Nifty ends at 6203, rupee strong; Maruti, SBI gain 3%

3:50 pm Market closing:
It was a quiet session on Dalal Street as the market remained range bound.  The Sensex ended up 40.08 points at 20890.82 and the Nifty closed gainign 14.35 points at 6203.35.

About 1282 shares advanced, 1196 shares declined, and 159 shares were unchanged.

Jindal Steel and Hindalco gained over 4 percent each while Maruti and SBI ended with more than 3 percent gains. Other gainer in the Sensex was Bharti Airtel . Top losers in the Sensex are Sesa Sterlite, HDFC Bank , Coal India , TCS and Wipro .

The rupee continued to strengthen, trading around 62 per dollar mark

A Finance Ministry-RBI panel discussed a 49 percent cap for FII investment. However finance ministry opposed the proposal saying it will impact market sentiment.

03:40 pm FII view:
The proposed reforms by China do not spell good news for India, if those turn out to be credible, says Cameron Brandt of Emerging markets Portfolio Funds Research (EPFR). Yet, the reforms will be perceived as being positive for Asia as a whole (excluding Japan), he said.

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Brandt said China would attract strong flows if investors were convinced about the credibility of the reforms. Flows into emerging markets gained momentum after the US Federal Reserve decided to defer its phased reduction of the ongoing monetary stimulus.

03:30 pm Brokerage upgrade:
Morgan Stanley upgrades Axis Bank to "overweight" from "equal-weight" and raises its target to Rs 1,300 from Rs 1,000, citing reduced loan exposure to problem sectors such as infrastructure over the last 12-15 months.

While the brokerage house says Axis is still exposed to a weaker economy, the reduced exposure to problem sectors coupled with a better balance sheet implies the bank's ability to withstand stress is very high.

03:20 pm Commodity check:
Brent slipped towards USD 108 a barrel on Tuesday as investors eyed this week's round of talks between world powers and Iran that could lead to an easing of sanctions on the oil-rich country.

Renewed concern about the possible tightening of monetary policy in the United States further undercut prices.

January Brent crude fell 15 cents to USD 108.132 a barrel by 0925 GMT, down for the third straight session. U.S. crude for December edged down 11 cents to USD 92.92.

03:10 Buzzer:
Shares of Sabero Organics Gujarat , a subsidiary of Coromandel International , fell 9 percent in intraday trade after getting notice from pollution control board to stop operations at Sarigam unit.

The fertiliser chemical manufacturer received a letter from the Environmental Engineer, Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB), Gandhi Nagar, advising to close production process at Sarigam Unit in Gujara. It stated that there were certain non-compliances of the environmental parameters.

3:00pm Market Update
The market continued to trade higher with marginal gains. The Sensex is up 40.08 points at 20890.82, and the Nifty is up 12.85 points at 6201.85.

Hindalco, Jindal Steel, Maruti Suzuki, SBI and Bank of Baroda rallied 3-4.5 percent in late trade.

Among midcaps, FDC , Jubilant Foodworks , Pfizer , Apollo Tyres and Oriental Bank of Commerce surged 5-7 percent while Era Infra Engineering , Hexaware Technologies , MCX India, Torrent Power and India Infoline lost 2.5-5 percent.

2:55pm Moody's sees FY14 fiscal deficit at 5%

Atsi Sheth of Moody's Investors Service warns that the high inflation could do a lot of damage to both growth as well as savings.

She maintains stable rating on India as of now , adding FY14 current account deficit is likely to be 4 percent Of GDP and fiscal deficit likely to be 5 percent.

"Inflation remains a major concern for Indian economy at this point, which will have detrimental impact on savings as well," she says.

2:50pm Maruti negative on sales in urban cities

Having tasted success in its Q2 earnings, Maruti Suzuki is going all local. In an interview to CNBC-TV18, RC Bhargava, auto industry veteran and chairman of Maruti Suzuki says the positive Q2 numbers were a result of the company localizing internal components.

''The local content of Maruti Suzuki is pretty high but the import content of the vendors is also pretty high. It was over 20 percent not so long ago,'' adds Bhargava saying a great deal of money can be saved by procuring parts locally.

On the growth prospects, he expects to see good demand coming from rural India and says it is the rural markets that are sustaining the auto sector.

Bhargava, however, is extremely negative on the sales in urban cities. ''We don't see any hope on that front partly because there is nothing happening on the manufacturing front. There are no new industries coming up so there are no new jobs and therefore no new buyers,'' he says.

