Sensex ends 285 points down, Nifty below 7800; Infy falls 2%

3:30 pm Market closing: The market has ended lower dragged by  index heavyweights. The Sensex was down 284.56 points or 1 percent at 25519.22 and the Nifty down 82.40 points or 1 percent at 7761.95. About 1301 shares have advanced, 1401 shares declined, and 203 shares are unchanged.

Vedanta, Lupin, SBI, Infosys and Bajaj Auto were losers while M&M and Coal India were gainers.

3:05 pm Market close: The Sensex is down 268.67 points or 1 percent at 25535.11 and the Nifty is down 82.15 points or 1 percent at 7762.20. About 1261 shares have advanced, 1362 shares declined, and 209 shares are unchanged.

NTPC, Cipla and Coal India are top gainers in the Sensex while Vedanta, Lupin, Bajaj Auto, Infosys and SBI.

2:58 pm Buzzing: Shares of NIIT gained more than 4 percent intraday on strengthening operations by opening third office in Europe.

"NIIT announced establishment of a new facility in Bergen, Norway to expand near-shore multi-lingual delivery capability and further invest in rapid growth of business in Europe," says the skills and talent development company.

With establishment of this office, the company will be able to work more closely with its Scandinavian customers with onsite administrative support and real time delivery.

NIIT's corporate learning group offers managed training services to companies in North America, Europe, Asia and Oceania. It services over 30 clients in Europe.

2:40 pm Havells in News: Electrical goods makers Havells would start manufacturing small domestic appliances from January 2016. The firm will make appliances like mixer grinder, juicer mixer grinder, electric iron, induction cook top, among others.

"The company is venturing into manufacturing of small domestic appliances, a category wherein it has been trading into till now," Havells said in a BSE filing.

It added that Havells would take necessary approvals from the government regarding it. "In this regard, the company is going to file the necessary application with the SIA (Secretariat for Industrial Assistance), Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry," Havells said.

2:20 pm CEA on inflation: The government suggested whether the country needed a more flexible timeline for its inflation targets given the need to help indebted companies lower their debt levels, according to its mid-year economic report out on Friday.

"How can borrowing costs be lowered without jeopardising the medium term inflation objective?" the government said in the report, authored by Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian.

"Is there a case for a more gradual glide path or greater flexibility in interpreting the inflation objective?"

The Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan has set a target for consumer inflation of 5 percent by March 2017 and 4 percent in the medium term, as part of his "glided path" approach to monetary policy.

2:00 pm Market Check
Equity benchmarks remained under selling pressure with the Sensex down 168.62 points to 25635.16 and the Nifty down 50.50 points to 7793.85. Banking & financials, healthcare and technology stocks pulled the market lower.

The broader markets outperformed benchmarks, rising marginally. The market breadth was positive as about 1311 shares advanced against 1254 declining shares on the BSE.

Infosys, Reliance Industries, TCS, Lupin, Bajaj Auto, Bharti Airtel and Vedanta were down 1-2 percent while NTPC gained 1.5 percent.

European markets traded lower following a sharp rally the day before as a further drop in commodity prices remains in focus for investors. The pan-European STOXX 600 was down over 0.3 percent with all major indices trading lower.

Major markets in Asia were mixed after wavering between positive and negative territory as investors focused on economic data, central bank decisions and commodity prices.

The Japanese market took a wild ride, erasing early losses and spiking higher briefly after the Bank of Japan said it will increase purchases of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), before retreating back into negative territory.

1:45 pm Interview: The Indian Railways has put out a tender for 14,777 wagons, bids for which have to be submitted by January 12.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Titagarh Wagons Executive Chairman JP Chowdhary said the company plans to bid for the entire tender and is hopeful of securing about 25 percent of the total order.

"We are hoping to get orders for about 3,000-4,000 wagons. The expected bidding price could be about Rs 15-20 lakh per wagon," he said. "Margins would depend on how fiercely bidding takes place."

