Key indices pare intraday gains

Key benchmark indices pared gains in mid-afternoon trade. At 14:22 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 67.52 points or 0.21% at 32,900.46. The Nifty 50 index was up 13.65 points or 0.13% at 10,135.45. The Sensex was trading below 33,000 mark after crossing that level in opening trade.

Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.21%. The BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.40%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative. On BSE, 1,549 shares fell and 1,105 shares rose. A total of 137 shares were unchanged.

Telecom major Bharti Airtel was up 0.78%. The company said that it has, through its wholly owned subsidiary Nettle Infrastructure Investments ("Nettle"), acquired a strategic equity stake in Juggernaut Books ("Juggernaut"), a popular digital platform to discover and read high quality, affordable books and to submit amateur writing. The investment is in line with Airtel's endeavour to build an open content ecosystem and bring world-class digital content to its customers. The investment from Airtel (through Nettle) will enable Juggernaut to ramp up content acquisition, digital marketing and prepare for a subscription offering launch in the next few months. The announcement was made during trading hours today, 4 December 2017.

FMCG shares were mixed. Procter & Gamble Hygiene & Health Care (up 2.59%), Hindustan Unilever (up 1.26%), Marico (up 0.55%), GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare (up 0.34%), Dabur India (up 0.21%), Colgate Palmolive (India) (up 0.19%) and Godrej Consumer Products (up 0.15%), edged higher. Nestle India (down 0.3%), Britannia Industries (down 0.64%), Bajaj Corp (down 1.57%), Tata Global Beverages (down 1.75%) and Jyothy Laboratories (down 4.6%), edged lower.

Capital goods shares were mixed. Reliance Defence and Engineering (down 8.34%), Praj Industries (down 3.14%), Bharat Electronics (down 2.93%), Jindal Saw (down 1.95%), Punj Lloyd (down 1.63%), BEML (down 1.19%), SKF India (down 1.09%), Thermax (down 0.41%), Bharat Heavy Electricals (down 0.33%), Lakshmi Machine Works (down 0.29%), Suzlon Energy (down 0.29%) and GE T&D India (down 0.17%), edged lower. ABB India (up 0.01%), AIA Engineering (up 0.04%), Siemens (up 0.13%), Crompton Greaves (up 0.24%), Havells India (up 0.50%) and GE Power India (up 2.31%), edged higher.

Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) was up 0.31% to Rs 1,216.35.

Overseas, trading in US index futures indicated that the Dow Jones Industrial Average could rise 210.50 points at the opening bell today, 4 December 2017, as investors cheered weekend news that Senate Republicans passed a sweeping overhaul of the US tax code.

European shares were trading higher in early trade while Asian stocks were mixed.

US stocks ended lower on Friday, 1 December 2017, after news surrounding former national-security adviser Michael Flynn added an element of political uncertainty into markets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 fell 0.2% each while the Nasdaq Composite Index declined 0.4%.

Media reported that Flynn, the former national security adviser, would testify that he was directed to make contact with Russians during the presidential campaign in 2016. Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his post-election contacts with Russia's ambassador to the US.

Meanwhile, the US Senate approved a tax overhaul on Saturday, 2 December 2017, moving Republicans and President Donald Trump a big step closer to their goal of slashing the corporate tax rate and providing temporary tax-rate cuts for most Americans.

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