Nifty bears were active around the 18,200 level, and the index remained under pressure throughout the day. It is stuck in a broad range between 17,900 and 18200, and a break on either side will lead to trending moves. The options data shows aggressive writing at the 18,200CE strike, and the lower-end support is visible at 18,000PE, where the put side has the most open interest.

From the Sensex pack, Tata Motors and Maruti were the top gainers, rising over 3%. HCL Tech, HDFC Bank, HDFC, Asian paints, IndusInd Bank and TCS also closed with gains

Sensex ends flat after volatile trade, Nifty holds 18,110; DMart jumps 3%, Axis Bank drops 2%; Sonata Software, PNB Housing Finance, Tata Communications, Sterlite Technologies are some of the top gainers and losers in closing trade.

The new business structure affirms the group’s focused approach towards the paints business. The demerger will lead to operational flexibility and facilitate businesses to independently pursue their growth plans through organic & inorganic routes," the company said in a BSE filing.

Investors must focus on the processes and controlling the controllable and not worry too much about other things, for e.g., macroeconomic factors like interest rates, inflation and crude oil prices which are beyond one’s control.

Among stocks, Rheinmetall added 1.2% after the German defence group's chief executive forecast sales would grow to 11-12 billion euros ($12-$13 billion) in 2025, according to German magazine Stern.Swatch Group edged up 0.8% after the Swiss watchmaker said it was positive about a recovery in the China market and also reported a 2.5% increase in 2022 sales.

The company's return on assets (RoA) also surged to the highest-ever, at 4.50%, in the third quarter of 2022, a press release said. This marked a surge of 158 basis points YoY and 46 basis points as compared to the last quarter.

The BOJ's surprise policy tweak on Dec. 20 to widen the trading band for the 10-year government bond yield had pushed the index lower.But the Nikkei has been on an upward trend since the central bank kept its ultra-loose policy unchanged at its policy meeting last week. It has gained 4.62% so far this month and is set to post its biggest monthly gain since October.

The stock which is part of the S&P BSE Smallcap index is sustaining above the neckline of the rounding bottom pattern placed closer to Rs 300 which suggests that the upside remains intact. The stock closed at Rs 344 on 20 January 2023.

It is a well known fact that in order to get better valuations on the street, companies tend to inflate their profits. How do they do it ? In simple words, either by showing higher than actual sales, essentially inflating the topline. Second, don't show expenses by using creative accounting methods and not booking certain expenses and show higher than actual profit. The end result, higher earnings which create a rosy picture of the company and take investors for a ride.

It was also alleged that the unlawful gains that had accrued to the noticees as a result of their alleged front-running activity was to the tune of Rs 68.88 lakh and resulted in the violations of PFUTP rules, Sebi said in an order passed on Monday.

It seems the institutions are trying to bring their average price down as most of the stocks they have been buying have been underperformers and more importantly, the outlook does not give many reasons for a fresh buy, independent market expert Ambareesh Baliga told ETMarkets.com.

Route Mobile's EBITDA improved to Rs 128.3 crore in Q3 FY23, recording a growth of 66.19% YoY and 17.28% QoQ. EBITDA margin de-grew to 13% in Q3 FY23 as against 13.7% posted in Q3 FY22.Meanwhile, the company said that the board of directors in its meeting to be held on Thursday, 26 January 2023 will consider a second interim dividend, if any, for the financial year 2022-23.

Star investor Vijay Kedia publicly holds 15 stocks with a net worth of over Rs 650.5 crore, as per the latest corporate shareholdings filed. In the December quarter, Kedia included shares of Siyaram Silk Milk in his kitty. Here is a list of stocks where Vijay Kedia bought and sold his stake, according to data available on Trendlyne:

Gland Pharma Ltd on Monday reported a 15 per cent decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 231.95 crore for the third quarter ended December 2022, impacted by production delays due to supply disruptions.

The core connectivity portfolio reported growth of over 6% year-on-year in revenue, and the digital platforms and services delivered growth of over 17.2%, according to the statement.

