• Share market LIVE updates: Indian indices opened in the red on Tuesday tracking global cues. Asian, US stock fell ahead of key decisions by the Federal Reserve and other central banks and as markets weighed worries over Omicron

Traders are braced for the Federal Reserve to taper stimulus more quickly and signal an interest-rate liftoff in 2022, both potential economic challenges. The Fed policy decision due Wednesday is among 20 central bank meetings this week that could stir market swings.

India’s annual wholesale price-based inflation accelerated to 14.23% in November, its highest in at least 12 years, boosted by bigger hikes in prices of fuel and food, government data showed on Tuesday.
November’s figure was up from 12.54% the previous month, as fuel and power prices rose 39.81% on the year versus 37.18% in October, while manufactured product prices rose 11.92%, against 12.04% in the prior month.

Six out of total 13 of SpiceJet’s 737 Max aircraft have started operating commercial passenger flights, the government has said
. All Max planes were grounded in India by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation on 13 March 2019, three days after the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX plane near Addis Ababa, which had left 157 people, including four Indians, dead.
SpiceJet had resumed operating its Max planes for commercial flight operations last month.

Dues of state power distribution companies stood at ₹1,00,000 crore till last week, including an 11-month outstanding of renewable companies, the Economic Times reported Tuesday citing sources.
Industry sources said several parts of Jharkhand are facing power cuts as state-owned Damodar Valley Corp is restricting supply in the wake of unpaid bills.

Gail (India) has issues tender seeking to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes for delivery into India and offering cargoes for loading from the US.

Globally, most of the markets have been doing well since last few days and yesterday morning too, we had favourable cues from the peers. We kick-started the week on a positive note as indicated by the SGX Nifty tad above 17600. During the first half, we witnessed some consolidation with some hint of profit booking. However, the selling aggravated as we stepped into the second half and as a result of this, market came off sharply to eventually close below the 17400 mark by shedding nearly eight tenths of a percent from the previous close.
It was certainly a bright start to the week but as we entered into the corridor of uncertainty, market started to feel some heat. Due to reinforced selling, we not only erased morning gains but went on to close well inside the negative terrain. If we look at yesterday’s price action in hindsight, we must accept that market has respected levels and as we alluded to in our previous commentary, a cluster of resistance around 17600 – 17700 has proved its significance. The coming session would be quite crucial for market because an extended correction from hereon will lead to resumption of recent downtrend. As far as levels are confirmed, 17200 – 17100 are to be considered as next supports; whereas on the higher side, 17500 – 17600 – 17700 remains to be a cluster of resistance.
Traders are advised to stay light and although there was stock specific profit booking seen yesterday, one can still continue with the same approach as we expect trades to happen in both direction.

The company will invest ₹950 crore in 2-3 years for setting up its third laminate plant and foray into the plywood and particle board business. It will invest ₹600 crore on machinery and ₹225 crore on the laminate capacity.

Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd said that the board of directors of the Company, at a meeting held today, in-principal approved buying exclusive online and offline rights to the global sports wear brand Reebok for the Indian market.

The construction arm of Larsen Et Toubro has secured a large order for its buildings & factories business from the Odisha government to construct clinical blocks and allied infrastructure for a state-of-the-art hospital in Cuttack. The duration of the EPC project is 30 months.

Adani Green Energy has inked a pact with state run Solar Energy Corp. of India to supply 4667 MW of green energy.
According to a company statement, this is the world’s largest ever green power purchase agreement (PPA).
“This is yet another step in our journey to enable India’s dual objective to accelerate India’s renewable energy footprint as well as promote domestic manufacturing under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat programme,” said Gautam Adani, chairman, Adani Group.
Following the proceedings at COP 26, it is increasingly evident that the world has to equitably transition to a low carbon economy faster than previously anticipated, he said.

The Supreme Court on Monday decided to examine whether gig workers and those working for app-based services can be treated as “unorganized workers” and thus be entitled to social security benefits such as insurance, provident fund, gratuity, maternity benefits and other welfare schemes that are denied them.
The case was brought to the court by the Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT) along with two individuals, one of whom is a driver with a cab aggregator.
Issuing notices on the petition to the Centre, along with four app-based operators—Ola, Uber, Swiggy, and Zomato—a bench of justices L. Nageswara Rao and B.R. Gavai posted the matter after four weeks.

