Taper countdown begins; will Nifty's upmove continue?

European markets trimmed losses. The Indian market consolidated for the fifth consecutive session. The Nifty closed at 5850.20, up 9.65 points from Monday's close while the Sensex gained 61.56 points at 19804.03.

Meanwhile, Asian markets were trading on a mixed note today morning.

Back home, the government stepped up its war against the current account deficit and hiked import duty on gold jewellery from 10 percent to 15 percent. Domestic jewellers have welcomed the move saying that it will protect the industry.

In another key development, the Cabinet Committee on Investment met last evening to discuss clearance for infrastructure projects worth Rs 1.6 lakh crore.

Currency

The dollar held near a four-week trough against a basket of major currencies. The euro traded at 1.3357/USD, near a two and half week peak and the yen hovered near 99/USD.

The upcoming policy-meetings of the two central banks -- the US Federal Reserve, and RBI, kept the Indian currency markets on a tight leash. The rupee saw its biggest single-day fall in two weeks. It gave up the 62-per-dollar mark conquered on Monday to close at 63.37 per dollar.

Commodities

Crude tumbled to multi-week lows as Syria fears eased and after output resumed at a large oilfield in western Libya. Brent traded shy of USD 108/barrel and has lost over 6 percent from its peak of USD 117 plus in late August. Nymex too has slipped to USD105/barrel levels.

From precious metals space, gold prices have slipped below USD 1,300/oz on prospects of a modest reduction in the Fed's bond-buying stimulus. Gold has lost 21 percent YTD since the Fed first announced its intention to look at tapering.

Stocks to watch

There's a new twist in the Holcim-Ambuja deal. Sebi has written to the stock exchanges sharing its observations and directions on the deal.

Its the second big exit at Infosys BPO this month and the 5th in Infosys over the last three months. Kartik Jayaraman, global sales head of Infosys BPO, has put in his papers.

As the rupee makes a recovery and the Indian basket of crude cools off, oil sector analysts are questioning the claims of OMCs on the level of under recoveries that they currently are bearing.

Crisis hit NSEL has appointed Saji Cherian as the managing director and chief executive officer. This, even as NSEL’s former MD and CEO Anjani Sinha has taken the blame for the NSEL fiasco. In an affidavit filed with a local magistrate, Sinha has also accused his senior team for the mess.

Apollo Hospitals’ founder Prathap Reddy confirmed that the group is in talks with KKR to offload a stake in the holding company, PCR investments. It expects a deal involving a 7 percent stake to be concluded in a few weeks.

US

Markets closed higher with the Dow and S&P 500 gaining for the third-straight session. The Federal Reserve has kicked off their two-day meeting and investors expect the central bank to scale back purchases by USD 10 billion a month while keeping interest rates close to zero. The S&P 500 closed above 1,700 for the first time since August 5 and is just a few points shy of its record high of 1709. The Nasdaq logged its best close in 13 years.

The 10-year US treasury yields are little changed ahead of the big event, hovering near their lowest levels so far in September after falling earlier on Monday.

Europe

European markets trimmed losses to close lower, but investors remained cautious ahead of the Fed's decision on QE tapering. The German Z-E-W Survey showed economic sentiment in the euro zone rising in September to hit its highest levels since 2009. However, euro zone trade data for July released at the same time showed a decline of 1.6 percent on the month.