"Beat was across operating metrics, especially with NIMs soaring as much as 30 bps QoQ to 4.26%," ICICI Securities said. Kotak Institutional Equities, on the other hand, doesn't see material risk to its earnings forecast as the bank has higher provisions made in recent years.

In India, trade settlement used to take place on a ‘T+2’ basis, meaning that the securities bought or sold by an investor will reflect in his/her demat account after a period of 2 days.

"Beat was across operating metrics, especially with NIMs soaring as much as 30 bps QoQ to 4.26%," ICICI Securities said. Kotak Institutional Equities, on the other hand, doesn't see material risk to its earnings forecast as the bank has higher provisions made in recent years.

As Q3 earning season picks up and NIFTY stays in a volatile mode, there are select midcaps which are witnessing an improvement in their scores. A score improvement coming at a time market is waiting for a major event term of budget and also the fact that valuation are still very high on over basis, stock doing wrET screener powered by Refinitiv’s Stock Report Plus applies different algorithms & filters to all BSE and NSE stocks, and lists down stocks which fulfill the various criteria as specified into the algorithms & filters.

Four stocks from two sectors which have very little or nothing in common. However analysts are bullish on select stocks from both sectors. ET screener powered by Refinitiv’s Stock Report Plus lists down quality stocks with high upside potential over the next 12 months, having an average recommendation rating of “buy” or "strong buy". The screener applies different algorithms for all BSE and NSE stocks. This predefined screener is only available to ET Prime users.

The stock peaked out in January 2022 and has followed it up by making lower highs in the last week of April and December. Recently the price has bottomed out at 2880 and is making attempts to start a bullish phase. Price has given close above the resistance of a multi-month falling trendline.

DLF’ daily trend is sideways. Although, RSI for monthly, weekly, and daily is indicating a sideways trend. Based on option chain analysis, the range is between 350 and 370. Let’s plan a trade around this.

Global brokerage houses such as CLSA maintained a Buy rating on M&M, while Motilal Oswal has a Buy call on Tata Consumer, and Morgan Stanley raised the target price for Axis bank post Q3 results.

In the December quarter, FIIs increased their shareholding from 6.5% to 11% sequentially while mutual funds have also doubled their investment to own 4% stake in FSN E-Commerce Ventures, which runs Nykaa. Last month alone, mutual funds are estimated to have bought Nykaa shares worth over 400 crore, according to PRIME Database.

"L&T has a strong and diversified order book of ~Rs 3.7 lakh crore with revenue visibility of more than 2 years. Order prospects for the next few quarters are high at Rs 6.3 lakh crore. FY23-24 Budget expectations for increased outlay in infrastructure bodes well for a leader like L&T," Khadija Mantri, AVP Research at Sharekhan by BNP Paribhas, said.

Opening Bell: Sensex rises 230 pts, Nifty above 18,150; Lloyd Steel jumps 5%, Tata Communications down 2%

​Among the Sensex stocks, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, Infosys, IndusInd Bank, HDFC Bank, Tech Mahindra rose about 0.5-1%. Bajaj Finserv, Asian Paints, SBI, M&M, and Maruti also opened with gains.

ET Now spoke to various experts and here's what they have to recommend for today's trading session. Nooresh Merani has a buy/sell recommendation on ONGC and NTPC while Manoj Muralidharan Vayala has a buy/sell recommendation on ONGC and Kotak Bank for today's trading session. Check out the targets and stoploss.

Global brokerage firm Nomura believes Budget focus areas could include ‘subtle’ support of consumption, a strong focus on manufacturing with an emphasis on MSMEs, higher infrastructure spending, asset monetisation, and agriculture and rural spending.

In India, trade settlement used to take place on a ‘T+2’ basis, meaning that the securities bought or sold by an investor will reflect in his/her demat account after a period of 2 days.

Nifty formed a small-bodied bullish candle on the daily scale on Monday and negated its lower lows formation of the last four sessions.​

Since November 2022, the stock has remained in pressure and is currently oscillating around a 20-month EMA. The stock may witness near-term volatility, as its quarterly result is scheduled on 24th January 2023.

