Sensex, Nifty end flat; Coal India, Wipro, Lupin gainers

3:30 pm Market closing: The market has ended lower. The Sensex ended down 2.76 at 26210.68, and the Nifty was up 2.00 points at 8034.85. About 1497 shares advanced, 1111 shares declined, and 194 shares were unchanged.

Coal India, Wipro, Dr Reddy's Labs, Lupin and M&M were gainers while Reliance, Tata Steel, Hero MotoCorp, ICICI Bank and ONGC were losers in the Sensex.

3:10 pm Market slips: The Sensex is down 11.13 points at 26202.31, and the Nifty down 0.90 points at 8031.95. About 1487 shares have advanced, 1094 shares declined, and 200 shares are unchanged.

Tata Steel, Reliance, Hero MotoCorp, ICICI Bank and Tata Motors are losers while Coal India, Wipro, Dr Reddy's, M&M and NTPC are gainers

2:45 pm Market outlook: With currency exchange nearing its December 31 deadline and the situation largely normalising, 2017 could see an upmove in the market, believes Sanjay Dutt, Director of Quantum Securities. The first half of 2017 could see the market scaling new heights, he said, adding that price correction has already happened. This, however, will also depend upon flows and currency movements. On the upcoming Budget, Dutt said it ''could be a landmark Budget'' with more radical changes coming in. Aggressive correction in stocks has factored in the third quarter earnings.

2:30 pm Interview: In an interview to CNBC-TV18, BC Tripathi, CMD of GAIL spoke about the latest happenings in his company and sector.

"The long-term deals will be in sync with the oil, the way oil prices goes but you won't see the immediate impact because it has last three months or last 12 months average price of crude oil", he said.

After multiple attempts, the Nifty managed to hit 8100. The 50-share index is up 64.90 points or 0.8 percent at 8097.75 while the Sensex is up 193.89 points or 0.7 percent at 26407.33.

Dr Reddy's Labs, Coal India, Wipro, Axis Bank and HUL are top gainers while Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Hero Moto and Reliance are losers in the Sensex.

India Inc raised a whopping Rs 38,645 crore in November through private placement of corporate debt bonds, a surge of 57 per cent from the year-ago level, for business expansion and propping up working capital
requirements.

With the latest mobilisation, the total fund raisingthrough private placement of debt securities reached Rs 4.2 lakh crore in the current financial year (April-November).

In the previous fiscal (2015-16), the capital raked in through the route stood at Rs 4.58 lakh crore. According to the data available with Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), companies garnered a total of Rs 38,645 crore from debt on a private placement basis last month, much higher than the Rs 24,618 crore raised in November 2015.

1:50 pm Market climbs: The Sensex is up 188.12 points or 0.7 percent at 26401.56, and the Nifty up 64.45 points or 0.8 percent at 8097.30. About 1733 shares have advanced, 705 shares declined, and 167 shares are unchanged.

Coal India, Axis Bank, Dr Reddy's Labs, Wipro and Adani Ports are gainers in the Sensex while Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp and Reliance are losers.

1:40 pm Demonetisation: Cash crunch continues to plague the economy even as the 50-day demonetisation deadline of December 30 approaches.

In the last one month very little has improved on the ground level in terms of cash availability despite promises of increased supply. Banks are still dispensing around Rs 10,000 crore cash per day through branches and ATM networks combined as they were at end of November, reports CNBC-TV18.

Less than 15 percent ATMs are being loaded with cash on a daily basis.

1:30 pm Interview: In an interview to CNBC-TV18, BC Tripathi, CMD of GAIL spoke about the latest happenings in his company and sector.

"The long-term deals will be in sync with the oil, the way oil prices goes but you won't see the immediate impact because it has last three months or last 12 months average price of crude oil", he said.

The Sensex is up 153.63 points or 0.6 percent at 26367.07, and the Nifty up 50.90 points or 0.6 percent at 8083.75. About 1687 shares have advanced, 704 shares declined, and 165 shares are unchanged.

Axis Bank, Coal India, Wipro, Dr Reddy's Labs and HUL are top gainers while Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp, Reliance and L&T are losers in the Sensex.

The Cabinet today approved promulgation of an ordinance to impose a penalty, including a jail term, for possession of the scrapped 500 and 1000 rupee notes beyond a cut-off.

The Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi also approved an ordinance to amend the RBI Act to extinguish the liability of the government and the central bank on thedemonetised high-denomination notes to prevent future
litigations.

Official sources said the ordinance has been cleared, but did not say if the penal provisions would apply for holding the junked currency after the 50-day window to deposit them in banks ends as of December 30 or after March 31, till which time deposit of old currency notes at specified branches of the Reserve Bank after submitting a declaration form is open.

