The year 2018 began with the Nirav Modi scam hitting Punjab National Bank (PNB). The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) swung into action to lay down a new dispensation for the accounting of stressed assets by banks. This led to the banking sector reporting its worst ever quarterly performance with accumulated losses of Rs 55,085 crore in January-March 2018 quarter.

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Nomura on CONCOR:
Maintains BUY call, target at Rs 800 per share.
Railways cuts haulage charge for empty containers and empty wagons by 25%.
Cut in empty charges is a key positive.
Company had incurred Rs 122 crore in empty running costs in H1FY19.
On a full-year basis, estimate Rs 60 crore lower empties cost.

Edelweiss Finance on Shriram Transport:
BUY call, target at Rs 1422 per share.

Kotak Institutional Equities on Tech Mahindra:
Retains ADD call, fair value at Rs 865 per share.
Company see telecom business growth of 5-7% in FY20 W/o 5G contribution. 
5G opportunity can be large with revenue flow uptick in FY21.
Predictability is returning to operations and financial performance.
Early investments position the company well for 5G opportunity.
Margin in FY20 will at least match FY19 levels.

CLSA on Pharma:
Indian pharma market growth at 6% YoY in November against 15% in October
Growth on a TTM basis remains robust at 11%.
Contribution of pricing to growth turned positive after a long time.
Cipla and Lupin grew ahead of market whereas Sun Pharma’s growth trailed market.
Dr Reddy’s Labs witnessing above industry growth over the last few months.
Expect domestic market to witness 10-12% growth in FY19. 

Edelweiss Finance on Shriram Transport:
Target at Rs 1,422 per share.
Expect moderation in credit cost on account of containing slippage going forward.
Liquidity position comfortable and valuation is attractive.
Major contributor to growth will be rural market. 
Expect AUM to grow at 18% CAGR between FY18-FY20.

Edelweiss Finance on Ashoka Buildcon:
BUY call, target at Rs 201 per share.
Company committed Rs 150 crore in equity in its city gas distribution arm.
City gas partnership a positive development for company.
Valuation attractive at current levels.
Company can grow its CGD business while reducing its own equity commitment.
Healthy order book, a lean B/S and robust traffic growth key positives. 

Asia: Markets stumbled amid heightened concerns about a slowing global economy sent Wall Street stocks skidding to their lowest levels in more than a year. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan shed 0.25 percent in early trade, while Japan's Nikkei tumbled 1.5 percent.

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.

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Kotak Mahindra Bank: The Bombay High Court has refused to order a stay on the Reserve Bank of India's December 31 deadline to Kotak Mahindra Bank seeking dilution of promoter stake. This means that the bank will have to reduce promoter stake by 10 percent in the next 15 days or risk facing action from the RBI.

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.

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Subhash Chandra-promoted Zee Entertainment Enterprises (Zee) and Kalanidhi Maran-owned Sun TV, two of the biggest broadcasters in the television space seems to be struggling with the growth of digital content. Though, both the players won’t be out of business in the near term, but there is an overhang on the growth of traditional media.

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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.

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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.