Sensex ends weak; Bank Nifty dips over 1% ahead of RBI meet

The consolidation in market continued for the second session on Tuesday as investors are eyeing for RBI policy that will be announced on Wednesday. The day that was looking like a sigh of relief after a fall in previous five sessions gave up gains in last hour of trade. The Sensex slipped 47.38 points to 20,612.14, and the Nifty fell 15.65 points to 6,139.05. After disappointing industrial output and inflation data, economists firmly believe there is at least 25 basis points hike in repo rate and dovish commentary from RBI governor Raghuram Rajan on December 18. Bank Nifty dropped more than 1 percent as investors preferred profit booking ahead of the big event. The caution on the street was also on account of Federal Reserve meeting that will kick off today for two days.

03:30pm Market Update The market closed lower for the sixth consecutive session today. The Sensex slipped 50.40 points to 20,609.12, and the Nifty lost 15.65 points to 6,139.05 (as per provisional data). Ranbaxy Labs , Bharti Airtel , Cipla and Sun Pharma were top gainers, rising 2-5 percent while HDFC Bank , Coal India , HDFC, NTPC and Bajaj Auto plunged 2-4 percent. Among midcaps, Financial Technologies , TVS Motor , Trent , Whirlpool and Blue Dart rallied 5-11 percent. However, Godfrey Phillip , Ruchi Soya , J K Cement, Sobha Developer and India Cements declined 3.5-5 percent.

03:25pm ICICIdirect sees arbitrage opportunity in GSK Pharma
GlaxoSmithKline Pharma promoters on Monday announced a voluntary share buyback offer to acquire 2,06,09,774 shares representing 24.33 percent of the total voting share capital from public shareholders of the company at Rs 3100/share. "At the prevailing price of Rs 2930, the offer price is almost at a premium of 5.5 percent. The price differential between the prevailing price and the offer price provides an arbitrage opportunity. Hence, one will gain from the prevailing arbitrage by buying from the secondary market and tendering it for buyback," ICICIdirect report said. The stock was trading at Rs 2,947.50, up 0.69 percent on the BSE.

03:20pm Dolat Capital maintains buy on KPIT Technologies
Dolat Capital believes the stock would continue its financial outperformance on sustained deal flow momentum and benefits of incremental role of IT in Automobiles. It is a preferred pick in the mid tier IT segment and the target price is Rs 185, says the brokerage house. "The company is confident to achieve its annual guidance based on strong deal additions and existing robust pipeline. It is witnessing better client allocations across geographies in the automotive segment. It is also witnessing better trends on demand for upgrades and new enterprise solutions. The deal/client win has been broad based and raised management confidence in terms of better H2 over H1 which would translate achievement of its guided revenues (USD revenues growth 14-16%)," Dolat Capital report said. However, weak operating profit margin expansion despite strong forex tailwinds has remained a drag leading to valuation gap over other midcap peers, which Dolat believes will improve in coming quarters as momentum picks up further alongwith likely breakeven in the SAP SBU. KPIT Technologies' stock was trading at Rs 157.70, up 1.22 percent over previous close on the BSE.

03:15pm FII View Herald Van Der Linde, HSBC expects the US Federal Reserve to begin tapering in its policy meet that kick starts Tuesday. He is a bit more cautious on the 2014 outlook for the emerging markets and all Asian countries. According to him, the valuations for India are neither low nor extremely expensive, but it is definitely not cheap anymore. He is cautious on India due to the Fed meet, high inflation and the increased interest rates. The Sensex declined 51.41 points to 20,608.11, and the Nifty slipped 17.65 points to 6,137.05. Declining shares outnumbered advancing ones by a ratio of 1228 to 1094 on the BSE.

03:10pm Apollo Tyres off day's high on profit booking Apollo Tyres trimmed gains from 9 percent to 2 percent. The company got reprieve in the Cooper Tire deal. Cooper Tire and Rubber Company's appeal to force a merger with Apollo Tyres was dismissed by the Delaware Ssupreme Court. US Cooper Tire had appealed in the court against a Delaware judge's decision blocking the company's bid to merge with Aapollo Tyres. Apollo Ttyres said it is pleased by the decision and committed to finding a sensible way forward.

