Market trades sideways

The main equity indices traded in narrow range with modest gains in mid-morning trade. The underlying sentiment continued to be bullish backed by multiple cabinet announcements and positive global sentiments. The Nifty hovered near the 11,950 level.

Most Asian stocks traded higher after the US Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged, as expected, at its policy meeting on Wednesday and signaled rate settings were likely to remain accommodative.

At 11:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 106.96 points or 0.26% at 40,519.53. The Nifty 50 index was up 34.75 points or 0.29% at 11,944.90.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.37%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.33%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1131 shares rose and 814 shares fell. A total of 130 shares were unchanged. In Nifty 50 index, 32 stocks advanced while 18 stocks declined.

Buzzing Index:

Oil and gas stocks traded higher after the country's fuel product consumption or sales surged at 22-month high pace. India's fuel product consumption surged 10.5% to 18.77 million tonnes (mt) in November 2019 as against November 2018. LPG sales improved 23.5% to 2.27 mt, diesel 8.8% to 7.55 mt, petcoke 29.6% to 1.81 mt and petrol 9.2% to 2.53 mt and others 6.4% to 1.03 mt. Further, the consumption of bitumen also moved up 11.8% to 0.55 mt, ATF 5.4% to 0.72 mt, naphtha 2.5% to 1.25 mt, lubes/greases 7.5% to 0.33 mt and light diesel oil (LDO) 6.4% to 0.05 mt. However, the consumption of kerosene declined 32.2% to 0.19 mt and fuel oil 2.0% to 0.48 mt in November 2019.

Among public sector oil marketing companies, Bharat Petroleum Corporation (up 1.36%), Indian Oil Corporation (up 0.76%) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (up 0.67%) edged higher.

Among city gas distributors, Gujarat Gas (up 1.48%), Mahanagar Gas (up 0.87%), Adani Gas (up 0.43%) and Indraprastha Gas (up 0.14%) advanced.

Among oil and gas explorers, ONGC (down 1.48%) and Reliance Industries (down 0.04%) slipped while Oil India (up 0.26%) rose.

The S&P BSE Oil index was up 0.38% at 14,764.69.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Yes Bank was up 3.27%. The stock is banned from trading in NSE's Futures & Options segment after the security crossed 95% market wide position limit.

Infosys was down 0.93% to Rs 714.1 after The Schall Law Firm, a US-based shareholder rights litigation firm, announced the filing of a class action lawsuit against Infosys in a US court.

According to the Complaint, Infosys made false and misleading statements to the market. Infosys used improper recognition of revenue to boost short-term profits. CEO Salil Parekh skipped standard reviews of large deals to avoid accounting scrutiny. In fact, the company's finance team was pressured to hide details of these deals and other accounting matters from auditors and the company's board of directors. Based on these facts, the company's public statements were false and materially misleading throughout the class period. When the market learned the truth about Infosys, investors suffered damages, the law firm said in a statement.

Edelweiss was trading 1.88% higher at Rs 113.8 after Bharat Bond ETF managed by Edelweiss Mutual Find will be open for investment from 12 December 2019 to 20 December 2019.

Edelweiss Asset Management Company, a subsidiary of Edelweiss Financial Services, launched the first ever bond exchange traded fund (ETF). The bond ETF will have two variants - one scheme maturing after three years (2023) and another after 10 years (2030). The ETF will carry expense ratio of 0.0005%. The fund will invest in a portfolio of bonds of CPSE, CPSU, CPFI or any other government organizations. The first tranche would be only for 'AAA'-rated bonds.

Foreign Markets:

Most Asian stocks were trading higher on Thursday after US Fed signalled rate settings were likely to remain accommodative but the imminent UK election and a deadline for Sino-US trade talks kept investors cautious.

In US, stocks closed slightly higher on Wednesday as investors digested a cautious message from the Federal Reserve, while continuing to monitor progress on China-US trade talks.

Meanwhile, US market is hoping for a delay on an increase in 15 December tariffs on some $160 billion of consumer goods from China.

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