Sensex ends lower, Nifty manages to close above 10,100; PSU banks gain

3:30 pm Market Closing: Equity benchmarks ended volatile session on negative note as investors maintained caution ahead of RBI policy decision.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 67.28 points at 32,802.44 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 9.50 points to 10,118.30.

About three shares declined for every two shares rising on the BSE.

3:22 pm PSU Bank outperforms: Nifty PSU Bank index gained 1.3 percent as Canara Bank, SBI, PNB, Union Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and Indian Bank rallied 1-2 percent.

3:16 pm Policy Expectations: Amar Ambani, Partner & Head of Research, IIFL expects RBI to sit tight on the monetary policy, with no rate move expected for at least the next two quarters.

In fact, there's a possibility of the central bank adopting a relatively hawkish tone given the sharp liquidity dip in banking, growing inflation and concerns of fiscal slippage, he feels.

According to him, liquidity could suffer even more given the traction in lending activity during the second half of this fiscal year.

On inflation front, CPI is poised to surge above 4 percent in the coming months, influenced by higher oil and food prices. Low base effect and HRA hike (7th Pay Commission) could raise core inflation while higher government spend and deviating fiscal deficit target could translate into inflationary risks, he said.

3:07 pm Europe Trade: European markets were mixed, as investors digested the latest news surrounding Brexit talks and monitored fresh economic data.

The topic of Brexit will continue to shake up sentiment. In the latest talks between the UK and the European Union, both sides failed to agree upon the terms for the UK leaving the political-economic bloc on Monday.

However, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said that while British Prime Minister Theresa May was a "tough negotiator," this didn't mean that talks were failing.

3:02 pm Stake Sale: Public sector lender Punjab National Bank has raised over Rs 1,315 crore through sale of shares in subsidiary firm PNB Housing Finance (PNBHFL) through the offer for sale (OFS) route.

"The Bank successfully sold 98,15,860 equity shares of PNBHFL to different investors (non-retail and retail) at above the floor price/cut off price, with gross sales consideration of Rs 1,315.33 crore," PNB said in a regulatory filing.

PNB said last month had said that it would sell up to 99,94,000 equity shares on November 28 (for non-retail investors only) and on November 29 (for retail investors and non-retail investors who choose to carry forward their bids) representing 6 per cent of the total paid up equity share capital of the company (PNB Housing Finance).

2:45 pm Order Win: State-owned power equipment maker BHEL said today that it has secured an order worth Rs 215 crore for renovation and modernisation of electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) at Kahalgaon Super Thermal Power Station (STPS) in Bihar.

Originally supplied along with the four units (4X210 MW) by Bhel, the ESPs have been in operation for more than 25 years since their commissioning, the company said in a statement.

Renovation of these ESPs will enable these units to meet the new norms for suspended particulate matter (SPM) emission, recently announced by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEF & CC). Modernisation of the units will facilitate the operation of these units for many more years.

BHEL's scope of work in the contract includes design, engineering, manufacture, supply and commissioning of the ESPs to bring down the SPM emission to the stipulated level for all the four units of Kahalgaon STPS, Stage-1.

2:31 pm Sugar Demand: According to Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), October-November sugar production was at 39.5 lakh tonne versus 27.8 lakh a year ago same period.

ISMA said sentiment would improve if government agrees to withdraw the stock holding limit earlier. ISMA is now arguing that now the sugar output is plentiful and there is no need for stock limits.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Abinash Verma of ISMA said stock holding limit is curtailing some kind of a buying from the traders

Demand has reduced and the government has introduced this stock holding limit when the production was on the lower side in April 2016 on concerns that the prices might go up now it is almost one-and-a-half years since then and we are looking at higher production this year onwards so there is no reason for continuing with this stock holding limit, he added.

2:19 pm Management Interview: Balaji Amines receives an allotment of 3.6 lakh square meter of land in Solapur, the land will be used for project expansion.

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, D Ram Reddy, Joint MD said the company will release detailed report with regards to project on Solapur land in 2-3 months.

He further said that the government of Maharashtra has given the approval for the mega project status for about Rs 300 crore investments in this.

Therefore, the company will use Rs 120 crore from internal accruals and will raise Rs 200 crore for expansion purposes by end of 2019.

On revenue front, he said FY18 revenue expected at Rs 800-850 crore.

2:02 pm Market Check: Equity benchmarks recovered from day's lows, with the Nifty reclaiming 10,100 level as Bank index turned positive.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 47.68 points at 32,822.04 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 8.90 points to 10,118.90.

