Flat opening on cards

Trading of Nifty 50 index futures on the Singapore stock exchange indicates that the Nifty could fall 4.50 points at the opening bell.

Overseas, Asian stocks were mixed as investors awaited the conclusion of the Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting. US stocks rose yesterday, 12 December 2017 amid growing optimism that Republican lawmakers would be able to revamp the corporate tax system. Wall Street also looked to the Federal Reserve as its two-day policy meeting kicked off.

The US Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) two-day meeting which began yesterday, 12 December 2017, on interest rate decision, concludes later in global day today, 13 December 2017. The Federal Reserve left the target range for its federal funds rate unchanged at 1% to 1.25% during its November 2017 meeting as widely expected.

Closer home, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 843.20 crore yesterday, 12 December 2017, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 853.67 crore yesterday, 12 December 2017, as per provisional data.

Among corporate news, Wipro will be watched. Topcoder, the world's largest workforce marketplace for designers, developers, and data scientists, announced the launch of Hybrid Crowd, an extension of the Topcoder platform that enables enterprises to crowdsource work to public, private, and certified communities. Topcoder became a part of Wipro in November 2016. Hybrid Crowd is a first-of-its-kind platform that combines the power of Topcoder's 1.2 million member global community with the networks of technical talent that exist within every organization. Enterprises now have access to an integrated platform for crowdsourced talent which they can utilize to provision work to the right people at any stage of a project. The announcement was made after trading hours yesterday, 12 December 2017.

Bharti Airtel and Warburg Pincus, a global private equity firm focused on growth investing, announced that an affiliate of Warburg Pincus will acquire up to a 20% equity stake in Bharti Telemedia, the DTH arm of Airtel, for approximately $350 million. Of this, 15% stake will be sold by Bharti Airtel and the balance by another Bharti entity which holds 5% stake. Upon closing of the transaction, Airtel will own an 80% equity stake in Bharti Telemedia. The announcement was made after trading hours yesterday, 12 December 2017.

Bharti Telemedia is one of the largest Direct-To-Home (DTH) paid TV service providers in India and offers services under the Airtel TV brand. It had approximately 14 million subscribers and approximately $550 million in revenues during the 12-month period ended 30 September 2017.

On the macro front, the all-India general inflation based on the consumer price index (CPI) surged to 4.88% in November 2017, compared with 3.58% in October 2017. The core CPI inflation increased to 4.69% in November 2017 compared with 4.4% in October 2017. The inflation data was released by the government after market hours yesterday, 12 December 2017.

India's industrial production rose at moderated pace of 2.2% in October 2017 over October 2016, while showing a deceleration in growth from 4.1% increase in September 2017, data released by the government after market hours yesterday, 12 December 2017 showed.

The stock market registered modest losses yesterday, 12 December 2017, after previous three sessions of gains. The Sensex had fallen 227.80 points or 0.68% to settle at 33,227.99, its lowest closing level since 7 December 2017.

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