Nifty ends above 7750, Sensex up 174 points; Bharti, ONGC lead

3:30 pm Market Closing: Equity benchmarks closed higher for third consecutive session ahead of outcome of the Federal Reserve's meeting tonight. Investors largely expect the Fed to hike rates by 25 basis points. Global markets also gained.

The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 173.93 points or 0.69 percent to 25494.37 and the 50-share NSE Nifty climbed 50 points or 0.65 percent to 7750.90. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices underperformed benchmarks, up 0.2-0.4 percent.

The market breadth was marginally in favour of advances in ratio of 1416:1273 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Banking & financials, oil, pharma and select technology stocks supported market.

Bharti Airtel, ONGC and Cairn India topped buying list on Sensex, up 4 percent. ICICI Bank, Lupin, GAIL, Power Grid and Idea Cellular were up 1.5-3 percent while M&M plunged 5.43 percent.

3:10 pm Buzzing: Shares of Lincoln Pharmaceuticals rallied 17 percent intraday ahead of listing on the National Stock Exchange. Currently the stock is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

As per circular available on the exchange, shares of Lincoln Pharma will also be listing on the National Stock Exchange with effect from December 17, 2015 and will start trading under normal market segment (rolling segment).

The NSE said 8.85 lakh shares of promoters Hashmukhbhai Ishwarlal Patel, Mahendra Gulabdas Patel, Munjal Mahendrabhai Patel, Patel Siddharth and Piyush Jitendrabhai Patel will not be available for trading on exchanges till May 30, 2017.

It has manufacturing facility at Khatraj, Gujarat, which produces only non betalactum tablets, capsules, liquid & dry-powder, injectables, syrups.

3:00 pm Public offer opens tomorrow: Bengaluru-based Narayana Hrudayalaya is set to open its initial public offer of 2.45 crore equity shares for subscription on December 17. The private healthcare service provider has fixed price band at Rs 245-250 per share for its offer for sale issue.

Through this public issue, investors like Ashoka Investment Holdings will sell upto 62,87,978 equity shares, Ambadevi Mauritius Holding upto 18,86,455 shares and JP Morgan Mauritius Holdings IV upto 1,22,61,648 shares. Promoters - Dr Devi Prasad Shetty and Shakuntala Shetty will offload upto 20,43,608 shares each.

Public Offer will constitute approximately 12 percent of the post-offer paid-up share capital. The company aims raise Rs 600.8-613 crore at lower and higher end of price band but will not get any IPO proceeds.

2:50 pm Interview: Manufaturers of copper and copper based alloys, Arcotech bagged a Rs 335 crore order from India Government Mint.

The order is for supply of 6000 metric tonne of nickel brass with an option of additional 25 percent for Rs 5 coin worth Rs 268 crore. This will provide a significant revenue boost to the company.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Amit Sharma, Chief Financial Officer of Arcotech said that the order is in accordance with the company's margins and it plans to execute the order in a span of 18 to 20 months.

2:40 pm IPO News: Generics drugmaker Alkem Laboratories raised Rs 1350 crore (USD 201.88 million) in its initial public offering after pricing shares at Rs 1,050 each, according to its prospectus.

Pricing was at the top end of its Rs 1,020-1,050 price band.

Alkem is expected to list on exchanges on or before December 29, according to a source familiar with the listing. The IPO was subscribed 44.3 times.

2:20 pm FII on Fed: The Federal Reserve will in all likelihood hike interest rates today, for the first time in nine years, says Mark Matthews of Julius Baer & Co. There he agrees with what the rest of street expects. Where he differs is the course of the monetary policy he sees from hereon to end of 2016.

"Next year, most people believe the Fed will hike another two to four times. We think it's a 'one and done'," Matthews told CNBC-TV18.

He added that contrary to some expectations that the Fed rate hike would cause volatility in markets, they would actually like the rate hike to happen.

"When the Fed raises rates, usually the US dollar goes down. The dollar usually goes up in advance of the hike," he said. "This time will be the same. And it will be positive for emerging markets."