Chowdhary added that there had been a streamlining of the approvals process in the Railway Board and that he expects the order to be finalized by January-February.

1:30 pm Interview: The government's decision to lower the PAN card requirement threshold for jewellery purchases to Rs 2 lakh from Rs 5 lakh earlier is unlikely to have a major impact on the business of Titan , the company CFO S Subramaniam told CNBC-TV18. Titan sells jewellery under its Tanishq brand of business. "Our average ticket size of sales is low, at Rs 65,000 per customer," he said. Discussing the company's sales, the CFO said the company saw better sales during the Dussehra-Diwali festive season, compared to the previous years and expressed optimism over business, going forward.

The market is still sluggish as the Sensex is down 137.60 points or 0.5 percent at 25666.18. The Nifty is down 41.20 points or 0.5 percent at 7803.15. About 1347 shares have advanced, 1102 shares declined, and 208 shares are unchanged.

NTPC, HUL, Cipla, Axis Bank and Hero MotoCorp are top gainers in the Sensex while Bajaj Auto, Vedanta, Infosys, Lupin and Reliance.

The Indian economy is likely to grow at 7-7.5 percent in fiscal 2015-16 while retail inflation is expected at 6 percent, the government's Mid-year Economic Review authored by Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian says.

Growth for fiscal year 2017 is unlikely to be much higher than it would in 2016, the report added. The report, tabled in Parliament today, reiterates its previously laid-out FY16 growth target but may be a bit conservative when it comes to inflation, experts said.

12:45 pm IOC in News: Indian Oil Corp  and Oil India are in talks with Russia's Rosneft to buy up to a 29 percent stake in a Siberian oil project, two sources said, as New Delhi accelerates a push to secure overseas energy assets.

India, the world's fourth-biggest oil consumer, has to ship in three quarters of its oil needs and with oil prices close to their lowest since the global financial crisis has added incentive to seal purchases to limit import reliance.

The deal, which could be worth around USD 1 billion based on the valuation of a recent stake purchase, is expected to take final shape during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Moscow next week for summit talks with President Vladimir Putin, said the sources with direct knowledge of the situation.

12:25 pm Buzzing: Investors continued to buy shares of Tata Power as the private power generation company has tied up with renewable energy company for wind project in Andhra Pradesh. The stock gained more than 1 percent intraday.

"Tata Power and Gamesa India has entered into a contract for commissioning 100 MW turnkey wind project in Andhra Pradesh," says the Tata Group company in its filing to exchanges.

This project will entail supply, erection and commissioning of 50 units of wind turbines at Nimbagallu site in AP by May 2017, it adds.

Apart from this order, Gamesa is also contracted to offer long term operations and maintenance agreement to ensure smooth functioning of wind farm.

Additionally, the stock surged 4 percent in previous session after Tata Power has completed uprating of second transmission line between Kalwa and Salsette for Mumbai.

12:10 pm Mid-year economic review: The government will stick to its budgeted fiscal deficit target of 3.9 percent of GDP for the fiscal year ending in March 2016, the finance ministry said in a report today.

The government hopes to hit the target without cutting expenditure or deferring tax refunds, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said earlier this week.

In the budget in February, Jaitley had pledged to narrow the deficit to 3.9 percent of GDP in this fiscal year from 4.0 percent in 2014/15.

12:00 pm Market Check
The market continued to see profit booking in noon trade but the broader markets outperformed benchmarks. Technology, healthcare, metals and select banking & financials dragged.

The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 144.05 points or 0.56 percent to 25659.73 and the 50-share NSE Nifty declined 42.20 points or 0.54 percent to 7802.15. However, the BSE Midcap gained 0.5 percent and Smallcap rose 0.2 percent.

The market breadth remained positive as about 1259 shares advanced against 1097 declining shares on the BSE.

11:55 am Mid-year review: The Indian economy is likely to grow at 7-7.5 percent in fiscal 2015-16 while retail inflation is expected at 6 percent, the government's Mid-year Economic Review authored by Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian says.

