Sensex, Nifty End Lower After Volatile Trade

Indian equity benchmarks ended lower after a topsy-turvy trade.

The S&P BSE Sensex ended 0.42 percent or 161 points lower at 38,7800.53 and the NSE Nifty 50 ended at 11,604.50, down 0.53 percent. The broader market index represented by the NSE Nifty 500 Index ended 0.52 percent lower.

The market breadth was tilted in favour of sellers. About 1,026 stocks fell and 739 shares advanced on National Stock Exchange.

Ten out of 11 sectoral gauges compiled by NSE fell, led by the NSE Nifty Realty Index’s 2.19 percent fall. On the flipside, the NSE Nifty IT Index was the only sectoral gainer, up 0.66 percent.

DLF

• Stock fell as much as 8.5 percent to Rs 184.45.
• Trading volume was more than nine times its 20-day average.

Monsanto India

• Stock fell as much as 2.8 percent to R 2,495.
• Trading volume was almost 30 times its 20-day average.

Century Plyboards

• Stock fell as much as 4.4 percent to Rs 204.
• Trading volume was six times its 20-day average.

Mishtann Foods

• Stock fell as much as 1.9 percent to Rs 68.40.
• Trading volume was five times its 20-day average.

About 19.5 lakh shares of Aditya Birla Capital changed hands in a block deal on BSE, Bloomberg data showed. Buyers and sellers were not known immediately.

Indian equity benchmarks were trading at day’s low. Sensex dropped over 500 points from day’s high and Nifty traded near 11,550.

Polycab India received 100 percent demand for shares as of 1 p.m. today, according to NSE.

• Gayatri Highways: Shares of the highway developer rose as much as 5.9 percent to Rs 0.9. The company’s unit won an arbitration award of Rs 243.45 crore, according to its stock exchange filing.
• HDFC Bank: Shares of the private lender pared opening gains and fell as much as 0.14 percent to Rs 2,302.30. The bank plans to raise Rs 50,000 crore in the next 12 months via bonds, according to its statement on the exchanges.

Indian equity benchmarks traded at day’s low. The S&P BSE Sensex fell nearly 100 points and the NSE Nifty 50 traded below 10,650.

• Balrampur Chini Mills: Shares of the company fell as much as 8.6 percent to Rs 133.20. Trading volume was five times its 20-day average.
• Indiabulls Real Estate: Shares of the real estate developer rose as much as 13.99 percent to Rs 102.90. Trading volume was more than five times its 20-day average.
• Motilal Oswal Financial Services: Shares of the asset management company rose as much as 6.9 percent to Rs 683. The Relative Strength Index was above 70, indicating that the stock may be overbought.
• Gujarat Gas: Shares of the natural gas distributor rose as much as 8.9 percent to Rs 167.40. The Realtive Strength Index was above 70, indicating that the stock may be overbought.

Shares of the oil marketing companies fell after Brent crude extended gains for the third consecutive session to trade above $70 a barrel.

Nifty’s 11,700 call option contract was among the most active Nifty option contracts on National Stock Exchange.

Premium on the contract fell 23.18 percent to Rs 45.40. Over 8.2 lakh shares were added to the open interest which stood at over 19.05 lakh shares.

Brokerage and research firm JPMorgan initiated coverage on Biocon with an ‘Overweight’ rating and expects its shares to reach Rs 775 in the next 12 months, implying a potential upside of 27 percent from the current market price.

Shares of the pharmaceutical company erased morning gains and fell as much as 0.7 percent to Rs 607.15.

Here’s what JPMorgan had to say about the stock:

• Expect earnings visibility from biosimilars to improve.
• Sticky EM business and deep pipeline differentiates from peers.
• Valuations don’t factor in full upside potential of biosimilars.

Shares of the private bank rose as much as 1 percent to Rs 2,322.95.

The bank’s advances were up 24 percent to Rs 8.19 lakh crore on a yearly basis, according to its notification to the bourses. Deposits rose 17 percent to Rs 9.23 lakh crore. CASA ratio was at 42 percent versus 43.5 percent year-on-year.

The bank also said it purchased loans aggregating to Rs 1,924 crore through direct assignment route under the home loan arrangement with HDFC.

The stock traded at 29 times its estimated earnings per share for the coming year, Bloomberg data showed.

Shares of the information technology company fell as much as 2.2 percent, the most since Feb.15, to Rs 1,332.10.

Private equity firm Baring Private Equity Asia plans to acquire 30 percent stake in NIIT Technologies from NIIT Ltd. and other promoter entities at Rs 1,394 per share, according to an exchange notification. Baring to make an open offer to acquire 26 percent stake from public shareholders of NIIT Tech at Rs 1,394.

The stock gained 49 percent in the past 12 months compared to a 16 percent gain in the Nifty.

Shares of Indiabulls Housing Finance fluctuated between gains and losses to trade little changed at 908, while shares of Lakshmi Vilas Bank were locked in upper circuit of 5 percent at Rs 97.40.

The board of The Lakshmi Vilas Bank Ltd. has approved a scheme of amalgamation with Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd., the two entities said in separate notifications to stock exchanges on Friday.

For every one share of Rs 10 each, shareholders of Lakshmi Vilas Bank will receive 0.14 equity share of Rs 2 each of Indiabulls Housing Finance, the bank said in its filing. (Read the full story here)

Shares of DLF fell as much as 5.3 percent, the most in over two months, to Rs 191.

About 6.81 crore shares or 3.5 percent equity changed hands in a single block deal, according to Bloomberg data. Buyers and sellers were not known immediately.

The stock declined 3.9 percent in the past five trading sessions and advanced 16 percent in the past 30 days.

Indian equity benchmarks extended gains for the second consecutive trading session, led by the gains in Infosys Ltd. and HDFC Bank Ltd.

The S&P BSE Sensex rose as much as 0.46 percent to 39,041.25 and the NSE Nifty 50 rose as much as 0.38 percent to 11,710.30. The broader market index represented by the NSE Nifty 500 Index rose as much as 0.36 percent.

The market breadth was tilted in favour of buyers. About 899 stocks advanced and 462 shares declined on National Stock Exchange.

Ten out of 11 sectoral gauges compiled by NSE advanced, led by the NSE Nifty Metal Index’s 0.63 percent gain. On the flipside, the NSE Nifty Realty Index was the only sectoral loser, down 0.4 percent.

The Indian rupee opened lower against the U.S. dollar. The home currency depreciated as much as 0.23 percent to 69.38 against the greenback.

F&O Cues

April Futures

• Nifty open interest up 2 percent, adds 3.7 lakh shares in open interest.
• Bank Nifty open interest down 1 percent, sheds 26,000 shares in open interest.
• Nifty futures premium at 94.8 points versus 82 points, closed trading at 11,760.7.
• Bank Nifty futures premium at 231.9 points , closed trading at 30,316,5.

Put-Call Ratio

• Nifty at 1.61 versus 1.21.

Nifty Weekly Options Expiry (Apr. 11)

• Max open interest at 11,600 Put (19 lakh shares) and 11,700 Call (10.8 lakh shares).
• Max open interest addition seen at 11,600 Put, adds 14 lakh shares in open interest.

Nifty Monthly Options Expiry

• Max open interest at 11000 Put (26.4 lakh shares) and 12,000 Call (23.3 lakh shares).
• Max open interest addition seen at 11,600 Put (+34.7 lakh shares) & 11,700 Put (+20.3 lakh shares).
• Shedding seen at 12,500 and 12,000 Call strikes.

Stocks In F&O Ban

In Ban:

• Adani Power
• Dewan Housing
• IDBI
• Jet Airways
• Reliance Power

New In Ban:

• Dewan Housing

On Indiabulls Housing-Lakshmi Vilas Bank Merger

CLSA

• Indiabulls to acquire LVB and seek bank license.
• Share swap ratio implies 35 percent premium to LVB’s market price.
• Promoters open to trim shareholding to 15 percent post merger.

Investec

• Merger may face regulatory hurdles; Not much upside for Indiabulls.
• Merged bank is likely to be weak.
• Non-housing book of Indiabulls is key for return ratios.

Macquarie on Indiabulls Housing Finance

• Maintained ‘Outperform’ with a price target of Rs 836.
• Odds are stacked against RBI approval
• In past RBI wielded considerable subjectivity allowed to it under the ‘fit & proper’ clause.
• Despite having persons with good credentials on its board, Indiabulls failed to get license earlier.

More Calls

JPMorgan on Biocon

• Initiated ‘Overweight’ with a price target of Rs 775.
• Expect earnings visibility from biosimilars to improve.
• Sticky EM business and deep pipeline differentiates from peers.
• Valuations don’t factor in full upside potential of biosimilars.

BOBCAPS on NIIT Tech

• Maintained ‘Buy’ with a price target of Rs 1,470.
• Baring PE transaction to pave path for NIIT Tech and Hexaware consolidation.
• Possibility of relatively smoother transition and lower risk of near-term operational slippages.
• Integration concerns may cast overhang on Hexaware.

Jefferies on Info Edge

• Maintained ‘Hold’ with a price target of Rs 1,715.
• In 2018-19, Zomato increased revenue by three times helped by four times increase in contribution from delivery.

