Trading Desk: The movers & shakers on D-Street

Indian stocks declined for the seventh consecutive day on worries that central bank may hike interest rates in the December policy meeting after consumer price inflation in October edged past 10%. The Sensex fell 88 points, or 0.4%, to 20,194, its lowest closing since October 8. The Nifty fell 28 points to 5989.60 below the psychological 6,000 mark, an over five-week low. FIIs bought Rs 300 cr worth of shares while domestic funds sold Rs 253 cr.

- The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative. On BSE, 1,388 shares fell and 1,051 shares rose. A total of 158 shares were unchanged. Ratesensitive sectors like banks, auto and real estate fell.

- Jet Airways rose as much as 7% on Wednesday, after the competition watchdog approved Etihad Airways’ investment in Jet Airways, marking the final clearance to the firstever investment by a foreign airline in an Indian carrier. But the stock ended flat at Rs 330.95.

- Leading foreign brokerage Credit Suisse has recommended ITC, Emami, Marico and Godrej Consumer as its top picks. These stocks have good growth headroom, visibility of earnings growth over the next few quarters and sound management strategy which will benefit the companies over a 2 to 3-year horizon, the firm said.

- Nomura has maintained a ‘Buy’ HPCL and set a target price of Rs 330, 56% higher than the current level. “HPCL has underperformed the market by a sharp 29% YTD and its valuation, at just 0.4x FY15F adjusted P/B, appears undemanding to us,” a Nomura note said.