The January futures contract of the Nifty 50 on the Singapore Exchange indicates a positive start for domestic equities. The contract was trading at 18,221 points, up 74.5 points or 0.41% from the previous session.Volatility ahead of the expiry of the January contract is likely in the domestic market. Moreover, stock-specific action will be seen as a bunch of companies will detail earnings.

Investors are all but certain the Federal Reserve will implement a bite-sized interest rate hike next week even as the U.S. central bank remains committed to taming the hottest inflationary cycle in decades.

In a short press release on its website the RBI said that the action against the bank “is based on certain material supervisory concerns observed in the bank,” without giving any details. It is unclear as to what instances triggered the RBI action, tough Mauritius’ status as a tax haven has always invoked suspicion on outflows to the country.

Max Financial, the country's largest non-bank private life insurance company, is the parent entity of Max Life Insurance in which Axis Bank is a co-promoter with a 12.99% stake. Mitsubishi Sumitomo Insurance owns 21.86% of Max Financial Services. The Japanese group in 2012 bought out New York Life by buying its entire 26% stake in the then Max New York Life joint venture for ₹2,731 crore in cash, a deal that was then dubbed as the second largest in the insurance sector.

Sebi had passed the disgorgement order in the co-location case after complaints surfaced that a broker used NSE staffers to gain unfavourable server access and benefit monetarily. To be sure, the tribunal has directed NSE to deposit ₹100 crore to the investor protection and education fund created by Sebi.

"Public sector banks have seen a sharp re-rating as the asset quality environment improved, they were helped by better liquidity and falling credit costs; however, we think the asset quality cycle basis re-rating is largely done in the sector and the focus will now shift back to the ability of individual banks to grow faster than system and deliver better or higher ROEs," said Pranav Gundlapalle, head, India financials, Bernstein.

IDBI Bank CEO Rakesh Sharma confirmed the transfer without naming the account. IDBI Bank is the lead lender in the account with dues of ₹3,750 crore. Sharma said the transfer to NARCL will reduce the bank's gross non-performing assets by 2.2 percentage points.

In the post-earnings' conference call, the management emphasised on the necessity to increase cement prices to deal with high fuel prices. Without that, there will be pressure on operating profit margins.

Brokerages Jefferies and Emkay Global said ICICI Bank remains their top pick in the sector. Investec, which has a price target of ₹1,045 on the stock, said slower deposits growth continued to be a "blot on an otherwise good quarter".

"Baring the Adani group stocks, most of the other inclusion names have traded in a narrow range up until six months post-rebalance," said Pagaria. "It is quite evident that most of the gains on long side can only be made through pre-emptive bets, while post announcement until the next few months, the stocks tend to languish or trade under pressure."

After the third quarter results, 29 analysts had a 'buy' rating on the stocks, four had a 'Hold' and three had a 'Sell' rating. Analysts' average 12-month price target on the stock compiled by Bloomberg is ₹2,874, implying an upside of 18.4% from Monday's closing.

The stock gave a breakout from the neckline of the double bottom pattern on the daily charts. The momentum helped the stock reclaim its long-term moving average of 200-DMA

Analysts said banks tend to be the most affected in the event of foreign fund selling in India because the sector has the highest weightage in the benchmark indices - the Nifty and Sensex. In the past two weeks, foreign fund managers have sold Indian shares worth ₹11,000 crore amid heightened a risk-off sentiment globally.

Investors are eyeing results from Microsoft Corp, Tesla Inc, IBM and Intel this week to see how their business are coping with the threat of an economic slowdown triggered by the Federal Reserve's aggressive policy tightening

Directs bourse to pay Rs 100 crore for certain lapses

The Securities Appellate Tribunal on Monday set aside a ruling by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) against the National Stock Exchange in a co-location case, lawyers representing the two parties said on Monday. The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) ordered the country's largest exchange to pay a penalty of 1 billion rupees ($12.3 million) for the lapses in its systems, the lawyer representing NSE said in Mumbai.

"National Aluminium has witnessed a double bottom pattern and closed above the neckline. Also, on weekly charts the stock is trading above 55ema and 89ema suggesting the stock is picking up strength," Gaurav Bissa, VP, InCred Equities, said.