02:00 pm Market Check: The market retained strength in afternoon trade with the Sensex rising 179.11 points to 25499.55 and the Nifty climbing 49.40 points to 7750.30, supported by banking & financials, pharma and select technology stocks. Globally investors are eagerly waiting for outcome of Federal Reserve's meeting tonight. They expect 25 basis points rate hike by Fed, the first hike in last seven years.

The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rose half a percent each. On the Bombay Stock Exchange, about 1485 shares have advanced against 1059 declining shares on the BSE.

ICICI Bank, Infosys, HDFC, ONGC, TCS, Lupin, HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma and Axis Bank were leading contributors to Sensex's gains, up 1-4 percent.

1:30 pm Interview: Investors should not be worried about Tech Mahindra's recent acquisition of loss-making Italian car design Pininfarina, says its CEO CP Gurnani, who adds that the buyout will up the design capabilities of India's fourth-largest technology-services company. The company recently announced it would, along with group company Mahindra & Mahindra , buy 76 percent in the Italian company (Tech M would hold 60 percent in the special purpose vehicle that would acquire the stake while M&M would hold the remaining 40 percent).

However, analysts had warned that the 25-million euro buyout may have some impact on the IT firm's margins. However, in an interview with CNBC-TV18, Gurnani termed Pininfarina a "great asset" and said turning it around would not be a problem for the company. "Making it EPS-accretive will be a short journey for Tech Mahindra," he said.

The market continues its uptrend momentum as the Sensex is up 190.63 points or 0.7 percent at 25511.07. The Nifty is up 58.05 points or 0.7 percent at 7758.95. About 1560 shares have advanced, 902 shares declined, and 222 shares are unchanged.

Bharti Airtel, GAIL, ONGC, ICICI Bank and NTPC are top gainers while M&M, ITC, Wipro and Maruti are losers in the Sensex.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will recalibrate budget priorities in 2016 to focus on social initiatives, such as the country's first major crop insurance scheme, while capping previously prioritised infrastructure spending, officials say.

Modi splurged on roads and railways this year in a strategy to spur economic growth. But it came partly at the expense of federal programmes for farmers and the poor, suffering through back-to-back drought years.

In the first confirmation of a shift in strategy, a senior government source with knowledge of deliberations for Modi's second full budget said New Delhi would focus more on the social sector following what he described as a "shocking" defeat in last month's state elections in largely rural Bihar.

12:55 pm Market Update: Equity benchmarks maintained positive momentum as the Sensex was up 201.18 points at 25521.62 and the Nifty gained 61.15 points at 7762.05.

The market breadth remained in favour of advances with ratio of 1585:835 on the BSE.

12:45 pm FII View: Ridham Desai, MD & Head of India Research, Morgan Stanley is of the view that Indian shares will gain on Thursday morning if US Federal Reserve hikes rates, adding that the rupee too will be stable. According to him, India is much better placed in the world with respect to leverage.

From Indian perspective there are three things, one the RBI had double rate cut at end of September and it is first time in the history of India since we opened our doors to the foreign capital flows, that it has moved against the prospective move of Fed and this underpins strong macro stability that India has achieved over the past couple of years on back of lower inflation and therefore higher saving and lower current account deficit. So, the Indian Central Bank is more confident of dealing with Fed event.

12:30 pm Buzzing: Infrastructure major Larsen and Toubro (L&T) rose more than 1 percent intraday after its subsidiary has received second tranche investment from a Canada-based investment firm. In June 2014, L&T and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (through its Singapore subsidiary) had signed an agreement to make investment of Rs 2,000 crore into L&T Infrastructure Development Projects in two tranches.

As a part of this definitive agreement, the second tranche investment of Rs 1,000 crore has made by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board's subsidiary on December 15, 2015 by subscribing to compulsorily convertible preference shares of L&T IDPL, says L&T in its filing to exchanges.

First tranche investment of Rs 1,000 crore was made on December 16, 2014 and the second was to be invested after 12 months from date of initial investment.

12:15 pm Oil rally possible?: Global crude oil prices at seven-year lows will not continue and could swing upwards in as little as a year, OPEC Secretary-General Abdullah al-Badri said on Tuesday, as the low-price cycle leads to cuts in output from some producers.