02:59pm Brokerage houses maintain buy on Coal India Citi maintains buy rating on Coal India with a target price of Rs 335 apiece. "The company will benefit from higher prices and sizing/loading charges. PAT is likely to go up by around 5 percent, " the brokerage house reasoned. CLSA also maintains buy rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 340, citing price hike will lead to 2 percent increase in blended average selling price. The government may favour a special dividend or buyback as against stake sale, CLSA report says. Meanwhile, Bank of America Merrill Lynch maintains neutral rating on the stock, but raised target price to Rs 310/share from Rs 300/share as the selective price revision is a positive surprise. The board of directors of the state-run coal mining company has approved an additional 10 percent hike on notified price for subsidiaries. The board also approved hike in price of non-coking coal bands of WCL.

02:49pm Movers and Shakers Coal India fell 3 percent after the board of directors of the company deferred decision on special dividend. Shares of HDFC and NTPC lost 2 percent. Reliance Industries , ONGC and Tata Motors slipped 0.3 percent each. Bajaj Auto, which decided to announce October-December quarter earnings on January 16, declined 1.4 percent. However, Ranbaxy Labs climbed 4 percent and Cipla rose 2.7 percent. Latter received approval for an asthma drug which is a limited competition drug for the company with around 3-4 players while former received approval for Plendil generic which is used to cure hypertension. Bharti Airtel is the top gainer, rising 4.3 percent. TCS rallied 1.7 percent as the company expects the next financial year 2014-15 to be better than current year 2013-14.

02:35pm Sugar stocks sweeten Cabinet Committe on Economic Affairs (CCEA) note on sugar relief package and interest subvention for sugar mills has been circulated, reports CNBC-TV18. Interest subvention for sugar mills is estimated at Rs 7,200 crore. CCEA is likely to take up this proposal this week. Balrampur Chini , Bajaj Hindusthan , Dharani Sugars , Dwarikesh Sugar and Triveni Engineering gained 2 percent each while Sakthi Sugars, Rana Sugars and Dhampur Sugar rallied 4-6 percent.

02:20pm The market turned choppy in last hour of trade as investors are waiting for cues from RBI policy and Fed meeting before taking any position. While many market experts are betting on a December taper, Manishi Raychaudhuri of BNP Paribas Securities sees the US Fed withdrawing monetary stimulus in March next year. He cautions of volatility in Asian markets once taper starts.  Meanwhile, sharing his expectations from the upcoming RBI policy, he said that the market seems to have factored in a 25 bps rate hike, but one should be prepared for another round of rate hikes in January policy given that inflation is above RBI's comfort zone. He further added that the liquidity situation will continue to be tight for some more time. The Sensex slipped .62 points to 20,656.90, and the Nifty lost 3.60 points to 6,151.10. Bank Nifty fell more than 1 percent due to sharp fall in HDFC Bank that lost 3.3 percent. Top lender State Bank of India dropped 0.5 percent and ICICI Bank came off day's high, gaining 0.3 percent.

01:50pm Dabur talks to CNBC-TV18 FMCG major Dabur, which is focusing on the rural market, said the company has been witnessing a small uptick and expects the rural momentum to pick up by fourth quarter of the current year. The company expects to hold on to margins for FY14 and doesn't see any cuts in advertising costs for the fiscal. Talking to CNBC-TV18, Sunil Duggal, CEO, Dabur, said the company is looking at 14 percent ad spends as a percentage of sales for FY14 and expects around 10 percent volume growth and 15-17 percent top line growth. It is even looking at small international acquisitions to enhance portfolio. Dabur India's stock was trading at Rs 167, up 0.54 percent over previous close on the BSE.

01:40pm Market Expert Manishi Raychaudhuri of BNP Paribas Securities is constructive on Indian equities at this point. But for one to take an aggressive call on India, investment climate needs to improve and corporate confidence needs to return, he told CNBC-TV18 in an interview. Alluding to other macro-economic concerns, he said that fiscal stability needs to be more entrenched and sustainable and inflation, which continues to be sticky, needs to be brought down.  Globally, the much-awaited FOMC meet, which will decide the future course of QE programme has begun today. While many market experts are betting on a December taper, Raychaudhuri sees the US Fed withdrawing monetary stimulus in March next year. He cautions of volatility in Asian markets once taper starts.  Meanwhile, sharing his expectations from the upcoming RBI policy, he said that the market seems to have factored in a 25 bps rate hike, but one should be prepared for another round of rate hikes in January policy given that inflation is above RBI's comfort zone. He further added that the liquidity situation will continue to be tight for some more time.

