Post session - Quick review

Bulls retaliated with vigor, thanks to encouraging global leads, which provided the required fillip for benchmark indices to halt their five day’s long losing streak. Upbeat housing data from US, successful Spanish debt auction coupled with German business confidence data abated recent drum beat of bad news from Europe, thereby sparking a rally in global markets. The US Commerce Department reported unexpectedly strong November home starts at their highest level since April 2010 and up 9.3 percent from October.

Most of the Asian pacific indices ended with strong gains in the range of 1-4% amidst tentative improvement in investors' risk appetite. Meanwhile, European stocks started the session firmly in positive territory as investors waited eagerly for data on the European Central Bank's first longer term refinancing operation, which will help ease banks current funding problems and could boost new bond purchases. The US future indices too showing an uptick in the screen trade indicated positive start for Wall Street. Back on the home turf, market participants, witnessing five straight sessions of pandemonium, piled up hefty positions across the board as they clinched undervalued but fundamentally strong bargains, which yanked the barometer gauges higher above their respective crucial bastions  of 15700 (Sensex) and 4600 (Nifty).

Additionally, investor’s also took a heart out of reports of Moody’s lifting rupee debt rating by one notch. Global credit ratings agency Moody's Investor Service lifted India’s local currency debt rating by one notch to the lowest investment grade, in-line with the foreign currency bond ratings at Baa3 with a stable outlook. The global rating agency highlighted that India’s stable outlook indicates Moody’s medium-term assessment of Asia’s third largest economy’s growth, fiscal, and balance of payments outlook, relative to other countries.

On the BSE Sectoral front, maximum traction were gained by the stocks from the Bankex, Consumer Durable and Oil & Gas counters. Meanwhile, following the suit, were the stocks from TECk, Power and Metal counters. Broader indices if not in magnitude with the front line indices, gained sufficient traction for the day and ended with gains of over 1%. The market breadth on the BSE ended positive; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1635:1111 while 105 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex gained 525.94 points or 3.47% and settled at 15,701.02. The index touched a high and a low of 15,720.44 and 15,377.04 respectively. 28 stocks advanced against 2 declining ones on the index (Provisional)

The BSE Mid-cap index gained 1.34% while Small-cap index was up by 0.98%. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Bankex up 5.13%, Oil & Gas up 4.16%, Consumer Durables up 3.97%, Power up 2.87% and TECk up 2.78% were the top gainers while there were no losers. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up 7.25%, Bharti Airtel up 6.38%, Tata Power up 6.37%, M&M up 5.85% and HDFC Bank up 5.53%.(Provisional)

On the flip side, Sun Pharma down 0.23% and JP Associates down 0.09% were the only losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, India’s headline inflation is likely to cool around the seven percent levels by March 2012, owing to the sharp moderation in food inflation in the recent past, said C Rangarajan, the chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC). On the sidelines of a Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce function, Ranagarajan stated that 'one of the reasons for inflation to settle down at around seven per cent in March 2012 is dwindling food inflation which has come down to 4.3% at the beginning of December this year.'

C Rangarajan, noted that food inflation is exhibiting definitive signs of decline, plunging from 11.81% in October to 4.35% in early December 2011 and added this would lead to a moderation in wholesale price index (WPI) inflation. The PMEAC chairman is also of the belief that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may abstain from its hawkish monetary tightening measures as the WPI inflation has primarily been on a declining trend.

Acknowledging that inflation remains at highly uncomfortable levels, Rangarajan also opined that high growth does not warrant a higher level of inflation which calls for policy instruments like interventions in foodgrains market, monetary and fiscal policies, to bring down current inflation and re-anchor inflationary expectations to the five per cent comfort zone.

He also said that the a series of policymaking decisions, including increasing investment limit of Foreign Institutional Investors have been taken to encourage capital inflows in the country in order to curtail rupee’s depreciation.India VIX, a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility lost 9.82% at 27.53 from its previous close of 30.53 on Tuesday. (Provisional)

The S&P CNX Nifty gained 159.90 points or 3.52% to settle at 4,704.10. The index touched high and low of 4,707.35 and 4,601.95 respectively. 46 stocks advanced against 4 declining ones on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were Sesa Goa up 9.43%, Reliance Communications up 9.42%, ICICI Bank up 7.61%, Tata Power up 6.79% and Bharti Airtel up 6.39%. (Provisional)

 On the other hand, IDFC down 2.23%, HCL Tech down 0.59%, Sun Pharma down 0.19% and Dr Reddy’s Lab down 0.06% were the only losers. (Provisional)

The European markets are trading in green, with France's CAC 40 up 0.97%, Germany's DAX up 1.03% and FTSE 100 up 0.56%.

Asian stock markets rose, joining a US and European rally on positive economic data from the United States and Germany and shaking off jitters over the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. The US Commerce Department reported unexpectedly strong November home starts at their highest level since April 2010 and up 9.3 percent from October.  Investors’ confidence also surged after Spain’s government borrowing costs fell in a weekly debt auction.

Taiwan Weighted recorded the region’s biggest gains, zoomed over four and half a percent to 6,966.48 a day after the government said it will make use of a fund to restrict stock market losses resulting from sliding global markets. However, mainland Chinese stocks surrendered early gains to finish lower on concerns about the nation’s slowing economic engine, and as Ping An Insurance Group tumbled on equity-dilution worries after announcing a fund-raising plan.