Sensex, Nifty consolidate; Midcap outperforms, M&M gains

Moneycontrol Bureau12:50 pm SREI in news: SREI Infrastructure may buy back BNP Paribas' stake in Equipment Financing Business, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting unnamed sources.

SREI and BNP Paribas hold 50 percent stake each in Equipment Financing Business. BNP Paribas had bought 50 percent stake in Equipment Financing Business for Rs 775 crore in 2007.

The management of SREI is not available for comment on the story.12:30 pm Buzzing: Shares of Sterlite Technologies gained more than 4 percent intraday. Its subsidiary Sterlite Grid has emerged as the lowest bidder for a transmission project in Odisha by quoting a lowest annual tariff of Rs 139.79 crore.

"For Common Transmission System for Phase-II Generation Projects in Odisha and immediate evacuation system for OPGC Project in Odisha, Sterlite Grid has emerged as the lowest bidder followed by Essel and Adani," a media report said quoting unnamed sources. Sterlite Grid is a Vedanta group firm.

Sterlite Grid quoted the lowest annual tariff of Rs 139.79 crore for this project, while Essel and Adani quotations were Rs 155.7 crore and Rs 165.92 crore in the financial bids opened on Monday. A arm of Power Finance Corp, PFC Consulting Ltd is conducting the auction of the project.12:15 pm Telecom performance in 2015: It was a towering feat for the telecom industry in 2015 to cross 100-crore subscriber mark, but the call-drop menace spoiled the party and the operators are now pulling up their socks to face greater competition with the imminent entry of Reliance Jio in 2016.It took a rap on the knuckles by the government for the mobile operators to beef up their network performance, which still remains far from the optimal levels with dropped calls still remaining a problem in many areas.The government is however are hopeful that the problem of call drops will become a thing of past in the new year with the operators putting up more towers, while more spectrum could also be made available to them at the earliest. Also read - Quality to matter more than price in 4G services: Experts12:00 pm Market Check

The market remained in a consolidation mode due to lack of volumes and ahead of expiry of December derivative contracts. The Sensex rose 23.53 points to 26057.66 while the Nifty fell 4.05 points to 7921.10.

The BSE Midcap index outperformed benchmarks, up 0.4 percent but the Smallcap index erased gains.

Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Auto, NTPC, GAIL and Adani Ports gained 1-2 percent while HUL and Coal India fell over a percent.

Asian equities traded mostly higher on the second day of 2015's final week, after the Japanese and South Korean markets erased morning losses and the Australian market totted up a more than 1 percent gain. That's a turnaround from earlier in the session, when analysts pointed to the overnight selloff in oil and yesterday afternoon's drop in Chinese markets as weighing on sentiment in Asia markets Tuesday.