Stocks of DLF will be in focus as its promoters are likely to sell their 40 per cent stake in the company’s rental arm DLF Cyber City Developers Ltd (DCCDL) by the end of this fiscal. (Express Photo)

The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty opened on a flat note on Thursday following weak global markets, which tumbled after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said a December interest rate hike in the United States is a “live possibility”. At 9.23 am, Sensex was down 57.34 points at 26,495.58. Similarly, Nifty was down 17.90 points at 8,022.30 during the same time.

Here are stocks that will be in focus today:

IDBI Bank: State-owned IDBI Bank on Wednesday said it plans to raise Rs 2,800 crore from foreign investors or public offer, a move that will bring down the stake of the government in the lender. Shares of IDBI Bank closed at Rs 84.80, up Rs 0.24 per cent on the BSE on Wednesday

Essar Ports: Private sector port operator Essar Ports on Wednesday reported a 9 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 104.5 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2015 helped by growth volumes and cost optimisation measures. The company had clocked a net profit of Rs 96.1 crore in the year-ago period, it said in a BSE filing. Its total consolidated income rose by 6 per cent to Rs 421.86 crore in the July-September quarter this fiscal from Rs 398.78 crore during the same quarter of 2014-15.

Bank of Baroda: Public-sector lender Bank of Baroda (BOB) has trimmed rate of interest, payable on bulk deposits of Rs 1 crore and above across maturities, by 0.25-0.60 per cent. BOB said that the revision will be applicable to the renewal of existing deposits and fresh deposits, effective from November 5, 2015.

DLF: Realty major DLF on Wednesday said its promoters are likely to sell their 40 per cent stake in the company’s rental arm DLF Cyber City Developers Ltd (DCCDL) by the end of this fiscal. DLF’s net debt has increased by Rs 922 crore during the quarter ended September to Rs 22,520 crore.

Ashok Leyland: Hinduja group flagship firm Ashok Leyland today reported over two-fold rise in net profit at Rs 287 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2015. The Chennai-based company had posted a net profit of Rs 121 crore during the same period of previous fiscal. Net sales of the company rose to Rs 4,878.81 crore during the second quarter, as against Rs 3,150.36 crore during the same period of previous fiscal, Ashok Leyland said in a filing to the BSE.

Tata Steel: Tata steel will announce its second quarterly result of the financial year ended September 30, 2015.

Reliance Power: Anil Ambani-led Reliance Power today said its board will on Monday consider giving maiden interim dividend to its shareholders.

PNC Infratech: The company reported 18.22 per cent drop in consolidated net profit at Rs 17.81 crore for the quarter ended September 30 on increase in depreciation on account of Kanpur-Kabrai BOT project.

Reliance infra: Reliance Infrastructure today reported 4.62 per cent increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 451.13 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2015-16, on higher income.

Bata India: The footwear major on Wednesday reported a 38.74 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 54.11 crore for the second quarter ended September 30.

Neyveli Lignite Corporation: The public sector has registered a 32.4 per cent rise in net profit to Rs 343.40 crore for the second quarter ending September 30, 2015.

Omaxe: The realty firm reported a 40 per cent increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 19.46 crore for the quarter ended September.

Fortis Healthcare: The company reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 33.98 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2015.

Companies like KEI, Allcargo Logistics, Jubilant Food, JBF Ind, Alembic Ltd, Aban, Amrutanjan, Cummins Ind, Sona steer, Gujarat gas, Nitin Spin, Tata Steel, Tata Global and Sunil Hitech may announce their earnings on Thursday.

Sensex fell to a one-month low of 26,552.92 points on Wednesday. (Photo: PTI)

The Sensex fell to a one-month low of 26,552.92 points on Wednesday, wiping out early gains in the last one hour of trade as concerns on weak corporate earnings, the US Federal Reserve’s lift-off in December and the outcome of the Bihar state election weighed on investors. Wednesday’s weak closing was the seventh in the last eight sessions over which the Sensex has given up nearly 925 points or 3.5%. Foreign portfolio investors (FPI) have pulled out a little over $810 million from the stock and bond markets in the last six sessions.

The selling appears to have hurt the rupee — the Indian currency, which slipped below the 65 mark against the dollar on October 29 and hit 65.65 on Tuesday, has failed to recover meaningfully, closing at 65.48 on Wednesday.

Foreign funds have shown a large appetite for bonds this year, having bought $8.45 billion worth of paper while the stock market has seen inflows of just $4.33 billion.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch chief economist Indranil Sen Gupta views this as a “litmus test time” for Indian markets. Sen Gupta has highlighted three key risk events — the Bihar election, Fed rate hike, and turnaround in earnings — in the near-term.

“An inconclusive US FOMC meeting last week prolongs the uncertainty. The Bihar election appears too close to call, whereas in-house strategists expect FY16 earnings to downgraded to 8-10% from consensus 17%. We expect capital flows to turn around only after the market prices in our three event risks. The next two weeks will provide some clarity,” Sen Gupta said, adding that the Bihar poll will influence the course of economic reforms.

Despite the recent fall, the Indian market is the most expensive emerging market; the Sensex trades at at a one-year forward price-to-earnings (PE) multiple of 15.5 times compared with the MSCI Emerging Markets Index’s multiple of 11.4 times, Bloomberg data showed. Indonesia trades at 14.3 times forward while China trades at 13.5 times.

Meanwhile, the pulllout from the bond market over six straight sessions, executive director and head of ALM and trading at DBS Bank India Ashish Vaidya feels, could have been fuelled by apprehensions of a rate hike in the US as also a portfolio churn. “We believe the sell-off could continue for a few more days, post which it will stabilise,” Vaidya said.

