Nifty ends above 8220, Sensex up 183 points; Tata Motors gains 4%

3:30 pm Market closing: The market has ended higher. The Sensex was up 182.58 points or 0.6 percent at 26697.82. The Nifty was up 51 points or 0.6 percent at 8221.80. About 1279 shares have advanced, 1312 shares declined, and 188 shares are unchanged.

Tata Motors, Adani Ports, Axis Bank, Wipro and Reliance were gainers while BHEL, GAIL, Tata Steel, Lupin and HUL were losers in the Sensex.

2:56 pm Market Update: Equity benchmarks extended gains in last hour of trade with the Nifty holding 8200 level.

The Sensex was up 191.84 points at 26707.08 and the Nifty rose 50.05 points to 8220.85.

2:45 pm Fund raising: Fortis Healthcare, which has already got nod from its shareholders to raise up to Rs 5,000 crore, today said its board has not taken any decision over the mode, amid speculation that its promoters Singh brothers are in talks to sell 26 percent stake to a PE firm.

"The board of the company had approved the enabling fund raising options up to Rs 5,000 crore including but not limited to qualified institutional placement, foreign currency convertible bonds or any other method and recommended the same to shareholders for their approval," Fortis Healthcare said in a BSE filing.

"The company is still evaluating the best possible way to raise the funds and no firm decision in this regard has been approved by the board till date." The said proposal was approved by the shareholders of the company at the AGM held on September 27, it added.

The company was clarifying to the BSE on reports that the promoters are in talks with private equity firm TPG Capital to offload around 26 percent stake.

2:32 pm Earnings: Housing Development and Infrastructure today reported 35 per cent fall in consolidated net profit to Rs 37.01 crore for the September quarter of the current fiscal.

Its net profit stood at Rs 57.1 crore in the same quarter of last fiscal, said the Mumbai-based developer in a regulatory filing.

Income from operations also fell to Rs 218.54 crore in the July-September quarter of 2016-17, from Rs 236.76 crore in the year-ago period.

Total income declined to Rs 223.25 crore in quarter under review, from Rs 242.74 crore in the same period of last fiscal.

2:18 pm Bank credit plunges: The demand destruction unleashed by the November 8 demonetisation drive saw the bank credit shrinking by a whopping Rs 61,000 crore, or 0.8 percent, during the fortnight to November 25, show the latest RBI data.

But at the same time, the note ban also had a positive effect, as borrowers, including some default accounts, paid back as much as Rs 66,000 crore during the same period.

In sharp contrast, during the same fortnight, banks received huge inflows as people deposited as much as Rs 4.03 trillion into the accounts, which as of December 9 crossed Rs 12 trillion, putting all calculations of the Government into a tizzy.

2:00 pm Market Check
Equity benchmarks gained strength in afternoon trade, with the Nifty reclaiming 8200 led by heavyweights Tata Motors, Reliance Industries, HDFC and ITC.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 166.65 points at 26681.89 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 36.35 points at 8207.15.

Tata Motors jumped over 3 percent after five crore equity shares exchanged hands through 3 block deals. ITC, HDFC, Reliance Industries, Infosys and HDFC Bank gained 0.3-1.5 percent.

However, Lupin, TCS, Asian Paints, Tata Steel, NTPC, GAIL and BHEL were down 0.3-1 percent.

Markets in Europe were flat as investors focus on the upcoming meeting of the Federal Reserve and digest better-than-expected data out from China.

Asian markets ended mixed in cautious trade as investors await a widely expected Federal Reserve rate hike this week.

1:30 pm Market outlook: Speaking to CNBC-TV18 Nilesh Shah, MD of Kotak Mahindra AMC, said that given the current situation it is better to be underweight on the NBFC sector. Shah stressed how we are in a pendulum market. With earnings uncertainty on the one side, prices could become weaker. Morgan Stanley on Monday launched a book to buy 5 crore shares of Tata Motors for a client at 10 percent premium to the current closing price of Rs 454 per share. It amounts to 1.73 percent stake in Tata Motors, people close to the development told CNBC-TV18. Sources also tell CNBC-TV18 that the buyer could well be the promoter themselves that is Tata Sons.

