The Sensex closed at 17,125—102 points down from the previous day’s close—while the Nifty declined 36 points, ending the day at 5,112.

During the day, auto stocks surged on the back of robust sales figures for November 2009. Bajaj Auto rose 2% on reports that the company’s total vehicle sales rose 73% to 2.76 lakh units in November 2009 over November 2008.

Motorcycle sales jumped 84% to 2.42 lakh units. The company has also launched a 135-cc Pulsar, pushing the Pulsar brand into the mass segment. Bajaj expects to sell a minimum of 30,000 units per month of the new Pulsar model. The automaker had recently refreshed the entire Pulsar lineup and expects total Pulsar sales to cross 80,000 units per month.

Maruti Suzuki India rose 3% after Japan’s Suzuki Motor said that it will sell a 19.9% stake to Volkswagen (VW) for $2.50 billion and use half of the proceeds to buy shares in the German automaker, as the two firms form a formidable force in the auto industry. Suzuki has a 54.2% stake in Maruti Suzuki India. Maruti’s total vehicle sales rose 66.60% to 87,807 units in November 2009 over November 2008. Domestic sales shot up 60.10% to 76,359 units, while exports surged 128.60% to 11,448 units in November 2009 over November 2008.

Hero Honda Motors was up 2% on reports that the company’s total vehicle sales jumped 32% to 3.81 lakh units in November 2009 over November 2008.

Mahindra & Mahindra will reportedly launch its first truck under a joint venture (JV) with Navistar, North America’s largest commercial truck maker, next month. The stock remained flat.

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) fell 1% after the company said it has no plans to buy any debt of LyondellBasell.

ICICI Bank has launched a home-loan scheme under which 8.25% interest rate will be fixed for the first two years. The floating rates will apply after two years and these rates will be applicable to loans sanctioned between December 2009 and January 2010. The stock declined 2%.

Kotak Mahindra Bank also announced its new home loan scheme. It has 8.49% fixed rate on home loans for 30 months from the date of the payout of the loan. The stock fell 2%.

After trading hours, there were news reports that Punjab National Bank had sold 26% stake in PNB Housing Finance to Destimoney for Rs79 crore. As per reports, Destimoney will hold total 49% stake in PNB Housing Finance and is expected to buy additional 23% stake via convertible bonds. The stock remained flat.

Infomedia 18 gained 3% on reports that the company has approved a 3:2 rights issue at Rs33.50 per share which will open on December 29, 2009 and close on January 15, 2010.

As per media reports, Standard Chartered Bank has extended a $1 billion (Rs4,600 crore) line of credit to Essar Oil to part-finance its acquisition of Royal Dutch Shell’s refinery assets in Europe. The stock ended flat.  

The initial public offer (IPO) of JSW Energy was subscribed 1.65 times on the last day of issue today, 9 December 2009, whereas the IPO of Godrej Properties was subscribed 1.23 times on the first day of the issue. The price band is fixed at Rs490-Rs530 per share which will close on 11 December 2009.

According to finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, the government does not need to borrow more than planned to fund its additional proposed expenditure. The government said on Tuesday that it would seek Parliamentary approval to spend an extra Rs25,725 crore ($5.5 billion) for the fiscal year to end-March 2010. The gross additional expenditure would be Rs30,943 crore, of which Rs5,217 crore would be met through savings, the government said. The government will spend an extra Rs3,000 crore on fertiliser subsidies and Rs3,460 crore on food subsidies. The government would also spend Rs800 crore on an equity infusion in State-run carrier Air India.

Sridhar Sivaram, ED, Morgan Stanley said that there could be a correction in January if interest rates actually go up. However, if growth continues, markets could continue to move up, he said.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may reportedly ask banks to impose a ceiling on their investments in mutual funds and also prescribe norms for such investments, as it attempts to tighten rising exposure and rein in deployment of banking funds indirectly in sectors or companies to which banks could not lend directly due to exposure limits.

According to data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, car sales in India rose an annual 61% to 1,33,687 units in November 2009 over November 2008.

Sales were boosted by improved consumer sentiment, easier availability of loans and a low sales base a year earlier, an industry body said. Sales of trucks and buses, a gauge of economic activity, doubled to 40,847 units in November from 20,631 a year earlier, data showed.

During the day, Asia’s key benchmark indices in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Indonesia fell by between 0.21%-1.73%, and indices in South Korea and Taiwan rose by between 0.37%-0.39%.

China’s Industrial Bank Co. said its shareholders had approved its plan to raise CNY18 billion in a rights issue to boost the lender’s capital adequacy ratio and support rapid lending growth over the next few years. China is experiencing a clear V-shaped economic recovery, said Zhu Min, vice-governor of the People’s Bank of China.

As per reports, Fitch Ratings Inc. cut Greece’s rating to BBB+ with a negative outlook. Meanwhile, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the credit worthiness of a number of Dubai government-controlled companies and said further downgrades were possible. Japan’s gross domestic product rose at an annual 1.3% in the September quarter, slower than the 4.8% reported in preliminary figures last month, the Japanese Cabinet office said.

As per media reports, UK banks HSBC Holdings, Standard Chartered, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland have agreed to reschedule Dubai World’s debt. According to Dubai’s Al Bayan newspaper, the four banks have asked for more information from Dubai World about interest on the planned delayed payments and will hold a meeting later this month as they await a response. Reports further said that Dubai World is seeking to restructure around $26 billion of debt.

On Tuesday, 8 December 2009, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 104 points while the S&P 500 was down 11 points and the Nasdaq Composite was down 17 points.

In premarket trading, the Dow was trading 26 points higher.