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.   

Audi R8 LMX Launched; Features Laser Headlights

Audi India, today, launched its most powerful and fastest-road car, the R8 LMX, at Rs. 2.97 crore (ex-showroom, Delhi/Mumbai). Other than the massive power it unleashes, what makes it an even more special model is the fact that it is the first production car with laser high beam lighting in India. That said, the upcoming BMW i8, expected to be launched in the first quarter of CY 2015, will be the second car in India to feature laser head-lights. The company will sell only 99 units of the R8 LMX globally.

Powering the R8 LMX is a 5.2-litre V10 engine, that mated to a seven-speed S Tronic gearbox, churns out a whooping 570bhp and a peak torque of 540Nm . The car sprints 0-100kmph in just 3.4 seconds, while hitting the top-speed of 320km/h.

What better way to celebrate another record year at Audi than bringing in a car which denotes our claim of "Vorsprung durch Technik" - the new Audi R8 LMX. The combination of LED and laser high beam lighting was used for the first time on the new Audi R18 e tron quattro at the 24 Hours of Le Mans last year. Audi is thus continuing its tradition of using racing to test new technologies destined for production. 

The limited-edition Audi R8 LMX is the first production car in India to come equipped with laser high beam lighting, a particularly brilliant innovation integrated in a sports car. The Audi R8 LMX thrills with intelligent lightweight engineering, impressive design and breathtaking driving performance right from the word go. The Audi R8 LMX is beautiful to look at and marvelous to drive. We are positive that the Audi R8 LMX will excite Audi enthusiasts and add more fans into the ever-growing Audi fan base," said Mr. Joe King, Head, Audi India.

Audi has always been at the forefront in lighting technologies. Audi was the first luxury car manufacturer to bring LED headlights in India. Last year, we introduced Matrix Headlamps in our flagship model, Audi A8 L again a first by any luxury car manufacturer in the country direct evolution of Audi's signature LED headlights delivering a phenomenal 966,105,422 different illumination configurations. The introduction of the laser headlight to the Audi R8 LMX underscores our leading position in lighting technology," added Mr. King.

Datsun Go+: easy on the pocket, but lacks features

NISSAN’S LOW-COST brand Datsun made its global comeback with a lot of hype in India last year. Its first offering — a no-frills small hatchback Go — was supposed to be funky, fuel-efficient and affordable. Something that many budget consumers in India would find appealing. Insufficient sales and service network, uninspiring interiors and a caustic campaign on its safety credentials by global NCAP, however, has resulted in many writing Go’s epitaph within a year of its launch. The brand is now ready with a seven-seater version — Go+. Touted as one of world’s cheapest seven seaters, India could take a liking to it. But will it deliver where Go failed?

EXTERIOR

The Go+ has the same front face, grille and headlamps as the Go. To keep its cost down, the length of the car has been capped at under 4 metres to qualify for concessional excise duties. The major change from the Go is the stretched rear where the extra row of seating comes into play. Beyond the length though there is not much of a change in design with Datsun going along with similar tail lamp cluster. A wraparound design may have spiced things up a bit.

INTERIOR

The Go+ profits from the excellent cabin structure of its small car that squeezed out the most space from a smaller wheelbase. Legroom and headroom at the front two rows is great and the large glass area gives an airy feel to the cabin. Unfortunately, the third row of seat does not work one bit and is cramped all around. Fold that third row and you do get decent 237 litres of boot space. The other drawback is the lack of equipment in the car. While the quality of plastic is decent, fit and finish is below par. There are other glaring omissions like the lid in the glovebox or that the ORVMs cannot be adjusted from the inside. And there is no music system as well even at the top-end trim. And we are not even talking about the safety features.

PERFORMANCE, RIDE AND HANDLING

Go+ does not have a diesel engine and is powered only by a 1.2 litre petrol motor. It develops a measly 68 PS power. The company though has recalibrated the gear ratios given the extra weight and the needs of the vehicle to haul more people and luggage. As a result, the car feels more energetic than what the numbers suggest. It is sluggish and getting to threedigit speeds does take time but it climbs comfortably to city and highway permissible speeds of 80-90 kph. The ride quality is one of the best you can get for a car of this nature and at this price. It tackles bad roads with composure and handles sharp maneuvers reasonably well at high double-digit speeds.

VERDICT

It is clear that Go+ does not wish to compete with the likes of Mobilio or Ertiga. It positions itself as an optional seven seater for the city and more like a station wagon for weekend getaways. Clearly it will not appeal to the rural markets where hauling masses is key. Urban consumers will also be put off by the lack of equipment and safety features. No airbags and ABS even at the top-end trim is again a miss that can prove costly for Datsun. But it is Rs. 2-lakh cheaper than the Ertiga and almost Rs. 3-lakh cheaper than Mobilio. It isn’t a stylish vehicle but does the job of commuting well without pinching your pocket. At over 20 kpl it will be the most fuelefficient petrol wagon/van of its type. This one is for somebody who does not like to spend an extra penny on any frill or extravagance.