12:45 pm Interview: With an aim to ease trading requirements, markets regulator Sebi yesterday relaxed the combined futures and options position limit of stock brokers, FPIs and mutual funds in equity derivatives to 20 percent of the applicable Market Wide Position Limit.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18 Mrugank Paranjpe, MD, MCX said that he believes the final contours for options trading from SEBI might come in 2 weeks.

''It is just the question of getting a broad consensus and everybody wants to make sure the product is correct in terms of design. Weighing these two is what is taking time,'' he said.

12:30 pm Breaking: Sources tell CNBC-TV18 the Cabinet today approved the ordinance related to the withdrawal of old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes.

People involved in transacting old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 will face a penalty of Rs 5000 after the December 31 of this year and those found possessing old banknotes after March 31, 2017 will face a jail term of four years.

The Sensex is up 137.50 points or 0.5 percent at 26350.94, and the Nifty up 48.75 points or 0.6 percent at 8081.60. About 1633 shares have advanced, 595 shares declined, and 138 shares are unchanged.

Axis Bank, Wipro, Coal India, Dr Reddy's Labs and Asian Paints are top gainers while Tata Steel, Reliance, Tata Motors and Bharti are losers in the Sensex.

Raamdeo Agrawal, Joint MD at Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said the new year will be starting slow for earnings in the wake of the demonetisation.

He believes that there will be about 200-300 companies which will be showing growth. It is not looking to be a buffet dinner, he warned.

Although the pain still exists from government's move to ban popular currency notes, a lot of recovery has taken place, he said, adding that recovery is more visible than what media reports lead you to believe. ''Mumbai is normal,'' he said.

11:45 am Merger: Diversified group Religare Enterprises has given its go-ahead to the merger of several of its entities with itself for better synergy and simplifying corporate structuring.

The decision was taken at the Board of Directors meeting held today to approve the scheme for amalgamation of 11 fully owned subsidiaries with the company.

"The Board of Directors of Religare Enterprises Ltd (REL) has on Tuesday, approved a scheme of amalgamation that is designed to simplify the Company's corporate structure," it said in a regulatory filing.

The 11 wholly owned subsidiaries of the company that are to be merged into REL are: Religare Securities (excluding broking business), Religare Commodity Broking, RGAM Investment Advisers, Religare Venture Capital, Religare Arts Investment Management, Religare Capital Finance, RGAM Capital India, Religare Investment Advisors, Religare Support Services, Religare Arts Initiative and Religare Capital Markets (India).

11:30 am Interview: Globus Spirits has commenced production at its Bihar unit in Decmeber. The unit has a capacity of 80,000-1,00,000 liters per day and will get Rs 80-100 crore revenue, Shekhar Swarup, ED of the company said. Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Swarup said that the plant would see 80 percent capacity utilisation. ''The region has low raw material prices and has a high demand for extra neutral alcohol,'' he added. Extra neutral alcohol is the finished product of Bihar distillery. Globus is aiming to do import substitution of alcohol that comes in from either UP, Punjab or Maharashtra, Swarup said.

Benchmark indices continue to rise ahead of December series Futures and Options expiry tomorrow. The Sensex is up 56.51 points or 0.2 percent at 26269.95, and the Nifty up 24.40 points or 0.3 percent at 8057.25. About 1535 shares have advanced, 495 shares declined, and 108 shares are unchanged.

Tata Steel, Tata Motors, HDFC, Reliance and L&T are losers in the Sensex while Wipro, Coal India, Axis Bank, Dr Reddy's and M&M are gainers in the Sensex.

Gold rose by Rs 139 to Rs 27,306 per 10 grams in futures trade today as speculators enlarged their positions, tracking a firming trend overseas. Analysts said speculators' widening their bets, tracking a
firming global trend, mainly supported the upside in gold prices at futures trade here.

10:45 am Market outlook: Speaking to CNBC-TV18 Raamdeo Agrawal, Joint MD at Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said the new year will be starting slow for earnings in the wake of the demonetisation.

He believes that there will be about 200-300 companies which will be showing growth. It is not looking to be a buffet dinner, he warned.

Although the pain still exists from government's move to ban popular currency notes, a lot of recovery has taken place, he said, adding that recovery is more visible than what media reports lead you to believe. ''Mumbai is normal,'' he said.

Sources have told him that auto revival is around the corner. By January, liquidity crunch won't remain, he said.

10:30 am Gear up for Budget: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said advancing the date of Budget presentation would help getting funds authorised for different sectors at the start of the financial year. Addressing economists at Niti Aayog's meeting on 'Economic Policy - The Road Ahead', he said that a change in the budget cycle would have an impact on the real economy. "The date of budget presentation is being advanced so that expenditure is authorised by the time the new financial year begins," the Prime Minister said.

