Live Market Updates: Sensex, Nifty at fresh life high; Realty, Bankex gain 5%

BHEL, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Reliance and Bharti Airtel were top gainers.

Export-driven stocks were under constant selling pressure as Dr Reddy's Labs, Wipro, Infosys, Sun Pharma and TCS were among top losers in the Sensex.

03:30 pm Market closing data check: Sensex hits intra-day record high of 21,961. Nifty hits intra-day record high of 6538 . Nifty, Sensex mark biggest intra-day gain since Nov 2013. Realty, Bank Nifty, Cap Goods lead the market rally. ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank contribute over 60 percent to Bank Nifty gain. ICICI Bank, RIL, HDFC Bank contribute over 60 percent to the Nifty gain.

03:20 pm FM & RBI Governor say: The Reserve Bank will issue new bank licences in a few weeks, after seeking approval of the Election Commission, Governor Raghuram Rajan said.

Over two dozen public and private sector applicants, including India Post, IFCI and large business houses such as the Anil Ambani group and the Aditya Birla group, have applied for bank licences.

The RBI is expected to issue only a few bank licences after completing due diligence.

"My sense is, if all goes well we should be able to do it in a few weeks," RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan told reporters after Finance Minister P Chidambaram addressed the central bank's board meeting.

03:10 pm Interview: Ahead of the International Women’s Day, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said that Biocon as a company has always focused on encouraging women in science and business.

“Our research efforts are certainly focused on a number of programs that deliver drugs that women can benefit from. So we are developing and have developed life-saving drugs for breast cancer, for cervical cancer. We are focused on diabetes, gestational diabetes is something that a lot of women are challenged with,” she told CNBC-TV18.

She said that the company is focusing on number of diseases which affect both men and women, but where women are affected far more than men, like psoriasis drug. “Psoriasis is something that we have addressed. There are a number of women who have suffered from this debilitating and ugly disease, and have actually gained tremendous benefit. They are now socially far more confident of themselves and I think we have made a big difference to their lives,” she said.

Speaking on the development of the biosimilar drugs, Mazumdar-Shaw said the company has a very good pipeline, which it is developing with Mylan. She thinks biosimilars will be the next big opportunity for generic companies.

03:00 pm Rajdeep Sardesai, Editor-in-Chief, IBN18 says: NDA is holding its January gain in Feb election tracker too. Gap between NDA and UPA is more than 100 seats as per tracker. BJP likely to get 45-49 seats in UP as per election tracker. NDA can get more seats in Maharashtra if MNS does not fight Lok Sabha polls. 

2:50 pm Market outlook: Punita Kumar Sinha, managing partner, Pacific Paradigm Advisors says Indian market move is in-line with other global markets in last few months. Rally in Indian market is not led by politics alone. Markets like Indonesia, Thailand have done better than India. Banking is not on top of political parties' agenda. 

02:45pm Sadbhav Engineering gets order

Infrastructure company Sadbhav Engineering has won a Rs 140-crore project in Odisha for widening a highway stretch.

"Our company has been awarded the project by the Chief Engineer, Roads, Bhubaneshwar, Odisha, for a aggregating value of Rs 139.5 crore," Sadbhav Engineering said in a filing to the BSE today.

The company said the project pertains to widening and strengthening of Raj-Athagarh-Narsinghpur Road to two-lane under State Highways Development Project on engineering, procurement and construction basis, reports PTI.

02:40pm IT and pharma stocks under pressure as rupee hits 61/USD

Technology and healthcare stocks are taking huge knock today as the rupee reaches to 61 level against the dollar. These companies get major revenues by selling products overseas.

BSE Information Technology and Healthcare indices lose more than 2 percent while the rupee appreciates by 11 paise to 60.99 a dollar. This week, the domestic currency gained more than 100 paise.

Infosys slips 2.7percent and TCS drops 1.3 percent while Wipro tumbles 3.75 percent.

HCL Technologies declines 0.6 percent and Tech Mahindra plunged 4.7 percent.

Meanwhile, Sun Pharma, which have more than 70 percent revenues from export market in Q3FY14, loses 1.4 percent. Dr Reddy's Labs plunges over 4.5 percent, which received more than 90 percent revenues through exports in October-December quarter.

02:35pm Investors lap up shares of Bharti Airtel

Rating agency Standard and Poor's Rating Services raised long-term corporate credit rating on Bharti Airtel to BBB- from BB+ on likelihood of reduced leverage and improving regulations. The stock gains 6.5 percent to Rs 304.35.

