Benchmark indices continue to trade in a narrow range with negative bias weighed down by metal and oil shares.

At 12:15 pm, the Nifty 50 index was trading 14 points lower at 8,140 levels, while the S&P BSE Sensex as trading 26 points lower at 26,493 levels. Broader markets are underperforming- BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are down 0.1%-0.4%.

Ashok Leyland Ltd, the country's second-largest commercial vehicle manufacturer, is expecting the fourth quarter to see good growth numbers while the current quarter growth could be tepid, owing to the government's demonetisation move and other issues, according to a senior management official.

The demonetisation impact will go off and the Euro IV pre-buy is expected to start in the fourth quarter, which would help good growth, said Gopal Mahadevan, chief financial officer of Ashok Leyland. He was speaking on the sidelines of the Tamil Nadu Finance Conclave organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Bajaj Auto on Thursday launched its latest sports bike Dominar 400 priced up to Rs 1.5 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi) as it looks to challenge segment leader Royal Enfield in the Rs 1-2 lakh category.

The Dominar 400, powered by a 373cc engine will be available with ABS and disc brake versions which are priced at Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 1.36 lakh, respectively.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has moved higher by 2.4% to Rs 209 in late noon deal, bouncing back nearly 4% from intra-day low on the BSE, in otherwise volatile market. The stock hit a low of Rs 201 in early morning trade.

ONGC turned today ex-bonus in the ratio of 1:2. The stock price factored in the issuance of bonus shares to the existing investors.

New Delhi, Dec 15 (PTI): The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a ban on all liquor shops on national as well as state highways across the country and made it clear that licenses of existing shops will not be renewed after March 31 next year.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice T.S. Thakur also directed that all signages indicating presence of liquor vends will be prohibited on national and state highways.

Coal India’s (CIL) stock slumped to a six-month low on Wednesday, closing at 292.25, down 4.42%. CIL, the world’s largest coal producer, registered its lowest quarterly profit for the July-September period since its listing.

The company’s net profit for the quarter dropped by 77.4% to R600.4 crore from R2,654.34 crore a year ago. The company’s net income from operations has gone down by 7.8% to R16,212.5 in 2016 from R17,489.8 in 2015.

Continuing to slide for the second consecutive session, the benchmark BSE Sensex fell 141 points to 26,462.18 in early trade today amid a weak trend in Asian bourses as the US Fed hiked interest rates by a quarter percentage point and indicated more to come next year.

The 30-share barometer was trading down by 140.66 points, or 0.53 per cent, to 26,462.18. The gauge had lost about 95 points in the previous session.

German luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz said it will hike prices of its entire model range in India, effective January 1, 2017, by up to 2% to offset rising inflation, input costs and increasing forex rates.

"The rising inflation coupled with rising input costs and increasing forex rates have been exerting significant pressure on the bottom line," Mercedes Benz India said in a statement.

The income tax department has raided the Noida branch of Axis Bank on Thursday, according to an alert from ANI.

ANI also reported that the I-T department found 20 fake accounts in the bank branch with Rs 60 crore deposited in them.

Wipro chief executive Abidali Neemuchwala has split the information technology (IT) major's India and Middle East (West Asia) business in two. And, carved a separate hyper automation group by consolidating the Artificial Intelligence (AI) assets such as Holmes that would be headed by its chief technology officer, K R Sanjiv.

The backdrop is the government push for a 'Digital India' and the move towards a less-cash society. So, the company's India region would now be an independent entity with its head reporting directly to Neemuchwala. He has appointed Sreenath A V, currently head of Wipro's global Oracle Practice, to head the India region.

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