Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange traded 28.5 points, or 0.15 per cent, lower at 18,724, signaling that Dalal Street was headed for a negative start on Wednesday.

Most of the 11 major S&P sectors declined, with energy and communications services joining technology as leading laggards. Utilities, a defensive sector often preferred during times of economic uncertainty, was the only exception, gaining 0.7%.

The incoming investor in Concor will own well below 51% of the company, because the government is selling only a minority stake. The new investor's voting power over key resolutions that require shareholders' consent will thus be limited to the amount of shares it holds.

The National Asset Reconstruction Company's (NARCL) bid to take over the debt of the twin Srei Group NBFCs is being questioned by some bankers who believe the government-backed bad-loan aggregator, instead of competing with other funds to take over companies, should focus on its mandate: Consolidate bad loans from banks.

The boards of IIFL Securities and 5paisa.com approved the merger on Tuesday. IIFL Securities shareholders will receive one share of ₹10 paid-up equity of 5Paisa Capital for every 50 shares of ₹2 paid-up of IIFL Securities.

"We expect the merger's completion by Q1FY24 and a few stocks currently on our radar are Pidilite (PIDI), LTIMindtree (LTIM), Ambuja Cement (ACEM) and Tata Power (TPWR)," said Abhilash Pagaria, head, Nuvama Alternative & Quant.

Until now, only public sector mutual funds - SBI, UTI, LIC and Union, among others -- were qualified to handle surplus funds of state-owned companies. Now, at least 35 private mutual funds stand to benefit.

"Traders can look to buy the stock around the current market price for potential targets around Rs 1,090 and Rs 1,140. The stop loss for long positions should be placed below Rs 980," Ruchit Jain, Lead Research, 5paisa.com, said.

The stock rose from Rs 914 recorded on November 28 to Rs 1,036 as on December 5. It closed at Rs 873 as on October 31, which translates into an upside of nearly 19%.

​​“Although we think SBI remains the best state-owned bank, we see potential for notably higher stock returns in BOI and BOB due to much cheaper valuations,” said Morgan Stanley in a client note.

Bank of America dipped 2.9% to lead declines in the financial sector. The lender's chief executive said the bank's research predicted three quarters of mild negative growth next year

“The minor weakness with range-bound action continued in Nifty on Tuesday and the market closed the day lower by 58 points amidst volatility. After opening on a negative note, the market shifted into a narrow range movement which continued for the whole session. The opening downside gap remains partially filled,” Nagaraj Shetti, Technical Research Analyst at HDFC Securities, said.

"The company proposes to offer rated, unsecured, redeemable, non-cumulative, non-convertible debentures aggregating up to Rs 500 crore in one or more tranches and in this regard, is holding a meeting of its duly constituted Committee of the Directors on Friday," Vedanta said in a filing to BSE.

After opening on a negative note, the market shifted into a narrow range movement that continued for the whole session. Indices finally logged losses following cautious trading on Tuesday on worries over the central bank's interest rate hike decision on Wednesday and on concerns about a prolonged rate-hike cycle by the Federal Reserve.The S&P BSE Sensex closed 0.33% down at 62,626. The Nifty 50 index lost 0.31% to 18,642.75.The Reserve Bank of India is widely expected to raise interest rates by 35 basis points on Wednesday, but the focus will be on the central bank's outlook on growth and prices, especially as India's inflation, though slowing, remains above the RBI's target.“Nifty remains in a consolidation movement with gradual weakness. The market is expected to witness an upside bounce from near the support of 18,550 levels in the next 1-2 sessions,” Nagaraj Shetti,Technical Research Analyst at HDFC Securities, said.Here are 4 stock recommendations for Wednesday:

Focus shifted to Georgia runoff election that could decide the fate of the Senate

Consequent to the stake sale, abrdn Investment Management will cease to be a co-sponsor of HDFC Mutual Fund; the sale could fetch the UK firm a little over Rs 4,700 cr

Analysts said that foreign interest in domestic equities would continue due to India's favourable fiscal policies, growth outlook and moderation in inflation.

"Considering the unique nature of transaction and process involved in a PSU disinvestment spanning over a long period, such a requirement of determination of open offer price under the takeover regulations many a time acts as an impediment in fructifying such strategic disinvestment of PSUs,'' Sebi has said.

Benchmark index Sensex closed lower by about 208 points at 62,262 on Tuesday. Despite a fall in the markets, five stocks from the BSE consumer discretionary index managed to touch new 52-week highs.The 52-week high is the highest price at which a stock has traded during the last year. Some traders and investors use this technical indicator as an important factor for analysing a stock's current value and for predicting its future price movement.

Mixed global cues and concerns over the RBI monetary policy outcome on Wednesday prompted Indian indices to end Tuesday’s session with losses. Nifty ended at 18,643, down 0.31%, while Sensex declined 0.33% to close at 62,626.Here are the stocks that made news today:

Vi’s regulatory filing comes a day after ET reported that ATC in a recent filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has said the recent preferential bonds issue by Vi to it is subject to conditions that might not be met.

Chart readers say 18700 would be the key level to watch out for as an upside above the same could lead to a fresh uptrend rally till 18800-18850. Resistance is seen at 18600-18500 zone.

Rate-sensitive stocks were in focus as the RBI is expected to hike repo rate by 35 basis points on Wednesday

The Indian government and the RBI would also consider relaxing the five-year lock-in period for shares if a non-banking financial company is merged into IDBI Bank, it said.

