Sensex closes in red and Nifty ends below 8200

The Indian stock market snapped a four-day winning streak as investors felt a rally in auto stocks was overdone. Also, prospects of crude oil prices going higher led to a slide in select oil related stocks.

India’s GDP grew lower than expected in the September quarter at 7.3%, as compared to 7.6% in the same quarter last year.

The Nikkei/ Market Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index fell to 52.3 in November from October's 54.4, its biggest month-on-month decline since March 2013.

The BSE Sensex ended with a loss of 93 points at 26559.92. The benchmark indices opened at 26756.66, touched an intra-day high of 26769.32 and low of 26540.82.

The NSE Nifty closed 33 points lower at 8192.90. It opened at 8,244.00 points, hitting a high of 8,250.80 and low of 8,185.05.

The India VIX (Volatility) index was down 0.96% at 16.6875. The BSE Midcap closed at 12355.03 and Smallcap indices closed at 12250.42, both indices ending marginally lower. Out of 1511 stocks traded on the NSE, 975 declined and 496 advanced today.

A total of 26 stocks registered a fresh 52-week high in trade today, whereas 11 stocks touched a new 52-week low on the NSE.

At the close of day, Eicher Motors, GAIL, Infratel, Hero Motocorp, Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy, Bajaj Auto were the top gainers while Idea, Powergrid, Asian Paints, Hindalco, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank were among the losers on NSE.

The rupee was trading at 68.35  per US dollar. Gold was trading at Rs 28,120 per 10 gms and silver was trading at Rs 39,790 per kg.

European stock markets were trading slightly in red as investors focused on political developments in Italy and key data releases after the oil-producing cartel OPEC agreed to cut production.

On the global front, most Asian indices closed in green and marginally up. In Europe, the FTSE 100 was down 0.50%. CAC 40 and DAX was down 0.42% and 0.43% respectively, where all indices were trading in red while, the US Nasdaq was also down 1.06%.

Sensex, Nifty to open on a positive note

The indices to open on a positive note. The landmark decision by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut production has fueled a sharp rally in oil prices, which rose almost 10% to skyrocket near the $50 a barrel mark.

OPEC’s collective output will now reduce by 1.2 million barrels a day. The last time a cut was implemented was way back in January 2009 and non-OPEC members like Russia have also joined in the output reduction.

Banking stocks are regaining momentum. At the macro level, the second quarter of this fiscal year saw GDP growth at 7.3% (yoy), higher than the reading of 7.1% during the prior quarter. Lower interest rates are yet to translate into any meaningful shift in the private investment cycle. 

Meanwhile, India's infrastructure output accelerated to its fastest growth in half a year rising 6.6pc yoy in October. Later in the day, data is awaited on auto sales numbers, India manufacturing PMI, EU unemployment, US jobless claims and manufacturing PMI.

Asian markets opened in the green with the Japanese 'Nikkei" leading from the front as US/Yen hit 114.5 the highest in the last 10 months. This saw Japanese exporters lead gains along with commodity stocks from other Asian indices. The Dow Jones hit new intra session highs but gave up gains on profit booking near the close. 

Nifty powers its way above 8,200 with ease as value buying coupled with short covering drove stocks higher. The pessimism of the last 10 days has given way to expectations of faster resolution of cash disruption with near term weakness being an opportunity to buy. Banks led the way as lower bond yields indicated a rate cut by the central bank on the cards next week. For today expect energy, metals & IT stocks to rally even as banks, Pharma & FMCG see profit booking.

Among the stocks to watch are:

Punjab National Bank: Punjab National Bank has cut the marginal cost of funds based lending rate (MCLR) by 0.05-0.10 percentage points for December across maturities of various tenors.

Reliance Communications: Moody's Investors Service downgraded Reliance Communications Limited corporate family rating and senior secured bond rating to B1 from Ba3.

PSU Oil stock: Oil marketing company hiked petrol prices by a marginal 13 paisa a litre while diesel rates were cut by 12 paisa in line with global trends.

Wipro: In a bid to sharpen focus on its core IT business, Wipro on Tuesday said it will sell its EcoEnergy division to Chubb Alba Control Systems for $70 million.

Tata Steel: The 55,000-tonne per annum (TPA) ferro-chrome plant set up by Tata Steel at a cost of Rs 542 crore in its Gopalpur Industrial Park in Ganjam district was opened by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday.

Punj Lloyd: The company registered a standalone flat net loss of Rs 225.8 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2016. It had posted a net loss of Rs 226 crore in the same quarter of previous fiscal.

Dilip Buildcon: The company will announce its Q2 numbers today.

Auto stocks in focus: Today auto stocks will be in focus as monthly sales will be announced.

Hindustan Construction Company: Infrastructure major Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) said it will receive arbitral award payment of approximately Rs 2,000 crore from NHPC and NHAI Ltd within 4-6 weeks.

South Indian Bank: The private sector lender said, it has cut the MCLR in range of 0.05 to 0.3% for a select maturity period.

RBL Bank: RBL Bank has received in-principle approval from RBI to open global financial services centre at GIFT City.

Tata Power: The company will sell its 30% stake in PT Arutmin for a sharply lower consideration of USD246.64mn after entering into revised pacts that take into account certain prior liabilities.

KSK Energy Ventures: The company is in advanced stage of parleys for stake divestment in the KSK Mahanadi thermal power project.

Hinduja Ventures Ltd: The company it will sell stake in group firms Induslnd Media and Communications Ltd and Hinduja Energy.

SBI: Competition Commission has approved the merger of Bharatiya Mahila Bank with the State Bank of India. 

Results: Dilip Buildcon, Gillette India, A2Z Infra Engineering, Clariant Chemicals, Graphite India, Responsive Industries, Srikalahasthi Pipes.

Trends in FII flows: The DIIs were net buyers of Rs 6.76 bn in the cash segment on Wednesday. The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers of Rs 4.34 bn as per the provisional figures released by the NSE.