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 Dewan Housing Finance Corp. ltd (DHFL) traded at Rs 215.30, down by 1.24 percent. The stock opened at Rs 215.95, falling from Monday's close of Rs 218. The non-banking financial firm will divest its entire stake in DHFL Pramerica Asset Managers & DHFL Pramerica Trustees. Meanwhile, the Nifty50 traded lower by 20 points, or 0.19 percent, to trade at 10,867.85 at 1.30 pm. The Sensex was down by 46 points, or 0.13 percent, to 36,224.

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. 

Ace Investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala is looking to reduce his capital commitment in Star Health Insurance, which is being acquired by Safecrop Holdings, a source close to the matter told CNBC-TV18. Safecrop Holdings is a consortium of WestBridge AIF, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and Madison Capital. It had, in August this year, signed a definitive agreement with the shareholders of Star Health to purchase their shares in the company for Rs 6,500 crore.

Read full report here

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

Shares of Indraprastha Gas ltd surged nearly 3 percent as brokerage firm Motilal Oswal Securities reportedly increased its target price on the shares, maintaining its "buy" rating on the stock. At 12.26 pm, shares traded at Rs 260.20, down by 0.78 percent. The Nifty50 slipped by more than 40 points, or 0.37 percent, to trade at 10,848.

Shares of Infosys fell more than 2 percent on Tuesday, in line with other IT companies, on the back of stronger rupee. Appreciating rupee hurts software exporters including domestic IT services firms as weakening dollar will translate into lower earnings for these firms.

Read full details here

Shares of Ashoka Buildcon gained 8 percent to hit their one-month high of Rs 137.95 as Morgan Stanley India Infrastructure will invest Rs 1.5 billion in the company's city gas distribution business, Unison Enviro. The arm has just started commercial operations of its first city gas distribution project in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra. The company has won two additional city gas distribution licences, one in Latur and Osmanabad in Maharashtra, and another in Chitradurga and Davangere in Karnataka. At 10.30 am, shares of the company traded 4.04 percent higher at Rs 132.75. So far in 2018, the stock shed 18 percent.

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 automobile companies gained today, despite weakness in the broader market, on expectation that farm loan waivers announced in various states would pump up demand for vehicles. Shares of Mahindra & Mahindra, Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto and Tata Motors were up 1-2% on the Nifty 50, while the Nifty Auto index was up 0.4%. Farm loan waivers have been announced in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Assam. 

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.

The Nifty slipped below the 10,850 mark in initial trade, dipping more than 57 points, or 0.53 percent, to 10,831. The Sensex also declined by 0.42 percent, or by 151 points, to 36,118. IT stocks were under pressure with Infosys declining more than 2 percent. ZEEL, Wipro, Tech Mahindra and Eicher Motors were among top five losers, falling between 1.25 percent and 2 percent. Top 5 gainers included HPCL and BPCl, both rising more than 1.55 percent, while Tata Motors rose 1.3 percent, JSW Steel and Bajaj Finserv rose nearly 0.7 percent. Midcaps were also under pressure, but outperformed frontline indexes. Both the Nifty MidCap and BSE MidCap were  marginally down. Among sectoral indexes, only 8 sectors advanced with BSE Oil & Gas leading by rising 0.24 perecnt. BSE IT, Teck, Nifty IT and Nifty PSU Banks were among notable sectors declining among 35 indexes.

The rupee opened higher at 71.33 against the US dollar on Tuesday. It had closed at 71.54 against the greenback on Monday.

The Sensex settled at 36,226, down by more than 43 points, or 0.12 percent lower. The Nifty also started lower by more than 37 points, or 0.34 percent at 10,850.90 at 9.08 am.

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.

Read full story here

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.

Check for more market opening cues

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.

Check out more hot stocks today

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.

Read full story here

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.