01:30pm Pharma stocks on buyers' radar Cipla and Ranbaxy are top gainers on the Nifty today, rising 3 percent and 4 percent, respectively. Cipla received approval for an asthma drug which is a limited competition drug for the company with around 3-4 players while Ranbaxy received approval for Plendil generic which is used to cure hypertension. After hitting a life-time high of Rs 2,960, GSK Pharma is trading at Rs 2,941.40 apiece, up 0.48 percent over previous close. Macquarie has upgraded the stock to neutral with a target price of Rs 3,100. According to the report, the open offer was the biggest risk to the underperform rating earlier and at Rs 3100 the stock is trading at 40 times CY15 expected earnings per share - good reflection of fundamentals. The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy overhang and margin pressure provides a good opportunity to exit the stock, Macquarie said. Among others, Sun Pharma rose 2 percent and Lupin gained 0.9 percent.

01:20pm CNBC-TV18 poll sees repo rate hike on Wednesday
According to a poll by CNBC-TV18, most bankers and economists are expecting atleast a 25 basis points (bps) repo rate hike on Wednesday, therby hiking it to 8 percent. The central bank- Reserve Bank of India , however, is not expected to take any liquidity steps.   The poll suggests that CRR is likely to remain unchanged and the RBI is also not expected to provide any additional liquidity under the LAF window or under the 7-14 day Repo window which they had introduced recently. However, post the disappointing inflation numbers, about 60 percent of experts are now expecting the year-end WPI to be around 7-8 percent, while 40 percent expect it to be below 7 percent. And inline with the growth numbers, majority of bankers and economists are expecting growth to come in between 4.5-5 percent. So, bad news can be expected on the macro-front this week.

01:10pm Zee Entertainment Enterprises at 13-year high  
Shares of Zee Entertainment Enterprises touched a 13-year high of Rs 291.95 today after it decided to merge arm's media business operations with self. Zee will issue one preference share of the company to arm shareholders for every four shares held. Zee Entertainment Enterprises was quoting at Rs 290.50, up 3.11 percent over previous close on the BSE.

01:00pm The market erased morning gains amid volatility as shares of Coal India , HDFC Bank and HDFC extended losses in afternoon trade. However, TCS , Bharti Airtel , ICICI Bank and ITC continued to support equity benchmarks. The Sensex advanced 26.79 points to 20,686.31, and the Nifty rose 9 points to 6,163.70. HDFC Bank plunged nearly 4 percent. The Reserve Bank of India barred buying by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) in shares of the country's second largest private sector lender. Stakes held by overseas investors, including FIIs, non-resident Indians (NRIs), persons of Indian origin (PIOs), foreign direct investment and global depository receipts, in HDFC Bank have crossed the ceiling of 49 percent of its paid-up capital, the RBI said in a release. Coal India dropped 3 percent after the street seems to be disappointed with no announcement of special dividend. However, brokerages are buoyant with the select price hikes taken. Bank of America Merrill Lynch maintains neutral rating on the stock, but raised target to Rs 310 from Rs 300 as the selective price revision is a positive surprise.

12:52pm New additions in F&O National Stock Exchange of India has decided to add Apollo Hospitals Enterprise and Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services in futures and options segment with effect from December 27. \\"The market lot of the above mentioned securities shall be inf

12:42pm 40 stocks to be shifted to trade-for-trade segment
3i Infotech (down 1.3 percent), Eveready Industries (down 4.77 percent), Jindal Photo (up 0.76 percent), Kokuyo Camlin (up 0.4 percent) and Kamat Hotel (up 0.4 percent) are some of the stocks that will be shifted to trade-for-trade segment with effect from December 20. These stocks will attract a circuit filter of 5 percent or lower as applicable.

12:32pm GSK Pharma hits new record high after open offer announcement
After hitting a life-time high of Rs 2,960, GSK Pharma is trading at Rs 2,940.20 apiece, up 0.44 percent over previous close. Macquarie has upgraded the stock to neutral with a target price of Rs 3,100. According to the report, the open offer was the biggest risk to the underperform rating earlier and at Rs 3100 the stock is trading at 40 times CY15 expected earnings per share - good reflection of fundamentals. The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy overhang and margin pressure provides a good opportunity to exit the stock, Macquarie said.

