Sensex, Nifty weak; banks, metals, oil & gas under pressure

Moneycontrol Bureau
Live Market Commentary

12:55pm Bajaj Auto slips over 1% post October sales Automotive major Bajaj Auto's October sales declined to 3.84 lakh units versus 4.11 lakh units year-on-year (YoY). The three-wheeler sales of the company declined 26 percent to 37,000. Rajiv Bajaj, its managing director, however, says that the sales have been in line with the averages. The run rate for the segment is at 40,000 units per month and high sales in October 2012 were an outlier, tells CNBC-TV18. In the two-wheeler segment, Bajaj expects to regain some of the lost market share. Sales of Boxer have been good, backed by strong export demand, he says. The company will try to push production of its Discover brands in the coming two months as their success will help in regaining their market share, he adds. He expects margins to be maintained at 20 percent and sees a turnaround in the company’s performance by the end of the financial year with new launches in the pipeline. Bajaj is also optimistic on better exports going forward. Nigeria has been the best performing export market so far, he says. 12:46pm Kohinoor Foods on fire Rice stocks were active in trade on Wednesday on reports that decline in paddy production in eastern states and Andhra Pradesh has triggered speculation of a lower rice output this year, stoking a 10-30 percent spike in prices. Kohinoor Foods surged 7.5 percent while LT Foods and KRBL gained 3-5 percent. Gurnam Arora, Joint MD, Kohinoor Foods told CNBC-TV18 that prices of basmati rice has surged due to high paddy costs. This is cause of concern for the company because it may not be able pass high price to key export markets like Iran, he said. "For basmati, the opening prices this year compared to last year are about 50 percent to 70 percent higher, this worrying because the industry was expecting about 15-20 percent higher crop this year because of good monsoon," he added. 12:32pm Market Update The market is trading lower amid volatility, weighed down by oil & gas and financials. The Sensex is down 91.41 points at 20883.38, and the Nifty is down 32.45 points at 6220.70. Sesa Sterlite is the biggest loser among largecaps, falling nearly 3 percent followed by HDFC, Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, Bharti Airtel and Tata Motors with 1-2 percent loss. However, NTPC is the gainer in the Sensex, soaring over 2 percent. TCS remained in bull grip from early trade with 1.7 percent gains. 12:21pm ABB up 10% ABB's third quarter (July-September) net profit grew 66.4 percent year-on-year to Rs 35.6 crore despite higher finance cost and tax expenses. "Focussed initiatives in streamlining operations, optimising costs and increasing localisation are yielding sustainable improvements. Savings from these initiatives have helped balance the adverse impact of continuing price erosion and weak market condition," the company said in its release. 12:11pm The market is directionless in noon trade due to lack of trigger. The Sensex is down 46.70 points at 20928.09, and the Nifty is down 20.75 points at 6232.40. According to Prabodh Agarwal, president and head of research (institutional equities) at IIFL, so far while the market has been driven through liquidity, going forward, the fundamentals have to catch-up; both the economic outlook as well as the earnings outlook has to improve for the market to sustain the rally. He believes the outlook on the earnings is definitely changing at the margin. "The latest result season has been much better than expected. Almost 80 percent of the companies that have reported so far and they have reported either above or inline with the expectations," Agarwal explained. Technology, healthcare and power stocks are on buyers' radar while financials, oil & gas and metals stocks are under pressure.