 "Nifty eyes 7,850; Telecom shares gain")
Markets have pared gains and are trading lower with Nifty slipping below the crucial 7,800 mark weighed down by technology shares owing to because of the sharp hike in visa fees.
At 2:45 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex has shed 134 points at 25,602 and the Nifty50 lost 45 points at 7,790. Top 5 losers in the Sensex pack include Infosys, TCS, ITC, M&M and HUL dropping below 1%-2%.
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Markets were trading firm with Nifty nearing the 7,850 mark led by private banks and rebound in index heavyweight Reliance Industries. However, losses in the information technology stocks because of the sharp hike in visa fees capped further upside.
At 1:45 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex gained 44 points at 25,780 and the Nifty50 climbed 9 points at 7,843. In the broader market, the BSE Midcap and Small Cap indices were up 0.4%-0.6% each.
Meanwhile, oil prices came off from multi-year lows as the northern hemisphere moves into the peak-demand winter season. However, oversupply and mild weather conditions arelikely to affect the prices.
Back home, the government introduced the 'Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2015', or the bankruptcy Bill, in the Lok Sabha on Monday. The Bill is one of the steps that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has identified as crucial for India to improve ease of doing business. The Bill has been introduced as a money Bill, which means it will not have to be passed in the Rajya Sabha, where the government has struggled to get legislative work done.
KEY STOCKS
A massive rally is seen across the banking stocks with ICICI Bank and Axis Bank up 2% each. Meanwhile, SBI has climbed 0.5% as it plans to raise Rs12,000 crore via private placement of tier-II bonds in tranches to comply with capital needs under the Basel III rules. This is after the government infused Rs.5,531 crore in SBI in August.
Another sector which is witnessing buying interest in today’s trade is the telecom pack. The stocks including Idea Cellular, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communication are trading higher by 1.3% each after the government decided not to take any coercive action against telecom service providers for call drops till 6 January. The mobile operators has moved the Delhi high court challenging the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai’s) tariff order making it mandatory for them to compensate subscribers for the very first three calls dropped per day at the rate of Rs.1 per dropped call from 1 January.
Among notable gainers, Sun Pharma is trading 1% higher after media reports stated that the company may acquire local rival Intas Pharmaceuticals Ltd, and is in “early talks” in what could be a Rs.15,000 crore ($2.3 billion) deal.
Drug maker Cipla has gained 0.3% after the company announced the launch of a generic version of anti-hepatitis drug Ledipasvir-Sofosbuvir in the domestic market.
Tata Motors has advanced 0.5% on reports that the company is working on partial hybrids and fully-electric systems for its future range of passenger vehicles.
On the flip side, technology shares are trading lower because of the sharp hike in visa fees by the US. Infosys and TCS have lost over 1% each.
Other prominent losers on the Sensex include M&M, ITC, HUL, Maruti Suzuki dropping between 0.4%-1%.
GLOBAL MARKET
Asian equities closed mostly in green mirroring a trend in the US markets with Japan’s Nikkei bucking the trend. Caution prevailed among the Asian peers on low share trade volume and declining crude oil prices ahead of this week's holidays. Japan's market will be closed Wednesday for the emperor's birthday. Japan’s Nikkei ended down 0.2%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, China’s Shnghai Composite closed 0.2% up.