• Poddar Housing and Development to move into short term ASM Framework.

• JSW Steel promoter group Danta Enterprises created pledge of 3.7 lakh shares on April 2.
• Max Financial Services promoter group Max Ventures Investment Holdings revoked pledge of 1 lakh shares on April 2.
• Sun Pharma promoter group Shanghvi Finance revoked pledge of 43.75 lakh shares on April 3.
• Jindal Steel & Power promoter group Danta Enterprises created pledge of 8.85 lakh shares on April 2.
• Jubilant Foodworks promoter Jubilant Consumer revoked pledge of 4.58 lakh shares on April 3.
• MEP Infra Developers promoter group Sudha Mhaiskar revoked pledge of 23.5 lakh shares on April 4.
• Infibeam Avenues promoter and director O3 Developers created a pledge of 26.06 lakh shares on April 2.

• Adlabs Entertainment: India Advantage Fund sold 10.3 lakh shares or 1.17 percent equity at Rs 10.37 each.

Solara Active Pharma Sciences

• CVR Enterprise LLP acquired 3.06 lakh shares or 1.19 percent equity at Rs 425 each.
• Norges Bank sold 3.29 lakh shares or 1.28 percent equity at Rs 425.04 each.

• Metropolis Healthcare received a demand of 5.83 times the share offered.
• Polycab India IPO gets 71 percent demand on first day sale, offer closes on April 9.

• Wockhardt plans to demerge its formulations business, dilute stake (Economic Times)

• Torrent Pharma : The U.S. FDA issued certain observations for Dahej unit during March Audit. The have received observations which are procedural in nature and are confident of addressing them satisfactorily.
• Zydus Cadila: Received the tentative approval from the U.S. FDA to market Tofacitinib bTablets—a drug used to treat moderate to severe forms of rheumatoid arthritis
• NIIT Tech: Company said it will acquire Whishworks IT Consulting for Rs 287 crore. It will acquire 52.67 percent at first while the remaining will be acquired over the next two years. It will also sell its entire 89 percent stake in ESRI India Technologies for Rs 90 crore.
• NIIT Tech and NIIT: Baring Private Equity Asia to acquire 30 percent stake in NIIT Technologies from NIIT Ltd. and other promoter entities at Rs 1,394 per share. Baring to make an open offer to acquire 26 percent stake from public shareholders of NIIT Tech at Rs 1394. NIIT Ltd. which has a market cap of Rs 1597 crore, will get Rs 2,020 crore from Baring for its stake in NIIT Tech.
• Lakshmi Vilas Bank:The board of The Lakshmi Vilas Bank Ltd. has approved a scheme of amalgamation with Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd., the two entities said in separate notifications to stock exchanges on Friday. For every one share of Rs 10 each, shareholders of Lakshmi Vilas Bank will receive 0.14 equity share of Rs 2 each of Indiabulls Housing Finance, the bank said in its filing. Indiabulls Housing Finance board appointed former RBI Deputy Governor SS Mundra as head of re-organization committee to complete merger with Lakshmi Vilas Bank.
• HDFC Q4 Update: Loans assigned at Rs 2,418 crore versus nil, on a year on year basis. The income from dividend was up 62 percent at Rs 537 crore versus Rs 332 crore. Profit on sale of investment in subsidiaries was up 15 percent at Rs 314 crore versus Rs 272 crore.
• HDFC Bank Q4 Update: Advances up 24 percent at Rs 8,19,500 crore versus Rs 6,58,300 crore, on a yearly basis. Deposits up 17 percent at Rs 9,23,000 crore vs Rs 7,88,800 crore.CASA ratio was at 42 percent versus 43.5 percent year-on-year. The Bank has purchased loans aggregating to Rs 1,924 crore through direct assignment route under the home loan arrangement with HDFC.
• CCI approved the acquisition of up to 66.15 percent of total equity shareholding of Mindtree on a fully diluted basis by L&T.
• IDBI Bank said that one of its union ‘IDBI Bank Officer’s Association’ proposes to go on strike from April 8-12 followed by an indefinite strike.
• Texmaco Rail & Engineering: NCLT gave the approval for amalgamation of Texmaco Hitech. Bright Power projects with the company.
• Bank of Baroda said that due to amalgamation of Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank with self, the stake of Government of India has increased by 2.11 percent to 65.37 percent.
• Setco Automotive: Board said it will consider offer by Lingotes Especiales for sale of its entire stake in company’s arm on April 10.
• GE Power India: Andrew H DeLeone resigned from the post MD with effect from April 5. Prashant Jain to replace him for a period of three years with effect from April 17.
• Infosys opened a new office in Switzerland to provide digital solutions to its customers in the turbomachinery and propulsion industry.
• Bank of Maharashtra reduced its MCLR by 5 basis points across various tenors. One-year MCLR at 8.7 percent and 1 Month MCLR at 8.25 percent.
• RBL Bank to consider raising funds on April 18.
• JSW Steel: Fitch Ratings assigned ‘BB(EXP)‘ ratings to company’s proposed issue of the U.S. dollar senior unsecured notes, while Moody’s has assigned ‘Ba2’ for the same issue. The company said that the terms of this notes will be decided on April 10 or on a later date.
• HG Infra-Engineering incorporated a new SPV to undertake HAM project in Haryana worth Rs 952.1 crore.
• NBCC appointed Shiv Das Meena as the CMD of the company with effect from April.
• Vishal Fabrics: Mahesh Chandra Kawat resigned as the CFO with effect from April 5.
• Sagar Cements: Consolidated sales for March up 7.76 percent at 336,341MT. Consolidated yearly sales were up 22.44 percent at 33,22,956MT.
• IL&FS Investment managers clarified that it had not filed a case against Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police.
• Garware Polyester appointed Parag Doshi as the CFO with effect from April 5.
• India Infrastructure Trust to consider and declare distribution of dividend on April 6.
• Vanta Bioscience arm signed a non-exclusive service agreement with Emcure Pharma till 2022 for Rs 29 crores. (Alert: company has a market cap of Rs 116 crores).
• JK Tyres: promoter pledged 4 crore equity shares (16.24 percent) stake as security for loan.
• Future Consumer: IFC and Verlinvest SA to invest Rs 210 crore and Rs 70 crore in the company by subscribing to compulsorily convertible debentures. Promoters to invest Rs 70 crore by issuing to warrants. These instruments will be converted into equity shares within 18 months at a value of Rs 45 per share. The company will also acquire personal care portfolio of Athena Life Sciences Ltd. for an equity consideration. This acquisition enables FCL to expand its portfolio in high margin categories of skin & hair care.

