Closing bell : The Sensex and Nifty ended at new life-time highs on Thursday. The 30-share BSE index Sensex jumped 115.35 points or 0.28 per cent to a record closing high of 41,673.92, while the 50-share NSE index Nifty closed at 12,259.70, up 38.05 points or 0.31 per cent.

The Sensex hit an intraday high of 41,719.29 and a low of 41,456.40. Similarly, the Nifty touched an intraday high of 12,268.35 and a low of 12,191.15.

Among NSE sectoral indices, the auto index gained the most by 1.03 per cent, followed by IT 0.65 per cent. The rest of the indices closed either marginally lower or flat.

Top five Nifty gainers were Yes Bank (+6.52%), Eicher Motors (+3.05%), TCS (+2.95%), Bharti Airtel (+2.74%) and Tata Motors (+2.46 per cent). On the other hand, Vedanta, Grasim, Adani Ports, Sun Pharma and HDFC lost up to 2.49 per cent.

Tata Sons will pursue legal recourse: Chandra

Tata Sons firmly believes in the strength of its case, and will pursue appropriate legal recourse, its Chairman N Chandrasekaran said in a mail to employees. Read more here

Lupin on Thursday announced it had received US FDA approval for Mycophenolic Acid delayed-release tablets for kidney treatment.

Panacea Biotec bags orders worth Rs 170 cr from UN agencies

Panacea Biotec on Thursday said it has bagged orders worth USD 24.32 million (over Rs 170 crore) from UN agencies, including Unicef, for the supply of Pentavalent vaccine.

The vaccine protects children against five deadly diseases, including diphtheria, tetanus and hepatitis B.

“Panacea Biotec... has received awards worth USD 24.32 million from U N agencies (Unicef and PAHO) for supply of its Easyfive-TT, a fully liquid WHO prequalified wP-based Pentavalent vaccine (DTwPHepB-Hib),” the company said in a filing to BSE.

Brigade Group expects 25% growth amid cyclical slowdown

Expressing confidence of a strong 25 per cent growth for fiscal 2019-20 for the company, the Bengaluru-headquartered real estate major Brigade Group chief M R Jaishankar stated that the current slowdown for real estate sector is more of a cyclical phenomenon observed at every 10-year cycle and that a revival is expected soon. Read more here

Nifty Call: Buy on declines with stop-loss at 12,240 levels

Tracking the weak global markets, the Sensex and the Nifty commenced the session in negative territory. The Nikkei 225 has fallen 0.3 to 23,864, and Hang Seng index has declined 0.4 per cent to 27,776 levels in today's session. Click here to read more

Avanti Feeds (₹576.9): Buy

The stock of  Avanti Feeds  has jumped 5 per cent accompanied by above-average volume in today's session. With this rally, the stock appears to have breached a key immediate resistance at ₹555.  Read more on the technical call here

Maruti Suzuki strengthens Alto portfolio with new fully loaded version

Consistently setting benchmarks in the Indian automobile industry, Maruti Suzuki on Thursday announced the launch of the new Alto VXI+. The new offer comes with  SmartPlay Studio a 17.8 cm touchscreen infotainment system, enabled with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

Further, the new Alto VXI+ also comes with elegant aero edge design, stylish dual-tone interiors, high fuel efficiency, and latest safety features.

Alto VXI+ with BS6 compliant engine delivering a high fuel efficiency of 22.05 km/litre at an ex-showroom (Delhi) price of Rs. 380,209/-. Alto VXI+ will be available with enhanced safety features: dual front airbags, anti-lock braking system (ABS) with EBD, reverse parking sensors, speed alert system and seat belt reminder for both driver and co-driver.

L&T Technology Services opens design engineering centre in US

L&T Technology Services , an engineering services firm, opened a design engineering centre in Rockford, Illinois (USA), to cater to the new age digital requirements of the aerospace and defence markets. The 130-seater Centre of Excellence (CoE) is LTTS’ sixth design centre in the US.

The latest initiative will enable LTTS to further build on the momentum gained by the company in the aerospace sector across the globe, it said in a statement.

Room for strong growth for microfinance in India: KPMG

Microfinance sector which grew at a compounded rate of 48 per cent in the last five years has a potential for further growth as its penetration is only one-fourth of the addressable market, a KPMG report said. For more read click here

Tata Group’s defeat to have little impact on stock market

The Tata Group’s shock defeat in the biggest corporate feud will hardly have any impact on the record-breaking rally in the stock market, which marked its second consecutive record-high close on Wednesday. Read more here

NTPC rejects foreign emissions tech, shuts out GE, others from $2 bn orders

Top electricity generator NTPC has rejected the emissions-cutting technology of GE and other foreign firms for its coal-fired plants, documents show, shutting them out of an estimated $2 billion in orders. Click  here to read more

Tata Group stocks remain under pressure after NCLAT order

Shares of various Tata Group companies remained under pressure on Thursday as well, falling up to 2 per cent in morning trade, after the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) restored Cyrus Mistry as Tata Sons Chairman. Click here to read more

Lenders reject Sintex Industries’ $1 billion debt revamp plan

Lenders to  Sintex Industries  Ltd. rejected a debt restructuring plan by the company and intended to push it into bankruptcy, people familiar with the matter said. Read more here

Daily Rupee call: Initiate long position with 71.2 as a stop-loss

The rupee (INR), on Wednesday, managed to close above the support of 71 against the dollar (USD) after briefly trading below it. After registering an intraday low of 71.12, it ended the session at 70.97. Read more here

YES Bank (₹45.5): Sell

The stock of YES Bank , after a substantial downtrend, attempted to recover at the beginning of October. The stock rallied from its 52-week low of ₹29 to ₹78.7. It then started to consolidate between ₹62 and ₹75 for a period of one month. But the stock could not regain the bullish momentum, and the prolonged consolidation began to weigh on it. Click here to read the trading call

Will JLR’s Bowler buy drive Tata Motors?