About two shares declined for every share rising on the BSE.

1:45 pm Year-end discounts: From Maruti to Audi car makers and their dealers are offering plenty of discounts to get rid of their stocks before 2018 arrives with deals ranging from Rs 25,000-Rs 8.85 lakh.

The cars on offer surprisingly include those which are best-sellers for their companies indicating the high inventory levels in the industry. Free insurance, exchange bonuses, lower interest rates, free accessories, discounted annual maintenance contracts, gold coins and free EMI holidays are offered in addition to the cash discounts.

Depending on the region offers are not uniform across the country and vary from dealer to dealer. A lot also depends on the negotiating ability of the buyer to further sweeten the deal.

Maruti Suzuki, the country's largest car maker, is offering discounts and consumer benefits on Alto, Wagon R, Swift, Ciaz, Celerio, Ignis and the Ertiga. These range between Rs 35,000 on the Swift to Rs 90,000 on the Ciaz diesel.

1:35 pm Europe Trade: European markets opened slightly lower, as investors digested the latest news surrounding Brexit talks and monitored fresh economic data.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 edged 0.19 percent lower shortly after the opening bell with almost all sectors and major bourses in negative territory.

1:29 pm Oil Price Update: Oil prices inched lower ahead of US crude inventories data, as the market weighed the impact of rising US crude output versus last week's deal between OPEC and other crude producers to extend output curbs.

International benchmark Brent crude futures were trading down 0.43 percent, at USD 62.18 per barrel. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures  were down 0.37 percent, at USD 57.26 a barrel.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC producers last week rolled over their agreement to cut output by 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) until the end of 2018, aiming to erode a global glut and drive up prices.

1:20 pm Market Check: Benchmark indices continued to trade on a weak note, with the Sensex losing over 150 points, while the Nifty continued to trade below 10,100-mark. A lower economic growth forecast by Fitch could have dampened sentiment.

Meanwhile, the Street also witnessed this move on the back of an opinion poll by ABP News-CSDS opinion, indicating tough fight for the BJP in Gujarat. Midcaps were also trading in line with benchmarks, falling a little over 0.4 percent.

Reliance, Sun Pharma and BPCL were the top gainers, while Hero MotoCorp, Wipro, Eicher Motors and Tata Steel lost the most.

12:55 pm Buzzing Stock: Brokerage house IIFL has initiated coverage on Security and Intelligence Services (SIS) India with a buy call and a target of Rs 1,300 per share.

The firm expects 44 percent earnings per share CAGR over FY17-20, while revenue CAGR is seen at 21 percent.

IIFL also sees margin expansion of 160 basis points over Fy17-20.

Further, tax benefits under Sec 80JJAA are an added boost.

12:40 pm Bharat Forge in focus: The Bharat Forge stock has been outperforming off late, spurred by steady rise in North American Class 8 truck orders as well as a steady improvement in the oil & gas segment.

The first half saw the company posting 30 percent growth in revenue and 40 percent in EBITDA. Baba Kalyani, CMD, Bharat Forge is confident of not only maintaining the growth rate but said they aim to do better than that going forward.

The company also has big expansion plans for the domestic market, said Kalyani, adding that they would spend Rs 500 crore expanding capacity within their facilities outside Pune and also spend Rs 200 crore to set up facility in Andhra Pradesh for light weight components.

He said North American economy is doing extremely well and so the company is benefiting from that. However, only 12 percent of company's revenues comes from North American Class 8 Trucks, he specified. So, no longer are highly dependent on that market, although their market share in that market has gone up.

12:20 pm Management Interview: Eros International Media is in focus as Eros International PLC will receive USD 100 million dollars through convertible notes and warrants.

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Jyoti Deshpande, MD & Group CEO of Eros International said USD 100 million convertible notes gives the company amazing firepower.

She further that it brings net debt down significantly and that's fantastic for balance sheet.

We will pay USD 53 million of revolving credit facility, she added.

Talking about business, she said we saw high budget releases last year but did not happen this quarter.

She expects Eros Now to be able to generate revenue of USD 40 million by March 2018 compared to USD 15 million of revenue last year.

On margin front, she said margins improving due to profitability from small budget movies and margin improvement will continue.

12:05 pm Biocon creates new arm: Biopharmaceutical firm Biocon said it has created a new subsidiary to house all its biologic assets to enable the company to unlock value at a later date.

