Markets close: Equity benchmark BSE Sensex on Wednesday closed at a lifetime high by gaining 206.40 points to 41,558.57. Similarly, the broader Nifty too ended at historic high by rising 59.60 points to 12,224.60.

Mahindra & Mahindra was the top gainer in the Nifty pack rising up to 3.59 per cent, followed by Sun Pharma, JSW Steel, Asian Paint and HDFC Bank.

On the other hand, Tata Motors was the top loser, shedding up to 2.89 per cent. GAIL, Grasim, YES Bank and SBI were the other major losers.

Sectorally, Nifty Pharma gained the most by 1.20 per cent, while PSU Bank and Media dropped by up to 1.89 per cent.

NSE Sectoral Indices

Bank of Baroda raises Rs 1,747 cr by issuing Basel III compliant bonds

Bank of Baroda on Wednesday said it has raised Rs 1,747 crore by issuing Basel III compliant bonds on a private placement basis.

The bank has issued and allotted Basel III compliant additional tier I bonds, Bank of Baroda said in a regulatory filing.

Pharma sector likely to grow at 10-12% during FY19-22, says ICRA

Rating agency ICRA on Wednesday said the Indian pharmaceutical industry is expected to grow around 10-12 per cent between FY2019 and FY2022 while maintaining a stable outlook on the sector.

ICRA cited abating headwinds from pricing pressure in the US (which is the largest regulated market), stable growth for the Indian market driven by increasing healthcare spending and better accessibility as likely key growth drivers for the Indian pharma companies, coupled with comfortable balance sheet structure.

The Nifty Pharma index is trading 0.86 per cent higher at 8,068.05 on Wednesday.

Infosys launches blockchain-powered distributed applications

Infosys on Wednesday announced the launch of three blockchain-powered distributed applications for government services, insurance, and supply chain management domains.

“These comprehensive applications designed as ready-to-subscribe business networks ensure quick deployment, interoperability across disparate systems of value chain stakeholders and a wide variety of use cases involving other digital technologies like IoT, Analytics as well,” it said.

The shares of the IT company are trading around Rs 726.70 down 0.41 per cent at 2.30 pm.

Sugar stocks jump up to 5%

Most of the sugar stocks jumped higher in Wednesday's session. Earlier, the sugar industry body ISMA has announced production figures for the period October 1 to December 15, 2019. 

The sugar production stood at 4.58 million tonnes till December 15 of the ongoing marketing year, down 35 per cent from the year-ago period, owing to sharp fall in output in Maharashtra and Karnataka.

Sugar marketing year runs from October to September. Mills had manufactured 7.05 million tonne of sugar in the same period of the 2018-19 marketing year.

Shares of Paval Sugar (up 4.99 per cent), Piccadily Sugar (up 4.90 per cent), Rana Sugars (up 4.28 per cent), Ponni Sungars (up 4.28 per cent) and Ugar Sugar (up 3.23 per cent) were the top gainers in the sugar space.

Dalmia Sugars, (up 3.53 per cent), Triveni Engineering (up 3.16 per cent), Mawana Sugars (3.62 per cent), Avadh Sugar (up 2.64 per cent), Dhampur Sugar (up 2.44 per cent), Balrampur Chini (up 2.29 per cent) and KCP Sugars (2.26 per cent) too were trading with good gains.

At 2.20 pm, the NSE Nifty50 index was trading 33 points up at 12,198.35. The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 158 points at 41,511.

Sugar output drops 35% to 4.58 million tonne till December 15: ISMA

India’s sugar production stood at 4.58 million tonnes till December 15 of the ongoing marketing year, down 35 per cent from the year-ago period, owing to sharp fall in output in Maharashtra and Karnataka, industry body ISMA said on Wednesday.

Sugar marketing year runs from October to September. Mills had manufactured 7.05 million tonne of sugar in the same period of the 2018-19 marketing year.

According to the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), 406 sugar mills were crushing sugarcane as on December 15, as against 473 mills on the year-ago same day.

Nifty call: Buy on declines with stop loss at 12,160

The Indian benchmarks are trading marginally higher today, despite bearishness in major Asian indices. The Nifty spot and the Sensex spot index, both are trading higher by a quarter of a per cent. The Nikkei is down by 0.5 per cent whereas the Hang Seng is down by 0.2 per cent. But the US indices closed yesterday’s session with marginal gain.

Will Airbus deal lift Axiscades Engineering

Axiscades Engineering Technology has been selected by Airbus to work on fuselage, product development and customer support services across locations. This is the third time that Airbus has selected the company for critical engineering services and the contract has been won against stiff global competition, it said.

However, Axiscades did not disclose the contract value. Over the past few years, the company has been investing heavily in catering to new trends in the industry.

Metal stocks continue rally; MOIL rises over 3%

The Nifty Metals index rose 1 per cent at noon trade led by MOIL shares, which rose over 3.06 per cent.

