Key benchmark indices edged slightly lower in early trade on mixed Asian cues and data showing surge in India's consumer price inflation. At 9:16 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 62.43 points or 0.19% at 33,165.56. The Nifty 50 index fell 21.75 points or 0.21% at 10,218.40.
The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.05%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.06%. Both the indices outperformed the Sensex.
Overseas, Asian stocks were mixed as investors awaited the conclusion of the Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting. US stocks rose yesterday, 12 December 2017 amid growing optimism that Republican lawmakers would be able to revamp the corporate tax system. Wall Street also looked to the Federal Reserve as its two-day policy meeting kicked off.
The US Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) two-day meeting which began yesterday, 12 December 2017, on interest rate decision, concludes later in global day today, 13 December 2017. The Federal Reserve left the target range for its federal funds rate unchanged at 1% to 1.25% during its November 2017 meeting as widely expected.
Closer home, the breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On the BSE, 703 shares rose and 574 shares declined. A total of 53 shares were unchanged.
Wipro was up 0.09% at Rs 287.45. Topcoder, the world's largest workforce marketplace for designers, developers, and data scientists, announced the launch of Hybrid Crowd, an extension of the Topcoder platform that enables enterprises to crowdsource work to public, private, and certified communities. Topcoder became a part of Wipro in November 2016. Hybrid Crowd is a first-of-its-kind platform that combines the power of Topcoder's 1.2 million member global community with the networks of technical talent that exist within every organization. Enterprises now have access to an integrated platform for crowdsourced talent which they can utilize to provision work to the right people at any stage of a project. The announcement was made after trading hours yesterday, 12 December 2017.
Bharti Airtel advanced 1.15%. The company and Warburg Pincus, a global private equity firm focused on growth investing, announced that an affiliate of Warburg Pincus will acquire up to a 20% equity stake in Bharti Telemedia, the DTH arm of Airtel, for approximately $350 million. Of this, 15% stake will be sold by Bharti Airtel and the balance by another Bharti entity which holds 5% stake. Upon closing of the transaction, Airtel will own an 80% equity stake in Bharti Telemedia. The announcement was made after trading hours yesterday, 12 December 2017.
Bharti Telemedia is one of the largest Direct-To-Home (DTH) paid TV service providers in India and offers services under the Airtel TV brand. It had approximately 14 million subscribers and approximately $550 million in revenues during the 12-month period ended 30 September 2017.
Yes Bank fell 0.24%. The bank said it has been allocated 9.40 lakh equity shares of face value of Rs 10 each under the anchor investor portion to the initial public offering (IPO) of OPOSL, which is equivalent to 5.62% of the post issue paid up capital of OPOSL. The said IPO is on Emerge Platform of the National Stock Exchange of India. OPOSL is primarily a domestic BPO mainly engaged in outsourcing services. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 12 December 2017.
Asian Paints was down 0.55%. The company said it has acquired 100% stake in Reno Chemicals Pharmaceuticals And Cosmetics for an amount of Rs 159.52 crore, with an objective of using the land and building of Reno to meet the Company's growing infrastructure requirements. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 12 December 2017.
Separately, Asian Paints said that the Mumbai Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has vide its order dated 29 November 2017 granted its approval for the scheme of amalgamation of Asian Paints (International) Limited, Mauritius, wholly owned subsidiary company of Asian Paints with the company. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 12 December 2017.
On the macro front, the all-India general inflation based on the consumer price index (CPI) surged to 4.88% in November 2017, compared with 3.58% in October 2017. The core CPI inflation increased to 4.69% in November 2017 compared with 4.4% in October 2017. The inflation data was released by the government after market hours yesterday, 12 December 2017.
India's industrial production rose at moderated pace of 2.2% in October 2017 over October 2016, while showing a deceleration in growth from 4.1% increase in September 2017, data released by the government after market hours yesterday, 12 December 2017 showed.
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