The biologics business consists biosimilars that include monoclonal antibodies and recombinant insulins and novel biologics.

"We have set up a new subsidiary Biocon Biologics, and all our biosimilar assets are consolidated under this legal entity, as we believe it will enable us to unlock value in the future," said a Biocon spokesperson in an email interview.

The company declined to give further details on timeline for unlocking value, and whether it intends to list the subsidiary on bourses or plans to sell equity stakes to PE investors.

11:55 am Bonus Issue: Fiberweb India said the board of directors, on December 5, has recommended issue of bonus shares in the ratio of one bonus equity share for every one existing equity share and declared Interim dividend at 5 percent per share (i.e. 50 paise per share).

11:45 am Buzzing: Research firm Edelweiss looked bullish on dairy products manufacturer as it has initiated its coverage with buy rating on Parag Milk Foods and Heritage Foods, citing strong growth ahead. Stocks rallied more than 4 percent and 2 percent intraday, respectively today.

The brokerage house set a price target of Rs 340 for Parag Milk Foods, implying potential upside of 40.64 percent over Monday's closing price.

For Heritage Foods, the brokerage house has set a target price of Rs 976 per share, implying a potential upside of 28.5 percent over Monday's closing price.

11:31 am Contract Win: Ranhill Holdings Berhad announced that it has
signed a strategic deal with Ramco Systems to digitise its human resources operations covering 3,000+ employees across its 5 entities in Malaysia.

Ramco will implement its award winning human capital management (HCM) solution to harmonise a full spectrum of HR, payroll and employee
self services (ESS) functions into a single integrated system.

In addition to core HR components like recruitment, attendance and talent management, Ramco's user friendly suite will also introduce advanced reporting and analytics capabilities into Ranhill Holdings and its subsidiaries.

11:16 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks remained under pressure in morning after the Fitch Ratings lowered India's economic growth forecast for FY18. Investors also maintained their cautious stance ahead RBI policy meet and mid-term review of foreign trade policy.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 107.30 points at 32,762.42 and the 50-share NSE Nifty declined 31.70 points to 10,096.10.

About two shares declined for every share rising on the BSE.

11:05 am Project Execution: Tejas Networks has successfully completed execution of a high capacity national optical backbone network in Bangladesh for Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company, in partnership with Telephone Shilpa Sangstha.

10:55 am Debt Financing: Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved debt financing and partial risk guarantees totaling USD 583 million to develop Reliance Power's 750 MW LNG Based Combined Cycle Power plant and LNG Terminal Project in Bangladesh

10:45 am RBI Preview: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) looks set to keep its policy rate on hold on Wednesday, after inflation accelerated to a seven-month high and stronger economic growth reduced the need for monetary stimulus.

All but two of 54 analysts in a Reuters Poll said the repo rate would be left at 6.00 percent, the lowest since November 2010.

In August, the RBI made its only cut in 2017, of 25 basis points, and in October, it held.

On Wednesday, after a two-day meeting, the RBI is likely to reiterate concern about inflation, as the annual rate increased to 3.58 percent in October. That's low by Indian standards, but not far from the central bank's 4 percent target.

Another source of RBI discomfort is that core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, has remained stubbornly high at around 4.5 percent.

The central bank is likely to reiterate a "neutral" stance, thus giving itself flexibility to cut rates in February, even though only seven of the 48 analysts in the Reuters poll who gave a view on 2018's first meeting expect that outcome.

10:35 am Services PMI: The Indian service sector dipped into contraction territory during November, following growth in the previous two months. This was matched by a reduction in new work. Panellists widely blamed the deterioration in business performance to the goods and service tax (GST). Meanwhile, cost pressures intensified during the latest survey period.

Posting below the no-change mark of 50.0 in November, the seasonally adjusted seasonally adjusted Business Activity Index signalled a contraction of the service sector for the first time in three months. That said, the rate of decline was modest.

With growth in manufacturing production offsetting the fall in services activity, private sector output rose for the third consecutive month in November. Reflecting a slowdown in output growth, the Nikkei Composite Output Index fell from 51.3 in October to a three-month low of 50.3 in November. This signalled a broad stagnation in private sector output in India.

10:15 am Order Win: Steel Strips Wheels announced bagging of another exports order for supply of steel wheels for European Union caravan market.

Order comprises of 18,500 newly developed steel wheel to be shipped from company's Chennai plant from current month onwards, the company said.

