Sensex up 100 pts, Nifty above 17,800; auto, realty surge

Toyota Kirloskar to discontinue Yaris in India

The carmaker has announced the discontinuation of the sale of Yaris car models in India. The company will start production of new car models in FY22, it said. 

Divis Lab, Cadila top drags

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Kerala High Court strikes down proposed government ban on online rummy

Even as the Karnataka government prepares new legislation to ban online games that involve betting and wagering, the Kerala High Court quashed a move against banning online rummy in the state. A single judge bench of the Kerala High Court quashed an amendment to a notification issued by the Kerala Government under Section 14A of the Kerala Gaming Act, 1960, which sought to ban online rummy in the country. (Read more)

Freshworks commentary: Viram Shah, co-Founder and CEO, Vested Finance 

“Enquiries for investing in Freshworks were seen even before the listing by Indian investors but unfortunately they are not allowed to directly investing in IPOs of US markets. Since it got listed, over the last 3 days, it’s been the No. #1 stock on Vested Finance’s platform and 0.4% of Vested Finance users today hold FRSH in comparison 1.2% have invested in Coinbase and 6.5% have invested in Microsoft. More than ₹2 crore has been invested in Freshworks since it got listed on our platform. We witnessed a 50% spike in daily new account opening on our platform over the last few days due to the Freshworks excitement.”

ICICI Bank to offer instant overdraft facility to sellers registered on amazon. How to avail

ICICI Bank on Monday announced that it has partnered with Amazon India to offer overdraft (OD) facility upto ₹25 lakh to individual sellers and small businesses registered on the e-commerce company’s online marketplace. (Read more)

Birla Corp.: Axis Securities recommends BUY with a target price of ₹1500/share

Birla Corporation Limited (BCL) is the flagship company of the M.P. Birla Group, involved in a core business activity of cement manufacturing. Besides cement, the company has also established a significant presence in the Jute Goods industry. Its cement division has 10 plants at seven locations – Satna and Maihar (Madhya Pradesh), Raebareli and Kundanganj (Uttar Pradesh), Chanderia (Rajasthan), Butibori (Maharashtra), and Durgapur (West Bengal). Currently, the company’s total cement manufacturing capacity stands at 15.6 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) and it is one of the dominant players in the Central India region.

BCL is on track to expand its capacity by 25% which will reduce concerns over its volume growth moving ahead. We expect the company to register Revenue/EBITDA/APAT growth of 13%/14/%/18% CAGR over FY21-FY23E, driven by volume CAGR of 11% and consistent realization improvement of 2% CAGR over the same period. The stock is currently trading at 7.5x and 6.1x FY22E and FY23E EV/EBITDA and EV/Tonne of $76 and $73 respectively.

Sensex heatmap

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Kaya appoints former Shoppers Stop MD Rajiv Suri as global CEO

Kaya Limited that operates a chain of skin and hair care clinics in India and the Middle East has appointed Rajiv Suri as its global chief executive officer. Suri was previously managing director and chief executive officer at departmental store chain Shoppers Stop. He stepped down from Shoppers Stop in August 2020. (Read more)

Stock recommendation: Angel Broking maintains BUY on Ashok Leyland 

“Ashok Leyland Ltd (ALL) is one of the leading player in India CV industry with a 32% market share in the MHCV segment. The company also has a strong presence in the fast growing LCV segment. Demand for MHCV was adversely impacted post peaking out due to multiple factors including changes in axel norms, increase in prices due to implementation of BS 6 norms followed by sharp drop in demand due the ongoing Covid-19 crisis. While demand for the LCV segment has been growing smartly post the pandemic, demand for the MHCV segment has also started to recover over the past few months before the 2nd lockdown. We believe that the company is ideally placed to capture the growth revival in the CV segment and will be the biggest beneficiary of the Government’s voluntary scrappage policy and hence rate the stock a BUY.”

