The Sensex was up 77.01 points, or 0.21 percent, at 36347.08, and the Nifty up 20.30 points, or 0.19 percent, at 10,908.70. The Nifty MidCap was up by 0.37 percent, while the BSE MidCap surged 0.21 percent. Sun Pharma, Bajaj Finance, Power Grid Corp., M&M, JSW Steel, Vedanta and Asian Paints were major gainers on indexes, rising by up to 3 percent, while Zee Entertainment, UPL, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, Yes Bank, ITC and Hindustan Unilever shares dipped by up to 8 percent. 

Shares of Venkys India surged nearly 7 percent ahead of the Christmas season on the expectation of higher domestic sales and exports from the company. Poultry exports get a boost ahead of Christmas, and Venkys India is a dominant player in the domestic and export market. Shares of the company were up 3.8 percent at Rs 2,513. Meanwhile, benchmark indexes recovered with the Nifty trading above 10,900, while the Sensex also was near 36,350 mark at 3.15 pm. 

Shares of UPL fell over 3 percent to Rs 744.40 and were among the worst hit on the Nifty 50 over concerns of demand slowing down in Europe. UPL gets about 13% of its sales from Europe. A drought situation and heat waves in Europe earlier in the year are seen impacting the demand for agrochemical products.

Shares of Vakrangee snapped a six-session losing streak and were locked in 5 percent upper circuit at Rs 34.15. The company was among the best performers in the mid-cap space. Vakrangee shares have lost over 16 percent in the last six sessions, and 92 percent in 2018 so far. 

Shares of Zee Entertainment Enterprises plunged today as Bank of America Merrill Lynch has reportedly cut rating for its shares to underperform, with a price target of Rs 375. The brokerage has cut the earnings per share estimate for the company by 6 percent for 2019-20 (April-March) and 7 percent for 2020-21 (April-March). It believes the market is underestimating the competition for digital content, and that the company needs to invest in its over-the-top offerings. 

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It’s been a subdued year for the pharma index, underperforming the Nifty. While the Nifty has risen around 3 percent this year, the Nifty Pharma index has slumped 8 percent. However, while it has been an underperformance on the index level, it has still been a stock specific year for pharma stocks . For example, gainers in pharma stocks included Divi’s Labs, Dr Reddy's, IPCA Labs and from the MNC space Pfizer. 

Read Ekta Batra's full report here

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Sadbhav Infrastructure Projects gained nearly 5 percent in morning on Tuesday after the amicable settlement between company, promoter and Montecarlo. The company informed exchanges that ongoing litigation amongst the company, Sadbhav Engineering Limited on the one side and Montecarlo Limited on the other have arrived at amicable settlement. At 10.25 am, shares traded at Rs 104.25, marginally up by 0.43 percent on the NSE. The NSE Nifty50 traded at 10,821, down by 67 points, or 0.62 percent. The Sensex dipped more than 202 points, or 0.56 percent, to trade at 36,067.

Shares of Graphite India gained 4 percent as the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board has renewed the consent for operation of the company's Bengaluru electrode plant till June 2020. This move comes with the condition to shift the unit from its existing location. The company said that this condition will not have an adverse impact on the production capacity of the graphite electrode division as a whole in the medium and long-term.

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Nomura on CONCOR:

Edelweiss Finance on Shriram Transport:

Kotak Institutional Equities on Tech Mahindra:

CLSA on Pharma:

Edelweiss Finance on Shriram Transport:

Edelweiss Finance on Ashoka Buildcon:

Wall Street: The S&P 500 lost 2.08 percent to hit its lowest since October 2017 as it breached lows reached during a sell-off in February, having wiped out about $3.4 trillion of market value since late September. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.27 percent, with Amazon, one of the best performing shares this year, dropping 4.5 percent.

Fed on Wednesday: Market expectations are for a relatively dovish hike from the Fed (and for it to temporarily pause its rate hike cycle in the beginning of 2019). Trump repeated his criticism of the Fed via Twitter: "It is incredible that with a very strong dollar and virtually no inflation, the outside world blowing up around us, Paris is burning and China way down, the Fed is even considering yet another interest rate hike. Take the Victory!

Dollar: The euro traded flat at $1.1348, after having gained 0.40 percent on Monday. The dollar fetched 112.83 yen, little changed in Asia after Monday's fall of 0.49 percent while the offshore Chinese yuan was little moved at 6.8961 to the dollar.

Oil: US crude fell to as low as $49.01 per barrel on Monday, its lowest level since September last year and last stood at $49.33, down 1.1 percent on the day.

Check for more market opening cues

Tata Steel: Andreas Goss will be the future chief executive officer of Tata Steel Europe’s planned joint venture with European steel maker Thyssenkrupp, Tata Steel said in a press release on Monday.

Motherson Sumi: The auto parts company is in early talks with German peer Leoni AG over a possible merger of the pair, a Livemint report said.

NMDC: The PSU fixes lump ore price at Rs 3,250 per tonne and price of fines at Rs 2,860 per tonne from December 13.

Ashoka Buildcon: The company's subsidiary raises Rs 150 crore from Morgan Stanley India Infrastructure.

Check out more hot stocks today

In this episode of Midcap Mania, CNBC-TV18’s Nigel D’Souza talks about Dharamsi Morarji Chemical Co Ltd (DMCC), a company that focuses on speciality chemicals and engineered services.

Read full story here

Markets: Ahead of the Christmas holidays next week and the approach of year end, we are well and truly in holiday markets. That means price action has been and will continue to be erratic on an intraday basis. Ongoing uncertainties around the Fed, China, equities and Brexit continue. US stocks followed their European peers lower, after negative warnings from online retailers. Close: Dow -2.1%, SPX -2.08%, Nasdaq -2.2%.

US data was weak: The NY Fed Empire manufacturing index dropped to 10.9 vs consensus forecasts of 20.0, which is the lowest level since May 2017. Most segments declined vs November, with new orders falling to 14.5 vs 20.4 prior.

Weak housing: The NAHB housing market index, which surveys homebuilders, fell to the lowest level since 2015 in December. The index dropped to 56 vs expectations of an unchanged 60 print. A gauge of the NAHB six-month sales outlook dropped to the lowest since March-2016.

Fed on Wednesday: Market expectations are for a relatively dovish hike from the Fed (and for it to temporarily pause its rate hike cycle in the beginning of 2019). Trump repeated his criticism of the Fed via Twitter:  "It is incredible that with a very strong dollar and virtually no inflation, the outside world blowing up around us, Paris is burning and China way down, the Fed is even considering yet another interest rate hike. Take the Victory!

Brexit news: UK PM Theresa May confirms that the meaningful vote on the Brexit deal in Parliament will be on the week of January 14. She faces yet another call of no-confidence, but this time it’s largely symbolic – opposition does not have power to topple the govt.