Sensex up 200 pts; Tata Motors rebounds, Reliance leads

Moneycontrol Bureau

10:55 am Market Update: The Sensex gained 235.74 points or 0.84 percent at 28168.64 and the Nifty rose 62.20 points or 0.74 percent to 8516.30. About 1585 shares have advanced, 657 shares declined, and 132 shares are unchanged on the BSE. 

10:40 am Earnings: Media conglomerate Zee Entertainment surpassed street expectations on every parameter Wednesday with the first quarter profit rising 15.8 percent year-on-year to Rs 243.8 crore, aided by advertising revenue.

Consolidated revenue increased by 23.4 percent to Rs 1,340 crore in the quarter ended June 2015 from Rs 1,085.7 crore in the year-ago period.

According to a CNBC-TV18 poll, profit was estimated at Rs 214 crore on revenue of Rs 1,275 crore for the quarter.

Zee said advertising revenues for the quarter were Rs 779.9 crore, recording a growth of 25.4 percent over Q1 FY15 and subscription revenues were Rs 462.5 crore during the quarter, recording a growth of 12.2 percent over Q1 FY15.

During the quarter, domestic subscription revenues stood at Rs 368 crore while international subscription revenues stood at Rs 94.5 crore.

Operating profit margin declined 530 basis points year-on-year to 23.2 percent in June quarter, which was better than analysts' estimates of 23 percent against 28.5 percent in the corresponding quarter of last fiscal.

10:20 am Oil volatile: The reason behind the fall and rise in oil prices yesterday, according to Miswin Mahesh of Barclays, is the fact that the Iranian nuclear agreement still needs to be approved within the Congress in the US. They have 60 days to do that. Despite US President Barack Obama firm statement that he will veto any opposition to it, it is still important. Secondly, even after the Congress approval in September, actual oil from Iran will hit the market only in the fourth quarter.

There are also a few other roadblocks to go through in terms of Iranian oil hitting the market. The first tranche that would hit the market would be the 40 million barrels of oil Iran has on oil tankers, says Mahesh. This will hit the market first after the European insurance sanctions are removed on tanker shipments, he told CNBC-TV18.

Iran has the fifth largest oil reserves in the world. Despite the fact that Iran will be opening its oil sector to foreign companies, oil contracts will play a key role here, he says. While foreign companies are extremely keen to go to Iran, a lot will depend on how attractive it will be for major oil companies around the world to go to there and start rejuvenating the oil fields, he adds.

10:00 am Market Check

The market gained strength after a day of consolidation, rising 0.8 percent led by broadbased buying. The Sensex climbed 217.44 points to 28150.34 and the Nifty rose 57.10 points to 8511.20.

The BSE Midcap index advanced 0.5 percent and Smallcap jumped 0.8 percent. Nearly three shares advanced for every share falling on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Maruti Suzuki rallied more than 2 percent to touch a new high of Rs 4,138.45. Brokerage Credit Suisse has maintained outperform rating on the stock and raised target price to Rs Rs 5,100 from Rs 4,370 earlier (implying 26 percent potential upside), citing higher volume growth going ahead and likely addition in MSCI index.

Reliance Industries, TCS, ONGC, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra and Wipro climbed 1-1.8 percent.