Tata Motors owned Jaguar Land Rover on Wednesday acquired Bowler, a UK-based manufacturer of all-terrain performance cars, parts and rally raid vehicles. JLR bought Bowler for an undisclosed sum. The entity would be a part of JLR’s special vehicle operations business and would continue to operate from its premises in Belper (UK) for the foreseeable future, the company said in a statement. Shareholders of Tata Motors will closely monitor further developments.

Auto shares mixed; M&M up 2%

Auto shares were trading on a mixed note in Thursday's morning session. Out of the 15 stocks, eight were trading higher while seven of them were trending lower.

At 10.35 am, The Nifty Auto index was trading 0.66 per cent higher at 8,135.60.

Shares of Mahindra & Mahindra (up 2.58 per cent), Hero MotoCorp (up 1.68 per cent), TVS Motor (up 1.53 per cent), Tata Motors (up 1.53 per cent), Eicher Motors (up 1.05 per cent) and Maruti (up 0.64 per cent) were among the top gainers.

Bharat Forge (down 2.32 per cent), Motherson Sumi (down 1.09 per cent), MRF (down 0.48 per cent), Exide Industries (down 0.46 per cent) and, Bajaj Auto (down 0.37 per cent) were trading lower.

FMCG shares in the green: Mcdowel up 1%

FMCG shares were trading on a firm note in Thursday's morning session with 9 of the 15 stocks on the index trading in the green while 5 of them declined.

Shares of Mcdowel (up 1.88 per cent), Godrej Consumer Products (up 1.29 per cent), Hindustan Unilever (up 1.21 per cent), Emami (up 1.05 per cent), Jubilant Foodworks (up 0.66 per cent), Britannia (up 0.65 per cent) and ITC (up 0.59 per cent) were among the top gainers.

Procter & Gamble (down 0.53 per cent), Godrej Industries (0.53 per cent) and Nestle India (down 0.35 per cent) were among the losers in the index.

The FMCG index was trading 0.56 per cent higher at 30,461.40 in the early session.

Benchmark NSE Nifty50 index was down 14.40 points at 12,207.25, while the BSE Sensex was down 46.79 points at 41,511.78.

Nifty PSU Bank stocks fall up to 0.58 per cent

The Nifty PSU Bank index, which tracks the public sector banks, slipped 0.58 per cent to 2,498.40, with 10 of the 12 stocks on the index trading in the red.

Barring Central Bank of India (up 0.15 per cent) and Jammu & Kashmir (0.05 per cent), all other PSBs are trading in the red.

SBI (down 0.85 per cent), Punjab National Bank (down 0.71 per cent), Canara Bank (down 0.27 per cent) and Oriental Bank of Commerce (down 0.09 per cent) were trading lower.

Benchmark NSE Nifty50 index was down 20.55 points at 12,201.10 while the BSE Sensex fell 43.03 points at 41,515.54.

Rupee opening: The rupee depreciated marginally to 70.98 against the US dollar in the morning session.

FII activity : As per the data available with the stock exchanges, on a net basis, foreign institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 1,836.81 crore on Wednesday. The domestic institutional investors sold shares worth Rs 1,267.57 crore.

Uday Jewellery Ind’s expansion plans in focus

Uday Jewellery Industries is planning to expand its existing manufacturing capacity to cater to the demand for its products in India and abroad, it said in a notice to the stock exchanges. The enhanced manufacturing capacity will improve the overall business and facilitate increase in sales, while meeting the demand, both immediate and anticipated, it added.

However, the company did not provide other details such as the capex involved and the increase in output.

Today's Pick - Asian Paints (₹1,778.4): Buy

The stock of Asian Paints, which was consolidating in a broad range between ₹1,300 and ₹1,480 in the first half of this year, broke out of the range in July. The stock then continued to rally and registered a lifetime high of ₹1,834.8 in October. Read more the technicals here

Day Trading Guide for December 19, 2019

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

₹1292 • HDFC Bank

₹732 • Infosys

₹245 • ITC

₹125 • ONGC

₹1575 • Reliance Ind.

₹327 • SBI

₹2167 • TCS

12243 • Nifty 50 Futures

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

Opening bell: Benchmark indices opened on a flat note on Thursday.

At 9:15 am, the Sensex is up 21.54 points or 0.05% at 41580.11, and the Nifty up 1.75 points or 0.01% at 12,223.40.

Wall Street pauses record-setting rally as FedEx shares tumble

The S&P 500 ended a five-day winning streak on Wednesday as investors' optimism about global economic growth was countered by a steep drop in FedEx Corp shares, but the benchmark index managed to hover near all-time highs.

Indexes: Dow down 0.1%, S&P down 0.04%, Nasdaq up 0.05% Click here to read more

Asian shares ease from highs on profit booking

Asian shares pulled back from a one-and-a-half year peak on Thursday as investors booked profits ahead of holiday trade and awaited further data on the state of the global economy.

Investors were also watching proceedings in Washington where the Democrat-led U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach Republican U.S. President Donald Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Read more here