- Sensex and Nifty Close In The Red But Off Lows

Indian shares ended mildly lower on Wednesday, after hitting record highs in two previous sessions, as major banking heavyweights including IndusInd Bank, SBI, and HDFC Bank fell during the day. Investors also turned cautious ahead of the signing of an initial trade deal.  US markets dipped overnight while broader Asian markets also slipped on Wednesday on concerns that the tariff dispute is not over.

The Sensex settled 80 points lower at 41,873, while Nifty ended 19 points lower at 12,343. Meanwhile, broader markets outperformed with Nifty Midcap and Nifty Smallcap indices up 1 percent each. Among stocks, Yes Bank, Hero MotoCorp, Tata Motors, Titan, and GAIL were the top gainers on Nifty, while IndusInd Bank, Wipro, SBI, Infosys, and BPCL led the losses.

Sectoral indices were mixed for the day. Nifty Realty and Nifty Auto rose the most, up 1.1 percent, while Nifty Media and Nifty Metal rose 0.7 percent each for the day. Nifty Pharma also advanced 0.6 percent and Nifty FMCG added 0.1 percent. Meanwhile, Nifty Bank declined 0.8 percent and Nifty IT fell 0.1 percent.

Bharti Airtel rose 0.63 percent on Wednesday after the company raised Rs 14,400 crore through qualified institutional placement (QIP) and Rs 7,400 crore through Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds (FCCBs). 

In its BSE regulatory filing, the company said, " The company accordingly will issue 32,35,95,505 equity shares of face value of Rs. 5 per equity share at a price of Rs. 445 which implies a discount of 1.57 percent on the SEBI determined floor price of Rs. 452.09 per equity share. Post the QIP issue, the holding of promoter and promoter group will be 58.98 percent as against 62.70 percent."

 At 2:20 pm, the share price was trading 0.29 percent lower at Rs 468 per share on the NSE. 

Indian equities are in a final phase of consolidation, said Yes Securities in a report. The brokerage envisages two scenarios in 2020, first, where Nifty moves to its best‐case scenario of 12,915-13,000, with the rising possibility of a sudden and steep fall, or second, the rise in large caps decelerates this year and broader market participation picks up somewhat. 

An attractive earnings yield, lacklustre alternate asset classes, benign long‐term oil prices, and a supportive global risk‐on trade are other positives for equities, it added. READ MORE 

We are seeing some green shoots in terms of rural economy and therefore, all the small and midcap companies in terms of operational gearing in the slowing economy will start to reverse, said Andrew Holland, CEO of Avendus Capital Alternate Strategies in an interview to CNBCTV18.

“However, I think that’s it’s okay to dip down a bit in certain stocks which you feel would be beneficiaries of that or leaders in the sector, but to say all midcaps and small caps should do well from here is pushing a bit. So I would rather say little bit more evidence of recovery in the economy before dipping down into mid and small caps in a big way but certainly, that could be the flavor for the second half,” he added.

READ MORE

IndusInd Bank, Infosys, HDFC, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and SBI remained few of the heavyweights that traded in the red. Meanwhile, Hero MotoCorp, Titan, M&M, Asian Paints and NTPC were the top losers of the index. 

Out of 11 Nifty50 sectoral indices, 6 traded in the red while 5 were in the green. Nifty Private Bank remained the worst-performing index of the day, down 1.17 percent. 

1. Indian equity benchmark indices extended losses in the early afternoon session on Wednesday due to the heavy selling in PSU banks. 

2. At 1:00 pm, the Sensex was trading 249.89 points or 0.59 percent lower at 41,703.62 while the Nifty50 index was at 12,294.30, down by 67.25 points or 0.54 percent. Broader indices traded slightly higher, with Nifty Midcap100 and Nifty Smallcap100 index trading higher by 0.48 percent and 0.49 percent respectively. 

3. Nifty Private Bank remained the worst-performing index, down 1.17 percent followed by Nifty Bank and Nifty Financial Services. 

4. YES Bank, Hero MotoCorp, Titan, Hindalco and Tata Motors were the Nifty top gainers while IndusInd Bank, Wipro, Infosys, Dr Reddy's Laboratories and HDFC remained the top losers. 

The share price of Cox & Kings slipped 5 percent after Milind Ramesh Gandhi resigned from his position of Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the company with effect from January 14 citing personal reasons. 

Shares of IndusInd Bank limited declined as much as 4.5 percent in early trade on Wednesday on asset quality concerns, a day after the private sector lender released its third-quarter results.

At 9.46 am, IndusInd Bank quoted at Rs 1,424.95 per share, down 3.83 percent on the National Stock Exchange. The scrip opened at the day's high of Rs 1,463.40, down over 2 percent from its Tuesday's close of Rs 1,481.65. The stock touched the day's low at Rs 1,416.

Almost 34 lakh shares exchanged hands on NSE with at least three large block deals of up to Rs 9.04 crore reported on NSE in the trade so far today.