Rating agency in its report dated March 6 said the the outlook was stable. At the same time, it raised the long-term issue rating on the USD 1.5 billion senior unsecured notes due 2023 and the euro 1 billion senior unsecured notes due 2018 that Bharti guarantees to BBB- from BB+.

"We raised the rating to reflect our expectation that Bharti will use its significant free operating cash flows and funds from strategic measures to reduce its leverage to a level that is in line with an intermediate financial risk profile," Standard & Poor's credit analyst Abhishek Dangra said.

02:30pm Market Update

The market extends rally in last hour of trade with the Sensex rising 412.09 points or 1.92 percent to 21925.96 and the Nifty gaining 125.40 points or 1.96 percent to 6526.55.

BSE Realty Index gains up to 6%, the most since September 17, 2012.

NSE cash volume jumps over Rs 15,500 crore (at highest level since October 31, 2013) with 1 hour of trade remaining.

02:25pm L&T remains on buyers' radar

L&T shares are up 5 percent to Rs 1202, after hitting a 38-month high of Rs 1221.80 in early trade.

Brokerage house Citi has raised its target price for the stock to Rs 1305 from Rs 1137. In a note to clients, Citi has listed five reasons why it is bullish on the heavy engineering major.

"1) L&T looks set to grow sales 15 percent over FY14E-16E with stable margins; 2) domestic capex should rebound in early FY16E; 3) we expect L&T will emerge stronger from recent Indian economic deceleration and outperform peers when economy accelerates; 4) if domestic economic rebound takes time, L&T has the ability to pick up international orders; and 5) losses from long gestation assets are adequately factored in our consolidated EPS," the report said.

02:20pm Market Expert sees Nifty at 7000

Arvind Sanger, managing partner, Geosphere Capital Management is highly bullish on the India story after the current account deficit (CAD) saw a smart decline in Q3. The CAD or the difference between the country’s exports and imports, has come down to USD 4.2 billion or 0.9 percent of the gross domestic product and has been aiding the positive market sentiment.

India has been getting robust flows from foreign institutional investors (FIIs) in the past 15 sessions. Despite FIIs offloading funds from emerging markets (EMs), Indian has clearly bucked this trend explains Sanger. He further adds that he has a target of low to mid-7000 on the Nifty for this year.

02:15pm Shasun Pharma forms joint venture with SeQuent

Shasun Pharmaceuticals has signed the joint venture agreement on March 07 with SeQuent Scientific.

"The JV company has been formed to develop, manufacture and sell veterinary products including both API (active pharmaceutical ingredients) and formulations to cater to the global market," the company said in its filing.

In line with the JV agreement, company has also executed a slump sale agreement transferring its Vizag facility to JV company. SeQuent and Shasun will hold 73 percent and 27 percent, respectively in the JV company.

JV Company is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2014-15, subject to the customary closing conditions.

02:10pm Finance minister Chidambaram speaks

The goal of economic stability must include price stability and growth and the government has the right to set the inflation target, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said at a press conference today,

The Finance Minister also said the Reserve Bank of India and the government were broadly convergent on deputy governor Urjit Patel's monetary policy committee report released in late January.

Chidambaram said the inflation target will be set by the parliament and the Reserve Bank of India will implement it, reports Reuters.

02:05pm HSBC says stay invested in the market

Naina Lal Kidwai, Director, HSBC Asia Pacific & Country Head, HSBC India advises investors to stay put in the market despite the recently stellar run up. However, she expects some volatility in the market due to the upcoming general elections.

She says India is currently standing out within the emerging market pack.

The big positive has been the current account deficit hitting a 4 year low, she said, adding, rising exports is an important trend. Going forward, she feels the policymakers should work on agricultural productivity.

02:00pm Equity benchmarks are trading at fresh life highs in afternoon trade with the Sensex rising more than 350 points supported by interest rate sensitive and commodity stocks.

The Sensex climbs 370.65 points or 1.72 percent to 21884.52 and the Nifty rises 114.35 points or 1.79 percent to 6515.50 but the broader markets remain flat.

BSE Realty and Bank indices gain 5 percent each followed by Capital Goods and Oil & Gas with around 4 percent upmove. However, IT and Healthcare indices continue to see selling pressure, falling more than 2 percent.

Top telecom operator Bharti Airtel and private sector lenders ICICI Bank and IndusInd Bank rally over 6 percent. Jaiprakash Associates and DLF gain 12 percent and 9 percent, respectively.

Reliance Industries, Axis Bank and Larsen & Toubro climb 5-6 percent whereas Dr Reddy's Labs crashed 5 percent.

Wipro, Infosys, Lupin, Sun Pharma and TCS lose 1-4 percent.