Lupin Limited on Tuesday said it has received the Establishment Inspection Report (EIR) from the US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) for its Goa manufacturing facility, after the inspection of the unit in September. The US FDA has determined that the inspection classification of the facility is Voluntary Action Indicated (VAI).
“We are very happy to have received the EIR from US FDA with Voluntary Action Indicated classification for our Goa plant. This is a significant milestone as we build back our reputation of being best-in-class in Quality and Compliance. We are committed to manufacture and supply products of the highest quality from all our manufacturing sites.” said Vinita Gupta, CEO, Lupin.

Anand Rathi Wealth made a steady debut on stock exchanges on Tuesday, with shares listing at ₹600 apiece which was 9% higher than the issue price of ₹550 per share.
The ₹660 crore initial public offering (IPO) was subscribed 9.78 times in the price band of ₹530-550.
Ahead of the issue, Vikas Jain, analyst, Reliance Securities, had said that the IPO was valued at 51 times FY21 earnings and 9.5 times FY21 book value, which are at significant premium of its listed peer IIFL Wealth Management.
“Considering the superior asset under management (AUM) book (2 times of IIFL Wealth), income yield and return ratios, we believe the premium valuations are justified and the IPO is reasonably priced. However, limited gains can be expected hereon in the medium-term perspective, as incremental value accretion can be possible only with the sustainability of strong performance in ensuing quarters,” Jain had said.

American streaming platform Netflix has introduced a range of new price plans for India, lowering rates in an effort to woo more audiences and deepen penetration in the country.
The mobile-only plan, earlier priced at ₹199 per month, will now come for ₹149. The basic plan that allows access to all content on any one device has been significantly reduced to ₹199 versus ₹499.
The premium plan that works across four devices costs is cheaper too at ₹649. These rates will come into effect as of Tuesday.

Public sector banks have lost nearly ₹2.85 lakh crore on account of loan dues of 13 corporates even as the banks are used to bail out ailing financial institutions such as Yes Bank and IL&FS, United Forum of Bank Unions alleged on Monday.
In press release, UFBU’s Convener B Rambabu said the organisation calls for a two-day all India bank strike on December 16 and 17 protesting against Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill 2021 and opposing the centre’s alleged move to privatise PSBs.
According to the statistics given by the UFBU, the 13 corporates’ outstanding dues were at ₹4,86,800 crore and it was resolved at ₹1,61,820 crore resulting in a loss of ₹2,84,980 crore.

The markets have opened with a gap down; this is a definite reaction to the resistance we recently faced at 17500. For the markets to turn bullish, the index needs to close above 17500. Until we achieve that, the bias remains on the downside and rallies would be looked at opportunities to short the market. The support lies within the zone of 17150-17250.

“We are pleased to announce to all our stakeholders that HFCL Limited has raised ₹600 crores via QIP issue. The Fund Raising Committee of Directors at its meeting on December 10, 2021, approved the issue and allotment of 8,72,72,727 Equity Shares to 21 qualified institutional buyers at the issue price of Rs. 68.75 per Equity Share (including a premium of Rs.67.75 per Equity Share), aggregating to ₹600 crores approx,” the company said in a filing to stock exchanges.

Vedanta has said that the company and its group entities have withdrawn all their cases over retrospective tax demands from the revenue department to settle a nearly seven-year-old dispute with the government.
Given recent amendments that nullifies the retrospective tax imposed by the Finance Act, 2012, Vedanta and its all-related group entities have taken a step to settle the dispute over a March 11, 2015, order order passed by the deputy commissioner of income tax.

Retail inflation quickened to a three-month high in November, but remained within the central bank’s target band, giving it room to keep policy rates at a record low for longer to stimulate the economy.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) accelerated to 4.91% last month from 4.48% in October as food prices rose, offsetting the effect of a cut in fuel taxes, data released by the statistics department on Monday showed. A Reuters survey of economists expected inflation to be higher at 5.10%.
Food prices, which contribute to nearly half of CPI, rose 1.87% in November from 0.85% in the previous month, the data showed.