10:05 am Buzzing: Bharat Forge shares gained more than 3 percent in morning after strong trend continued in North America class 8 truck orders in November.

North America class 8 truck orders for the November month were at 32,387 units, a massive growth of 68 percent over 19,285 units in year-ago.

The reason for strong leap in truck and tractor sales was US economic growth that has been topping 3 percent for last two quarters.

However, month-on-month basis, class 8 truck orders declined 9 percent from 35,700 units in October.

North American business contributes 40 percent to company's total revenue.

9:52 am Rupee Update: The rupee strengthened by 12 paise to 64.25 against the dollar at the interbank forex market today on increased selling of the American currency by banks and exporters.

The dollar losing sheen against some other currencies overseas also supported the local unit, traders said.

Yesterday, the rupee had rebounded by 9 paise to end at 64.37 against the US dollar in a highly volatile trade on fresh selling of the greenback and also emboldened by encouraging Q2 GDP numbers and monthly manufacturing data.

9:40 am Market Check: Benchmark indices extended losses in morning ahead of major events - RBI policy meet tomorrow, mid-term review of foreign trade policy due later today and Gujarat elections on Saturday.

Cut in economic growth forecast for FY18 to 6.7 percent (from 6.9 percent earlier) by Fitch Ratings also dampened sentiment.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 151.76 points at 32,717.96 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 42.90 points to 10,084.90.

More than two shares declined for every share rising on the BSE.

Bharat Forge shares gained 2.6 percent on strong trend North America class 8 truck orders.

9:33 am Pledged Shares: The value of shares pledged by the promoters of BSE-listed companies marginally dropped to Rs 2.78 lakh crore at the end of November, according to the exchange data.

The value of pledged shares stood at Rs 2.81 lakh crore at the end of October. It was at Rs 2.6 lakh crore in September.

Till November this year, pledging of shares was seen in as many as 3,005 out of 5,148 BSE-listed companies.

Share pledging is typically done by promoters to raise funds either for the same company or for financing other projects.

9:25 am IPO Opens: Ahmedabad-headquartered Shalby, the operator of chain of multi-specialty hospitals, has opened its initial public offering for subscription today, with a price band of Rs 245-248 per share.

The issue will close on December 7.

The public offer comprises a fresh issue of equity shares aggregating up to Rs 480 crore and an offer for sale of up to 10,00,000 equity shares by Dr Vikram Shah.

The offer comprises a reservation of up to 1,21,000 shares for subscription by eligible employees.

Bids can be made for a minimum lot of 60 equity shares and in multiples of 60 equity shares thereafter.

The fresh issue proceeds would be used for repayment certain loans (Rs 300 crore); purchase of medical equipments (Rs 63.58 crore); purchase of interiors, furniture, and allied infrastructure for upcoming hospitals (Rs 11.18 crore); and general corporate purposes.

9:20 am Economic Growth: Days after India's economy showed signs of recovery, Fitch Ratings cut the country's GDP growth forecast for the current fiscal to 6.7 percent from the earlier projected 6.9 percent, saying the rebound was weaker than expected.

It also cut GDP growth forecast for 2018-19 fiscal year to 7.3 percent from 7.4 percent predicted in its September Global Economic Outlook (GEO).

Fitch, however, expects GDP growth to pick up in the next two years on the back of gradual implementation of the structural reform agenda and higher real disposable income.

"The Indian economy picked up in Q317 (July-September), with GDP growing by 6.3 percent year-on-year, up from 5.7 percent in 2Q17.

"However, the rebound was weaker than we expected, and we have reduced our growth forecast for the fiscal year to end-March 2018 (FY18) to 6.7 percent from 6.9 percent in the September GEO," Fitch said in its latest GEO.

9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks opened mildly lower on Tuesday following tepid Asian cues. Investors remained cautious ahead of mid-term review of foreign trade policy due later today and RBI policy tomorrow.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 68.74 points at 32,800.98 and the 50-share NSE Nifty declined 19.30 points to 10,108.50.

Wipro, NTPC, IOC, Tech Mahindra, Power Grid, ONGC, L&T and HDFC Bank were early losers while Bosch, Bharti Airtel, HPCL, BPCL, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Tata Motors, M&M and Maruti Suzuki were gainers.

Nifty Midcap was down 0.2 percent.

Future Retail, Ashok Leyland, Reliance Communications and Jaiprakash Associates fell 1-5 percent.

Bharat Forge and Transformers and Rectifiers gained 2-4 percent.