Sensex, Nifty to open on a positive note

Global cues are mostly positive. Brent crude settled higher at $38.45, up over a percent. Japanese Nikkei and Hong Kong's Hang Seng are up over 2%. South Korea's Kospi is up 1.5%. US indices too closed in the green.

The Finance Minister may have invoked the name of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to advice the opposition to cooperate regarding the GST bill. But no progress seems to be on that front so far. For the time being the attention is on the outcome of US FOMC meeting. The Fed has an onerous task of striking a balance by hiking rates as well as pacifying the markets by reiterating that the process of policy normalization will be gradual and gentle in order to avert the US economy from tilting into recession.

The outlook is a positive start. On Tuesday, the run-up in the market was led by auto, FMCG, energy and consumer discretionary stocks while banking slightly under-performed. Mid-cap and small-cap stocks are back on the buying list. The Nifty now has to convincingly breach past the 7705 mark on a closing basis. 7800 would act as the first hurdle on the upside beyond which we see Nifty racing towards the December high of 7980 mark.

Global cues are mostly positive. Brent crude settled higher at $38.45, up over a percent. Japanese Nikkei and Hong Kong's Hang Seng are up over 2%. South Korea's Kospi is up 1.5%. US indices too closed in the green.

Advance tax collection from top 45 companies in Mumbai has registered an increase for the latest quarter as well as for the first nine months of FY16; Income-Tax officials have been quoted as saying.

Growth in the cargo volume handled by the 12 major ports slowed to 3.3 per cent during April-November period, due to weak iron ore volumes, reports a business daily.

Come January, it will be mandatory to furnish Permanent Account Number (PAN) for cash transaction of more than Rs. 2 lakhs, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told Parliament on Tuesday.

The Government has approved creation of a buffer stock through procurement of about 50,000 ton pulses from the kharif crop 2015-16 and one lakh ton out of arrivals of rabi crop of 2015-16.

India's gold imports fell by 36.48 per cent to US$3.53 billion in November, data released by the Commerce Ministry showed on Tuesday.

The Petroleum Ministry wants the Finance Ministry to cut cess on crude oil and make it ad valorem, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan reportedly said.

In a bid to curb the pollution menace engulfing the national capital, Supreme Court has proposed to double the ‘Environment Compensation Charge’ (ECC) that was proposed earlier in October. The new compensation charge is Rs. 1,400 and Rs. 2,600, from the earlier Rs. 700 for light duty vehicles and two-axle vehicles and Rs. 1,300 for three-axle and above.

The Board of Directors of Cipla Limited have approved the transfer of the consumer healthcare business of the Company to Cipla Health Limited on a going concern basis by way of a slump sale for a lumpsum consideration of Rs. 16 crore.

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has added one more coal-based power plant to the grid by successfully commissioning a 500 MW thermal generating unit in West Bengal.

SpiceJet is gearing up and undertaking several proactive measures to minimize and eliminate customer inconvenience in the likelihood of flight disruptions and cancellations on account of fog during this winter.