Benchmark indices extend gains

Key benchmark indices extended intraday gains in mid-morning trade. At 11:15 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 93.41 points or 0.33% at 28,692.44. The Nifty 50 index was currently up 34 points or 0.39% at 8,813.85. The Sensex rose 115.74 points or 0.4% at the day's high of 28,714.77 in mid-morning trade. The barometer index lost 47.48 points or 0.16% at the day's low of 28,552.55 in early trade. The Nifty rose 42.50 points or 0.48% at the day's high of 8,822.35 in mid-morning trade. The index lost 5.65 points or 0.06% at the day's low of 8,774.20 in early trade.

The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market was strong. On BSE, 1,375 shares rose and 887 shares declined. A total of 153 shares were unchanged. The BSE Mid-Cap index was currently up 0.54%. The BSE Small-Cap index was currently up 0.6%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex. Gains in Asian markets aided the upmove on the domestic bourses.

In overseas stock markets, Asian stocks were trading higher with sentiment driven by a rebound in oil prices while traders were also keeping an eye on crucial monetary policy decisions due from the US and Japan later this week. Japan stock market remained closed for a holiday. US stocks registered modest losses on Friday, 16 September 2016, with financials and energy shares lagging. The US Federal Reserve policy makers begin their two-day policy meeting tomorrow, 20 September 2016. The Fed is expected to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged in the wake of recent downbeat US economic indicators. The Fed left the target range for its federal funds rate unchanged at 0.25% to 0.5% for the fifth time during its July 2016 meeting.

IT stocks edged higher. Tech Mahindra (up 1.79%), TCS (up 2.19%), HCL Technologies (up 1.19%) and Wipro (up 0.18%) gained. Oracle Financial Services Software (down 0.15%) edged lower.

Index heavyweight and software major Infosys was up 0.55% at Rs 1,066.15. The stock hit a high of Rs 1,067.95 and a low of Rs 1,043 so far during the day.

Auto stocks rose. Ashok Leyland (up 3.34%), Mahindra & Mahindra (up 1.08%), TVS Motor Company (up 0.68%), Tata Motors (up 0.63%) and Eicher Motors (up 0.71%) edged higher. Maruti Suzuki India (down 1.03%), Bajaj Auto (down 0.83%) and Hero MotoCorp (down 0.21%) declined.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) was up 0.71% at Rs 1,083.30. The company's telecom arm Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL) said that the quantum of additional points of interconnection (POI) proposed to be released by Bharti Airtel is substantially less than the requirement of the company estimated based on transparent workings shared with Airtel. Based on the current traffic flow between the two networks, the proposed augmentation by Airtel would still only suffice for less than one-fourth of the required interconnection capacity. RJIL said it is apparent that Airtel continues to abuse its market dominance by imposing onerous conditions which will imminently hinder RJIL's ability to efficiently utilize the additional E1s. Inspite of these issues, RJIL shall continue to work with Airtel and all the other incumbent operators to resolve this issue at the earliest and ensure that Indian customers get best-in-class services. RJIL said it hopes that Airtel will enhance the POI's sufficiently to meet its license obligation of Quality of Service (QoS) with immediate effect and maintain these parameters on an ongoing basis. Airtel must also immediately make available mobile number portability (MNP) to all its subscribers opting to port to RJIL in accordance with the license terms and MNP regulations, RJIL said. The announcement was made during market hours today, 19 September 2016.

In a separate announcement during market hours today, 19 September 2016, RJIL said that the statements from Airtel are misleading and unfortunate in the context of the severe QoS issues being faced by the Indian customers. While there are over two crore call failures every day between the two networks, there are no incidents of call failures within the Jio network, RJIL said.

Motherson Sumi Systems rose 0.67% at Rs 320.70 after the company successfully completed raising of funds amounting to Rs 1993.44 crore by way of qualified institutional placement (QIP). The announcement was made on Saturday, 17 September 2016. The QIP opened on 8 September 2016 and was closed for receiving applications from investors on 13 September 2016. A total of 6.28 crore shares were issued to qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) at an issue price of Rs 317 per share constituting a discount of 2.79% to the floor price of Rs 326.10 per share. The company intends to use the net proceeds of the issue for meeting general corporate purpose and for achieving the company's objectives in five year plan 'Vision 2020', wherein company aims to have revenues of $18 billion by 2020.

Further, preferential allotment of 1.77 crore shares was made in favour of Sumitomo Wiring Systems (SWS) at issue price of Rs 317 per share on 12 September 2016 aggregating Rs 563.07 crore. Post this preferential allotment and the QIP allotment, SWS shareholding continues to remain above 25%.

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