Sensex, Nifty off day's high; Infosys, Tata Motors, Hindalco up

Moneycontrol Bureau11:45 am Jaitley on RBI policy: A day ahead of Reserve Bank meet, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today pitched for easier monetary policy, arguing that high interest rates can make the economy sluggish.

"The government has stuck to fiscal deficit commitments and inflation has been under control. Therefore, I do hope that this movement will continue in order to make our economy more competitive with more competitive interest rates," he said while addressing the CII Annual session.

Reserve Bank will hold its first bi-monthly monetary policy review for 2016-17 tomorrow.

The finance minister also stressed that the debate on crucial economic issues, like interest rates, should move in the right direction in India, which is a "large and noisy democracy".11:30 am ITC under pressure: ITC shares slipped 3 percent intraday after the company shut down its cigarette factories on confusion over pictorial warnings. CLSA says while the news flow creates uncertainty, it sees negligible impact of the factory closure as pipeline inventory would allow ITC to meet demand. The brokerage has retained buy on the stock with a target price of Rs 370.

Initial plan of the Health Ministry to expand the pictorial warnings to 85 percent of the cigarette front packaging met stiff resistance from the industry. A parliamentary committee recommended a 50 percent warning but there has been no formal notification by the government.

"Owing to ambiguity on the policy related to revision of Graphic Health Warnings on tobacco product packs, the members are unable to continue manufacturing cigarettes from April 1, 2016," Tobacco Institute of India (TII) said last week. Not only ITC but also other companies including Godfrey Phillips, VST Industries closed their factories.

11:15 am Buzzing: Shares of Adani Enterprises today surged nearly 8 percent after the company's USD 21.7 billion coal mine project in Australia won three mining leases.

Adani's 21.7 billion dollars coal mine project in Australia yesterday won three mining leases but the Indian mining giant said a final decision on investment will be taken only after the resolution of "politically-motivated" legal challenges against its plans to build one of the world's largest coal mines.

Queensland minister for Natural Resources and Mines Anthony Lynham approved the individual lease grant for 70441 Carmichael, 70505 Carmichael East and 70506 Carmichael North, which are estimated to contain 11 billion tonnes of thermal coal.

Don't miss - 'Panama leak' reveals hidden asssets of Indian bizmen, celebs

11:00 am Market Check

The market erased more than half of gains due to selling in oil, banks and select FMCG stocks. The Sensex rose 37.29 points to 25306.93 and the Nifty advanced 17.45 points to 7730.50.

The broader markets also lost some shine, rising 0.3 percent each but the market breadth remained positive. About 1325 shares advanced against 750 declining shares on BSE.

Hindalco Industries topped buying list on Sensex, up 4 percent followed by Infosys, Tata Motors, M&M, Dr Reddy's Labs, Wipro, Bajaj Auto and Tata Steel with more than 1 percent upside. ITC, Lupin and ONGC were down more than 1 percent.