Nifty hovers around 8500; Coal India, L&T, Sesa gainers

1:30 pm Result poll: With results for Infosys and TCS out of the way, all eyes will be on the country’s third-largest IT services exporter Wipro when it reports quarterly earnings Friday. A poll of analysts forecasts the firm’s dollar revenues to grow 0.76 percent to USD 1785 million while revenue in rupee terms may rise 1.35 percent to Rs 11,070 crore. Operating profits are seen at Rs 2,431 crore while EBIT margin is seen unchanged at 22 percent. Analysts will also likely watch out for guidance the company gives for the fourth quarter, likely to come in at 1-3 percent or 2-4 percent – crucial because weakness in Wipro’s strongest vertical, energy (17 percent of revenues) may bog down revenue growth.

Don't miss: TCS falls 2%: Why are analysts still bullish post mute Q3?

The market is still flat as the Sensex is up 48.25 points at 28123.80. The Nifty is up 13.90 points at 8508.05. About 1361 shares have advanced, 1341 shares declined, and 313 shares are unchanged.

Coal India, L&T, Sesa Sterlite, M&M and BHEL are top gainers in the Sensex while Bharti Airtel, SBI, Tata Motors, Hero Motocorp and TCS are among the laggards.

Brent futures edged higher holding above USD 48 a barrel on positive technical price momentum, although few analysts expect a strong rebound anytime soon as global output continues to outweigh demand.

Still, crude markets may be bottoming out, analysts said, as prices were receiving support around current levels.

Despite the slight price gains, oil opened up into a wobbly market after Switzerland jolted markets already roiled by plunging commodities prices by abandoning its currency cap on Thursday.   

Xiaomi’s new flagship models Mi Note and Note Pro: A look at the key specs

Xiaomi has taken the wraps off its latest offering, the Mi Note, which aims to compete with the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and the Apple iPhone 6 Plus. The event, which took place in Beijing, saw constant comparisons between the Mi Note to the iPhone 6 Plus.

Display: The Mi Note features a 5.7-inch screen – slightly larger than the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus. It’s a full HD display with a pixel density of 386ppi.  The Mi Note’s display features a Nela Tech LCD , which Xiaomi claims offers higher contrast and dynamic pixel adjustment for better readability outdoors and improves contrast of darker areas in photos. Xiaomi also claims it has improved the colour reproduction from the Mi 4. The display is protected by a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 3.

Camera: The Mi Note has a 13MP rear camera with optical image stabilisation. It uses Sony’s CMOS sensor, with a f2.0 aperture for low-light shots. The company claims that it uses a dual-tone flash developed by Phillips for more natural-looking colours in photos. Taking a dig at Apple once again, Xiaomi said that the Mi Note’s main camera does not protrude out like the iPhone 6. Mi Note has a 4MP front camera with large 2 micron pixels.

Build: Similar to the iPhone 6 and the 6 Plus, the front panel of the Mi Note features a 2.5D curved glass and a 3D curved glass rear panel. However, Xiaomi claims that it is thinner than the iPhone 6 Plus, with dimensions 155.1×77.6×6.95mm (hxwxd) and weighs 161g. There’s a metallic rim around the sides and the back camera. Also, like the larger iPhone 6 Plus, the Mi Note has a one-handed mode that minimises the size of app windows for easier one-handed use.

Features: The Mi Note is powered by a 3,000mAh battery, comes with dual 4G Sim slots and runs a Snapdragon 801 processor backed by 3GB Ram. It will be available in 16GB and 64GB storage options and there’s no card slot for increasing the storage capacity. Out of the two SIM slots, one supports a nano Sim while the other is for a micro Sim. The Mi Note also claims to pack a hi-fi audio system with ESS ES9018K2M audio decoder for minimum distortion and lossless playback at 24-bit/192KHz.

Mi Note’s official price is 2299RMB or about Rs 22,900, while the 64 GB model set to launch for RMB 2,799 (Rs 27,900) later this year.

There’s also a Mi Note Pro version of the smartphone, which runs on Snapdragon 810 with 4GB RAM and 64GB of built-in storage. It also features a higher resolution display (2K) 2560x 1440 pixels. The Xiaomi Note Pro is priced at 3299 RMB, which is around Rs 32,900. Xiaomi also announced Mi Box mini  – a set up box that is smaller in size than its predecessor.

Indian rupee gains past 62/dollar as RBI cuts repo rate

The Indian rupee gained past 62 a dollar in early trade on Thursday as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) slashed repo rate by 25 basis points to 7.75 percent.

The currency appreciated by 30 paise to trade at 61.88 per dollar against previous day's closing value of 62.18 a dollar.

RBI kept cash reserve ratio (the amount of funds that every bank has to keep with the RBI) unchanged. Governor Raghuram Rajan says inflation may be below 6 percent by January 2016.

The dollar nurses losses, having retreated across the board after a surprisingly big fall in US retail sales pulled US yields sharply lower.

Also Read - RBI cuts repo rate by 25 basis points ahead of Feb 3 policy

Mohan Shenoi of Kotak Mahindra Bank said, "Global markets are swinging between risk-on and risk-off based on US data and growth/deflation scare. The dollar is showing mixed trends by holding stable against Euro while mildly losing ground to Yen and GBP. The USD-INR is expected to trade in a range of 62-62.30/dollar today."

Indian rupee recovers from initial losses vs US dollar, up 6 paise

The rupee recovered from initial losses against the American currency and was quoted higher by 6 paise to 62.00 on fresh selling of dollars by banks and exporters in view of strong foreign capital inflows into equity market.

The rupee resumed lower at 62.08 per dollar as against the last closing level of 62.06 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange and dropped further to 62.20 on initial strong dollar demand from banks.

However, it recovered from initial losses and was quoted higher at 62.00 on selling of dollars by banks and exporters.

It hovered in a range of 62.00 and 62.20 per dollar during the morning trade.

In London, the euro fell to its lowest level against the dollar since September 2003 yesterday after the Swiss National Bank scrapped its exchange rate floor of 1.20 francs to the euro.

Meanwhile, the Indian benchmark Sensex moved down by 31.77 points or 0.11 per cent to 28,043.78 at 1000hrs.

Insurance agents, brokers now under same ambit

In the recently promulgated insurance ordinance, the government has brought corporate agents within the definition of ‘’insurance intermediary’’ in line with brokers thereby opening up the debate on whether banks can now act as brokers and seek partnership with multiple insurers.

In the ordinance, approved by the government on December 24 and signed by the President on December 26, the Centre expanded the definition of “intermediary” by bringing corporate agents within its ambit. “Insurance intermediary includes insurance brokers, re-insurance brokers, insurance consultants, corporate agents, third party administrators, surveyors and loss assessors and such other entities as may be notified from time to time by the authority,” said the Insurance Ordinance in its definition of intermediary.

In the earlier definition, corporate agents were not defined as intermediary and the Insurance Act had mandated exclusive distribution arrangement only for agents including corporate agents.

The email and messages sent to the Irda chairman on Monday, asking the impact of the same, went unanswered until late Tuesday.

Former Irda chairman, J Hari Narayan, however, said that an agent is an agent and a broker is a broker, their roles are defined. “Going forward, Irda will have to come out with a regulation with regard to corporate agents and will have to specify their reporting mechanism,” said Hari Narayan.

Within the industry, while some feel that by bringing them under the common head of ‘intermediary’, the government intends banks to also act as brokers and sell products of various insurers in a bid to increase penetration, there are others who feel that they continue to be defined individually as brokers and agents and Irda will have to clarify the same.

A senior official with a private sector insurer said, “By bringing both under the definition of intermediary, the government set the ground for opening up Bancassurance that will allow banks to sell products of multiple insurers. The Irda will now have to come out with a guideline relating to the same. However there are some who do not entirely agree with this and say that they would wait for Irda’s guidelines.”

“We will have to wait for IRDA to define who will act as what. However, the change in ordinance as of now means that while earlier the insurer was answerable for the errors and omissions of corporate agents, now they themselves will be answerable for the same,”said the head of an insurance company who did not wish to be identified.

The CEO of another private sector general insurance company said, “The power now rests with the regulator and Irda will have to come out with a guideline clarifying the scope of brokers, corporate agents and agents.”

In August 2013, Irda had come out with a notification allowing banks to get licensed as insurance brokers making it possible for banks to migrate from a corporate agency structure to broking but despite the enabling regulations, no bank has till date migrated.