The Sensex is up 59.88 points or 0.2 percent at 26575.12, and the Nifty up 8.15 points or 0.1 percent at 8178.95. About 1209 shares have advanced, 1177 shares declined, and 126 shares are unchanged.

Tata Motors, Wipro, ITC, Reliance and Bharti Airtel are top gainers while BHEL, Lupin, GAIL, Tata Steel are losers in the Sensex.

Gold prices fell by Rs 79 to Rs 27,587 per 10 grams in futures trade today as participants went for profit-booking at prevailing levels amid a weak trend overseas. Analysts attributed the fall in gold futures to profit-booking by traders at the existing level and weakness in precious metals in the global market.

Globally, gold was trading a shade lower at USD 1,161.60 an ounce in Singapore today.

12:59 pm Market Update: Equity benchmarks continued to be lacklustre. The Sensex was up 60.12 points at 26575.36 and the Nifty gained 8 points at 8178.80.

12:55 pm USFDA nod: Shilpa Medicare has received an approval from the United States Food & Drug Administration (USFDA) for Capecitabine tablets USP, 150 mg and 500 mg.

These tablets are bioequivalent and therapeutically equivalent to the reference listed drug product, Xeloda tablets, 150 mg and 500 mg of Hoffmann-La Roche, Inc.

12:45 pm CPI likely to fall: The consumer price index (CPI) number is estimated to be at 3.8 percent for the month of November against 4.2 percent in October.

A CNBC-TV18 poll suggests that the November's CPI is seen between the range of 3.6-4 percent and food inflation is likely to come down to levels of 2.4-3.1 percent while vegetable deflation will continue and extend to over 7 percent against 5.7 percent in the October.

High frequency food price data for first 15 days of November showed a significant jump of 10.4 percent month-on-month(MoM) versus a 0.1 percent decline in October possibly due to demonitisation impact.

Further data suggests that post demonetisation vegetable prices in retail market have declined by up to 50 percent.  

The poll expects core CPI to be flat at around 5 percent against 4.9 (MoM).

12:30 pm Buzzing: Sun Pharmaceutical Industries shares rebounded nearly a percent intraday after analysts feel the observations for Halol unit are not serious in nature.

They are still hopeful of early clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration to Halol unit. According to them, these are procedural in nature and not related to data integrity.

Surya Patra of PhillipCapital believes that most of these observations are about adequacy in the system, about the test procedures etc. He said, however, it was not talking anything about data generation aspect.

He feels all these nine observations are revolving around the test practices followed in the system. He doesn't anticipate any escalation of the matter from the current point. So, Patra thinks possibly it will take some time for Sun Pharma to convince about the processes or practices followed in the systems to get it plant cleared from USFDA.

He said the brokerage house remained positive on the stock with a target price of Rs 525.

12:15 pm Interview: Mastek gained ground in today's trading session after the company board approved to acquire Trans American Infosystems (TAISTech) in US.

The focus of the company is in e-commerce space which is in line with Mastek's thrust of digital transformation, said Sudharkar Ram, VC & MD of Mastek.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Ram said the total consideration for TAISTech is at USD 25 million.

He said a part of the upfront payment is funded through debt which is in the USD 10 million range. TAISTech is margin accretive and will have revenues of USD 30 million by March end.

With this acquisition, Mastek will be a Rs 750-Rs 800 crore company in the next couple of years. The company may look at an EBITDA number of Rs 100 crores.

12:00 pm Market Check
Equity benchmarks remained in a positive terrain amid consolidation as investors awaited the outcome of Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting that will be announced Wednesday tonight.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 79.33 points at 26594.57 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 15.40 points to 8186.20.

Vakrangee (down 5 percent) and Tata Motors (up 2.6 percent) were the most active shares on exchanges today especially after multiple block deals in morning.

