Sensex and Nifty are likely to open higher on Wednesday tracking the record closing of all the three major Wall Street indices on Tuesday a day ahead of the Federal Reserve’s concluding statement from its two-day policy meeting. Meanwhile, the early indicator of NSE Nifty 50 — SGX Nifty Futures — was trading little changed, down 0.06% at 10,161 points on the Singapore Stock Exchange.
These stocks will be in focus today
Shares of Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries, Idea, and Reliance Communication will be in watch today as Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) yesterday announced slashing of the interconnection usage charge (IUC), paid by an operator for termination of mobile call on a rival network, to 6 paise a minute from the current 14 paise. Terming the cut in call termination charges as “disastrous”, industry body COAI today said its members — which include the likes of Bharti Airtel and Vodafone — may move court against regulator Trai’s decision. The new rate will be applicable from October 1, 2017, and will be completely eliminated from January 1, 2020. The cut in the charge runs contrary to the demands made
by established operators, including Bharti Airtel, which wanted the termination rate to be raised and benchmarked against the actual cost. The latest entrant Reliance Jio, on the other hand, had been seeking waiving of the charge, saying it will benefit consumers.
Tata Sons today raised stakes in three group firms — Tata Motors, Tata Chemicals, and TGBL — buying shares worth over Rs 3,200 crore. Tata Sons have been on a drive to reduce cross-holdings within the group under the new Chairman N Chandrasekaran, as part of restructuring its investment portfolio. He has been pushing for simplification of group structure
and remove cross-holdings. The promoter of the major Tata group companies has bought shares worth about Rs 1,634 crore in Tata Motors, as per the data available with BSE. It has bought 38,767,541 shares of Tata Motors at Rs 421.44 per share constituting 1.34 per cent. In a regulatory filing, Tata Chemicals said it has sold 4,31,75,140 equity shares of face value of Re 1 each of Tata Global Beverages Ltd (TGBL) to Tata Sons Ltd at price of Rs 213.35 per share, fetching around Rs 922 crore.
Similarly, TGBL said it has sold 1,04,80,000 equity shares of face value of Rs 10 each of Tata Chemicals Ltd (TCL) constituting 4.11 per cent of the issued capital of TCL to Tata Sons through open market transaction.
State-owned fuel retailers IOC, BPCL, and HPCL will go in for increased borrowings to sustain high dividend payments and capital spending this fiscal, keeping their credit metrics weak, Moody’s Investors Service said yesterday.
PVR: Leading multiplex operator PVR will invest around Rs 60 crore to add up to 15 screens under its new premier sub-brand P[XL] by FY 2018-19, PTI reported citing a top company official. PVR yesterday unveiled a new sub-brand P[XL], its home grown big movie screen format known as Premium Extra Large, at Mani Square, Kolkata.
Indian Rupee on Tuesday: The rupee extended its loss for the second straight day by tumbling 20 paise to nearly two-month low of 64.33 a dollar.
Indian markets on Tuesday
Sensex and Nifty ended flat on Tuesday after a dull trade as market participants keenly awaited the outcome of US Federal Reserve meeting. The equity benchmark Nifty 50 extended yesterday’s gain and made an all new lifetime high of 10,178.95 points. The US Fed meeting is expected to yield details on how the central bank will unwind its $4.2 trillion portfolio of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities, nearly a decade after the global financial crisis. BSE Sensex closed down 0.07% at 32,402.37 points and NSE Nifty settled 0.05% lower at 10,147.55 points.
Tata Motors stock was the biggest gainer on both the key indices NSE and BSE on Tuesday, surged 5.62% to the day’s high of Rs 427.7 on NSE on news reports that Tata Sons bought 1.7% stake in the automaker through multiple block deals. Yesterday about 4.44 crore shares of Tata Motors were exchanged in a series of block deals for an amount aggregating to Rs 1,871.79 crore on both BSE and NSE.
US markets on Tuesday
The three major US stock indexes edged higher on Tuesday, logging closing records, with financial stocks providing the biggest boost a day ahead of the Federal Reserve’s concluding statement from its two-day policy meeting. The US central bank is expected to announce when it will begin paring its bond holdings, and while a September interest rate increase is not expected, investors will closely study Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s views on inflation for clues whether the Fed will raise rates in December.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 39.45 points, or 0.18 percent, to 22,370.8, clocking its sixth straight record close. The S&P 500 gained 2.78 points, or 0.11 percent, to 2,506.65, hitting its fifth record closing high in the last six sessions. The Nasdaq Composite added 6.68 points, or 0.1 percent, to 6,461.32, also squeaking out a record closing high, slightly above its 13 September close.
