Nifty hovers around 7800, Sensex firm; Reliance, HUL drag

Moneycontrol Bureau11:50 am Rupee call: The rupee will touch 68 to the US dollar by end of this year, Richard Yetsenga, Global Head - Financial Markets Research at ANZ Research tells CNBC-TV18. He says weakness in emerging market (EM) currencies will continue in the near term and sees the dollar strengthening.

On the impending rate hike by the US Federal Reserve, Yetsenga says the "Fed doesn't know what they want to do."

The Fed might go for a 25 basis points (bps) rate cut if the US market remains stable till the meeting that is scheduled for second week of September, he adds.

11:30 am Buzzing: Shares of Jet Airways rose 4 percent intraday on Thursday as as it plans to merge its loss making subsidiary JetLite with itself. This move comes in eight years after the JetLite acquisition. Post merger, Jet Lite will operate as a separate division of the Naresh Goyal-promoted airline company.

Jet Airways had bought Sahara Airlines in April, 2007, for Rs 1,450 crore after an arbitration award. It later renamed Sahara Airlines as JetLite and operated it as a low-cost arm till November last year.

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The market is still holding its feet strongly. The Sensex is up 232.29 points or 0.9 percent at 25685.85 and the Nifty is up 75.55 points or 0.9 percent at 7792.55. About 1542 shares have advanced, 492 shares declined, and 60 shares are unchanged.

Tata Steel, BHEL, Axis Bank, Tata Motors and Vedanta are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are GAIL, HUL, Lupin, Coal India and Reliance.

Oil prices fell in Asia followed a mixed US petroleum report that showed an increase in reserves but a dip in production. Prices turned sharply lower Tuesday and have been edging down since after weak manufacturing data from China and the US clouded the outlook for demand growth in the two biggest energy consumers.