ITC, Reliance Industries, HDFC and L&T continued to support the market, up 0.4-1 percent whereas the selling in TCS and Infosys limited upside.

Oil prices were stable today, buoyed by soaring demand in Asia and as signs of a crude production cut organized by OPEC and other exporters materialized, tightening a market that has been grappling with years of oversupply. International Brent crude was trading at USD 55.57 per barrel and US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was down 0.3 percent at USD 52.69 a barrel.

11:45 am Growth slow down: The Asian Development Bank slightly lowered its 2016 growth forecast for developing Asia on Tuesday, reflecting slower-than-expected expansion in India.

Developing Asia, which groups 45 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, is now expected to expand 5.6 percent this year, rather than 5.7 percent, the ADB said in a supplement to its Asian Development Outlook 2016.

The ADB trimmed its 2016 growth estimate for India to 7.0 percent from 7.4 percent due to weak investment, agricultural slowdown and the government's recent demonetisation.

11:30 am Interview: A massive fire broke out at Syngene facilty near Bengaluru last evening but no casualties were reported as the incident took place after office hours. But, the damage in terms of value will run into several crores, said company's MD, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw. Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Shaw said, the fire broke out in the upper floors of the company's building and it was fanned by the cyclonic winds, making the fire worse. Bengaluru is one of cyclone-affected areas. There was a delay in stabalising the situation and the fire went out of control resulting in gutted labs.

The market is still holding early gains but the Nifty is still below 8200. The 50-share is up 10.50 points at 8181.30 and the Sensex is up 75.82 points or 0.3 percent at 26591.06. About 1156 shares have advanced, 892 shares declined, and 114 shares are unchanged.

Tata Motors, Wipro, ITC, Maruti and Reliance are top gainers while Lupin, Tata Steel, BHEL, Asian Paints amd TCS are losers in the Sensex.

All eyes will be on first CPI figure since demonetisation. November CPI is seen at 3.88 percent. Food inflation is likely to come down to levels of 2.4 to 3.1 percent.

China's industrial output and retail sales growth both accelerated in November, government data showed, in a sign of stabilisation for the world's
second-largest economy.

Industrial output rose 6.2 percent in the month, ahead of both October's figures. Retail sales rose 10.8 percent on-year in nominal terms, up from 10.0 per cent in October, while fixed-asset investment, a gauge of infrastructure spending, rose 8.3 percent in the first 11 months of the year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

10:59 am Market Update: The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 66.63 points at 26581.87 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 8.45 points at 8179.25.

About 1134 shares advanced against 891 declining shares on the BSE.

10:40 am Buzzing: Shares of BLS International Services surged 10 percent intraday on bagging big contract worth 175 million euro (Rs 1,300 crore) from the Government of Spain.

"With this agreement, BLS International will open almost 100 global consulate offices in more than 38 countries for exclusively processing Spanish Visas globally," it said.

The company expects to process approximately 1.8 million applications every year. Of the total, 53 Spanish Visa Application Centres (VACs) will get operational in December 2016.

BLS International Services is a specialist provider for outsourcing of visa, passport and attestation services to the client governments across the world.

10:29 am FII View: Mahesh Nandurkar of CLSA says top ideas for 2017 are ITC, Maruti, ICICI Bank, Power Grid, Vedanta and Zee Entertainment.

He believes the slowdown due to demonetisation is unlikely to last materially beyond March 2017 and the stocks fallen due to the scare offer good buying opportunities.

"ITC, Maruti Suzuki and Zee Entertainment fall under this theme. ICICI Bank and Vedanta fit well with the globally trending value theme and Power Grid is a solid stock that offers predictable earnings growth," he explains.

10:15 am Interview: The impact of cash crunch is felt across corporate India, and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) can see tough times for the next two quarters, says Rajeev Jain, MD of Bajaj Finance.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18 he said that post demonetisation all verticals except for business loans have seen growth and the company has decided to be more cautious on loans against property and small businesses.

He said that repayments and disbursements going forward will be focussed on a monthly basis.