Growth for fiscal year 2017 is unlikely to be much higher than it would in 2016, the report added.

Further, the report also reiterated it would meet its fiscal deficit target of 3.9 percent and revenue deficit target of 2.8 for this year. But in a statement that may raise some economists' eyebrows, it said there may be a need to reconsider next year's fiscal deficit target (3.5 percent).

11:45 am Market outlook: While the risk-reward is not currently in favour of midcaps given their high valuation, Mahesh Patil, Co-Chief Investment Officer, Birla Sun Life AMC says the midcaps' bottom-up story will continue. Other attractive buys currently, Patil recommends, are the largecaps that have seen significant corrections. While the current year has not been too kind on the earnings front, Patil expects the same to grow at 15-17 percent in FY17.

11:30 am Interview: With the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announcing a new methodology to calculate bank base rates using marginal cost of funds, State Bank of India , the country's largest state-run lender, may move to a structure in which it could have different base rates for different tenors, chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya told CNBC-TV18.

The base rate is the lowest rate at which a bank can lend and banks currently use a number of methods to calculate their rates, such as average or blended cost of funds. But the Reserve Bank proposes to roll out the new costing method from April 1 next year amid complaints that there has been slow transmission of monetary policy -- that is, there is a considerable lag between the RBI cutting its repo rate and banks following up with cuts in their lending rates.

The market is struggling to hold its feet firm as the Sensex is down 142.94 points or 0.5 percent at 25660.84. The Nifty is down 42.35 points or 0.5 percent at 7802. About 1083 shares have advanced, 1072 shares declined, and 162 shares are unchanged.

NTPC, HUL, L&T, Cipla and M&M are top gainers while Vedanta, Bajaj Auto, Infosys, TCS and HDFC are losers in the Sensex.

Crude futures fell as fresh signs of inventory building and the Federal Reserves rate hike this week kept prices under pressure amid a global glut of oil that shows no sign of abating.

Gold steadied  but largely retained losses made a day earlier when the metal suffered its biggest slide in five months after the Federal Reserve hiked US rates for the first time in nearly a decade.

10:55 am Market Update: Equity benchmarks extended losses with the Nifty breaking 7800 level on profit booking.

The Sensex fell 151.57 points or 0.59 percent to 25652.21 and the Nifty declined 44.55 points or 0.57 percent to 7799.80.

10:45 am Buzzing: Shares of Jyoti surged 19 percent intraday on bagging order for metallic volute pumps in the state of Karnataka.

"Jyoti has won order for Rs 139 crore from DRN Infrastructure, Hubli, Karnataka for design, manufacturing, supply, erection, testing and commissioning of 5 numbers metallic volute pumps," says electrical and hydraulic engineering equipment maker in its filing.

The above order is along with allied mechanical, electrical and instrumentation equipment, 220 KV sub-station, tools-tackles, spares for TubchiBableshwar lift irrigation scheme under Karnataka Neeravari Nigam.

10:35 am Vedanta in focus: Mining conglomerate Vedanta said its arm Sesa Goa may suspend iron ore mining in Goa due to the ongoing dispute between the firm and truck operators.

"A section of truck owners' association is demanding a rate of Rs 17.63 per km while the mining firms, already reeling under the impact of a meltdown in iron ore prices and plethora of taxes, have offered to pay Rs 8 per km," the firm said in a statement.

If mining is suspended, this will be a huge set back to the mining operations in the state that had resumed only in August this year after Supreme Court lifted its 2012 ban, the statement added.

10:20 am Strides Shasun's fund raising: Indian pharmaceutical company Strides Shasun has launched a share sale to raise funds up to Rs 1500 crore (USD 225.7 million), IFR reported today, citing a source close to the transaction.

Strides is selling shares at Rs 1,278 apiece in the transaction, which comprises a base deal for Rs 1000 crore with an upsize option of Rs 500 crore, IFR, a Thomson Reuters publication, said.