Oil prices have fallen by about two-thirds since mid-2014, with Brent crude on Monday flirting with its lowest level since 2004 at just above $36 a barrel.

Most analysts, however, don't expect oil prices to regain the $100 mark until 2017 or later, arguing that producers will continue to pump out more crude than is being consumed.

12:00 pm Market Check
Strong trade continued on Dalal Street in noon trade as the Sensex hit double century following green tick in global peers ahead of outcome of Federal Reserve meeting tonight.

The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 201.77 points or 0.80 percent to 25522.21 and the 50-share NSE Nifty climbed 58.60 points or 0.76 percent to 7759.50. The BSE Midcap also gained nearly 1 percent as market breadth remained strong.

About 1561 shares advanced against 739 shares declining on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

In Asia, Nikkei and Hang Seng gained 2.6 percent and 1.9 percent, respectively, tracking positive lead from Wall Street. Analysts believe the rally in US and Europe overnight indicates markets are fully pricing in the expected Federal Reserve interest rate hike; the Fed's decision is due on Wednesday.

Shares of ONGC, Bharti Airtel, GAIL and ICICI Bank rallied 2-4 percent followed by Infosys, TCS, HDFC, L&T, SBI and Axis Bank. Mahindra & Mahindra was down nearly 4 percent after the Supreme Court has put a ban on registration of diesel vehicles (having over 2000cc engine capacity) partially in Delhi.

11:55 am FII view: Ridham Desai, MD & Head of India Research, Morgan Stanley is of the view that Indian shares will gain if US Federal Reserve hikes rates, adding that the rupee too will be stable. According to him India is much better placed in the world with respect to leverage. From Indian perspective there are three things, one the RBI had double rate cut at end of Sep and it is first time in the history of India since we opened our doors to the foreign capital flows, that it has moved against the prospective move of Fed and this underpins strong macro stability that India has achieved over the past couple of years on back of lower inflation and therefore higher saving and lower current account deficit. So, the Indian Central Bank is more confident of dealing with Fed event.

11:45 am Interview: The ongoing unrest in Nepal has impacted Dabur 's production in that market significantly, Sunil Duggal, CEO, Dabur India tells CNBC-TV18. Duggal did not expect the unrest and the resulting impact on business to continue for this long. He estimates that losses in the Nepal operations could be around Rs 30 crore. Dabur Nepal is the largest juice manufacturing company operating in Nepal and India is the major market for the products. Duggal says beverages are a low margin business, and so far, there has bene no impact on margins. On competition from the Baba Ramdev-promoted Patanjali brand of consumer products, Duggal says Dabur's market share has not been affected by it yet. But he says there has been some impact on Dabur's honey sales because of competition from ayurveda brands.

11:30 am Market outlook: The tightening of monetary policy in the United States and an economic slowdown in China has weighed, and will likely continue to weigh on risk assets worldwide, says noted analyst Saurabh Mukherjea. This, he adds, will also bog down Indian equities, which will suffer from an abatement in "hot money" flows and in the absence in the much-expected earnings turnaround. "Risk assets are selling off everywhere: be it commodities, emerging market equities or junk bonds," Mukherjea, CEO - Institutional Equities at Ambit Capital, told CNBC-TV18 in an interview. "Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) will likely continue to be net seller of equities leaving domestic inflows as the only source of support for stocks."

The market is still holding gains with few auto stocks under pressure. The Sensex is up 172.25 points or 0.7 percent at 25492.69 and the Nifty is up 50 points or 0.6 percent at 7750.90. About 1503 shares have advanced, 623 shares declined, and 152 shares are unchanged.

GAIL, ONGC, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank and BHEL are top gainers while M&M, ITC, Wipro and Coal India are losers.

Auto stocks are in focus as the Supreme Court has banned registration of diesel vehicles over 2000cc engine capacity in Delhi till March 31.

Sentiment at some of Asia's biggest firms deteriorated again in the fourth quarter, falling to a four-year low under the weight of concerns about slowing growth in China, the region's biggest economy, a Thomson Reuters/INSEAD survey showed.

