Sensex, Nifty Rise For Sixth Session In A Row Led By ICICI Bank, RIL     

Indian equity benchmarks rose for sixth session in a row led by ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries and Larsen & Toubro.

The S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.21 percent or 77 points to 36,347 and the NSE Nifty 50 Index climbed 0.19 percent or 20 points to 10,909.

Fifteen of 19 sector gauges compiled by BSE ended higher led by the S&P BSE Power Index's 1.1 percent gain. On the flipside, S&P BSE Information Technology Index was top loser, down 1.1 percent.

Mid- and small-cap shares outperformed their larger peers as the Nifty Midcap 100 Index rose 0.4 percent and the Nifty Smallcap 100 Index climbed 0.7 percent.

Shares of the Mumbai-based entertainment channel operator fell as much as 9.52 percent, the most since Sept. 6, to Rs 454.05 after Bank of America Merrill Lynch downgraded the stock to underperform and revised its target price to Rs 375.

BofAML in a note said:

• Liquidity concerns to surface if company doesn’t find a strategic investor by April 2019.
• Company has already acknowledged structural issues like lack of technological expertise.
• Near term pressure on broadcast ad/subscription due to non-extension of Dec. 29 deadline to select al-la carte channels.
• Investors are concerned with cash invested in overseas funds like Poseidon and Actinium.
• Expect Jio to disrupt media landscape in next 12-18 months.

Investors should start putting money in equities as it is a good time to get into bluechip companies as markets are not very much concerned about a coalition government coming at the centre in 2019, Dipan Mehta, member of BSE told BloombergQuint in an interview.

Key highlights of the conversation:

• Markets not very much concerned about a coalition government coming at the centre.
• PSU bank can bounce in the short term on the back of lower provisioning, but investors should not hold them from long term.
• Still believe it is good time to invest in NBFCs and private sector banks from a long term.
• Fears of liquidity crunch are receding and NBFCs which are creating good loan books will outperform.

• ICICI Bank has 65.70 lakh shares change hands in a block on BSE. Stock up 1.13 percent at Rs 362.50.

Buyers and sellers were not immediately known

Source: Bloomberg

Shares of the Mumbai-based Onida television maker rose as much as 20 percent to Rs 27.80 as it meets investors including Rakesh Jhunjhunwala's RARE Enterprises and Emkay Glogbal among others.

The company had yesterday informed exchanges that it would meet analysts and fund managers today.

Indian equity benchmarks reversed losses led by Larsen & Toubro, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Sun Pharma.

The S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.17 percent or 58 points to 36,323 and the NSE Nifty 50 Index climbed 0.12 percent or 13 points to 10,904.

Seventeen of 19 sector gauges were trading higher led by the S&P BSE Capital Goods Index's 0.8 percent gain. On the flipside, S&P BSE Information Technology Index was top loser, down 0.8 percent.

Shares of the Delhi-based public sector lender gained for sixth day in a row and rose 13.8 percent to Rs 73.80, outperforming the Sensex which has advanced 3.87 percent.

In the intraday deals today, stock rose as much as 4 percent to Rs 75.80.

U.S. equity futures showed signs of stabilizing on Tuesday, but it wasn’t enough to prevent declines across Europe and Asia as the rest of the world played catch-up to the rout in American stocks a day earlier.

• Elgi Equipments: The Coimbatore-based air compressor maker rose as much as 10.8 percent, the most in over two months, to Rs 276. Trading volume was more than 50 times its 20-day average.
• Johnson Controls-Hitachi AC: The Mehsana-based air conditioner maker fell as much as 0.45 percent to Rs 1,800. Trading volume was more than double its 20-day average.
• Gayatri Projects: The Hyderabad-based construction company fell as much as 4 percent to Rs 178.20. Trading volume was more than 11 times its 20-day average.
• Venky's India: The Pune-based poultry products maker rose as much as 6.57 percent, the most in over a month, to Rs 2,582. Trading volume was more than 10 times its 20-day average.

Shares of the Bhopal-based road developer rose as much as 2 percent to Rs 437.50 after its subsidiary DBL Chandikhole Bhadrak Highways got appointed with the National Highways Authority of India on Dec. 16, Dilip Buildcon said in an exchange filing.

Indian equity benchmarks continue to reel under selling pressure dragged by weakness in Infosys, HDFC twins, Reliance Industries and ITC.

The S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.51 percent or 184 points to 36,085 and the NSE Nifty 50 Index dropped 0.52 percent or 57 points to 10,831.

Eleven of 19 sector gauges compiled by BSE were trading lower led by the S&P BSE Information Technology Index's 1.2 percent decline. On the flipside, S&P BSE Capital Goods Index was top gainer, up 0.6 percent.

Overall market breadth was neutral as 1,105 shares were advancing while 1,100 were declining on the BSE.

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Shares of the IL&FS group companies were trading higher after it said the company was looking to sell 22 assets and businesses in its domestic roads vertical to seek expressions of interest for road projects.

The company appointed Arpwood Capital and JM Financial as financial and transaction advisers. Alvarez & Marsal to act as resolution consultants.

• IL&FS Transportation Network surged 5 percent to Rs 11.60
• IL&FS Investment Managers rose 9.3 percent to Rs 7.05

Shares of the Delhi-based housing finance company fell as much as 1.98 percent to Rs 950.40 as Carlyle Group is seeking to double its holding in PNB Housing Finance, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with the matter, reversing an earlier attempt to pare its stake in the company.

The U.S. private-equity firm is considering buying Punjab National Bank’s shares in the financier, which would give it a controlling stake, the report added citing the above-mentioned people.

Nifty's 10,800 strike price put option contract was among the most active option contracts on the National Stock Exchange.

Premium on the contract surged 37 percent to Rs 74.40. Over 2.83 lakh shares were added to the open interest which stood at over 44 lakh shares.

Click here to see the complete options chain

• Indian Hotels has 10 lakh shares change hands in a block on the National Stock Exchange. Stock up 2.5 percent at Rs 150.70.

Buyers and sellers were not immediately known

Source: Bloomberg

Titan id planning to expand in 100 new towns over the next five years and is likely to add 40 new stores by next year, Subbu Subramaniam, CFO at Titan Company told BloombergQuint in an interview.

Key highlights of the conversation:

• Post Diwali traction has been good, wedding season has been good
• Sales in line on daily basis with our expectations
• Q3 for us was a decent quarter
• Hope Q4 will be like Q3
• Margin for this quarter and next quarter will be better
• As far as jewellery segment is concern, margins will continue to grow
• Planning to add 40 new stores next year
• As of now we haven't come across any risks in our growth
• Focus will be on growth rather than profitability
• Average employ cost will be 10 percent of topline and we need to better it

Shares of oil retailers gained as the Brent crude fell for the third-straight session after declining as much as 1.4 percent to 58.78 per barrel.

• Indian Oil gained nearly a percent to Rs 144 per share.
• HPCL advanced 1.8 percent to Rs 232.45 apiece.
• BPCL gained 2.1 percent to Rs 357.60 per share.

Shares of the Mumbai-based construction company rose as much as 8.11 percent to Rs 137.95 after its arm raised funds from Morgan Stanley.

The company's arm — Unison Enviro Private Limited raised Rs 150 crore from Morgan Stanley India Infrastructure for city gas distribution, Ashoka Buildcon said in an exchange filing.

Low oil prices will be good for deficit and inflation, Andrew Holland, CEO, Avendus Capital Alternate Strategies told BloombergQuint in an interview.

Key highlights of the conversation:

• Expect Fed chairman to be a lot more dovish.
• Developed markets may impact emerging markets like India.
• Fundamentals of Indian markets intact.
• Good opportunities to enter in stocks in current volatility.
• Continue to deploy cash carefully.
• FMCG sector witnessing strong growth followed by IT.
• More liquidity driven market in the next 1-2 months.
• Expect government to take measures in coming elections.

Shares of information technology companies fell after rupee appreciated for second day in a row.

The local unit has in last two sessions risen 0.9 percent to 71.24 per dollar. While, the gauge of IT companies — Nifty IT Index has fallen 1 percent.

Shares of the parent of luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover rose as much as 2.1 percent to Rs 177.60.

Jaguar Land Rover has hired Boston Consulting Group for $3.2 billion turnaround plan, Bloomberg reported citing the spokesperson of JLR worker’s representative body Unite Union.

Indian equity benchmarks fell sharply mirroring weak trend in other Asian markets after a sell-off in U.S. stocks that sent the S&P 500 Index to its lowest close in 14 months, as investors readied for an expected Federal Reserve interest-rate hike.

The S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.61 percent or 222 points to 36,047 and the NSE Nifty 50 Index dropped 0.57 percent or 62 points to 10,826.

Seventeen of 19 sector gauges compiled by BSE were trading lower led by the S&P BSE Information Technology Index's 1 percent drop. On the flipside, S&P BSE Telecom Index was top gainer, up 0.11 percent.

Rupee opened higher at 71.33 per dollar against yesterday's close of 71.55.

The local unit rose as much as 0.33 percent or 23 paise to 71.32 against the greenback.

The Indian rupee is set to start higher along with other emerging market currencies with the dollar dropping after U.S. stocks got slammed on Monday.

With oil also trading just below $60 a barrel and foreign inflows picking up, the implied forwards suggest that the rupee will start trading at 71.30 per dollar, up from 71.55 on Monday when it gained 0.5 percent.

Foreign funds bought $12.1 million of rupee denominated bonds on Friday and $106.3 million of stocks on the same day.

In the bond market, attention will be on the sale of Rs 7,550 crore of state governments. The benchmark 10-yr yield rose 2 basis points to 7.46 percent, after climbing 3 basis points on Friday.

Traders will be looking forward to key events later in the week in the form of the MPC minutes and U.S. Fed meeting. Fed president Jerome Powell is also scheduled to hold a press conference, just hours after President Donald Trump weighed in, tweeting Monday that it was “incredible” the central bank was considering a rate hike.

Source: Bloomberg

Antique on Indian IT

• Buy-back season for Indian-IT expected to continue.
• Expect Infosys to buy back shares worth $1.6 billion; Wipro buyback post NCLT approval.
• Believe that buyback and increase in overall payout ratio to be key driver.

Kotak Securities on upstream oil companies

• ONGC: Maintained Buy; Hiked target price to Rs 190 from Rs 185.
• Oil India; Upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Sell’; Hiked target price to Rs 200 from Rs 190.
• Higher gas and steady crude to augur well.
• Recent increase in gas prices in U.S. and U.K. to drive sharper increase in domestic gas price.
• Don’t expect government to put excess subsidy burden on oil PSUs.

Kotak Securities on InterGlobe Aviation

• Maintained ‘Buy’; Hiked target price to Rs 1,220 from Rs 950.
• Healthy capacity addition driving share gains.
• Yields data points indicate that the worst is over.
• Favorable movement of either crude or rupee to drive material swing in profits.

Motilal Oswal on IGL

• Maintained ‘Buy’; Hiked target price to Rs 381 from Rs 371.
• Volumes traction remains strong; more room to grow.
• Gurugram could be a key contributor; to start by mid-CY19.
• Triggers: Gas under GST, ban on polluting industrial fuels and increasing penetration.

Nomura on Container Corp

• Maintained ‘Buy; for target price of Rs 800.
• Indian Railways cuts haulage charge for empty containers and wagons by 25 percent.
• Bigger benefit to come from market share gains as the move could boost rail volumes.
• ConCor to see early benefits from Q4; Further recent price hikes to compensate rise in cost.

F&O Cues

• Nifty December futures closed trading at 10,910, premium of 12 points.
• Maximum open interest for December series call at 11,000 strike price, open interest at 44.4 lakh shares.
• Maximum open interest for December series put at 10,500 strike price, open interest at 42.7 lakh shares.

Who’s Meeting Whom

• Great Eastern Shopping to meet ICICI Prudential AMC on Dec. 18.
• Mahindra & Mahindra to meet Canara Robeco, SBICap Securities and other investors from Dec. 19-20.
• MIRC Electronics to meet RARE Enterprises, Emkay Global and other investors on Dec. 18.

Insider Trading

• Jindal Stainless Promoter Abhuday Jindal acquired 43,000 shares on Dec. 14.

• Karnataka State Pollution Control Board renewed the consent to operate for Graphite India’s electrode plant in Bengaluru for a period up to June 30, 2020 only with the condition to shift the unit from the existing location. The company said that this condition will not have adverse impact on the production capacity of the graphite electrode division in the medium term and long-term horizon.
• Tata Steel and Thyssenkrupp AG’s European joint venture will be headed by the latter’s steel division chief Andreas Goss, who will also chair the management board. Hans Fischer, the current chief executive officer of Tata Steel Europe, will be the deputy chief executive officer and chief technology officer of the new entity. It also announced the elevation of Tata Steel’s Group Executive Vice President Sandip Biswas as the designated chief financial officer, and the Thyssenkrupp’s steel business’ Chief Financial Officer Premal Desai as the chief strategy officer of the new partnership which will be headquartered in Amsterdam.
• Tata Motors-Jaguar Land Rover hired Boston Consulting Group for $3.2 billion turnaround plan, the spokesperson of JLR worker’s representative body Unite Union said. He added that the workers had not been informed of any job reductions in January next year and do not expect any, as they have to be given at least 45 days of notice. (Bloomberg News)
• Bombay Dyeing and Manufacturing Company’s board approved closure of loss-making Indonesian arm from Dec. 31.
• Sadbhav Infrastructure and its parent company Sadbhav Engineering arrived at an amicable settlement with Montecarlo Limited with the help of settlement of litigation. Both, NCLT and Gujarat High Court, disposed the matter and accordingly the legal matters now stands closed.
• Jet Airways said that as per directions of State Bank of India, forensic audit of specific transactions of the company for the period of April 2014 to March 2018 was already in progress and the aviation company is co-operating fully with auditors and providing them all the information.
• Ashoka Buildcon board approved to raise Rs 150 crore via non-convertible debentures. Company’s arm also raised Rs 150 crore from Morgan Stanley India Infrastructure for city gas distribution.
• NMDC revised prices of lump ore at Rs 3,250 per ton and fines ore at Rs 2,860 per month with effect from Dec. 13.
• IL&FS said it was looking to sell 22 assets and businesses in its domestic roads vertical to seek expressions of interest for road projects. The company appointed Arpwood Capital and JM Financial as financial and transaction advisers. Alvarez & Marsal to act as resolution consultants.
• Punjab & Sind Bank revised its MCLR across various tenors. One month MCLR is at 8.2 percent and one year MCLR at 8.85 percent.

• Stock sell-off defies everything the bulls hoped would stop it
• Oil closes below $50 for first time in a year as glut fears grow
• Kamal Nath clears Madhya Pradesh farm loan waiver after taking oath
• Transfer of excess reserve may pull down RBI’s credit rating, says Rajan
• Where the world’s ‘smart money’ made and lost it in 2018
• Government to amend law to enable Aadhaar usage by banks, telecom firms
• Modi’s cashflow woes just got more bearable
• Debt-laden IL&FS puts road assets on the block
• Co-working startup 91springboard raises $10.2 million
• 14,889,930,106,680 reasons to fear a recession

Good Morning!

The Singapore-traded SGX Nifty, an early indicator of NSE Nifty 50 Index’s performance in India, fell 0.13 percent or 14 points to 10,900 as of 7:27 a.m.

Asian stocks put in a mixed performance Tuesday morning after a sell-off in U.S. stocks that sent the S&P 500 Index to its lowest close in 14 months, as investors readied for an expected Federal Reserve interest-rate hike.

Equities declined in Japan and Australia, though were little changed in China, Hong Kong and South Korea.

Stocks

• The MSCI Asia Pacific fell 0.5 percent as of 10:35 a.m. in Tokyo.
• Japan’s Topix index fell 1.1 percent.
• Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index slid 1 percent.
• Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.3 percent.
• Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was little changed.
• S&P 500 futures rose 0.4 percent. The S&P 500 Index fell 2.1 percent as of 4 p.m. New York time.

Currencies

• The yen ticked 0.1 percent higher to 112.78 per dollar.
• The offshore yuan rose 0.1 percent at 6.8923 per dollar.
• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was stable after falling 0.3 percent.
• The euro traded little changed at $1.1352.
• The British pound was at $1.2621, steady.

Commodities

• West Texas Intermediate crude declined 1 percent to $49.41 a barrel, on track for a third day of declines.
• Gold was steady at $1,246.56 an ounce.
• The Bloomberg Commodity Index dipped 1.2 percent to the lowest in almost 18 months Monday.

Short on time? Well, then listen to this podcast for a quick summary of the article!

Coming Up

• The Fed holds its final policy meeting of 2018 on Tuesday and Wednesday. The rate decision will be followed by a press conference with Chairman Jerome Powell.
• The Bank of Japan’s monetary policy decision is due Thursday, followed by a briefing from Governor Haruhiko Kuroda. A Bank of England decision is also Thursday.
• A partial U.S. government shutdown could start this week if lawmakers and Trump fail to resolve how much money to allocate for Trump’s wall along the Mexican border.