Gear up for Diwali: Sensex up 146pts, Nifty ends above 7900

03:30 pm Market close:

After a sluggish drive, the market accelerated in the last trading hour. The Sensex was up 145.80 points at 26575.65 and the Nifty ended up 48.35 points or 0.6 percent at 7927.75.

About 1492 shares have advanced, 1333 shares declined, and 109 shares are unchanged. BHEL, GAIL, Sesa Sterlite, ICICI Bank and Maruti were top gainers while ONGC, M&M, Coal India, Sun Pharma and Infosys.

03:10 pm Moody's take

 India's decision to remove price controls on diesel and to raise natural gas prices signals fiscal discipline and is a "credit positive" step, although the overall impact could be limited, Moody's Investors Service said.

"The decision to fully deregulate diesel prices signals fiscal discipline on the part of the sovereign, which we view as credit positive," Moody's said in a note. Still, Moody's also noted the fiscal savings for the government's diesel measures "are likely to be limited" given total subsidies account for less than 1 percent of the country's 2013/14 gross domestic product.

02:58pm South Indian Bank disappoints street

Private sector lender South Indian Bank's second quarter net profit fell 40 percent year-on-year to Rs 76.3 crore dented by sharp jump in provisions. Profit in the year-ago period was Rs 127 crore.

Net interest income increased marginally to Rs 358.3 crore from Rs 356 crore while other income (non-interest income) jumped 34.7 percent to Rs 93.63 crore from Rs 69.52 crore during the same period.

Provisions and contingencies 4.8 times year-on-year (up 1.2 percent sequentially) to Rs 95.7 crore in the quarter ended September 2014.

Asset quality showed improvement on yearly basis with the gross non-performing assets (NPA) declining (up 5 basis points Q-o-Q) to 1.55 percent during July-September quarter compared to 1.92 percent in same quarter last year. Net NPA dropped to 0.90 percent in second quarter of current financial year 2014-15 from 0.91 percent Q-o-Q and 1.39 percent Y-o-Y.

02:30pm Gainers and Losers

 Bank Nifty gained more than a percent as top private sector lender ICICI Bank surged 2.5 percent and its rival Axis Bank rose over a percent. SBI was up 0.8 percent but HDFC Bank was flat post Q2 earnings.

Sesa Sterlite topped the buying list, up over 5 percent followed by Gail and BHEL with over 4 percent gains. Tata Motors, Wipro, Bharti Airtel, Maruti Suzuki, Hero Motocorp, NTPC, Tata Steel, Hindalco Industries and Tata Power rallied 1-3 percent.

However, ONGC, Infosys, Mahindra and Mahindra and Coal India were down 1-2.6 percent.

02:00pm Market Check

Equity benchmarks maintained positive momentum amid consolidation with the Sensex rising 115.01 points to 26544.86 and the Nifty gaining 38.10 points at 7917.50.

About 1466 shares have advanced, 1186 shares declined, and 103 shares are unchanged on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Financial Technologies tanked 20 percent after the government issued draft order for merger of NSEL with company, saying the entire business of NSEL will be transferred to Financial Technologies.

Merger will be effective with reference to FY14 balance sheet. "Members of 2 companies and creditors will provide suggestions in 60 days," it added. Finance Technologies is not in favour of NSEL's merger with company.