China's economy - growing at its slowest pace in six years - ranked as the chief risk to corporate forecasts for the second consecutive quarter, with volatile financial markets also of concern, showed the survey whose respondents included SoftBank Group Corp, Kia Motors Corp, Tata Steel Ltd and Olam International Ltd.

10:40 am M&M plunges 5%: Supreme Court has put a ban on registration of diesel vehicles (having over 2000cc engine capacity) partially in Delhi. The court says order on diesel vehicle ban will not impact common man, adding hiked pollution tax on commercial vehicles entering Delhi to Rs 1,400-2600.

10:20 am Gold Update: Gold ticked higher as investors awaited the conclusion of a Federal Reserve policy meeting at which the US central bank is expected to raise rates for the first time in nearly a decade.

The Fed began a two-day meeting on Tuesday which is widely expected raise the central bank's target rate by 25 basis points, ending eight years of loose monetary policy. Higher rates would dent demand for non-interest-paying gold, while boosting the dollar. The Fed decision will be released on Wednesday at 1900 GMT.

Spot gold rose 0.5 percent to USD 1,065.60 an ounce, after closing lower in the last two sessions.

10:00 am Market Check
Equity benchmarks extended gains for the third consecutive session today, driven by positive global peers ahead of outcome of Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting.

The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 195.36 points or 0.77 percent to 25515.80 and the 50-share NSE Nifty climbed 59.85 points or 0.78 percent to 7760.75. The broader markets also traded in line with benchmarks as the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained 0.8 percent each.

The market breadth was strong as about 1421 shares advanced against 490 declining shares on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

9:55 am Gold imports fall: The country's gold imports fell by 36.48 percent to USD 3.53 billion in November this year on account of sluggish global prices.

The world's second-biggest gold consumer had imported gold worth USD 5.57 billion in the same month last year. Data released by the Commerce Ministry showed that import of both gold and silver has declined in value terms in November this year. Even the overseas purchase of pearls, precious and semi-precious stones has taken a hit.

9:45 am Buzzing: Shares of Thomas Cook (India) rose 3 percent intraday on Wednesday as it has received approval from competition watchdog for its acquisition of rival Kuoni Travel.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has passed an order approving the proposed deal, Thomas Cook India said in a statement.

Commenting on the development, Thomas Cook (India) MD Madhavan Menon said," With the approval of CCI, we aim at swift disclosure of the acquisition of Kuoni Travels."

9:30 am Warning: IT major Wipro followed in the footsteps of peer TCS , and said it expects the recent deluge in Chennai to have a material impact on its third-quarter earnings. "The Chennai rains have impacted business at our Chennai facilities," the company said. "We see an impact on Q3 revenues." The company said it expects its third quarter revenues to be in the lower half of the guidance range. The company had forecast Q3 revenues for IT services to be in the range of USD 1,841-1,878 million.

The market has opened in green with eyes on FOMC meeting tonight. The Sensex is up 92.40 points or 0.4 percent at 25412.84, and the Nifty up 24.35 points or 0.3 percent at 7725.25. About 193 shares have advanced, 34 shares declined, and 12 shares are unchanged.

M&M, Wipro and Tata Motors are major losers while NTPC, TCS, HDFC twins and Tata Steel.

The Indian rupee has opened marginally higher at 66.9 per dollar compared to 66.92 a dollar in previous session.

NS Venkatesh, IDBI Bank says the rupee closed stronger in previous session but the market is nervous ahead of the FOMC decisions and will be closely tracking movements in other EM currencies.

He expects a narrow range for the rupee between Rs 66.90-67.05/USD today.
In case of bonds, Venkatesh says the 10-year benchmark yield closed lower yesterday.

The 10-year benchmark yield is expected to trade between 7.79-7.81 percent, he says.

Asian stocks gained early trade with sentiment lifting as Wall Street rose before a likely hike in US interest rates, while the dollar held to large gains made as Treasury yields picked up.

The Federal Reserve is expected to announce a hike in interest rates when its two-day policy setting meeting ends later in the day. It would be the first US rate hike in nearly a decade, signaling the beginning of an end to an expansionary monetary policy that has supplied a tidal wave of liquidity to risk asset markets globally.