12:22pm FII View
Investment guru Mark Mobius feels India might turn out to be the big surprise for global investors in the event of the Bhartiya Janata Party coming to power in 2014. "If the BJP comes to power, it will do some big reforms that are badly needed in India, and that would be a big positive for the market," the executive chairman of Templeton said in an interview to CNBC-TV18. "In fact if you consider what has been happening over the past year in the Indian market, you have seen a lot of winners. So there is every chance that India could turn out to be the best," he said. Mobius is particularly bullish on companies that stand to gain from the depreciating rupee. "You have to pick those stocks that are going to benefit from a weak currency. A good example of that is TCS ; we have bet a lot of money on that stock because of a weak rupee," Mobius said.

12:12pm Expert on GSK Pharma open offer After
London-listed GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) announced a voluntary open offer to increase its stake to 75 percent in its Indian subsidiary GSK Pharma, the valuation of the stock has sky-rocketed indicating confidence by foreign company in Indian market. Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Yogesh Radke, head of Quantitative Research, Edelweiss Securities expects the acceptance ratio to inch upto 90-100 percent if one enters into tendering the open offer given the high holding of long-term investors and also the fact that a lot of fundamental experts would like to hold the stock even at Rs 3,100. GSK Pharma is currently trading around Rs 2,940. Radke believes that despite the whipsaws in the market, stocks like GSK must be held in portfolio and so, retail investors can continue holding the stock. However, if the investor is keen to exit, it is better to exit now rather than tendering into the open offer, he adds.

12:02pm The market is consistently holding its upmove amid consolidation as investors are waiting for cues from RBI policy and Federal Reserve meeting. The Sensex added 84.07 points to 20,743.59, and the Nifty rose 23.45 points to 6,178.15. About 1111 shares have advanced, 790 shares declined, and 147 shares are unchanged. S Naren, CIO, equities, ICICI Prudential Asset Management advises Indian investors to move away from their underweight on equities stance to more neutral. "We have seen that historically election years have been very good years. There has been the start of the good bull market and that is pretty positive for equities at this point of time. So I think investors should move to a more neutral stance and at this point of time they are far away from a neutral stance and they need to increase their allocation to equities to reach that neutral stance," he elaborated. Glenmark Pharma , IndusInd Bank , Aurobindo Pharma , Wockhardt , Infosys , Apollo Tyres , HDFC Bank and State Bank of India are the most active shares on exchanges.

11:55am Infosys near record high Shares of Infosys gained as much as 0.94 percent intraday to Rs 3,484.90 apiece on the NSE on reports that the company has received order from Chinese company Fesco. The stock rose 0.46 percent now to Rs 3,468.20 while its record high is Rs 3,493.95 that touched on January 7, 2011.

11:45am Pharma stocks on buyers' radar Shares of Cipla rallied 2.65 percent to Rs 387 on reports that the company received approval from US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Levalbuterol Hydrochloride solution. Reports also suggest that Ranbaxy Labs got US FDA nod for Felodipine extended release tablets. The stock surged 4.4 percent to Rs 436.45.

11:30am HDFC Bank in focus The Reserve Bank of India on Monday notified that since the foreign shareholding in  HDFC Bank has breached the 49 percent mark, no further purchase of shares of the bank will be allowed for FIIs. The result of this RBI bar on further FII investment in HDFC Bank would ensure there is unavailability of headroom for FIIs to invest in the company . Moreover, it is also likely HDFC Bank will be dropped from the MSCI Indices, like Axis Bank which was dropped earlier this year, when its foreign holding limit hit the 49 percent mark on August 14. The move follows on back of change in FDI guidelines earlier this year, which allowed foreign investors in private banks to invest up to 49 percent via automatic route, and from 49 percent to 74 percent via government approval. HDFC Bank foreign holding was above the 49 percent mark when the new guidelines were introduced. Over the last two quarters, foreign holding in HDFC Bank has slipped from over 51 percent to below 49 percent. Foreign holding in HDFC Bank included FIIs investments and ADRs listed in the US market. The non-availability of foreign investment headroom in HDFC Bank, and the likelihood of it being dropped from MSCI will put pressure on the stock going forward. The stock rose 2 percent to Rs 668.5 apiece.

