Sensex, Nifty continue to consolidate; ITC, Infosys, SBI lead

Moneycontrol Bureau11:45 am International markets: The global rally still has legs left, believes Herald Van Der Linde, Head of Equity Strategist, Asia-Pacific at HSBC. Once Donald Trump comes in, his policies will become clearer. HSBC also expects inflation expectations in the Eurozone and the US to come down. In the Asian basket, HSBC is overweight on India. The domonetisation scheme, Van Der Linde said, is getting priced in by the markets now. In India, pockets like banks are looking interesting.11:30 am FII view: The market has not made a strong bottom yet and the current up move is only a recovery, feels Gautam Shah, Associate Director & Technical Analyst at JM Financial. Sharing his take on the markets with CNBC-TV18 Shah says, "There is no evidence on charts to suggest the market has bottomed out." He sees 7,700-7,800 as a strong bottom for the Nifty and believes the index will resume its downtrend once it hits 8,350-8,400. However, he is fairly confident that 2017 is going to see the second phase of the bull run that was halted in November following demonetisation. Shah is not surprised by the strength in the US indices and expects the Dow to test 20,000 in the near-term. However, he cautions that any decline in the markets there could spell trouble for India.Don't miss: Sheela Foam makes strong debut, lists at 18% premium over issue price

The market is on consolidation mode as the Sensex is up 53.04 points or 0.2 percent at 26747.32. The Nifty is up 7.65 points at 8254.50. About 1326 shares have advanced, 807 shares declined, and 127 shares are unchanged.

ITC, ONGC, Infosys, SBI and Tata Motors are top gainers while Bajaj Auto, HDFC twins, Coal India and Hero MotoCorp.

Ending its three-day winning run, the rupee today retreated from nearly a one-month high by falling 22 paise to 67.58 against the US dollar in early trade at the forex market on fresh demand for the American unit. Moreoever, weakness in other currencies including euro against the dollar after European Central Bank's decision to extend asset purchases until the end of next year, weighed on the rupee, forex dealers said.    However, a higher opening of the domestic equity market,capped the fall, the brokers added. Yesterday, the rupee had gained 27 paise to close at a near one-month high of 67.36 against the US currency due to continuous selling of the greenback by exporters and banks.