Tata Steel Q4 Update

• Tata Steel India production at 4.47 mt versus 3.07 mt.
• Tata Steel Europe production at 2.73 mt versus 2.63 mt .
• Tata Steel SE Asia production 0.50 mt versus 0.56 mt .
• Tata Steel India sales 4.73 mt versus 3.03 mt.
• Tata Steel Europe sales 2.55 mt versus 2.55 mt.
• Tata Steel SE Asia sales 0.59 mt versus 0.62 mt.
• India ops achieved the highest ever Crude Steel production in fourth quarter of financial year 2019.
• Better plant availability across the locations drives output .
• Ramp up also seen at Tata Steel's BSL unit (Bhushan Steel).
• Europe operations improved with better plant availability.
• South East Asia ops impacted due to maintenance shutdowns at NatSteel.

• 11:30 a.m.: India local car sales for March and 2018-19.
• U.S. banks begin reporting first-quarter earnings, led by JPMorgan and Wells Fargo. Also reporting: U.K. grocery chain Tesco, U.S. manufacturer Fastenal and Japanese clothing maker Fast Retailing.
• Israel votes in an election Tuesday. If Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wins his bid for re-election he’ll become the country’s longest-serving leader.
• The annual Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group and the IMF begin in Washington Tuesday.
• The ECB will probably leave its key interest rates unchanged Wednesday. President Mario Draghi may be questioned on TLTRO details and the side effects of negative rates at his press conference following the decision.

• Brent crude extended gains for the third consecutive trading session, traded 0.33 percent higher at $70.57 per barrel.
• West Texas Intermediate rose 0.5 percent to $63.39 a barrel.
• Gold was little changed at $1,292.55 an ounce.

London Metal Exchange

• Aluminium extended fall for the second consecutive trading session, ended 0.26 percent lower.
• Copper extended fall for the second consecutive trading session, ended 0.78 percent lower.
• Lead ended lower for the second day, down 0.43 percent.
• Tin ended lower for the fourth day, down 0.36 percent.
• Zinc ended 0.86 percent higher.
• Nickel ended 0.68 percent lower.

Good Morning!

The Singapore-traded SGX Nifty, an early indicator of NSE Nifty 50 Index’s performance in India, traded a little changed at 11,768 as of 8:20 a.m.

Asian stocks kicked off the week in mixed fashion as investors digested the progress made on trade last week and U.S. employment data Friday.

Shares in Hong Kong and China climbed after reopening from a holiday, while stocks in Seoul and Sydney saw more modest gains. Equities in Tokyo declined as the yen pushed higher.

Short on time? Well, then listen to this podcast for a quick summary of All You Need To Know before the opening bell.