The market continues to rise with the Sensex up 121.85 points or 0.5 percent at 26335.29 The Nifty is up 39.55 points or 0.5 percent at 8072.40. About 1320 shares have advanced, 382 shares declined, and 76 shares are unchanged.

Cipla, Wipro, Dr Reddy's Labs, Axis Bank and Lupin are top gainers while Tata Steel and Tata Motors are losers in the Sensex.

Meanwhile, analyst Jim Rickards said Federal Reserve hiked interest rates just two weeks ago for the second time in a decade, but it will soon be cutting them again. said a stock market correction is coming as President-elect Donald Trump's economic stimulus plans will not pan out, causing a "head-on collision" between perception and reality.

The markets have been rallying on the back of Trump's win as investors bet on tax cuts and fiscal spending under the new administration.

Gold rose for the fourth straight session, on a technically-driven rebound in thin volume, amid a slightly weaker dollar. Expectations of further US interest rate increases lower demand for the non-yielding assets such as bullion, while boosting the dollar, in which it is priced.

9:55 am Market outlook: With currency exchange getting done by December 31st and situation normalising, 2017 could see upmove in the market, believes Sanjay Dutt, Director of Quantum Securities.

The first half of 2017 could see market scaling new heights, he said adding that price correction has already happened. This, however, will also depend upon on flows and currency movements.

On the upcoming Budget, Dutt said it ''could be a landmark budget'' with more radical changes coming in.

Aggressive correction in stocks has factored in the third quarter earnings.

9:45 am Exclusive: The Budget 2017 is likely to be taxpayer-friendly which will soothe pain of the cash crunch scheme implemented in November this year, sources have told CNBC-TV18. The focus could be on sectors like agriculture, micro, small & medium enterprises and housing.

CNBC-TV18 reports quoting sources, say that the government's push will be more on welfare and skill development of the poor.

The Finance Ministry is also reviewing increasing the limit for tax rebates on home loans in the upcoming Budget.

The Customs Department has also been instructed to look into duty correction across the manufacturing sector, sources say.

9:30 am FII view: Sanjay Mookim of BofAML said, "Demonetisation and GST mean that earnings for the next 3-4 quarters at least will be volatile. Downgrades are likely to continue but valuations are less of a hurdle."

"We expect the government to act soon with both a monetary and fiscal stimulus. As well, difficulties on lack of cash should end in a few weeks."

"In 2017, Indian equity can match/beat bonds. Our December 2017 Sensex target is 29,000. Within sectors, banks should dominate earnings growth, we stay with the well capitalised ones. Expect the government stimulus to help companies dealing with rural staples, cement, 2 wheeler and tractors," he added.

After a super rally, the market has opened ranged on Wednesday. The Sensex is up 76.01 points or 0.3 percent at 26289.45, and the Nifty up 23.05 points or 0.3 percent at 8055.90. About 643 shares have advanced, 178 shares declined, and 43 shares are unchanged.

Maruti, Wipro, Infosys, Maruti and Dr Reddy's are gainers while ONGC, Hero MotoCorp, Asian Paints, Bharti and L&T are losers in the Sensex.

The Indian rupee opened marginally lower at 68.10 per dollar versus previous close 68.07.

Pramit Brahmbhatt of Veracity said, "Rupee will continue to trade negative with low volatility due to an appreciating dollar. Trading range for the spot USD/INR pair would be 68-68.20/dollar."

The US dollar gained against the yen on stronger-than-expected US housing data and expectations for a hawkish Federal Reserve, but remained below a recent 10-month high in thin holiday trading.

The cabinet is set to take up an ordinance on demonetised currency today. According to government sources an ordinance is necessary to give note ban legal sanctity as timeline on old note deposits could be tweaked.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday met the top economists in the country to discuss future reforms. The meeting which was organised by Niti Ayog was attended by the government's own economic brain trust, as well as some other prominent economists.

Some of the key issues on the agenda were simplifying tax structure, cutting direct tax rates and harmonising customs duty. Strategic divestment of loss-making PSUs was also discussed in the meeting.

Globally, Asia stocks followed Wall Street higher early, while the dollar firmed against major peers such as the yen following the release of upbeat US economic data overnight.

Crude oil prices held large gains on expectations of supply tightening once oil-producing nations implement a scheduled output cut.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.2 percent. Australian stocks were up 0.9 percent. Japan's Nikkei was little changed.

US stocks rose slightly on Tuesday, supported by upbeat consumer and housing data, with gains in technology shares lifting the Nasdaq Composite to a record.