Axis and Jefferies are the bookrunners for the deal, it said.

10:00 am Market Check
The market continued to see selling pressure in morning trade with the Sensex falling 92.62 points to 25711.16 and the Nifty down 29.10 points to 7815.25. However, the broader markets outperformed benchmarks with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rising marginally.

The market breadth was marginally positive as about 1081 shares advanced against 901 declining shares on the BSE.

Infosys and TCS fell more than 1 percent as the United States will double special fee on H1B and L1 visa fee. Indian IT industry could be hit by as much as USD 400 million, say analysts.

HUL, L&T, NTPC, Axis Bank, Sun Pharma and Cipla gained 0.3-1.3 percent.

9:55 am Downgrade: Moody's revised downwards the ratings outlook of DIAL, which operates the international airport here, to negative citing that implementation of the new tariff order would lead to lower revenues. The outlook has been revised from stable while affirming DIAL's (Delhi International Airport Ltd) Ba1 corporate family rating and senior secured ratings. The new tariff order from the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA), that would be applicable on DIAL over the 2016-2019 period, would lead to a decrease in annual aeronautical revenue by Rs 20 billion (Rs 2,000 crore) or around 70 percent from 2017 fiscal year, Moody's Investors Service's Abhishek Tyagi said.

9:45 am Buzzing: Shares of Bajaj Auto fell 2 percent intraday on concerns that its export may get hurt. The new Argentina government devalued its currency in order to revive sluggish growth. Argentina's peso plunged more than 26.5 percent yesterday.

Latin America contributes 20 percent of Bajaj Auto's exports with Argentina being one of the key growth markets. Exports overall account for 50 percent of its revenue and enjoy 20 percent EBITDA margin.

Analysts point out that the recent global currency movement has been negative for the two-wheeler manufacturer. Its key export markets, namely Nigeria, Colombia, Peru, Egypt, Indonesia have seen a sharper currency depreciation versus dollar.

9:30 am Interview: HDFC ERGO General Insurance, a subsidiary of Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd (HDFC), announced that Germany's ERGO International will buy 22.9 percent additional stake in the company. HDFC ERGO offers general insurance products ranging from motor, health, travel, home, personal accident. It also offers customised services like property, marine and liability insurance in retail space. In an exclusive interview to CNBC-TV18, Keki Mistry, vice chairman and chief executive officer, HDFC, says the company shareholders will take a call on if the insurance arm needs to raise money. However, Mistry rules out any plans to list the general insurance company.

The market has opened lower on Friday after surging yesterday. The Sensex is down 59.71 points at 25744.07 and the Nifty is down 15.45 points at 7828.90. About 326 shares have advanced, 223 shares declined, and 40 shares are unchanged.

Bajaj Auto, Vedanta, TCS, M&M and Dr Reddy's Labs are major losers while HDFC, NTPC, Maruti and Hindalco are top gainers in the Sensex.

The Indian rupee reversed its some gains seen in previous session. The currency has opened at 66.48 per dollar on Friday, down 6 paise compared to 66.42 a dollar in previous session. It ended at over 3-week closing high yesterday.

Pramit Brahmbhatt, Veracity says after the smart recovery post Federal Reserve rate hike, the rupee is now trading in a new range.

According to him, the USD-INR pair has strong support around Rs 66.20/USD. He feels the rupee today is expected to trade with a positive bias and the range for the day is seen between Rs 66.20-66.50/USD.

Asian shares took their cue from Wall Street and slipped, but were still on track for gains in a week marked by a depreciating yuan in China and the first US interest rate hike in nearly a decade.

By contrast, Taiwan's central bank cut interest rates for the second time this year and said it would keep monetary policy loose to shore up growth in the island's trade-dependent economy as the global demand outlook worsened.

China's yuan has weakened against the dollar for 10 straight sessions through Thursday, the longest weakening streak on record, after the central bank guided the Chinese currency lower.