Sensex continues to rally, Bank Nifty weak; rupee gains 20p

Moneycontrol Bureau11:45 am Buzzing: L&T climbed over a percent intraday today on getting order by its power transmission & distribution business.

"The power transmission & distribution business of L&T Construction has won orders worth Rs 1,376 crore in both the domestic and international markets in September 2015," the engineering and construction major said in its filing.

In domestic market, solar business has bagged multiple orders for engineering, procurement and construction of 115 MWp solar installations in southern part of the country. Upon completion, total installed capacity of solar plants by the company would be 643MWp.

It has also received an order from West Bengal State Electricity Transmission Company for engineering, procurement and construction of 132 kV double circuit transmission lines.

In international market, it has made a strategic breakthrough in Malawi, Africa, by bagging an order for construction of two 400/132kV substations on EPC basis. It has bagged another order in the Middle East of a 220kV substation.

11:30 am Gas price cut: Sources told CNBC-TV18 that the government has reduced local gas prices to USD 3.82 per mmBtu for October-December period from USD 4.66 per mmBtu earlier.

It is learnt that October-December local gas prices will cost USD 4.24 per mmBtu based on net calorific value. Gas price revision will be valid till March 2016.

Brokerages feel Indraprastha Gas may benefit the most as lower gas price may boost CNG and domestic PNG business (which is more than 80 percent of its volumes. They see some impact on ONGC as its earnings per share may decline.11:15 am Market Expert: There is a need for more follow-on action on reforms from the central government, is the word coming in from Sanjeev Prasad of Kotak Institutional Equities. As far as the macroeconomic situation is concerned, India is in a very safe spot, he says. The only missing piece, according to him, is growth. "Consumption at the moment is weak, private sector investments are nearly dead and net exports is suffering as a consequence of whatever is happening globally," he told CNBC-TV18. Based on this, he is taking the 7.5-8 percent GDP growth figures with a pinch of salt.

Also, Prasad says interest in emerging markets is low and India too will get impacted because of FII redemption pressures. However, he believes external sectors such as IT and pharma are doing well at the moment. It may also be a good idea to play themes linked to macroeconomic development, he adds.

Going ahead, he expects Nifty EPS to be cut by another 5-6 percent for this year.Also read - 50 bps rate cut won't impact economy in big way: Macquarie11:00 am Market Check

Benchmark indices remained strong with the Sensex rising 181.04 points to 25959.70 and the Nifty climbing 40.60 points to 7883.90. The Indian rupee appreciated further, up 20 paise to 65.76 a dollar in morning trade.

The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices increased more than 0.8 percent as market breadth was positive. About 1415 shares have advanced against 640 shares declined on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Shares of Infosys, ITC, Lupin, Tata Motors, HUL, Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel, Dr Reddy's Labs and Wipro gained 1-3 percent.

Tata Steel climbed 3.7 percent after a media report indicated that steel producers are likely to hike prices by up to Rs 1,500 per tonne.

However, Bank Nifty saw profit booking, falling 100 points as ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and State Bank of India declined 0.9-1.7 percent.

IGL (5 percent), Container Corp (5 percent), Torrent Pharma (5 percent), SKS Microfinance (4 percent) and JSW Steel (4 percent) were the big winners in midcap space. Other notable gainers included JSW Energy (3 percent), Jindal Steel (3 percent), Amara Raja Batteries (3 percent), IRB Infra (3 percent) and Wockhardt (4 percent).