Indian equity benchmarks on Monday ended higher for the second straight trading session.

The S&P BSE Sensex Index closed 0.43 percent higher at 35,850.16 and the NSE Nifty 50 Index ended at 10,776.60, up 0.46 percent.

Here Are The Stocks To Watch Out For In Today’s Trade

• Gruh Finance-Bandhan Bank Merger: Gruh Finance is set to merge with Bandhan Bank in a share-swap deal. Shareholders of Gruh Finance will receive 568 shares of Bandhan Bank for every 1,000 shares of the housing finance company.
  
• Prabhat Diary enters in to animal nutrition business. The company stated that it has taken preliminary steps by executing agreement with Denmark based DLG for developing two products to increase milk productivity and quality of cattle. The pilot phase will be for 4-6 months. Post the success of this pilot project, commercial launch of these products will be planned by the company.
  
• Southern Petrochemicals: Company says its plants have been shut down from Jan. 7 due to urgent need to carry out repairs to critical equipment and essential job shut down. They also stated that they expect to resume operations by early February.
  
• ICICI Prudential Life Insurance investor update: Annualized Premium Equivalent for the 9 months till Dec. 31, 2018 fell 4.2 percent to Rs 5,343 crore year-to-year basis. Retail weighted received premium declined 10.8 percent to Rs 48.15 crore.
  
• Steel Authority of India expects to supply 1 million tonne of steel in 2018-19 and 1.2 MT in 2019-20 for doubling rail lines and track renewal works, according to Minister of Steel Vishnu Deo Sai.
  
• Endurance Technologies Italian arm acquired aluminum die casting company Fonpresmetal. This company has a capacity of 6,500 tonnes, out of which 50 percent is dedicated for supplies to Endurance Group companies in Italy. The acquisition was for 8.16 million euros.
  
• Exide Industries to invest up to 30 percent equity stake in Cleantech aggregating to Rs 20.05 crore for setting up captive solar power projects for various manufacturing facilities. This arrangement will help in reduction of overall production costs.
  
• Himachal Futuristic Communications board approved expansion of existing manufacturing facility of Optical Fibre Manufacturing Plant at Hyderabad from 7 million fibre km to 10.5 million fibre km for Rs 35 crores.
  
• Goa Carbon December coke production at 6289 MT.
  
• Sadbhav Infra Projects Q3 update: Toll Revenue from operational Special Purpose Vehicles (apart from NSEL) up 6.2 percent at Rs 275.8 crore versus Rs 259.8 crore on a year on year basis.
  
• Omaxe: CARE Ratings revises its credit rating from BBB: Stable to BBB- with a Negative Outlook on loan facilities worth Rs 1,500 crore.
  
• Mahindra & Mahindra received Initial Determination Order from U.S. Trade Commission. On Aug. 29 Fiat Chrysler along with the trade commission filed a complaint against the company alleging that certain design features of Mahindra ROXOR infringe the intellectual property rights of Fiat’s Jeep design. In response the company and its North American arm filed a public interest statement with commission and commenced proceedings in a U.S. Federal District Court to seek an injunction against Fiat from proceedings with the Trade Commission.
  
• National Peroxide: CFO Sailesh Chauhan resigns as Conrad David Fernandes is appointed in his place.
  
• TCS says that their flagship banking operations platform is now operational for Central Bank of Kuwait.
  
• Syndicate Bank board approved issue of equity shares via preferential allotment to Government of India for Rs 1,632 crores.
  
• Reliance Communications said the Supreme Court has given the company four weeks to file its response to the contempt petition filed by Ericsson. The company has also deposited a partial payment of Rs 131 crore to Ericsson with Supreme Court Registry, from the operational funds available with the company.
  
• ONGC and Oil India: Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan says that the government will allow state-owned ONGC and Oil India to induct private and foreign partners in oilfields to raise output and give special incentive to make their discoveries in difficult areas viable: PTI
  
• SpiceJet and InterGlobe Aviation: Central Government receives bids for 111 routes from 15 airlines under the third round of auction for the UDAN scheme. SpiceJet has bid for 37 routes and InterGlobe Aviation’s IndiGo bid for 20 routes.

Trading Tweaks

• AGC Networks price band revised to 10 percent

Who’s Meeting Whom

• Jindal Steel & Power to meet Goldman Sachs. Kotak AMC and other investors on Jan. 8
• Future Lifestyle Fashions to meet DSP MF. HDFC MF and other investors from Jan. 8-9
• DCM Shriram to meet Reliance MF on Jan. 9.

Insider Trading

• Gulshan Polyols promoter Anubha Gupta acquired 16,300 shares from Dec. 20 to Jan. 2

(As reported on Jan. 07)

Bulk Deals

Vishal Fabrics

• Ray Urja Infra LLP acquired 2.77 lakh shares (0.63 percent) at Rs 325 each
• Asia Investment Corporation Mauritius sold 2.77 lakh shares (0.63 percent) at Rs 325 each

TPL Plastech

• Bridge India Fund sold 70,000 shares (0.89 percent) at Rs 150 each.

Money Market Update

• Rupee closed at 69.69/$ on Monday versus 69.73/$ on Friday.

F&O Cues

• Nifty January futures closed trading at 10,803, premium of 30 points.
• Max open interest for January series at 11,000 Call (open interest at 40 lakh shares).
• Max open interest for January series at 10,500 Put (open interest at 38.5 lakh shares).

Stocks In F&O Ban

• Adani Power
• Jet Airways

Put-Call Ratio

• Nifty PCR at 1.36 versus 1.34.
• Nifty Bank PCR at 1.11 versus 1.12.