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1. Indian equity benchmark indices held on to the losses in the last one hour on Wednesday after banks continued to slip. 

2. At 11:30 am, the Sensex was trading 210.87 points or 0.50 percent lower at 41,746.15 while the Nifty50 index was at 12,300.75, down by 61.55 points or 0.49 percent. Broader indices traded slightly higher, with Nifty Midcap100 and Nifty Smallcap100 index trading higher by 0.59 percent and 0.36 percent respectively. 

3. Nifty Private Bank remained the worst-performing index, down 1.10 percent followed by Nifty Bank and Nifty Financial Services. 

4. YES Bank, Titan, Hero MotoCorp, Zee Entertainment and Coal India were the Nifty top gainers while IndusInd Bank, Wipro, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, UPL and Infosys remained the top losers. 

1. Received final approval from regulators for transfer of special purpose vehicle (SPV)

2. 8 SPVs to be transferred from Sadbhav Infrastructure to Indinfravit Trust

3. Received approval for transfer of 100 percent stake of 8 SPVs

4. Company expects to receive the stake sale proceeds by mid-February

5. Equity value of deal at Rs 2,725 crore

6. Will receive Rs 2,000 crore in cash, Rs 725 crore as units of Indinfravit

7. The company received arbitration awards worth Rs 400 crore over the last few months

8. Expect more arbitration awards to come over next 3-4 months

9. Conciliation process in progress for Rs 200 crore worth of arbitration claims

10. Not expecting any more cancellations from orderbook

11. Expect approval for Ahmedabad ring project in next 1 month

12. Expect Sadbhav Infra-Engineering merger to be completed over next 6-7 months

The stock price of Wipro slipped over 3 percent intraday on Wednesday on weak Q3FY20 earnings. 

At 9:55 am, the shares were trading 3.03 percent lower to Rs 249.40 per share on the NSE while on an intraday, the share price slipped 3.53 percent at Rs 248.10. 

The IT major registered a 3.8 percent sequential decline in consolidated profit at Rs 2,455.9 crore for the quarter ended December 2019. However, total revenue from operations grew 2.3 percent sequentially to Rs 15,470.5 crore.

EPS for the quarter was Rs 4.3 per share and grew 3.2 per cent year-on-year.

Click here to read Wipro's Q3FY20 earnings. 

- Buy Balkrishna Industries with a stop loss of Rs 1,060, target at Rs 1,095

Here are the top buy sell calls by Sudarshan Sukhani, Mitessh Thakkar

Among brokerages, Credit Suisse is 'neutral' on Wipro, while Citi and Macquarie are bullish on IndusInd Bank. Nomura slashed target price for Bandhan Bank to Rs 585 from Rs 625 earlier saying that the earnings were marginally weaker than what they had expected.

Click here to read the top brokerage calls for Wednesday.

US will keep tariffs on China goods through US election 

Gold

Oil

Amazon founder and chief executive officer Jeff Bezos on Tuesday started his three-day visit to India by paying floral tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat in New Delhi.

"Just landed in India and spent a beautiful afternoon paying my respects to someone who truly changed the world. 'Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.' - Mahatma Gandhi," his tweet said.

Over three days, Bezos will review and plan Amazon's operations in the country.

Bezos is also due to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other government officials as well as industry leaders such as Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, according to people familiar with his itinerary.

Read the full article here.

Indian benchmark indices BSE Sensex and NSE’s Nifty 50 are expected to open little changed on Wednesday as investors turned cautious ahead of the signing of a US-China trade deal and amid the Q3 corporate earnings season.

Wipro reported a 2.17 percent fall in its consolidated net profit for Q3FY20, while MindTree posted a 3 percent rise in its net profit.

Click here to read all the top stocks before the opening bell trade. 

Alright, let us prep you quickly with everything that you should know before the market opens. Indian benchmark indices BSE Sensex and NSE’s Nifty 50 are expected to open little changed on Wednesday as investors turned cautious ahead of the signing of a US-China trade deal and amid the Q3 corporate earnings season.

Asia: Asia Pacific markets traded mixed on Wednesday ahead of the US and China signing a phase one trade deal. Nikkei shares in Japan were down 0.23 percent after the first half-hour of trade while the Topix index fell 0.19 percent. 

US: US stocks dipped on Tuesday, reversing earlier intraday record highs, following a report that the United States would likely maintain tariffs on Chinese goods until after November's presidential election. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 0.11 percent at 28,939.67 points, while the S&P 500 lost 0.15 percent to 3,283.15.

To read more, check out this article.

The Sensex settled 93 points higher at a record close of 41,952, while Nifty also ended at a new closing high of 12,362, up 33 points. In intra-day deals, the Sensex rose as much as 134 points to a new high of 41,994, while Nifty also hit a record high for the third straight session. It jumped 45 points to its record high of 12,374. READ MORE HERE

Good morning, readers, a very happy Makar Sankranti and Pongal! This is Mousumi Paul. I am a sub-editor at CNBCTV18.com. 

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