Sensex, Nifty continue to consolidate; Reliance, HUL gain

Moneycontrol Bureau

10:58 am Market Update: Equity benchmarks remained lacklustre. The Sensex fell 20.34 points to 25130.01 and the Nifty declined 12.80 points to 7637.25.

About 1221 shares have advanced, 812 shares declined, and 133 shares are unchanged on the BSE.

10:45 am Hotel Leela in news: Hospitality chain Hotel Leelaventure completed the Rs 725-crore sale of its Goa property to Ceres Hotels.

The sale of 'The Leela, Goa' has been completed on December 14, 2015, Hotel Leelaventure said in a filing to BSE.

"The shareholding of the company shall remain unaffected pursuant to the aforesaid sale," it added.

The company had earlier in September this year had announced entering into a pact with Malaysia-based MetTube to sell the Goa property for a consideration of Rs 725 crore as part of its debt restructuring process.

10:30 am Gold Update: Gold was hurting from overnight losses today and the metal looked vulnerable to a drop back to multi-year lows on expectations of a US rate hike later this week.

The Federal Reserve will kick off its last policy meet of the year later on Tuesday. At the end of the two-day meet, the US central bank is widely expected to hike interest rates for the first time since June 2006.

Higher rates are expected to hurt demand for non-interest-paying bullion, while boosting the dollar. Gold has already slid 10 percent for the year, its third straight annual decline, in anticipation of higher rates.

10:15 am FII View: Ridham Desai, Morgan Stanley says he is looking for a turn in earnings, more policy action, revival in consumption and continuing domestic flows into equities in 2016.

His portfolio approach is to keep wide sector positions with a GARP (growth at a reasonable price)-oriented stock picking strategy.

"December 2016 BSE Sensex base case is 28,000 against 28,600 earlier and probability weighted outcome is forecast at 30,200 against 31,000 earlier, Desai says.

Also read - Fed meet: India to withstand likely rate hike, says SocGen

10:00 am Market Check

Equity benchmarks continued to consolidate in morning trade ahead of Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting tonight. Analysts expect Fed to hike interest rates by 25 basis points, which will be the first hike in last seven years.

The Sensex fell 39.08 points to 25111.27 and the Nifty declined 12.55 points to 7637.50. The broader markets marginally outperformed benchmarks. The market breadth was positive as about 1087 shares advanced against 764 declining shares on the BSE.

Reliance Industries and Hindustan Unilever topped the buying list on Sensex, up more than 1.5 percent. ITC, Sun Pharma and ONGC gained 0.5-1 percent while ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, SBI, Wipro and BHEL fell 1-2 percent.