BSE Sensex flat; Murthy's return sends Infosys up 7%

Moneycontrol Bureau

9:55am Credit rating agencies shares up after Crisil's open offer

Shares of credit rating agencies like Crisil, Icra and Care were buzzing in trade after CRISIL's promoters made voluntary open offer to buy shares at significant premium to the Friday's closing price.

9:54am Major gainers in the BSE Midcap were CRISIL (Rs 1,126.60, 20.00%), Torrent Pharma (Rs 858.75, 9.15%), Delta Corp (Rs 63.70, 4.60%), Emami (Rs 789.90, 3.46%) and Ipca Labs (Rs 614.00, 3.29%)

9:50am BPCL says under-recovery in diesel at Rs 5 per litre

BPCL said in an exclusive interview to CNBC-TV18 that the under-recovery in diesel had gone up to Rs 5 per lite due to deprecaition in the rupee.

Market Outlook: Don't buy Indian mkt now, like HCL over Infosys, says Dimensions

If one is looking to book profits then this is time, says Ajay Srivastava, CEO, Dimensions Consulting. Despite Narayana Murthy’s return to Infosys, Srivastava is not so gung-ho on the stock and cautions that its June quarter earnings are likely to be worse than January-March.

9:41 am Infosys extends rally; shares near 2-month high on heavy volumes

Infosys extended its rally and was up close to 8 percent in the morning trade on heavy volumes. The stock made an intraday high of Rs 2625 on the NSE, a level last seen in April.

9:38am Opto Circuits back in green, hits fresh 52-week low

Shares of Opto Circuits were trading in green after shedding 38 percent of its market-cap on Friday. The company's consolidated revenue has fallen 33 percent to Rs 456 crore compared to Rs 681 crore year-on-year. During the period, consolidated net profit dropped 94 percent year-on-year to Rs 12.3 crore.

9:28am IOC, HPCL, BPCL up 1 percent each after price hike

Oil marketing companies were buzzing in trade today after the state-run IOC hiked petrol prices by 75 paise and diesel price by 50 paise per litre.

9:26am MUST READ: Infosys up 7%; brokerages tell how to price Murthy factor

While Murthy's presence at Infosys may improve sentiment for the stock near term,  he has an uphill task ahead and it could be a while before the company gets back on the path to recovery, feel analysts tracking the stock. Barring a couple of brokerages, most have retained their ratings and target price for the stock.

9:23am CRISIL locked at 20 percent upper circuit on open offer

CRISIL promoters made voluntary open offer to buy up to 22.23 percent stake at Rs 1210 per share. The stock was locked at 20 percent upper circuit at Rs 1126.60 (up Rs 187.75) since the current market price was lower than the offer price.

Key equity benchmarks opened flat tracking weak Asian shares. Dow and S&P 500 posted their worst one-day drop since mid-April on Friday. Infosys surged seven percent in the opening bell after Narayana Murthy announced his return to Infosys as Executive Chairman along with his son Rohan Murthy on Saturday.

At 09.16 hrs IST, the Sensex was up 14.68 points or 0.07% at 19774.98, and the Nifty was up 8.70 points or 0.15% at 5994.65. About 308 shares advanced, 185 shares declined, and 35 shares were unchanged.

Key gainers in the Nifty were Infosys (Rs 2,574.20, 6.74%), Bank of Baroda (Rs 663.30, 1.79%), Lupin (Rs 750.30, 1.71%), PNB (Rs 771.85, 1.55%) and Jaiprakash Associates (Rs 66.60, 1.45%).

Laggards included Maruti Suzuki (Rs 1,561.00, 2.78%), Bajaj Auto (Rs 1,786.00, 1.9%), NTPC (Rs 151.45, 1.78%), Power Grid Corp (Rs 111.35, 1.72%) and Hero Motocorp (Rs 1,709.00, 1.58%). 

Tech major Infosys was trading at Rs 2,575.00 up 6.95% from its previous close of Rs 2,407.60. Brokerages are positive on the stock in the near term, but are awaiting more details. KV Kamath stepped down as chairman and became the lead independent director.

Shares of auto companies were down as sales saw a steep drop in May. High interest cost, increase in fuel prices and sluggish economic activity kept sales sluggish. Maruti's month-on-month sales were down 13 percent. Tata Motors too disappointed, sales were down 3 percent.