Nifty holds 7950; HUL, Dr Reddy's Labs, Wipro lead gainers

Moneycontrol Bureau12:59 pm Market Update: Equity benchmarks erased some gains in afternoon trade. The Sensex rose 20.35 points to 26166.02 and the Nifty advanced 14.45 points to 7949.70.About 1470 shares have advanced, 1083 shares declined, and 128 shares are unchanged on the BSE.12:45 pm Auto sales: Country's second largest commercial vehicle maker Ashok Leyland also missed analysts' expectations with the November sales rising 16 percent year-on-year to 8,971 units.

Medium and heavy commercial vehicle (MHCV) sales increased 21 percent to 6,297 units and light commercial vehicle sales (LCV) were up 6 percent to 2,674 units compared to year-ago period.

Motilal Oswal expected 29 percent year-on-year growth in total sales while Nomura estimated MHCV segment growth at 25 percent for November.12:30 pm Buzzing: Shares of Bharti Airtel slipped 4 percent intraday as Credit Suisse has maintained underperform rating. The brokerage has also lowered target price to Rs 270 per share and cut earnings per share of FY18 by 6 percent.

Credit Suisse is worried about Bharti Airtel's Project Leap, wherein it is planning to invest Rs 60,000 crore over three years. The brokerage feels Project Leap is a 40 percent step-up in the annual capex run-rate while surprise for markets could come from not only the increased per year quantum, but also its sustenance over a three year period.12:15 pm RBI on base rate calculation: The Reserve Bank today said it will shortly announce methodology for determining the base rate taking into account the marginal cost of funds, a move aimed at ensuring that banks pass on policy rate cuts to borrowers."In the meantime, since the rate reduction cycle that commenced in January, less than half of the cumulative policy repo rate reduction of 125 basis points has been transmitted by banks. The median base lending rate has declined only by 60 basis point," RBI said in its fifth bi-monthly monetary policy statement, 2015-16.

Base rate is the minimum benchmark rate below which a bank cannot lend.Also read - Not too many positives for mkt; like Maruti: Kotak12:00 pm Market Check

Equity benchmarks continued to be in positive momentum with the Nifty holding 7950 level, aided by FMCG, metals, banks and oil stocks.

The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 81.91 points to 26227.58 and the 50-share NSE Nifty climbed 33.50 points to 7968.75. The broader markets continued to outperform benchmarks; the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained 0.5-0.7 percent.

The market breadth also remained positive as about 1482 shares advanced against 958 declining shares on the BSE.

HUL, Dr Reddy's Labs, Wipro, Tata Steel, Vedanta and Hindalco Industries topped the buying list on Sensex, up 2-3 percent while Bharti Airtel plunged 3 percent.