Sensex up 148 pts, Nifty ends above 8450; SBI drags 3%

Moneycontrol Bureau

3:30 pm Market close: The market ended with good gains supported by infra, oil, IT and pharma stocks. The Sensex was up 148.15 points or 0.5 percent at 27957.50 and the Nifty ended 37.95 points or 0.4 percent at 8458.95. About 1205 shares have advanced, 1515 shares declined, and 160 shares are unchanged.

HDFC, TCS, Sun Pharma, ONGC and L&T were top gainers in the Sensex. Amogn the losers are SBI, Hindalco, Wipro, Axis Bank and Tata Power.

2:50 pm Result: Drug firm Strides Arcolab on Friday reported a standalone net profit of Rs 69.66 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2015. The company had posted a net loss of Rs 48.26 crore for the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, Strides Arcolab said in a filing to the BSE.

The company's standalone total income from operations, however, rose to Rs 270.03 crore during the quarter under consideration as against Rs 256.73 crore in the year ago period.

For the full fiscal ended March 2015, the company posted a standalone net profit of Rs 532.32 crore. It was Rs 3,512.92 crore for the same period of previous fiscal. The company's standalone total income from operations stood at Rs 929.41 crore for the fiscal ended March this year.

2:30 pm FM on rupee: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the value of the rupee should be market-driven, while noting India had potential to touch doubt-digit economic growth.

The rupee has fallen nearly 1 percent against the U.S. dollar so far this year, despite signs of an improving economy, with analysts predicting India could surpass China's growth.

But analysts believe the currency is still over-valued in real effective exchange rate (REER) terms, which is calculated on a trade-weighted basis against a basket of 36 currencies and is adjusted for inflation.

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The market maintains its uptrend amidst announcement of corporate earnings of few companies. The Sensex is up 145.71 points at 27955.06 and the Nifty is up 39.25 points  at 8460.25. About 1209 shares have advanced, 1336 shares declined, and 165 shares are unchanged.

Sun Pharma, TCS, HDFC, ONGC and L&T are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are Bajaj Auto, Wipro, Vedanta, Hero MotoCorp and Hindalco.

SBI has flattened after announcing its Q4 earnings. It has beaten estimates with net profit rising 23.1 percent to Rs 3742 crore from Rs 3040.7 crore in corresponding quarter last quarter.  Net interest income (NII), during the quarter rose 14 percent to Rs 14,712 crore compared to Rs 12,903 crore year-on-year (Y-o-Y).  Its asset quality improved in the period.

However, surprise in the pack is Punj Llyod as it is 16 percent. Its Q4 net profit soared to Rs 268 crore compared to Rs 5 Lakh but total income fell to Rs 1,290 crore from Rs 2,037 crore on a yearly basis. Its other income  grew to Rs 570 crore to Rs 11 crore (Y-o-Y).