Oil extends surge as WTI jumps above $75 on global energy crunch

Oil rallied at the start of the week’s trading on signs that the crude market is tightening amid a global energy crunch. West Texas Intermediate topped $75 a barrel after a run of five weekly gains, while Brent hit the highest level since October 2018. Inventories have been drawing, with U.S. stockpiles near a three-year low. At the same time, a rally in natural gas looks set to drive demand for oil as users switch fuels. Oil has risen more than 80% over the past year as worldwide demand recovers from the disruption caused by the pandemic. On the supply side, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies including Russia have been easing output curbs only slowly, permitting markets to tighten. In addition, extreme weather in the U.S. has crimped local production. (Bloomberg)

Messaging platform Signal faces outage

Encrypted instant messaging platform Signal said early Monday it was down for some users due to a hosting outage that was affecting parts of its services. Reports by affected users peaked at 1,308 late Sunday, according to outage tracking website Downdetector.com. Downdetector said most reported problems experienced by users were with sending messages, server connection and with the app itself in the United States. Currently, the number of user reports stand at 337, according to the outage tracking website.

PVR, Inox Leisure shares surge. Good time to buy now?

“Shares of PVR, Inox Leisure have been rising since early morning deals. PVR share price price today opened with an upside gap of ₹151.05 apiece — hitting lifetime high of ₹1,661.95 per shares mark. Likewise, Inox share price opened ₹29 upside logging around 8.50% rise in early trade deals. According to stock market experts, this sharp rise in PVR and Inox shares is due to the Maharashtra Government’s announcement to open cinema theaters in the state from 22nd October 2021. They said that market is bullish on PVR and Inox stock because of this news and one can buy this counter for long-term time horizon as it will take two to three quarters for the Indian theaters to start operations at 100% strength.” (Read more)

Realty index commentary: Yash Gupta, Equity Research Analyst, Angel One Ltd

“S&P BSE Realty up by another 2.11% at 4085, in last one week up by 26.8% from 3221 to 4085. We have a Buy rating on Sobha Limited and a Neutral rating on Godrej Properties Ltd. We have seen a one-sided rally in realty stock last week, as of now we expect some consolidation in real-estate stocks. Some of the stocks like Godrej Properties are up by 32% in the last 4 trading sessions, so we expect some correction in the upcoming week. There is a fundamental shift in the real-estate sector, like consolidation towards top-10 players, higher affordability due to lower housing interest rates, low inventory ratio, and new job creation in the IT industry, etc. The real-estate sector was consolidated for the last decades and now we have seen a breakout in that along with favorable fundamentals. We believe the real-estate story is long term story but there may be some consolidation for the time being. We have a neutral rating on Godrej Properties Ltd and a buy rating on Sobha Ltd.”

PM launches Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission

Stock recommendations: ICICI Securities

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Patel Engineering gains

Patel Engineering Ltd’s stock was trading at ₹18.25 apiece, up 10.61% at 11:27 am. The company has secured a new order of ₹1,251 crore as part of the TEESTA-VI HE PROJECT.

Cyber-attacks cost Indian SMBs ₹3.5 cr in past 1 year: Cisco

More than half (62%) of small and medium businesses (SMBs) in India that suffered cyber incidents in the past 12 months said that cyber-attacks cost their business more than ₹3.5 crore, according to a new study by Cisco titled ‘Cybersecurity for SMBs: Asia Pacific Businesses Prepare for Digital Defense’. Of these, 13% said that the cost was over ₹7 crore. According to the study, three in four (74%) SMBs in India suffered a cyber incident in the past year, resulting in 85% losing customer information to malicious actors, in addition to a tangible impact on business. (Read more)

Coforge, Mphasis top drags

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IT, pharma top drags

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Google hits back at EU attack on its mobile money-making machine

Google goes to court this week intent on reversing a record-breaking $5 billion European Union fine and antitrust order that struck at the heart of the US tech giant’s ability to make money. At a five-day hearing at the EU’s General Court in Luxembourg, the company will tell judges that the European Commission was wrong to demand changes to allegedly anti-competitive contracts with makers of phones running its Android operating system—the engine room for the vast majority of mobile devices in the region. (Bloomberg)

