.92 per share.

Amulya Leasing & Finance was locked in upper circuit of 5 percent at Rs 624 after its promoter Sameer Gupta sold his entire 35.19 percent stake in the company through an open market transaction.

The Indian government breached its fiscal deficit target for the current year in the April-November period, showed data released by the Controller General of Accounts on Friday.

Fiscal deficit, or the gap between the government's earnings and spending, reached Rs 6.12 lakh crore. That’s 112 percent of budgeted gap for 2017-18. In the same period last year, the government had exhausted 85.8 percent of the fiscal deficit target.

Motilal Oswal

• Acquisition of Rcom assets at premium value due to strategic value of the assets
• Rs 25,000 crore for wireless assets could be indicative of the sale value
• RJio has agreed to pay 6 times for 122 MHz spectrum
• The assets remain strategic to RJio and thus, command a premium
• Command premium compared to the recent assets acquired by Bharti

Morgan Stanley

• Maintains Overweight rating with target price of Rs 1040, potential upside of 13 percent
• Acquisition of RCOM's infra should bring synergies and lower cost for RIL’s telecom biz
• The deal lowers RIL's opex and should reduce the overhang on telecom growth capex
• The deal would dilute RIL's net debt by 10-12 percent and likely be EPS dilutive by 1-3 percent

Jefferies

• Retains underperform rating with target price of Rs 790, potential downside of 15 percent
• Reliance pays much less than the Rs 24,000-29,000crore estimated as their fair value
• Near-term economic upside may be limited even if assets are of strategic fit
• Projects likely to keep telecom spend elevated for 2-3 years and weigh on FCF

Shares of Dredging Corporation rose as much as 12 percent to Rs 887 after Kedia Securities run by well-known investor Vijay Kedia bought 1.75 lakh shares (0.6 percent equity) at Rs 790.92 per share.

Shares of the Mumbai-based chemical maker rose as much as 8.5 percent to Rs 1,159.90 after the company signed 20-year exclusive contract worth Rs 10,000 crore with SABIC Innovative Plastics U.S. for supply of high value speciality chemical intermediate, Aarti Industries said in a press release.

Shares of the Gujarat-based e-commerce company fell as much as 40 percent to Rs 98.80 on the back of heavy volumes.

As many as 50.75 lakh shares changed hands on the BSE compared with an average of 17.36 lakh shares traded daily in the past two weeks.

The rupee gained 10 paise against the US dollar to trade at 63.98 in early session on selling of the US currency by exporters and banks.

The dollar was weak against major currencies in global markets which supported the local currency, a currency dealer said.

Domestic stock markets opening higher too bolstered the rupee sentiment.

The rupee opened higher by 3 paise at 64.05 a dollar against previous close of 64.08 a dollar. It moved in range of 64.06 a dollar to 63.95 a dollar in early trade before quoting at 63.98 at 0945 hrs.

Shares of Astron Paper & Board Mill made a strong debut on stock exchanges. The stock rose as much as 139 percent to Rs 119.70 against its issue price of Rs 50.

The Rs 70 crore Astron Paper's IPO saw huge demand for its shares as it was subscribed 243 times.

Shares of the Anil Ambani-led company rallied for fourtj day in a row after Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. agreed to buy spectrum, towers and other wireless infrastructure of his younger brother Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications Ltd. that’s selling assets to repay lenders.

In the last four trading sessions, share of Reliance Communications have rallied 145 percent from Rs 16.30 to Rs 40.15.

Indian equity benchmarks edged higher led by gains in Larsen & Toubro, HDFC and Reliance Industries on the last trading day of 2017.

The S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.27 percent or 93 points to 33,940 and the NSE Nifty 50 Index advanced 0.33 percent or 34 points to 10,512.

All sector gauges compiled by BSE were trading higher led by the S&P BSE Power Index's 1 percent gain.

Sovereign bonds are heading for their worst year since 2009 as the government raised its borrowing target for the fiscal year, with banking liquidity set to tighten and accomodative monetary policy potentially nearing an end.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year bond rose 18 basis points to 7.4 percent yesterday. It has climbed 88 basis points this year, snapping three years of declines. Later in the day, India will detail the fiscal deficit data for April-Nov. period.

The rupee on the other hand is headed for its first gain in seven years. Implied opening from forwards suggests onshore dollar-rupee will start trading around 64.07.

