Market Live: Sensex, Nifty open flat; Infosys, Bharti, Coal India early gainers

10:15 am Buzzing: Shares of Whirlpool of India added more than 3 percent in morning as company is going to increase its capacity.

The company is proposing to enhance its single door refrigerator existing capacity of 21 lakh by 6 lakh per annum from internal sources at an estimated cost of Rs 182 crore to be spent over next two years.

The setting up of additional capacity is being undertaken in line with company’s focus strategy and to meet the increasing demand of its products since the present capacity utilization of single door refrigerator is around 94 percent.

10:02 am Market Check: Benchmark indices remained volatile in morning, after hitting a record high on the Sensex.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 14.47 points at 34,457.66 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 3.80 points to 10,640.80.

The market breadth remained positive as about 1,349 shares advanced against 875 declining shares on the BSE.

9:55 am World Bank on India: With an “ambitious government undertaking comprehensive reforms”, India has “enormous growth potential” compared to other emerging economies, the World Bank said today, as it projected country’s growth rate to 7.3 percent in 2018 and 7.5 for the next two years.

India, despite initial setbacks from demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST), is estimated to have grown at 6.7 percent in 2017, according to the 2018 Global Economics Prospect released by the World Bank here today.

“In all likelihood India is going to register higher growth rate than other major emerging market economies in the next decade. So, I wouldn’t focus on the short-term numbers. I would look at the big picture for India and big picture is telling us that it has enormous potential,” Ayhan Kose, Director, Development Prospects Group, World Bank, told PTI in an interview.

9:45 am Rupee Trade: The rupee recovered by 5 paise to 63.66 against the dollar in morning today on mild selling of the US currency by exporters amid a higher opening in domestic equity markets.

Currency traders said weakness in the dollar against major global currencies overseas supported the rupee.

Yesterday, the rupee had dropped sharply by 20 paise to end at a fresh one-week low of 63.71 against the US currency following steady uptick in dollar demand from importers and banks amid surging crude prices.

9:35 am IPO opens: Apollo Micro Systems, which raised nearly Rs 47 crore from anchor investors yesterday, has opened its Rs 156-crore initial share-sale for subscription today.

The company has allotted 16,96,050 shares to four anchor investors at a price of Rs 275 per scrip, garnering Rs 46.64 crore, the company said in a statement.

Among the anchor, investors are Sundaram Mutual Fund A/C Sundaram Infrastructure Advantage Fund and Jupiter South Asia Investment Company Ltd – South Asia Access Fund.

The price band for the offer, which will close on January 12, has been fixed at Rs 270-275 per equity share.

Proceeds of the initial public offer (IPO), through which Apollo Micro Systems is estimated to raise Rs 156 crore, will be used to meet additional working capital and other general corporate purposes.

9:21 am Buzzing: Share price of Balasore Alloys gained nearly 6 percent in the early trade as the company will acquire 70 percent of Zimbabwe Alloys.

The company will acquire either by itself and/or through its nominees and affiliates, 70 percent shares of Zimbabwe Alloys (ZAL).

ZAL holds 19,780 hectares of mining areas in different parts of Zimbabwe, which has proven resources of 72.25 million tonnes of chrome ore.

Zimbabwe Alloys Chrome is a wholly owned subsidiary of ZAL has a ferro chrome plant.

The scheme is subject to fulfilment of certain conditions precedent contained in the scheme of arrangement.

9:15 am Market Check: Benchmark indices opened flat on Wednesday, continuing previous day’s consolidation further as investors await December quarter earnings.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 36.20 points at 34,479.39 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 2.40 points at 10,639.40.

Bharti Airtel, ONGC, Coal India, ITC, Infosys, Sun Pharma, Reliance Industries, Vedanta, Tech Mahindra and HCL Technologies were early gainers.

HPCL, BPCL, Eicher Motors, Asian Paints, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank and IndusInd Bank were early losers.

The Nifty Midcap Index was up 40 points. About three shares advanced for every two shares falling on the NSE.

Shalby fell 4 percent after weak earnings for December quarter.

Jubilant Foodworks, Future Retail, Infinite Computer Solutions, V-Mart Retail, Idea Cellular, Glenmark Pharma and Punj Lloyd gained 1-4 percent.