CONCOR stake sale not possible in FY22, says finance secy: report

Indian rupee slips 5 paise to 73.73 against US dollar in opening deals

Cryptocurrency exchanges rush to cut ties with Chinese users after fresh crackdown

Cryptocurrency exchanges and providers of crypto services are scrambling to sever business ties with mainland Chinese clients, after Beijing last Friday issued a blanket ban on all crypto trading and mining. In a culmination of years of efforts to rein in the sector, 10 powerful Chinese government bodies including the central bank, said overseas exchanges were barred from providing services to mainland investors via the internet – a previously grey area – and vowed to jointly root out “illegal” cryptocurrency activities. (Reuters)

Covid-19: India records 26,041 new cases, active tally falls below 3 lakh

India saw a single-day rise of 26,041 new coronavirus infections, taking the country’s total tally of cases to 33,678,786 according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday. The death toll has climbed to 44,71,94 with 276 daily fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am. (Read more)

Market commentary: Manish Hathiramani, proprietary index trader and technical analyst, Deen Dayal Investments

“The Nifty is sitting at a resistance zone of 17,900-17,950. If we can close above this patch, the next level should be 18,050. The updated support for the week is at 17,700. Since the risk is to reward is skewed in favor of risk, I would recommend a ‘buy on dips’ approach where the reward becomes a lot more favorable.”

UP raises cane price by 7.9%

The country’s biggest sugar producing state, Uttar Pradesh, has raised the price mills must pay for the new crop by 7.9%, the top official said, announcing the first hike in the cane price in four years ahead of state assembly elections next year. The state government has decided to raise the price that mills need to pay cane growers in the 2021-22 season beginning October to 340 rupees per 100 kgs ($4.61 per 220 lb), Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath said, addressing a group of farmers. (Reuters)

Fitch says Evergrande impact on rated construction companies is manageable: Reuters

Nayara Energy hopes to operate refinery at 100% in 2021

India’s Nayara Energy hopes to operate its 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery in western India at close to 100% capacity in 2021 as fuel demand is picking up, Chief Executive Alois Virag said at the Platts APPEC 2021 conference on Monday. Nayara, part owned by Russian oil major Rosneft, cut rates at its Vadinar refinery in Gujarat state last year. India’s fuel demand is likely to rise by 9%-11% as the economy in India is “steered towards higher growth” after the easing of the second wave of covid-19, he said.  (Reuters)

Indian farmers aim for nationwide protests against reforms on Monday

Indian farmers opposed to reforms they say threaten their livelihoods aim to renew their push against the changes with nationwide protests on Monday, a year after laws on the liberalisation of the sector were introduced. For 10 months, tens of thousands of farmers have camped out on major highways around the capital, New Delhi, to oppose the laws in the longest-running growers’ protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. (Reuters)

India may need additional 2 mln bpd refining capacity by 2030 – IOC chair

India needs to add 2 million barrels per day (bpd) of refining capacity by 2030 to help its economic expansion, even as it takes steps to move to cleaner fuels, said the chairman of Indian Oil Corp (IOC), the country’s top refiner. India, the world’s third-biggest oil importer and consumer, currently has 5 million barrels per day of refining capacity. IOC controls about a third of that. “We are an emerging economy and very aspirational economy and the development is linked to the energy consumption … so obviously we can not be wishing away fossil fuels so early. They have a role to play,” IOC’s S.M. Vaidya said at the Platts APPEC 2021 conference on Monday. (Reuters)