Closing Bell: Sensex extends losses to 3rd day, ends 178 pts lower; Nifty below 18,650; BPCL, PB Fintech drop over 3% each

Rate-sensitive stocks were in focus as the RBI is expected to hike repo rate by 35 basis points on Wednesday

On the basis of the historical performance over the past two decades, the 1-year forward average and median returns for the benchmark index stand at 3% and 1%, respectively, whenever it has traded in the 20x-22x P/E multiple range.​

The US annual inflation rate slowed for the 4th consecutive month to 7.7% in October. This was the lowest since January 2022 and was lower than forecasts of 8%. US Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said the pace of rate hikes would slow down, maybe as soon as December, after four consecutive jumbo 0.75 percentage point hikes.

With the recent rate hikes, inflation has started coming down. This will also help companies with decent debt equity ratio to improve their margins. Considering all these factors, there are no indications of topping the indices. However, having said that we may see some shift to the value stocks from expensive stocks.

Nifty MNC Index comprises of 30 listed companies in which the foreign promoter shareholding is over 50% (latest holding as of September 2022). These companies usually have low debt exposures. ET Markets analysed the stocks that have gained over 25% in 2022 so far. All five stocks look strong on SWOT analysis. Take a look at the key strengths of these stocks, according to Trendlyne.com.

However, the Nifty PSU Bank Index (ex-SBI) story is not equally thrilling. It might appear that the share prices of constituents are trading at multi-year highs, but when you compare the market cap of these banks today with five years ago, considering the incremental capital raised and new shares issued toward mergers, the investors have hardly made any money here. Regardless, the index is up 60% over the past year, and 40% over the past two months.

Investors are expecting that after the joint entity of LTIMindtree can replace PSU refinery BPCL in the headline index. "As per our best understanding of the existing methodology, we do not expect LTI

Markets are getting off to a shaky start this week, with solid US economic data releases delaying investors' hopes that the Fed might become more dovish in the months ahead," said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management.

Volatility is expected to remain high on Dalal Street in the near term. However, market experts suggest that a number of stocks are set to deliver strong returns in the near term. Based on their recommendations, here are 7 stocks where investors can position themselves to make a decent profit:

There may not be one, or even any right answer, to the questions above. Nevertheless, you need to put some thought to profit-booking and a systematic approach may well turn out to be the most productive.

"The market took cues from the U.S. market and was down earlier, but there was demand for buying on dips mainly from retail investors," said Shigetoshi Kamada, general manager at the research department at Tachibana Securities.

In an exchange filing with the bourses, the company reported the toll collection at Rs 365.95 crore in November 2022 as against Rs 262.81 crore in November 2021. On a month-on-month comparison, the collection increased by 6%.

Select large cap stocks in some sectors have gained attention in the markets once again. Some of them have witnessed a spike after a long period of consolidation. 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.

“With customers gradually shifting to organised players and given continued struggles faced by its unorganised and organised peers, Titan has a strong runway for growth,” Sneha Poddar, Associate Vice President at Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited, said.

Will the MPC continue rate hikes? Has inflation peaked out? Will the focus shift to growth? Sonal Varma of Nomura joins in to give us an insight. Listen in.

The company had recently bagged an order for eco-friendly less wood for green cremation systems (GMS). It had expressed hopes of more order inflows from the Bitumen business, which has been back in action after the monsoon.

In the highly concentrated long-term portfolio, almost all stocks have compounded their share prices at 15-30% annually demonstrating that stock selection contributed significantly to portfolio returns, the PMS fund said.

One small finance bank along with a mid-cap software stock which again gained traction are among mid-cap stocks which have seen their scores moving up. ET 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.

As far as the domestic equity market, a rate hike of 30-35 bps has been largely discounted by investors. Therefore, no major movement in equities is expected if the rate action is on expected lines.

In the NSE list of stocks with a market cap of over Rs 2,000 crore, six stocks crossed their previous 5-year high value at the close on December 5, 2022 suggesting bullishness in counters, according to stockedge.com's technical scan data. Take a look:

In the NSE list of stocks, four stocks with a market cap of over Rs 2,000 crore are witnessing Golden Crossovers, according to stockedge.com's technical scan data. Golden Cross is an important technical indicator of bullishness. It occurs when the short-term moving average crosses over the major long-term moving average on the upside. The 50-day simple moving averages (SMA) of these stocks crossed their 200-day SMAs on December 5. Take a look:

On the other hand, prominent names among those trading below their 200-DMAs are Adani Transmission, Adani Green Energy, Bajaj Auto, Bajaj Finance, Bandhan Bank, Paytm and Gland Pharma. Stocks trading below their 200-DMAs may be in the oversold zone.

A former student of Benjamin Graham, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and current primary shareholder Warren Buffett is one of the most successful investors of all time. Buffett is noted as a legendary value investor, who emphasises on management quality and company growth prospects. Based on the ideas of Warren Buffett, a custom screen made by MarketSmith focuses on metrics looking for companies with long-term past and potential future growth.Here are 6 stocks that match Warren Buffett’s style of investing, as listed on MarketSmith:

The domestic brokerage firm believes that the outperformance of PSU stocks is likely to continue moving forward, and the next big trigger for the market will be budget expectations.

In the NSE list of stocks with a market cap of over Rs 2,000 crore, six stocks crossed their previous 5-year high value at the close on December 5, 2022 suggesting bullishness in counters, according to stockedge.com's technical scan data. Take a look: