Market brushes aside Fed rate hike signal, bounces 183 pts

Stocks today shrugged off a widely expected US interest rate hike as the benchmark Sensex bounced 183 points to close at 26,698, with auto, IT, oil and gas shares powering the show.
At the close, Nifty retook the key 8,200-mark, driven by gains in RIL and ONGC stocks.
The gains came ahead of the release of consumer price index-based retail inflation numbers for November.
Buying picked up after Asian stocks recovered from early bout of weakness to end higher ahead of the start of a two-day US Federal Reserve meeting, which is due to start later on Tuesday. The rate-setting panel is widely expected to hike its key interest rate.

After a positive start, the Sensex hit a low of 26,494.23 as investors locked in gains. It surged to a high of 26,724.97 before settling at 26,697.82, up 182.58 points or 0.69 per cent.
The gauge had lost 231.94 points in the previous session.

The 50-share NSE Nifty closed higher by 51 points, or 0.62 per cent, at 8,221.80. Intra-day, it moved between 8,228.85 and 8,155.80.
"Market gained on account of positive European market and short covering ahead of the Fed policy. Investors are eyeing today's CPI data to ascertain the extent of demonetisation impact in conjunction with RBI's recent monetary policy stance," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.

From the Sensex and Nifty space, Tata Motors emerged as the top gainer by rising as much as 3.48 per cent to close at Rs 470.35 on the BSE on talks of block deals in the counter at an up to 10 per cent premium to Monday's close.
Other prominent gainers included Adani Ports, Axis Bank, Wipro, RIL, L&T and Sun Pharma.
In line with the broader trend, shares of state-run oil marketing companies such as BPCL, HPCL and IOC staged a comeback to close higher by up to 2.53 per cent after yesterday's steep fall due to a jump in global crude.

BSE auto index climbed the most by rising 0.98 per cent, followed by IT (0.85 per cent) and oil and gas (0.81 per cent).
The broader markets, however, suffered as investors booked profit by liquidating their bets. The BSE mid-cap index fell 0.43 per cent while mid-cap shed 0.07 per cent.
Meanwhile, foreign funds sold shares net worth Rs 94.45 crore yesterday, as per the provisional data.
Overseas, Asian markets ended higher ahead of the US Fed policy meeting while European shares were down in their late morning trade.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei ended at its highest level for the year by gaining 0.50 per cent. Shanghai Composite rose 0.07 per cent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.06 per cent.

Indices in Europe such as France, Germany and the UK were quoting lower between 0.07 per cent and 0.92 per cent.
Back home, of the 30-share Sensex, 21 scrips ended higher.
On the domestic bourses, out of the 30-share Sensex pack,
17 scrips ended lower.
Major losers were TCS (3.90 pc), NTPC (1.55 pc), Maruti Suzuki (1.46 pc), Heromotocorp (1.14 pc), Dr Reddy (0.93 pc) Bajaj Auto (0.86 pc), L&T (0.74 pc), Tata Motors (0.71 pc) and Bharti Airtel (0.50 pc).
Bucking the trend, Axis Bank, ITC, GAIL, HDFC, Sun Pharma and ONGC ended higher.
In broader markets, the BSE mid-cap index edged lower by 0.03 per cent while small-cap ended higher by 0.03 per cent.

Among BSE sectoral and industry indices, IT fell the most by 1.89 per cent, followed by teck 1.72 per cent, auto (0.77 pc), power (0.52 pc), consumer durables (0.51 pc), realty (0.49 pc) and capital goods (0.38 pc).
However, FMCG rose by 1.21 pc followed by banking 0.32 pc, healthcare 0.16 pc and oil&gas 0.15 pc.
Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 12.77 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 110.08 crore yesterday, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges.