OMCs delight on falling crude oil prices.

Every dollar per barrel change in brent crude oil prices impacts the Indian import bill by Rs 823 crore. The rupee was its strongest today against the dollar since two months supported by a fall in global oil prices and on the central bank’s announcement that it would buy bonds via open market operations.

Oil prices had started to rise on news that Saudi Arabia’s oil exports will likely drop by about 500,000 barrels per day in December. Donald Trump criticized Saudi Arabia’s call for production cuts and pressed oil cartel OPEC for lower prices based on supply. Oil has now fallen roughly 30% for 12 straight days, driven by worries over rising oil production around the world and weakening demand from developing countries.

Stocks of Oil Marketing Companies, Paint and Aviation were the top gainers in today's morning session. OMCs like IOC, HPCL, and BPCL were up 8–11 %. Aviation stocks too had a green opening where Jet Airways led with a 5.2 % rise. IT stocks such as TCS, Infosys and Wipro lost up to 3 % due to stronger rupee which rose 50 paise to 72.17 against the US dollar in late afternoon trade. It scaled a high of 71.99 at the outset.

Sun Pharma emerged worst performer, falling 7.36 %, after the company, reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 218.82 crore in their second-quarter earnings on account of a Rs 1,214-crore provision for the settlement of the Modafinil antitrust case in the US.

Morning trade saw a solid opening on Dalal Street with the NIFTY opening above 10,600 mark. Equity indices gave up early morning gains to end marginally lower at 10,576.30 and 35,141.99 after a highly volatile session as losses in pharma and IT shares offset gains in energy, banking, and metal stocks. The market was volatile despite fall in oil prices and appreciation in rupee as concerns about domestic liquidity and weak global cues overrode the sentiment.