11:15am Supreme Industries talks to CNBC-TV18 Plastic goods maker Supreme Industries aims to clock 12 percent volume growth over next three years. In an interview to CNBC-TV18, MD MP Taparia said that the company's capacity utilisation currently stands at 70 percent and he expects volumes to grow across sectors except industrial products. The Mumbai based company reported 10.37 percent increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 43 crore for in the quarter ended September 30, 2013 versus Rs 38.97 crore in the same period year ago. The company follows July-June fiscal year. Its sales rose 14.17 percent at Rs 705.14 crore from Rs 617.64 crore in the corresponding quarter of FY13.

Taparia further added that the company's margins are likely to improve to 14 percent going ahead and its debt would reduce by around Rs 150cr by December-end. Meanwhile, the company is looking to monetise a land parcel of Rs 200 crore by June 30, 2015 and has no plans to raise equity in the near-term.

11:01am After weakness in last five consecutive sessions, short covering helped the market rebound today. The Sensex advanced 99.75 points or 0.48 percent to 20,759.27 and the Nifty rose 27.70 points or 0.45 percent to 6,182.40. Investors are eagarly waiting for RBI policy on Wednesday and FOMC meeting that will end on Wednesday, but the market will react on Thursday. The Fed meet slated towards the end on the ongoing week may not ruffle up market as talks are of a small taper, which has broadly been factored in. Markets are more interested on Fed's stance on long-term interest rates; if anything negative is hinted it may harm sentiment, says Saurabh Mukherjea of Ambit Capital. Speaking of the impending monetary policy meet tomorrow, Mukherjea said a 25 bps rate hike is highly likely given the disappointment seen in CPI and WPI data. If the inflation data stays as stubborn, then another 25 bps rate hike cannot be ruled out in January, as it is the only tool left with the RBI to tackle price rise. Advancing shares outnumbered declining ones by a ratio of 1,053 to 572 on the BSE. Bharti Airtel , Cipla, Tata Power , TCS , Sesa Sterlite, Ranbaxy Labs and Jaiprakash Associates are the major gainers among frontlines, rising 2-5 percent. However, the laggards are HDFC Bank, Coal India , NTPC , HDFC, SBI and Power Grid Corporation. Meanwhile, the rupee is hovering around the 62 level against the US dollar. It fell 23 paise to 61.96 per dollar.

10:55am IRB Infrastructure up 3% Investors were buying shares of IRB Infrastructure Developers on Tuesday after the company has emerged as a preferred bidder for Solapur road project. The stock gained as much as 5 percent intraday. "IRB Infra has emerged as a preferred bidder for the project of four laning of Solapur to Yedeshi section of NH-211 from km 0.00 to km 100 in the state of maharashtra to be executed as BOT (toll) on DBFOT pattern under NHDP Phase-IV," the company said in its filing.

10:49am Apollo Tyres up 5% Apollo Tyres is on buyers' radar as the company got reprieve in the Cooper Tire deal. Ccooper Tire and Rubber company's appeal to force a merger with Apollo Tyres was dismissed by the Delaware Supreme Court. US Cooper Tire had appealed in the court against a Delaware judge's decision blocking the company's bid to merge with Apollo Tyres. Apollo Tyres said it is pleased by the decision and committed to finding a sensible way forward.

10:39am Rate hike possible?
Indranil Sen Gupta of Bank of America Merrill Lynch expects 25 basis points hike in repo rate and hawkish talk by RBI on Wednesday. "We grow more certain of our standing call that the RBI will hike 25bp on Wednesday after higher-than-expected CPI and WPI inflation. We also expect the accompanying commentary to be hawkish to hold inflation expectations and open the door for another 25bp January policy rate hike if inflation hardens. After all, the RBI will not want to take chances with inflation after having already sacrificed so much growth," he said in his report.

10:29am HDFC Bank slips 2% Shares of HDFC Bank fell 2 percent after the Reserve Bank of India barred buying by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) in shares of the country's second largest private sector lender. Stakes held by overseas investors, including FIIs, non-resident Indians (NRIs), persons of Indian origin (PIOs), foreign direct investment and global depository receipts, in HDFC Bank have crossed the ceiling of 49 percent of its paid-up capital, the RBI said in a release.