• Nifty Jan. Futures trading at 10,518, premium of 30 points versus premium of 40 points
• Across all series: Nifty open interest up 14 percent; Bank Nifty open interest down 6 percent
• Nifty rollover at 73 percent, Bank Nifty rollover at 75 percent
• India VIX ended at 12.2, down 1.5 percent
• Max open interest for Jan. series at 11,000 Call (open interest at 33.7 lakh, up 56 percent)
• Max open interest for Jan. series at 10,000 Put (open interest at 37.7 lakh, up 19 percent)

• Parenteral Drugs, Jaypee Infratech circuit filter revised to 10 percent
• SE Power, Avantel, Orient Press circuit filter revised to 5 percent
• JSW Energy dropped from Nifty Midcap 50 Index
• NBCC added to Nifty Midcap 50 Index

Reliance Infrastructure

• Macquarie Emerging Markets Asian Trading Pte Ltd sold 16.46 lakh shares (0.6 percent) at Rs 556 each

Dredging Corp

• Kedia Securities bought 1.75 lakh shares (0.6 percent) at Rs 790.92 each

Nandan Denim

• LTS Investment Fund bought 4.65 lakh shares (1 percent) at Rs 165.5 each

Uttam Galva Steel

• Eriska Investment Fund sold 8.5 lakh shares (0.6 percent) at Rs 21.92 each

PG Electroplast

• New Leaina Investment ltd bought 1.75 lakh shares (1.1 percent) at Rs 400 each
• Aviator global investment fund bought 1.25 lakh shares (0.8 percent) at Rs 400 each
• Promoter Neela gupat sold 97,094 shares (0.6 percent) at Rs 400 each
• Promoter Sudesh gupta sold 2.40 lakh shares (1.5 percent) at Rs 400 each

Amulya Leasing & Finance

• Promoter Sameer Gupta sold 17.62 lakh shares (35.3 percent) at Rs 557.13 each
• Param Value investments bought 4 lakh shares (8 percent) at Rs 555 each
• Fidelity India Fund bought 33,981 shares (0.7 percent) at Rs 560 each
• FIL Investments (Mauritius) bought 4.66 lakh shares (9.3 percent) at Rs 560 each
• Vertex Suppliers bought 60,000 shares (1.2 percent) at Rs 552 each
• Vallabh Bhansali bought 1 lakh shares (2 percent) at Rs 554 each
• Suraj Vallabh Bhansali bought 87,000 shares (1.8 percent) at Rs 554 each
• Ajay Kumar Relan bought 50,000 shares (1 percent) at Rs 554.5 each
• Rohit Dhoot bought 1 lakh shares (2 percent) at Rs 554 each

• Reliance Communication to sell the wireless business to Reliance Jio. Proceeds to be used entirely for debt reduction.
• Lupin receives U.S. FDA approval for generic Dovonex scalp solution. The stock will also be focus as Nostrum gets FDA nod for Fortamet, which is one of the biggest drugs of the company
• Aurobindo Pharma gets USFDA nod for Fondaparinux Sodium injection
• Alkem Labs gets USFDA nod for Triamcinolone Acetonide topical cream
• Bank of Baroda to buy UniCredit’s 51 percent stake in Baroda Pioneer AMC, increasing its shareholding to 100 percent
• Jindal Worldwide sold its entire investment in Jindal Synthetics
• GTPL Hathway to acquire remaining 49 percent stake in GTPL Surat Telelink and additional 23.5 percent stake in GTPL Ahmedabad cable network
• Quess Corp to acquire additional 10 percent stake in Golden Star Facilities and services for Rs 5 crore
• Sheela Foam says Rangoli resorts has acquired entire 13.43 percent stake in Polyflex marketing as per NCLT order
• Srikalahasthi Pipes allotted 69.34 lakh shares at Rs 360.5 each in QIP.
• Mahindra Lifespaces got NCLT nod for merger of 3 units with Mahindra World City
• Bombay Burmah says Bombay Dyeing has acquired entire 10.8 percent stake of Archway Investment as per NCLT order
• Centrum Capital to consider fundraising through securities on Jan. 3
• SEBI put a 10 percent cross-shareholding cap in mutual funds and credit rating agencies.
• Brookfield-Kotak bids for JP Power’s assets; deal may close at equity value of Rs 3,500-4,000 crore (Economic Times)

• 14 killed, as many injured in Mumbai building fire
• NSE ready to start commodity trading by October 2018, says Vikram Limaye
• Niti Aayog working on policy to cut oil bill by $100 billion
• Bitcoin dips below $14,000 as South Korea eyes fresh regulations
• Triple talaq bill passed in Lok Sabha, next stop Rajya Sabha
• SEBI to issue settlement notice to entities under scrutiny
• Not collecting Aadhaar data, Facebook says
• The key decisions at SEBI’s board meeting

Good Morning!

The Singapore-traded SGX Nifty, an early indicator of NSE Nifty 50 Index’s performance in India, was little changed at 10,504.

Asian stocks saw a mixed open on the final trading day of 2017 after a regional benchmark notched a record high on Thursday, capping the best year since the post-global financial crisis rebound of 2009.

Still to come for investors to monitor this week:

• A smattering of inflation readings from Europe, including several German states, a nationwide gauge for Germany and one for Spain.
• Russia reports on revised GDP and on consumer prices.
• China releases its official version of the December manufacturing PMI on Dec. 31.

Commodities

• West Texas Intermediate crude was little changed early Friday at $59.84 a barrel.
• Gold traded at $1,294.11 an ounce, around its highest since late November.
• Copper rose 0.7 percent Thursday to $3.31 a pound, reaching the highest in more than four years on its 16th consecutive advance.