Sensex, Nifty close higher for 8th day; Coal India up 4%

Moneycontrol Bureau

The market extended its northward journey for the eighth consecutive session on Tuesday. Equity benchmarks closed marginally higher amid consolidation as investors are eyeing for expiry of June derivative contracts (on Thursday) and Greek deal that is expected to be this week.

The 30-share BSE Sensex advanced 74.16 points or 0.27 percent to 27,804.37 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 28.45 points or 0.34 percent to 8,381.55.

Market experts believe the market may remain in a consolidation mode till June expiry and is waiting for Greece deal. According to them, the corporate earnings may see revival from December quarter onwards.

Manish Singh of Crossbridge Capital believes over the medium to long-term India remains one of the most attractive markets but over the short-term he does not see a sustained rise for the equity market.

Sanjay Dutt, director at Quantum Securities, sees a new lifetime high in 2015. "There have been signs of some pick-up in the recovery cycle, the government has taken steps on infrastructure financing, bank balance sheets are being restructured. All these should show up in the September or December quarters," he reasoned.

Globally, markets were positive as the countdown to a potential debt deal between Greece and its creditors begins. Markets are hoping that Greece will come to some kind of reforms-for-rescue deal with its international creditors this week. France's CAC and Germany's DAX climbed over 1 percent (at 16 hours IST). Britain's FTSE gained 0.3 percent.

Asian markets closed higher with Japan's Nikkei hitting multi-year highs on Greek optimism, up 1.9 percent. Hang Seng gained 0.9 percent and Shanghai rallied 2.2 percent after showing slight improvements in the country's massive manufacturing sector.

Back home, Larsen & Toubro was the biggest contributor to Sensex's gains, up 2 percent as the engineering and construction major is looking to list its technology subsidiary L&T Infotech. Public offer of subsidiary is likely to come out by November or December this year, said chairman AM Naik in an interview to CNBC-TV18.

PSU banks were also in the limelight after in an exclusive interaction with CNBC-TV18 at San Francisco, finance secretary Rajiv Mehrishi said the government will infuse USD 3 billion into PSU banks this year and more USD 6 billion in the next year in order to revive public sector banks. SBI rose 0.7 percent. PNB rallied 3.7 percent and Bank of Baroda gained 2.8 percent.

DLF was up 2.5 percent as sources told CNBC-TV18 that India's biggest realty company and PE firm Blackstone resolved differences over their assets in Bengaluru market and agreed to divide their portfolio. DLF's exit from Bengaluru is part of a larger cashless deal for the company with Blackstone. It will transfer all its Bengaluru assets including Bengaluru Westend Heights, Woodlands to Blackstone, said sources.

Bharat Petroleum Corporation jumped 1.7 percent. Deutsche Bank has reiterated its buy rating on the stock. The brokerage has raised FY16-17 earnings per share (EPS) by 6-14 percent and target price by 3 percent on higher gross refining margins (GRMs).

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel advanced 1.25 percent. Japan's SoftBank Corp announced investment of USD 20 billion in setting up solar power projects in India in partnership with telecom giant Bharti Enterprises and Taiwan's Foxconn.

IT stocks lost ground with the Infosys falling 2.3 percent. TCS and Wipro slipped over 0.6 percent. Sources told CNBC-TV18 that IT companies suffered delayed payments of almost USD 1 billion on government contracts signed and completed over last 5 years. Companies like TCS, Wipro, Infosys and Tech Mahindra are likely to be affected most amongst all IT companies. NASSCOM said mode of procurement and non-payment to IT companies are major problems of Digital India.

Among others, HDFC, ITC, M&M, Cipla, NTPC and Tata Steel gained 1-3 percent. Coal India topped the buying list, up 3.9 percent whereas Lupin and Hero Motocorp fell more than 2 percent. Bajaj Auto, BHEL, Tata Motors declined around 1 percent.

In the broader space, Ashok Leyland was up 1.4 percent as the commercial vehicle maker has received orders worth USD 82 million from Senegal, the country in Africa. The order is for building country's comprehensive and integrated transportation system.

Venus Remedies climbed 2.8 percent after the company announced the issue of equity shares to promoters on a preferential basis.