10:19am The market has maintained its positive momentum in morning trade supported by ICICI Bank , TCS and Reliance Industries . Bharti, Infosys and Larsen and Toubro too helped the benchmarks. The Sensex rose 76.80 points to 20,736.32, and the Nifty climbed 21.85 points to 6,176.55. The broader markets also inched higher; the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained 0.6 percent each. Two shares advanced for every share declining on the BSE. JPMorgan recently upgraded India to overweight. Adrian Mowat of JPMorgan says what is working in favour of Indian companies is the fact that the economy has been bad for long, along with policy paralysis at play, but still most companies managed to perform well, which shows that these businesses are behaving like developed market businesses. He makes it clear that it is only the Indian companies that he is backing, not the economy, or the policy environment, or the speculation on a change in government. He says earnings delivery by Indian companies has been much better than most emerging markets. He is overweight on IT, mining and bank stocks. Globally, he believes there is a reasonable chance of a taper this month. But his base case is January. But even if the US Federal Reserve were to begin tapering this month, he believes the central bank will offset that by giving forward guidance.

09:55am RBI policy on Wednesday
According to a poll by CNBC-TV18, most bankers and economists are expecting atleast a 25 basis points (bps) repo rate hike on Wednesday, therby hiking it to 8 percent. The central bank- Reserve Bank of India, however, is not expected to take any liquidity steps.   The poll suggests that CRR is likely to remain unchanged and the RBI is also not expected to provide any additional liquidity under the LAF window or under the 7-14 day Repo window which they had introduced recently. However, post the disappointing inflation numbers, about 60 percent of experts are now expecting the year-end WPI to be around 7-8 percent, while 40 percent expect it to be below 7 percent. And inline with the growth numbers, majority of bankers and economists are expecting growth to come in between 4.5-5 percent. So, bad news can be expected on the macro-front this week.

09:45am Gold import curbs to stay
India will keep a tight leash on gold imports despite a recent improvement in its trade deficit and lobbying by a bullion industry struggling with high premiums and a supply crunch. The government is worried the trade gap could worsen again and the currency could weaken as the US Federal Reserve looks set to start tapering its economic stimulus soon, reports Reuters "There is no proposal to relax restrictions on gold imports as of now," said a top finance ministry official who is part of the team deciding on gold import restrictions. He declined to be named as he is not authorised to speak to the media. "The question has not arisen as a US decision on tapering its monetary stimulus could come at any time (and) that could have severe implications for the rupee."

09:30am FII View
According to Ridham Desai of Morgan Stanley, data suggests that Axis Bank, Lupin, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank and Maruti Suzuki are the stocks where the consensus is most bullish, and SBI, Hero Motocorp, Ambuja Cements, BHEL and JSPL are stocks where the consensus is most bearish. Of the stocks on which the consensus is most bearish, Hero Motocorp, Ambuja Cements and JSPL feature as equal-weight rated stocks by the MS analyst.

09:15am The market bounced back on Tuesday with the Sensex gaining more than 100 points, tracking positive global cues. It is after the weakness seen in previous five consecutive sessions. The Sensex rose 110.29 points or 0.53 percent to 20,769.81, and the Nifty climbed 28.20 points or 0.46 percent to 6,182.90. Advancing shares outnumbered declining ones by a ratio of 539 to 105 on the NSE. ICICI Bank, TCS, Larsen and Toubro, Bharti Airtel, Cipla, Maruti Suzuki, Sun Pharma, Sesa Sterlite and Dr Reddy's Labs gained 1-2 percent. However, HDFC Bank lost more than 2 percent after the Reserve Bank of India barred buying by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) in shares of the country's second largest private sector lender as FIIs shareholding limit reached. Coal India too slipped 2 percent after the board of directors on Monday deferred any decision on the buyback or special dividend. CMD S Narsing Rao told CNBC-TV18 that a decision on the special dividend will be taken closer to February. The state-run coal mining company's board has raised prices of coal produced from Western Coalfields by an average of 10 percent across all grades. Shares of Apollo Tyres gained 8 percent as reports suggest that the Delaware Supreme Court has dismissed Cooper Tire's appeal on merger with Apollo Tyres. Cooper Tire had appealed against Apollo's plea for a price cut. This move puts the deal back in the hands of a Lower State Court. Remember, Cooper Tire needs to get a favoured ruling by December 31 for the merger to go through. Indian rupee opened marginally lower at 61.82 per dollar on Tuesday as against previous day's closing of 61.74 per dollar. Asian markets joined the global rally as investors cheered upbeat economic data one day before the start of the two-day Federal Reserve meet.