India accelerates talks with Taiwan on chip plant, trade deal

India and Taiwan are in talks on an agreement that could bring chip manufacturing to South Asia along with tariff reductions on components for producing semiconductors by the end of the year, people familiar with the matter said, a move that may spark fresh tensions with China. Officials in New Delhi and Taipei have met in recent weeks to discuss a deal that would bring a chip plant worth an estimated $7.5 billion to India to supply everything from 5G devices to electric cars, the people said. India is currently studying possible locations with adequate land, water and manpower, while saying it would provide financial support of 50% of capital expenditure from 2023 as well as tax breaks and other incentives, the people said. (Bloomberg)

Phoenix, Prestige top gainers

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Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors drive gains

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Banks, financials gain

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SBI gains

SBI’s stock was trading at ₹446.65 apiece, up 1.33% at 9:24 am. On Sunday, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that India needs more banks that can match the scale of its largest lender State Bank of India (SBI).

Nifty Bank index at record high

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HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI drive Sensex gains

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Market pre-opening  

At market pre opening, the Sensex was at 60,304.09, up 255.62 points or 0.43%, while Nifty was at 17,932.20, up 79.00 points or 0.44%.

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Jet Airways staff approaches labour dept over non-payment of gratuity, other dues

A grouping of Jet Airways staff has urged the labour department to initiate steps to “summon” the management of the erstwhile Jet Airways, including former Chairman Naresh Goyal over the non-payment of gratuity and some salary arrears, among others. (Read more)

Now, private equity firms may get to sponsor mutual funds

India’s markets regulator is likely to allow private equity funds to own local asset management companies (AMCs) amid the growing popularity of mutual funds and soaring stock markets, two people aware of the plan said. “Private equity (PE) funds will be allowed to be sponsors of mutual funds, subject to certain conditions. Many existing sponsors and trustees are facing a cash crisis due to the inability of their core businesses to generate enough capital in the wake of the pandemic,” said one of the two people cited above. (Read more)

Stocks to Watch

AstraZeneca India, Reliance Infra, IndiGo, HDFC Bank, NTPC among other stocks may be in the news today. (Read more)

Market outlook

Markets may continue to remain volatile on Monday while trends in SGX Nifty indicate a positive opening of Indian benchmark indices. On Friday, The BSE Sensex ended above 60,000 for first time. The 30-share index ended at 60,048.47, up 163.11 points or 0.27%. The Nifty closed at 17,853.20, up 30.25 points or 0.17%.

Diesel price hiked again, petrol unchanged. Check latest rates

Diesel price on Monday was hiked again, the third increase in rates after the state-owned oil firms ended a three-week hiatus in rates following international oil prices surging to their highest since 2018. Though, petrol prices remained unchanged across metros, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers. Price of diesel has been hiked to ₹89.32 per litre in Delhi whereas petrol costs ₹101.19 a litre in the capital. In Mumbai, diesel become costly at ₹96.94 whereas petrol price remained steady at ₹107.26. (Read more)

Amazon  advances festive sales blitz to align with Flipkart’s

The coming online festive sales season is turning into an unusual battle between India’s top two e-commerce companies to reach discount shoppers first. Amazon India on Sunday advanced its flagship Great Indian Festival sale to 3 October, the same as rival Flipkart, which on Saturday advanced its own Big Billion Days sale from 7 October to 3 October. The Flipkart move itself was prompted by Amazon setting its sale to begin from 4 October, three days ahead of Flipkart’s initial date of 7 October.  (Read more)

Asia shares hesitant as oil hits 3-year highs

Asian shares got off to a cautious start on Monday as a jump in oil prices to three-year highs could inflame inflation fears and aggravate the recent hawkish turn by some major central banks. Oil pushed past its July peaks as global output disruptions forced energy companies to pull large amounts of crude out of inventories, while a shortage of natural gas in Europe pushed costs up across the continent. Brent added another 62 cents on Monday to $78.71 a barrel, while U.S. crude rose 71 cents to $74.69.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was flat, after three consecutive weeks of loss.

Japan’s Nikkei gained 0.4% on hopes for further fiscal stimulus once a new prime minister is chosen.

Nasdaq futures edged up 0.1%, and S&P 500 futures 0.3%.