2:45pm DB Corp  rises 1%
Pradeep Dwivedi, DB Corp is confident of delivering the projected quarter-on-quarter revenue guidance of 15-20 percent in the coming quarters too.

According to him, the increased Department of Audio Visual Publicity (DAVP) rates are sure to boost ad revenues for the company and would start to accrue in Q4. They had expected much more of a hike since it has came after a gap of three years but any rate hike is welcome, adds Dwivedi

The government has hiked the rates at which DAVP releases its advertisements to newspapers and publications by 19 percent for an interim period till the new rate structure committee (RSC) appointed by it, finalises new rates.

The Navratri-Diwali festive period has not been as exciting as expected but Dwivedi hopes that Christmas- New Year phase will see brand promotions and increased advertising spends.

DB Corp gets nearly 5% of the Rs 410 crore ads released by DAVP annually, states Dwivedi.

2:40pm ICICIdirect downgrades SpiceJet

ICICIdirect downgraded its rating on the stock from hold to sell and cut target price to Rs 15 from Rs 24 earlier.

"Given the better operating environment of international routes, we hope SpiceJet will keep on adding new overseas routes to its kitty. However, maintaining caution on the aviation space, as a whole, we revise our price target downward to Rs 15 (i.e. 0.4x FY14E EV/sales). Any strategic tie-ups with foreign carriers remain a key positive trigger while currency weakness and rise in competition from other carriers also pose a threat to recommendations," ICICIdirect report said. The stock gained 2 percent at Rs 17.55

2:35pm EGoM meet on November 22

Sources of Department of Telecommunication say empowered group of ministers (EGoM) will take a call on 800 MHz spectrum entry price when they meet on November 22.

It is learnt that EGoM will decide if fresh TRAI recommendations on entry price needed.

2:30pm IOB in focus
Indian Overseas Bank will raise Rs 1,200 crore by issuing preference shares to government at Rs 52.23 apiece.

The bank will allot 22,97,53,015 equity shares to Government of India, subject to receipt of funds from government and approval by shareholders at the EGM to be held on December 16, 2013 at Chennai.

2:17pm The market remained flat with a positive bias in afternoon trade despite profit booking in European markets. France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE fell between 0.4-0.7 percent.

The Sensex is up 21.84 points at 20872.58, and the Nifty is up 10.10 points at 6199.10.

State Bank of India , Maruti Suzuki and Hindalco Industries are the biggest gainers in Sensex, surging 3 percent each followed by Bharti Airtel with a 2 percent upmove.

Bharti Airtel is likely to sell Africa tower business for a valuation of USD 1.8 billion, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting sources. Bharti currently has 15,000 towers in Africa. Sources say the company has received expression of interest from four prospective buyers (which are Helios, ATC, IHS, Eaton) for Africa tower business.

However, Sesa Sterlite is the biggest loser, falling 3.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the rupee appreciation continues, breaching the 62-mark for the first time since November 6. The currency gained 33 paise to 62.06 against the dollar after hitting an intraday high of 61.98.

1:50 pm Rupee check: The rupee gains 3 percent (Rs 1.80) in last four trading sessions. The rupee is currently at 61.98 per dollar. The Sensex is up 47.73 points at 20898.47, and the Nifty is up 15.30 points at 6204.30. About 1117 shares have advanced, 1140 shares declined, and 163 shares are unchanged.

1:40 pm Alert: State-run Power Grid Corp of India's sale of shares, valued at about USD 1.2 billion, is likely to open on December 3, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter said, in a process that could revive the government's divestment programme, reports Reuters.

Power Grid said on Monday that it had filed for a follow-on offering of 787 million shares, or 17 percent stake, with the market regulators.

1:30 pm Buzzer: Aggressive buying drove shares of Hindustan Motors up 9 percent in intraday trade on Tuesday. The stock is riding high on strong September quarter earnings which were announced last evening.

The CK Birla Group owned company posted a profit of Rs 29 lakh for the quarter ended September, 2013-14 fiscal. It had a loss of Rs 30.10 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.

1:20 pm Interview: Having tasted success in its Q2 earnings, Maruti Suzuki is going all local. In an interview to CNBC-TV18 , RC Bhargava, auto industry veteran and chairman of Maruti Suzuki says the positive Q2 numbers were a result of the company localising internal components.

