Sensex, Nifty rangebound; Vakrangee, Tata Motors most active

Moneycontrol Bureau12:59 pm Market Update: Equity benchmarks continued to be lacklustre. The Sensex was up 60.12 points at 26575.36 and the Nifty gained 8 points at 8178.80.12:55 pm USFDA nod: Shilpa Medicare has received an approval from the United States Food & Drug Administration (USFDA) for Capecitabine tablets USP, 150 mg and 500 mg.These tablets are bioequivalent and therapeutically equivalent to the reference listed drug product, Xeloda tablets, 150 mg and 500 mg of Hoffmann-La Roche, Inc.12:45 pm CPI likely to fall: The consumer price index (CPI) number is estimated to be at 3.8 percent for the month of November against 4.2 percent in October.

A CNBC-TV18 poll suggests that the November's CPI is seen between the range of 3.6-4 percent and food inflation is likely to come down to levels of 2.4-3.1 percent while vegetable deflation will continue and extend to over 7 percent against 5.7 percent in the October.

High frequency food price data for first 15 days of November showed a significant jump of 10.4 percent month-on-month(MoM) versus a 0.1 percent decline in October possibly due to demonitisation impact.

Further data suggests that post demonetisation vegetable prices in retail market have declined by up to 50 percent.   

The poll expects core CPI to be flat at around 5 percent against 4.9 (MoM).12:30 pm Buzzing: Sun Pharmaceutical Industries shares rebounded nearly a percent intraday after analysts feel the observations for Halol unit are not serious in nature.

They are still hopeful of early clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration to Halol unit. According to them, these are procedural in nature and not related to data integrity.

Surya Patra of PhillipCapital believes that most of these observations are about adequacy in the system, about the test procedures etc. He said, however, it was not talking anything about data generation aspect.

He feels all these nine observations are revolving around the test practices followed in the system. He doesn't anticipate any escalation of the matter from the current point. So, Patra thinks possibly it will take some time for Sun Pharma to convince about the processes or practices followed in the systems to get it plant cleared from USFDA.

He said the brokerage house remained positive on the stock with a target price of Rs 525.12:15 pm Interview: Mastek gained ground in today's trading session after the company board approved to acquire Trans American Infosystems (TAISTech) in US. The focus of the company is in e-commerce space which is in line with Mastek's thrust of digital transformation, said Sudharkar Ram, VC & MD of Mastek.Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Ram said the total consideration for TAISTech is at USD 25 million. He said a part of the upfront payment is funded through debt which is in the USD 10 million range. TAISTech is margin accretive and will have revenues of USD 30 million by March end.With this acquisition, Mastek will be a Rs 750-Rs 800 crore company in the next couple of years. The company may look at an EBITDA number of Rs 100 crores.Also read - Tata Motors shares gain 5% after block deals worth Rs 2,400 cr12:00 pm Market Check

Equity benchmarks remained in a positive terrain amid consolidation as investors awaited the outcome of Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting that will be announced Wednesday tonight.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 79.33 points at 26594.57 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 15.40 points to 8186.20.

Vakrangee (down 5 percent) and Tata Motors (up 2.6 percent) were the most active shares on exchanges today especially after multiple block deals in morning.

ITC, Reliance Industries, HDFC and L&T continued to support the market, up 0.4-1 percent whereas the selling in TCS and Infosys limited upside.

Oil prices were stable today, buoyed by soaring demand in Asia and as signs of a crude production cut organized by OPEC and other exporters materialized, tightening a market that has been grappling with years of oversupply. International Brent crude was trading at USD 55.57 per barrel and US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was down 0.3 percent at USD 52.69 a barrel.