Nifty hovers around 8400; Hero up 2%, ONGC & Sesa weak

Moneycontrol Bureau

11:50 am Big deal: ITC, India's largest cigarette maker, is in talks with Century Textile and Industries Ltd to buy its paper division in a bid to diversify revenue to non-tobacco businesses, said two sources directly involved in the deal.

In separate transactions, Century's textile division will be merged with Aditya Birla Nuvo and the cement unit will be merged with UltraTech Cement Ltd , as part of the company's restructuring, the sources said.

The sources declined to be named as the deal talks were not public yet. Axis Bank is advising Century Textile on the restructuring process, the sources said.

11:30 am Poll: In Q4FY15 (January-March quarter), private sector lender YES Bank is expected to report similar growth to Q3. According to a CNBC-TV18 poll, profit is estimated at Rs 549 crore during March quarter, a growth of 27.6 percent over same quarter last year, supported by other income. Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest expended, may jump 32 percent to Rs 950 crore in fourth quarter of financial year 2014-15 from Rs 720 crore in same quarter last year. The growth in NII may also be supported by low base in Q4FY14 when NII had increased 13 percent to Rs 720 crore. Analysts feel the growth in other income may be led by financial advisory, third party distribution and trading gains. Continued support from operating profit will also be closely watched.

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The market is still keeping its head high with the Nifty hovering around 8400. The 50-share index is up 19.10 points at 8396.85 while the Sensex is up 102.81 points at 27778.85. About 1359 shares have advanced, 766 shares declined, and 151 shares are unchanged.

HUL is up 3 percent while Sun Pharma, Hero Motocorp, Dr Reddy's Labs and M&M are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are Wipro, Infosys, Tata Motors, ONGC and Sesa Sterlite.

Oil prices fell in Asia after a Saudi-led coalition declared an end to four weeks of air strikes in Yemen and ahead of a key US supply report.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate fell 52 cents to USD 56.09 while Brent crude fell 42 cents to USD 61.66 in late-morning trade. Analysts said dealers were sitting on the sidelines ahead of the release later today of the official US stockpiles report. Gains in US petroleum reserves typically indicates slack demand in the world's top crude consumer, pushing global prices down.