Shares of JSW Steel (up 2.22 per cent), Tata Steel (up 2.05 per cent), NMDC (up 1.96 per ent) and Hindustan Copper (up 1.30 per cent) were the top gainers in the metals index.

Hindalco (up 0.61 per cent), SAIL (up 0.61 per cent), Hindustan Zinc (up 0.48 per cent), and Vedanta (up 0.43 per cent) too were trading higher.

17 stocks hit 52-week highs on NSE

In the noon trade, the benchmark NSE Nifty index was trading 23.10 points up at 12,189.10

Around 17 stocks rose to touch their 52-week highs on NSE in Wednesday's trading session.

Among the stocks that touched their 52-week highs Balrampur Chini, HDFC, Bajaj Finserve, JK Cement, R Systems, Uttam Value Steels amongst others.

In the Nifty50 index, JSW Steel, M&M, Tata Steel, Wipro and ITC were among the top gainers.

About 31 stocks hit 52-week lows on NSE

Around 31 stocks declined to touch their 52-week lows on NSE in Wednesday's trading session.

Among the stocks that touched their 52-week lows were Allahabad Bank, MRPL, Navneet Education and Shriram EPC.

Mcleod Russel, Neuland Labs, Simplex Infra, Uniply, SpiceJet and Shrenik were too listed among the stocks that touched their 52-week lows on NSE.

At 11.55 am, the NSE Nifty was trading 20.70 points higher at 12,185.70, while the BSE Sensex was trading 91.86 points up at 41,444.03.

Broker's call: KEC International (Buy)

KEC order book has grown at a CAGR of 21 per cent over FY16-19 and currently stands at ₹18,085 crore (Q2FY20), additionally it has about ₹5,000 crore L1 order book. Green Energy corridor projects of ₹13,000+ crore have been awarded via TBCB (tariff-based competitive bidding) and these projects are targeted to be completed by December 2020; this will drive KECs order inflows in H2FY20. Read more here

Infosys stocks up over 1%

Shares of Infosys on Wednesday rose over 1 per cent and was one of the top gainers in the Sensex pack.

The stock was trading 0.78 per cent higher at Rs 735 on the BSE. It rose as much as 1.09 per cent to Rs 737.25.

On the NSE, the stock touched a high of Rs 737.30, up 1.04 per cent over the previous close, and later on was trading 0.72 per cent higher at Rs 734.95.

Infosys will pay California USD 800,000 (nearly Rs 5.6 crore) to resolve allegations that between 2006 and 2017 approximately 500 Infosys employees were working in the state on Infosys-sponsored B-1 visas rather than H-1B visas, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said.

Jaypee Infratech jumps over 9% on Committee of Creditors nod for NBCC bid

Shares of Jaypee Infratech on Wednesday zoomed over 9 per cent after its Committee of Creditors (CoC) approved NBCC’s bid to acquire the company under insolvency process.

Shares of Jaypee Infratech were trading 9.26 per cent higher at Rs 1.77 apiece on the BSE. On the NSE, the stock rallied 6.06 per cent to Rs 1.75.  Read more here

Broker's call: JB Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals (Buy)

Surprising positive move by regulator: We view NPPA’s (National Pharmaceuticals Pricing Authority) notification of one-time price increase to the tune of 50 per cent for select 21 NLEM (National List of Essential Medicines) products. It is surprisingly positive for the industry as the regulators have been largely focused on reducing healthcare cost by capping the prices across pharma and hospitals verticals.  Read more here

Intellect launches a new integrated suite to redefine security with modern identity

Privacy management oversight and coordination is a business imperative for corporates across the world. Privacy is now a global issue, and data security is a vital component of every organisation’s infrastructure. Critical to every organisation’s success is its ability to protect proprietary information and customer data, from those who can abuse it.

ARX is an integrated suite of security services to provide end-to-end security about user identification, authentication, single sign-on and entitlements. Built on the robust principles of Design Thinking at the R&D Innovation Lab at Intellect, it is trusted by over 200 financial institutions worldwide.

Dr Agarwals Eye Hospital to invest ₹500 crore for expansion

Dr Agarwal's Healthcare, a leading eye care hospital chain is planning to invest ₹500 crore in the next 2-3 years to increase its footprint across India,  Africa and South Asia, according to a senior official of the company.

"At present we are at 90 plus hospitals and we will be touching 150 eye hospitals by 2022-23," said Amar Agarwal, Chairman, Dr Agarwal's group of Eye Hospitals here today.

Share of renewable energy rises to 9%

The percentage of renewable energy in India’s energy mix has risen steadily to nearly 9 per cent from the 2014-2015 levels. But, the current installed renewable energy capacity of the country pales against the 282 GW conventional power generation capacity.

This is because, despite the high installed generation capacity of renewable projects, a lower plant load factor reduces the amount of energy produced from these projects. Click here to read more

Infosys to pay nearly Rs 5.6 crore to settle worker misclassification, tax fraud charges

Infosys, one of India’s top IT majors, has agreed to pay Rs 5.6 crore to settle allegations of misclassification of foreign workers and tax fraud, officials announced on Tuesday. Read more here

Weakening rupee propels IT stocks higher

A weaker rupee, which lost 0.15 per cent in early trade against the dollar, powered Wipro Ltd and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd to the top of the NSE index.