"The local content of Maruti Suzuki is pretty high but the import content of the vendors is also pretty high. It was over 20 percent not so long ago," adds Bhargava saying a great deal of money can be saved by procuring parts locally.

The market takes a breather from the smart upmove on profit-booking. The Sensex is up 30.89 points at 20881.63, and the Nifty is up 10.80 points at 6199.80.  About 1072 shares have advanced, 1082 shares declined, and 141 shares are unchanged.

Stock specifically, SBI , Hindalco and Maruti Suzuki are up 3 percent each. Other gainers in the Sensex Jindal Steel and Bharti Airtel add 2 percent each. On the losing side are Sesa Sterlite, HDFC Bank , ONGC , Tata Steel and Tata Motors .

CNBC-TV18's guest editor Jyotivardhan Jaipuria (Bank of America Merrill Lynch) maintains that the earnings cycle has not turned despite better showing on sales and margins in the second quarter. He expects the Sensex earnings growth at 8 percent this year.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister's Economic Advisor C Rangarajan is confident current account deficit could come in at USD 55 billion . He adds that food inflation will moderate in coming months, though elevated WPI is a concern.

The rupee jumped to a 2-week high against the dollar but traders say it is unlikely to test 60-per-dollar levels. Bond prices spring higher following the government's unexpected decision to issue a new 10-year bond this week.

01:00pm Market Update
The market remained flat with a positive bias as the Sensex is up 28.78 points at 20879.52, and the Nifty rose 9.20 points to 6198.20.

State Bank of India , Financial Technologies , Tata Steel , MCX India, Axis Bank , Infosys and ICICI Bank are the most active shares on exchanges.

12:55pm JSW Energy gains 1%
Shares of JSW Energy gained more than one percent. Promoter released a pledge on his 50 lakh shares on November 13.

12:45pm Rupee Update
The rupee appreciated by 28 paise to 62.13 against the US dollar, continuing recovery for the third consecutive session.

A steady stream of good news both from the domestic and international front has strengthened the rupee, but Ananth Narayan, Standard Chartered Bank does not see rupee appreciating to 60/USD.

He expects rupee to trade in a range between 61.5-63.5/USD and sees 10-year bond yields in the 8.8-9.25 percent range

According to him, the RBI will hike rates at its December policy review.

12:35pm Mindtree hits record high

Shares of Mindtree hit a record high of Rs 1,453.55 after the software firm appointed Ramesh Pillai as head of high-tech vertical and Mark Wilsdon as head of sales for UK and EU operations. The stock gained nearly 2 percent.

"Pillai comes to Mindtree after a 13-year tenure at HCL, where he last served as the vice president and global head of core manufacturing market segments. Wilsdon brings more than 30 years of experience in the global IT services market. He has held sales leadership positions at Capgemini, Unisys and EDS," the company said in its release.

12:25pm Arvind Remedies  to launch anti-viral drug

Arvind Remedies, in its filing, says it is coming out with thedevelopment of new Antiviral drug in collaboration with leading institutions.

"The drug is planned to be higher bio-availability, higher efficacy and minimum side effect, for treatment of viruses like Human Herpes virus, Varivella zoster virus, Chickenguniya and Chicken Pox. The patent application for the drug has been filed and the next step is clinical studies as per global regulatory requirements," Arvind elaborated.

12:10pm The market is rangebound in noon trade on Tuesday after a sharp rally seen in previous two sessions. On the global front, Asian markets were mixed as investors are cautious over uncertainty on Fed tapering.

The Sensex is up 24.99 points at 20875.73, and the Nifty is up 3.80 points at 6192.80.

The main worry for the Indian market was related to US Federal Reserve (Fed) and now with new noises sounding more dovish, clearly market has come back to the levels where it was and quarterly results also have been pretty supportive, says Rakesh Arora, Macquarie Capital Securities.

Bharti Airtel is likely to sell Africa tower business for a valuation of USD 1.8 billion, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting sources. Bharti Airtel currently has 15,000 towers in Africa. The stock jumped 2 percent.

Shares of BHEL gained 1 percent as the state-run capital goods major received order worth Rs 1,300 crore from NTPC for Unchahar project.

Financial Technologies rallied over 3 percent after it sold 100 percent stake in Singapore Mercantile Exchange for USD 150 million.

Maruti Suzuki and Hindalco Industries are biggest gainers in the Sensex followed by Jindal Steel & Power (JSPL) with 2 percent gains.

However, Sesa Sterlite lost the most among largecaps, falling 3 percent. HDFC Bank , ITC , TCS , ONGC and Tata Motors declined between 0.8-1.8 percent.

11:50 am Bond deal: As part of the its USD 5 billion medium-term note programme, ICICI Bank , the country's largest private sector lender, hit the overseas bond market with the third such programme this year, reports PTI.

The bank has given a final pricing guidance for the benchmark 5.5-year issue at 360 basis points over the US treasury, according to merchant bankers.

"We have launched a US dollar-denominated Reg S benchmark bond sale programme for ICICI Bank with an initial final price guidance of 360 bps above the US treasury," one of the merchant bankers said on Monday. The merchant bankers include Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, Citi, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Standard Chartered.

11:40 am Rupee outlook: A steady stream of good news both from the domestic and international front has strengthened the rupee, but Ananth Narayan, Standard Chartered Bank does not see rupee appreciating to 60/USD.

He expects rupee to trade in a range between 61.5-63.5/USD and sees 10-year bond yields in the 8.8-9.25% range. "I would think 61.5-63.5/USD is a good range to go with. It depends upon how the global environment looks like but at 61.5/USD or 61/USD the RBI would probably prefer to build a war chest and build for any day," he said in an interview.

According to him , the RBI will hike rates at its December policy review.

11:30 am Buzzer: Investors are buying shares of Sadbhav Engineering as the infrastructure company is the successful bidder (L1) for the project of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. The stock gained more than 3 percent in intraday trade on Tuesday.

The project work, which is worth Rs 50.96 crore, included civil works for construction of depot cum workshop for Bahadurgarh Depot at Mundka-Bahadurgarh Corridor, Line - 5 extension of Phase - III Delhi MRTS, according to company's filing to the BSE.

The market looks stable with marginal gains. The Sensex is up 50.23 points at 20900.97, and the Nifty is up 14.50 points at 6203.50. About 1006 shares have advanced, 687 shares declined, and 109 shares are unchanged.

Hindalco , Maruti are up 3 percent each while other major gainers in the Sensex are Maruti Suzuki, Jindal Steel , GAIL and L&T. Top losers in the Sensex are TCS , Coal India , BHEL , Sesa Sterlite and Tata Steel .

The rupee has appreciated today as most Asian currencies including the Indonesian ruppiah, Malaysian ringgit and Korean won on risk-on sentiment.

Meanwhile, the benchmark 10-year bond yield fell 2 basis points to 9 percent as the government unexpectedly decided to issue a new 10-year paper this week.

10:50 am Bond update: The benchmark 10-year bond yield falls 2 basis points to 9.00 percent on Tuesday, after the announcement of the new 10-year bonds. The benchmark bond, which was on a shut period on Monday, had closed at 9.02 percent on Thursday.

The Reserve Bank of India will sell Rs 15000 crore of bonds on November 22, including a new issue of 10-year paper, it said in a statement on Monday.

10:40 am Gold check: Gold was unable to recover on Tuesday from sharp losses incurred the previous day, with investors filled with uncertainty over when the US Federal Reserve would begin to taper its monetary stimulus, while physical demand for the metal remained weak.

Gold was boosted last week after Janet Yellen, the Federal Reserve's chief in waiting, indicated she would continue the US central bank's ultra-easy monetary policy. The Fed's USD 85 billion in monthly bond purchases burnish gold's appeal as a hedge against inflation.

10:30 am Buzzer: Shares of Financial Technologies rallied 11 percent in early trade on Tuesday after the company sold 100 percent stake in Singapore Mercantile Exchange (SMX) for USD 150 million. The rally in shares is in addition to 20 percent upmove seen in previous session.

Financial Technologies Singapore Pte Ltd, (FTSPL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Financial Technologies (India) (FTIL) announced "the sale of 100 percent of its equity ownership in SMX (together with its wholly owned subsidiary SMX CC) to ICE Singapore Holdings Pte Ltd, an entity owned by the Intercontinental Exchange Group, Inc. (NYSE: ICE) for USD 150 million."

10:15 am FII view: Abhay Laijawala of Deutsche Equities believes India's external vulnerabilities are far lower today, than before May 2013. Stressing that concerns over Fed taper are overstated, the brokerage firm reiterates December 2013 Sensex target of 22,000. Their top picks include Axis Bank , Bharti, Bharat Forge , Coal India , Godrej Consumer , ITC and IndusInd Bank .