It is difficult to quantify the impact of demonetisation on the assets under management (AUM) growth for the third and fourth quarter but the company is well equipped to deliver (on a sustained basis) 25 percent balancesheet growth and a net profit growth of 20 percent, he further said.

10:00 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks remained directionless as investors maintained caution ahead of Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting that will begin tonight.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 52.46 points at 26567.70 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 8.95 points at 8179.75. The market breadth was positive as about 1049 shares advanced against 763 declining shares on the BSE.

Analysts say a 25 basis points rate hike is largely priced in by the market, hence the important point to watch out for would be commentary on future rate hikes and inflation.

While contending that the environment is appropriate for a rate hike, Matthews believes that the US Fed is playing second fiddle to government policy.

''Unless there is something truly shocking, I really doubt the market will be that focussed on the minutia as it used to be. US president elect Donald Trump has implied that he won't be continuing Yellen's chairmanship beyond her term and its importance has waned in the light of presidential elections," he said.

Tata Motors retained its top position in the buying list, up nearly 3 percent after block deals. Sources told CNBC-TV18 that Morgan Stanley was likely to buy 5 crore shares in the company.

ITC, Reliance Industries, Maruti Suzuki and Wipro gained 0.7-1.7 percent while ICICI Bank, Lupin, Asian Paints, Tata Steel and BHEL fell 0.5-1 percent.

9:55 am World Bank: Greece does not need more austerity at this time, and in fact spending cuts have gone too far already, two senior International Monetary Fund officials have said.

If the eurozone country sticks to its agreement with the European Union to increase its budget surplus to 3.5 percent, contrary to the IMF's recommendation, then it cannot blame the fund if it must impose more austerity to do so, the officials said in a blog post yesterday.

IMF chief economist Maurice Obstfeld, and European Department Director Poul Thomsen, who has been heavily involved with the negotiations with Greece, used the blog to defend the IMF against misinformation they say "turns the truth upside down."

9:45 am India on a slow lane: The Asian Development Bank slightly lowered its 2016 growth forecast for developing Asia on Tuesday, reflecting slower-than-expected expansion in India.

Developing Asia, which groups 45 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, is now expected to expand 5.6 percent this year, rather than 5.7 percent, the ADB said in a supplement to its Asian Development Outlook 2016.

The ADB trimmed its 2016 growth estimate for India to 7.0 percent from 7.4 percent due to weak investment, agricultural slowdown and the government's recent demonetization.

9:30 am Result poll: State-run coal miner Coal India's second quarter profit is seen falling 15.5 percent year-on-year to Rs 2,150 crore and revenue may decline 0.9 percent to Rs 16,800 crore, according to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18.

Operating profit during the quarter is likely to increase 4.6 percent to Rs 2,590 crore and margin may expand 80 basis points to 15.4 percent compared with year-ago period.

Analysts say weak volumes coupled with subdued e-auction pricing may weigh on earnings.

The market has opened on tepid note as investors await outcome of two-day Federal Reserve's meeting that starts today. The Fed is widely expected to hike interest rates for the first time in 2016 at a two-day meeting, with markets pricing in a nearly 100 percent chance of a quarter percentage point increase to the Fed's target range of 0.25 to 0.50 percent.

The Sensex is up 26.49 points or 0.1 percent at 26541.73, and the Nifty up 4.05 points at 8174.85. About 453 shares have advanced, 250 shares declined, and 34 shares are unchanged.

Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Wipro, Dr Reddy's Labs and ONGC are top gainers while BHEL, Sun Pharma, M&M, ICICI and Asian Paints are losers in the Sensex.

The Indian rupee opened marginally lower at 67.47 per dollar versus 67.42 Friday.

Ashutosh Raina of HDFC Bank said, "The crucial 2-day FOMC meeting starts today, with markets expecting a 0.25 percent hike. The dollar index has come off from recent highs."

The US dollar fell against most major currencies on concerns that the Federal Reserve could suggest in an upcoming policy statement that the greenback's gains had gone too far, while a rally in oil prices boosted commodity-linked currencies.