The Nifty IT index was trading 0.96 per cent higher at 15,786.90 around 10:30 am.

The Nifty IT index rose as much as 1.27 per cent, with Tata Elxsi leading the pack with a gain of 2.41 per cent.

Shares of Wipro (up 1.61 per cent), TCS (up 1.19 per cent), Tech Mahindra (up 1.16 per cent), Mindtree (up 0.89 per cent) and Infosys (up 0.79 per cent) were the other top gainers in the index.

Benchmark NSE Nifty50 index was up 8.70 points at 12,173.70 while the BSE Sensex was up 47.31 points at 41,399.48.

BNP Paribas sees Sensex at 44,500 by 2020-end

A clear division was visible in the performance of the Sensex/Nifty and the rest of the stocks in year 2019. Even in the large-cap space, only a handful of stocks such as Reliance Industries, HDFC and HDFC Bank lifted Sensex and Nifty to new heights. Others remained sluggish, leaving investors more perplexed. Will 2020, turnaround fortunes of investors? Read more here

Two new entities show interest in bidding for Jet Airways

The Committee of Creditors (CoC) of the defunct Jet Airways has agreed ‘in-principle’ to invite fresh Expression of Interest (EoI) as two new entities have shown an early interest in bidding for the airline.

Resolution Professional for the airline, Ashish Chhawchharia, informed the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) about the development on Tuesday.

Post rebranding, inflows into equity, liquid funds of Nippon India MF increase

The change of name and fresh branding exercise has been positive for Nippon India Mutual Fund (formerly Reliance Mutual Fund) with inflows into both its equity and liquid funds increasing substantially, even as the industry haswitnessed a slowdown in inflows into these schemes.

Inflows into the liquid and overnight schemes of Nippon India rose 27 per cent in November to Rs 33,907 crore, from Rs 26,800 crore registered in September. Read more here

Daily Rupee call: Initiate short position with stop loss at 70.7

The rupee, after taking support at the important level of 71 against the dollar, rose through the first half of the session yesterday. However, after making an intraday high of 70.86, it gave up its gains, ending the session at 70.97. Though it managed to close above the support of 71, the recent developments in price action indeed indicate weakness. Read more on the technicals here

Prince Pipes garners Rs 150 crore from 8 anchor investors

Prince Pipes Ltd has mopped up Rs 150 crore from eight anchor investors ahead of its initial public offering. The IPO, which opens for subscription today (December 18, 2019), ends on Friday.

The Rs 500-crore IPO consists of a fresh issue for Rs 250 crore and an offer-for-sale worth Rs 250 crore by the promoters. The offer is at a price band of Rs 177-178 a share. Read more here

Oil dips after U.S. stock build, but demand hopes support

Oil retreated on Wednesday after rising more than 1% in the previous session as U.S. industry data showed a surprise build in crude stocks, but hopes for firmer demand next year checked a deeper fall in prices.

Brent crude futures dropped 21 cents, or 0.32%, to $65.89 a barrel by 0110 GMT on Wednesday. The international benchmark rose 1.2% to $66.10 a barrel on Tuesday.

Today's Pick - Vedanta (₹152.3): Buy

Investors with a short term perspective can buy the stock of Vedanta at current levels. The 3.5 per cent gain accompanied by above average volume on Tuesday, has taken the stock above a crucial resistance level of ₹150, thus providing traders an opportunity to buy it at current levels. Click here to read more

Opening trade: It's a positive opening for the equity market on Wednesday, with Nifty trading above 12,100 level.

The Sensex is up 53.69 points at 41,405.86, while Nifty is up 15.10 points at 12,180.10. About 472 shares have advanced, 170 shares declined, and 46 shares are unchanged.

All the sectoral indices are trading in the green, with flat to positive bias.

Tech Mahindra, TCS, HCL Technologies, Wipro and Infosys are trading higher up to 1.02 per cent, while Bharti Airtel, UltraTech Cement, Hindustan Unilever, GAIL and JSW Steel are trending lower.

Day Trading Guide for December 18, 2019

Given below are supports and resistances for Nifty 50 futures and seven key stocks that can help in your intra-day trading:

₹1272 • HDFC Bank

₹729 • Infosys

₹241 • ITC

₹125 • ONGC

₹1562 • Reliance Ind.

₹332 • SBI

₹2165 • TCS

12187 • Nifty 50 Futures

S1, S2 : Support 1 & 2; R1, R2: Resistance 1 & 2.

Asia shares eke out another peak; Nikkei hovers near 2019 highs

Asian stocks camped out at 18-month peaks on Wednesday having climbed for five straight sessions, while the British pound was licking fresh wounds as revived Brexit fears came back to bite it.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan inched up 0.1% to its highest since June last year. Japan's Nikkei dipped 0.3% and off a 2019 top.

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