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.

Live Market Updates: Bulls on rampage: Nifty hits 8500, Sensex soars 780 pts

3:30 pm Market close: The market ended with some very strong gains. The Sensex was up 728.73 points or 2.7 percent at 28075.55, and the Nifty ended up 216.60 points or 2.6 percent at 8494.15.  About 1693 shares advanced, 1206 shares declined and 322 shares were unchanged.

3:10 pm Acche din aa gaye? Confident that RBI's decision to cut interest rates would give a major fillip to the economy, Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian today said it signals a shift in the policy stance and direction going forward. "It will provide a fillip to the economy, both directly and indirectly," he said, adding that directly it will increase spending by private sector - both consumers and firms- and indirectly it should help by improving both balance sheets of private sector and banks. It's a really welcome move and consistent with the strong ongoing disinflationary pressures in the economy."

It is a significant move because it signals a shift in the stance and direction of policy going forward," Subramanian added. The Chief Economic Advisor said that the RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan had earlier said he does not want to cut rates and therefore this rate cut is consistent with strong disinflationary pressures. However, any further rate cut will be depend on aggregate demand on economy, he added.

2:50 pm MF exposure to banks:  The mutual fund industry is betting big on banking stocks as its equity exposure to the sector climbed to an all-time high of nearly Rs 73,000 crore in December. This also marks the third consecutive rise in MF industry's exposure to banking stocks. MFs collect funds from various investors for investing in securities such as stocks, bonds, money market instruments and similar assets.

Their investments in banking stocks stood at Rs 72,835 crore as on December 31, 2014, accounting for 21.88 per cent of their total equity assets under management (AUM) of Rs 3.33 lakh crore, according to data available with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). The previous high was November this year when investment in the sector surged to Rs 70,575 crore. MFs had been raising their exposure to banking shares since January but their investment level in the sector dropped in September.

2:40 pm Market outlook: Hailing the Reserve Bank’s move to pare repo rate by 25 basis points , Raamdeo Agrawal, joint managing director, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, says the cut was imminent for the Indian market due to global deflation and fall in inflation. In an interview t Agrawal says the rate cut will give a momentum to the economy and he sees more rate cuts in the upcoming days. “But don’t try to time the market,” advises Agrawal who believes that retail investor participation will now increase significantly. “Though we may not get very large foreign instituitional investor (FII) flows, if we get USD 15 billion from FIIs and a similar figure from domestic instituitional investor (DIIs), then we’ll still be very comfortable,” he adds.

2:36 pm Market check: The Nifty has hit 8500, up 230.30 points or 2.8 percent at 8507.85. The Sensex is up 781.86 points or 2.9 percent at 28128.68. About 1718 shares have advanced, 1069 shares declined, and 320 shares are unchanged.

HDFC is up 6 percent while SBI and ICICI Bank are up 5 percent each.

02:15pm More rate cut possible? Brokerage house Morgan Stanley says a big rate cut cycle is underway, and it sees the RBI cutting interest rates by 125 basis points over the next 12 months.

It sees the RBI cutting the repo rate by 25 basis points more at its monetary policy review on February 3.

“We expect the RBI to front load the rate cuts by potentially taking up a 50bps rate cut in one of the monetary policy meetings after February 3,” said the Morgan Stanley note to clients, penned by Chetan Ahya and Upasana Chachra.

“Our rate cut forecasts is predicated on our view that CPI inflation will stay at closer to 5% in most of the calendar year 2015, as the reduction in fiscal deficit, sustained deceleration in rural wages and lower global commodity prices will mean that inflationary pressures in the economy will be contained,” said the note.

02:00pm Market Check

Bulls are in complete control of the street today as the frontline indices rallied 2.5 percent each and the rupee touched two-month high in afternoon trade after the Reserve Bank of India surprised the market with rate cut.

The 30-share BSE Sensex gained 693.94 points at 28040.76 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rallied 206.05 points to 8483.60 while the broader markets underperformed benchmarks. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices climbed 1.5 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively.

About 1627 shares have advanced, 1095 shares declined, and 327 shares are unchanged on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The Reserve Bank of India slashed repo rate by 25 basis points to 7.75 percent and left cash reserve ratio unchanged at 4 percent ahead of its February policy meeting.

BSE Realty Index topped the buying list among sectoral indices, up 8 percent followed by Bankex with 3.5 percent upside. HDFC, ICICI Bank, L&T, SBI and M&M rallied 4-6 percent.

Meanwhile, the Indian rupee jumped to 61.48 a dollar, the highest level since November 2013. The currency appreciated by 65 paise to 61.52 a dollar.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has rejected Department of Telecommunications' proposal for higher 3G price of Rs 3,899 crore and reiterated its old stance on 3G spectrum price. Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular gained more than a percent while Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices climbed nearly 4 percent.

In the broader space, Atul surged 7 percent as US FDA has approved its Dapsone manufacturing facility in Valsad, Gujarat.