Markus Rosgen of Citigroup feels in emerging markets, low rates have not led to outperformance, infact the asset class has seen underperformance. "Cheap money has fuelled returns and stock market re-ratings in developed markets but de-ratings in emerging markets," he said.

Aggressive buying continues in the market with the Nifty holding 6200, amid choppy trade. The Sensex is up 47.90 points at 20898.64, and the Nifty is up 11.80 points at 6200.80. About 736 shares have advanced, 440 shares declined, and 59 shares are unchanged.

Hindalco , Jindal Steel , Bharti Airtel , L&T and Maruti Suzuki are top gainers in the Sensex. On the losing side are TCS , BHEL , HDFC Bank , ITC and NTPC .

Trade in Asian markets are mixed following a negative lead from Wall Street overnight and caution over the duration of the Federal Reserve's stimulus programme.

In currencies, the dollar moves are kept in check reflecting expectations that the Fed will keep its easy policy stance while the euro dollar has moved higher to 1.35 levels.

These worries over an early taper also drag the crude basket lower with Brent down half a percent and gold prices too struggle near USD 1270/oz levels.

9:59am Market Expert
Lack of external debt makes India relatively safer compared to other emerging markets feels Jyotivardhan Jaipuria of Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

He sees some more earnings downgrades in banks and automobile stocks going forward, but is of the view that corporate earnings are close to stabilizing after a prolonged downtrend.

9:50am Gold update
Gold was unable to recover on Tuesday from sharp losses incurred the previous day, with investors filled with uncertainty over when the US Federal Reserve would begin to taper its monetary stimulus, while physical demand for the metal remained weak.

Gold was boosted last week after Janet Yellen, the Federal Reserve's chief in waiting, indicated she would continue the US central bank's ultra-easy monetary policy. The Fed's USD 85 billion in monthly bond purchases burnish gold's appeal as a hedge against inflation, reports Reuters.

9:35am Financial Tech on fire
Shares of Financial Technologies rallied 11 percent in early trade on Tuesday after the company sold 100 percent stake in Singapore Mercantile Exchange for USD 150 million. The rally in shares is in addition to 20 percent upmove seen in previous session.

Financial Technologies Singapore Pte Ltd, (FTSPL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Financial Technologies (India) (FTIL) announced "the sale of 100 percent of its equity ownership in SMX (together with its wholly owned subsidiary SMX CC) to ICE Singapore Holdings Pte Ltd, an entity owned by the Intercontinental Exchange Group, Inc. (NYSE: ICE) for USD 150 million."

FTIL says it will primarily utilise the amount towards repayment of outstanding debt towards external commercial borrowings (ECB) and foreign currency loan (FCL) to banks.

''The company will become debt-free post Singapore bourse stake sale," FTIL said in its filing to the BSE.

At 09:47 hours IST, the stock was trading at Rs 191.95, up 5.87 percent while Multi Commodity Exchange of India gained 2 percent to Rs 523 on the BSE.

9:15am The market is volatile in early trade as it is consolidating at current levels after rising 656 points on the Sensex in previous two sessions. The Nifty is hovering around the 6200 level.

The Sensex is up 60.82 points at 20911.56, and the Nifty is up 14.95 points at 6203.95. About 502 shares have advanced while 197 shares declined on the BSE.

Abhay Laijawala of Deutsche Equities reiterates December 2013 Sensex target of 22,000. "While a taper is an inconvenient truth which markets will have to face sometime we believe that India's external vulnerabilities are far lower today, than before May 2013. Concerns over Fed taper are overstated," he said.

Hindalco Industries and Jindal Steel are the biggest gainers in the Sensex, rising over 2.5 percent followed by Bharti Airtel with a 2 percent upmove.

Reliance Industries , ICICI Bank , Larsen & Toubro, State Bank of India and ONGC gained 0.7-1 percent.

However, Tata Motors , HDFC Bank , HDFC, TCS , ITC and Hindustan Unilever are slightly under pressure on profit booking.

Indian rupee gained 29 paise at 62.12 per dollar in early trade on Tuesday as against previous day's closing of 62.41 per dollar.

Ashutosh Raina of HDFC Bank feels the dollar-rupee pair has been stabilising and should continue to remain in this range for some more time. "The strong inflows have been offset by strong demand which has returned to markets," he adds.

According to him, the range for the day is seen between 61.80-62.50/USD.

Asian markets were mixed following a weakness on Wall Street. Investors remained cautious over uncertainty on US stimulus program.