According to Mixo Das, equity strategist, Asia ex-Japan, Nomura Holdings, the sharp decline in August-September and the October rallies in Asean markets have been largely driven by factors evolving in the US and China, and opined that both economies will continue to drive global equities. “To a large extent, both the decline over August-September and the October rally have been driven by markets’ evolving perceptions about US monetary policy and Chinese growth. We believe these drivers will remain in place over the rest of this year, particularly going into and immediately after the December FOMC (December 16-17), raising uncertainty about where Asean markets may end 2015,” Das said.

Industry observers said the market is also jittery due to weak technical parameters. The Nifty breached a crucial support of 8,088 last Friday and confirmed the continuation of a lower-top and lower-bottom formation on the weekly charts, indicating that the 50-share gauge could decline to 7,900 levels this week. “The markets are on a weak wicket technically,” Dhiraj Relli, MD and CEO, HDFC Securities, observed.

After rising more than 110 points in early trade on Wednesday, the Sensex closed at 26,552.92 points, down 37.67 or 0.14%. The Nifty settled at 8,040.20 points, down 20.50 or 0.25% from the previous close. The broader market surrendered gains to end weak. Eight out of 11 sectoral indices settled in the red.

After very strong 4QFY15 and 1QFY16, we expected 2Q to be a difficult  quarter for the oil marketing companies (OMCs). Due to a sharp fall in oil prices and INR depreciation, OMCs were likely to report high  inventory/forex losses. While we estimated Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) to be barely in profits, its reported loss due to  high inventory/forex loss does not surprise us much.

Despite the 2Q loss, we see low risk to our full year EPS of R47/share (reported 1H EPS of 25/share is 53% of our full year EPS). We see upside  to Bloomberg consensus EPS of R44/share. The key positive was a sharp 6% y-y sales volume growth in 2Q, reflecting  the sharp petroleum product demand growth this year

With both crude oil price and R relatively stable (vs sharp weakness in 2Q), it is unlikely that there will be significant inventory/forex losses in 3Q. Indian refiners will likely benefit from the recent increase in discounts  on crude being offered by OPEC countries to Asian refiners.

Refining throughput was at 13.7mmt (up 2% y-y and 1% q-q). Pipeline throughput at 20mmt increased 5% y-y and q-q. Pipeline EBITDA was at R1,390 crore (up 1% q-q). Debt level as of Sep-15 was R56,600 crore (R52,500 crore as of June-2015). As expected, nearly the entire under-recoveries on kerosene and  subsidies on direct benefit transfer for LPG were compensated to IOCL.  Among the OMCs, IOC has been our preferred pick on valuation (ex investments, it trades at 1.0x FY17F book of R302 vs 1.5-1.6x for HPCL.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have increased their stake in majority of the frontline auto companies during the second quarter (Jul-Sep) of the current financial year, as the sector remained buoyant on the back of increasing margins and strong product pipeline.

Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), TVS Motor, Ashok Leyland and Bajaj Auto have seen an increase in foreign ownership, stock exchange data showed.

UR Bhat, director, Dalton Capital Advisors, said foreign funds increased their ownership in auto companies as it is one of the best performing sectors currently. “Despite the slowdown in the broader markets, auto companies are doing reasonably well. Not just in terms of growth, auto companies have done well in Q2FY16 even in terms of margins and profitability. Fall in global commodity prices has helped automakers save costs on buying raw materials. Although margins have increased in few other sectors as well , auto sector is the only sector currently which is showing  increase in both revenue and profit,” Bhat said.

Bajaj Auto witnessed the highest gain in FPI ownership among automobile companies. Foreign ownership in India’s largest two-wheeler company by volume jumped 2.8 percentage points to 17.8% in the second quarter. Foreign funds increased ownership in M&M by 2.6 percentage points, data showed.

FPI holding in Maruti Suzuki, the country’s largest car maker, rose 0.3 percentage points to 22.1%. Maruti Suzuki last week reported a 42% on-year jump in its net profit for the second quarter. The Street remains positive on Maruti Suzuki after its Japanese parent on Wednesday raised its annual net profit forecast, citing better-than-expected earnings in India. Even auto ancillary companies witnessed a rise in foreign ownership. FPI holding in Exide Industries rose 1.6 percentage points during the quarter under review, while foreign holding in Motherson Sumi and Bosch went up by 0.2 percentage points.

On the other hand, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) trimmed their holdings in the auto sector, BSE data showed. DIIs comprising banks, mutual funds and insurance companies have reduced their stake in M&M and Bajaj Auto by 3.3% and 2.9%, respectively. DII holding in the auto sector was near all-time high in the first quarter of this fiscal.

The BSE Auto Index lost more than 8% during the period. Shares of Tata Motors tanked nearly 30% during the period amid economic uncertainty arising out of China. FPIs offloaded shares in the previous quarter, making it the worst quarter in nearly seven years. In August 2015 alone, FPIs pulled out $2.6 billion from the Indian markets, Bloomberg data showed.

Tata Motors shares surged 6.5 per cent on Wednesday amid reports that sales of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) in the US rose in October. (Photo: Reuters)

Tata Motors shares surged 6.5 per cent on Wednesday amid reports that sales of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) in the US rose in October.

The stock jumped 6.43 per cent to Rs 406.65 on BSE. At NSE, shares of the company rose 6.46 per cent to Rs 406.75.

The stock was the top gainer on both Sensex and Nifty indices.

According to reports, the subsidiary of Tata Motors sold 8,187 vehicles in the US in October, up 76.10 per cent from over 4,650 units sold a year-ago.

Tata Motors has reported one per cent growth in total sales at 43,486 vehicles for October 2015 compared to 42,862 units in the same month last year.

Its exports rose 13 per cent to 4,569 units last month from 4,059 vehicles in October 2014, the company said in a statement on Sunday.

The company is due to report its second quarter earnings on Friday.