Sensex, Nifty strong; GAIL, Bharti, ONGC lead gainers

Moneycontrol Bureau12:55 pm Market Update: Equity benchmarks maintained positive momentum as the Sensex was up 201.18 points at 25521.62 and the Nifty gained 61.15 points at 7762.05. The market breadth remained in favour of advances with ratio of 1585:835 on the BSE.12:45 pm FII View: Ridham Desai, MD & Head of India Research, Morgan Stanley is of the view that Indian shares will gain on Thursday morning if US Federal Reserve hikes rates, adding that the rupee too will be stable. According to him, India is much better placed in the world with respect to leverage.From Indian perspective there are three things, one the RBI had double rate cut at end of September and it is first time in the history of India since we opened our doors to the foreign capital flows, that it has moved against the prospective move of Fed and this underpins strong macro stability that India has achieved over the past couple of years on back of lower inflation and therefore higher saving and lower current account deficit. So, the Indian Central Bank is more confident of dealing with Fed event.12:30 pm Buzzing: Infrastructure major Larsen and Toubro (L&T) rose more than 1 percent intraday after its subsidiary has received second tranche investment from a Canada-based investment firm.

In June 2014, L&T and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (through its Singapore subsidiary) had signed an agreement to make investment of Rs 2,000 crore into L&T Infrastructure Development Projects in two tranches.

As a part of this definitive agreement, the second tranche investment of Rs 1,000 crore has made by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board's subsidiary on December 15, 2015 by subscribing to compulsorily convertible preference shares of L&T IDPL, says L&T in its filing to exchanges.

First tranche investment of Rs 1,000 crore was made on December 16, 2014 and the second was to be invested after 12 months from date of initial investment.12:15 pm Oil rally possible?: Global crude oil prices at seven-year lows will not continue and could swing upwards in as little as a year, OPEC Secretary-General Abdullah al-Badri said on Tuesday, as the low-price cycle leads to cuts in output from some producers.

Oil prices have fallen by about two-thirds since mid-2014, with Brent crude on Monday flirting with its lowest level since 2004 at just above $36 a barrel.

Most analysts, however, don't expect oil prices to regain the $100 mark until 2017 or later, arguing that producers will continue to pump out more crude than is being consumed.Also read - Indian mkt to rally post Fed hike, see stable rupee: Ridham12:00 pm Market Check

Strong trade continued on Dalal Street in noon trade as the Sensex hit double century following green tick in global peers ahead of outcome of Federal Reserve meeting tonight.

The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 201.77 points or 0.80 percent to 25522.21 and the 50-share NSE Nifty climbed 58.60 points or 0.76 percent to 7759.50. The BSE Midcap also gained nearly 1 percent as market breadth remained strong.

About 1561 shares advanced against 739 shares declining on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

In Asia, Nikkei and Hang Seng gained 2.6 percent and 1.9 percent, respectively, tracking positive lead from Wall Street. Analysts believe the rally in US and Europe overnight indicates markets are fully pricing in the expected Federal Reserve interest rate hike; the Fed's decision is due on Wednesday.

Shares of ONGC, Bharti Airtel, GAIL and ICICI Bank rallied 2-4 percent followed by Infosys, TCS, HDFC, L&T, SBI and Axis Bank. Mahindra & Mahindra was down nearly 4 percent after the Supreme Court has put a ban on registration of diesel vehicles (having over 2000cc engine capacity) partially in Delhi.