Shriram Group will consolidate its financial services businesses under a single entity as part of an expansive restructuring that is expected to lead to exits of Piramal Group and US private equity giant TPG Capital from the group’s unlisted holding firm, Shriram Capital Ltd.
Under the restructuring plan unveiled on Monday, unlisted Shriram Capital will merge with Shriram City Union Finance Ltd and Shriram Transport Finance Co. Ltd to create the nation’s largest retail finance non-banking financial company (NBFC).
This will result in the exits of Ajay Piramal-led Piramal Group and TPG from Shriram Capital. Both the investors were looking to exit Shriram Capital for the past few years after a failed attempt to merge with IDFC Bank in 2017. IDFC Bank subsequently merged with private lender Capital First, promoted by Warburg Pincus.

India’s private banks are rushing in to fill the void left by the shrinking branch network of state-owned banks that had to rationalize presence and avoid overlaps caused by a spate of mergers.
Public sector banks saw their network of branches start to decline after peaking in the March quarter of 2017 and by September this year, they recorded a net decline of 4,389 branches. Private sector banks, on the other hand, have increased their count by over 7,000 in the same period, showed data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). As of 30 September, public sector banks had 85,166 branches, while private lenders had 34,516 branches. IDBI Bank has been excluded from this count because it earlier used to be a public sector bank and was, in January 2019, classified as a private sector lender after insurance behemoth Life Insurance Corp. Of India (LIC) acquired a majority stake.
“Public sector banks have not been opening many new branches in this phase of consolidation, and at a time when loan growth is low, they did not want to increase operating expenditure,” said Asutosh Mishra, head of research (institutional equity) at Ashika Stock Broking.

Oil prices edged higher on Tuesday but price gains were capped due to investor worries about oil demand after renewed restrictions were imposed in Europe and Asia amid a rise in coronavirus cases.
Brent crude oil futures edged higher by 1 cent to $74.40 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures gained 1 cent to $71.30.
Meanwhile, OPEC on Monday raised its world oil demand forecast for the first quarter of 2022 but left its full-year growth prediction steady, saying the Omicron coronavirus variant would have a mild impact as the world gets used to dealing with the pandemic.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said in a monthly report it expects oil demand to average 99.13 million barrels per day (bpd) in the first quarter of 2022, up 1.11 million bpd from its forecast last month.

Shares of ITC, Vedanta, banks, telecom stocks, Apollo Hospitals, among others, will be in focus today.
Anand Rathi Wealth will debut on the stock exchanges today. The ₹660-crore IPO was subscribed 9.78 times, with the issue price band at ₹530-550 per share. The company had raised ₹194 crore from anchor investors.

Most Asian stocks slipped Tuesday amid caution over economic risks from the Omicron virus strain as well as central bank efforts to rein in elevated inflation. Treasuries and the dollar held gains.
MSCI Inc.’s Asia-Pacific share index fell for a third session, with Chinese technology stocks struggling. Concerns about China’s property sector have also flared anew, and the real-estate downturn likely contributed to a slowdown in the nation’s economic activity in November.
U.S. and European equity contracts edged higher. The S&P 500 on Monday dropped from a record and the technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 underperformed.
Japan’s Topix index rose 0.1%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 0.3%, South Korea’s Kospi index fell 0.2%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index index fell 0.9%. and China’s Shanghai Composite fell 0.4%.
Overnight, Wall Street stocks fell ahead of key decisions by the Federal Reserve and other central banks and as markets weighed lingering worries over the latest Covid-19 variant.
After last week’s strong performance, stocks spent most of the session in the red as Britain becames the latest to boost its response to the Omicron strain, after becoming the first country to officially announce a fatality from the latest virus mutation.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 0.9% at 35,650.95. The broad-based S&P 500 also dropped 0.9% to 4,668.97, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 1.4% to end at 15,413.28.
Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint. Download our App Now!!
Log in to our website to save your bookmarks. It’ll just take a moment.
Oops! Looks like you have exceeded the limit to bookmark the image. Remove some to bookmark this image.
Your session has expired, please login again.
You are now subscribed to our newsletters. In case you can’t find any email from our side, please check the spam folder.

source