Post session - Quick review

Local equities dropped after two consecutive days of rise on Friday, as vigilant investor’s preferred offloading risky assets like stocks from their portfolio ahead of the expiry of monthly contracts next week. The sentiment at Dalal Street from the start of the trade took a hit after Credit Lyonnais Securities (CLSA), a securities firm in the Asia-Pacific region, cut India’s growth estimate to less than 6 per cent from earlier 7 per cent for 2011-12.

Different from global indices, barometer gauges appeared worn-out after witnessing two straight days of gain. However, this time around, bears were vigilant taking control by the end of the trade, dragging the barometer gauges lower below their psychological level of 15800 (Sensex) and 4750 (Nifty) respectively.

On the global front, Asian stock markets ended higher on Friday as signs that the US economic recovery is gathering pace lifted investor sentiment following better-than-expected economic data on Thursday. Investors were encouraged by weekly US jobless claims, which fell to their lowest level since mid-April 2008, as well as an index of leading economic indicators, which rose for a seventh consecutive month.

Meanwhile, European shares were trading buoyant on back of confidence vote in Italy amidst raft of good macro economic data. On Thursday, the Italian Senate backed Monti's austerity package in a confidence vote, clearing the way for a Euro 20 billion ($26.1 billion) package to take effect. Meanwhile, Conference Board's index of leading economic indicators showed the seventh straight monthly advance in November and US consumer attitudes were somewhat brighter at the end of December compared with earlier this month.

Back on the home turf, although slender recuperation was witnessed in the dying hours of trade, but that did not came much to the rescue of the bourses. Frontline equity indices after turning flat, within few minutes of trade, did gained some traction as covering up of short positions by market participants ahead of the expiry of monthly contracts next week yanked the barometer gauges higher above their respective psychological level of 15800 (Sensex ) and 4700 (Nifty) respectively. However, what followed in the hours to come was just profit booking. Stock  wise, shares of air carriers spurted on reports that the government may allow the financially stressed segment to import fuel directly. The move if implemented would aid airlines to save at least Rs 2500 crore annually, a fourth of their total aviation turbine fuel (ATF) bill of Rs 10000 crore. Reacting to this, Spicejet and Jet Airways rose in the range of 2-3%.

On the BSE Sectoral front, stocks from Capital Goods, Auto and Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) counters topping the list of gainers, restricted the losses to the bourses. On the flip side, stocks from Bankex, Consumer Durable and Oil & Gas counters counterbalanced it all.

30 share barometer index on BSE-Sensex-declining over 50 points ended sub 15800 level. Similarly, widely followed 50 share index- Nifty-ended on flattish note with negative bias. Bucking the trend, the broader indices ended on a positive note. The market breadth on the BSE ended positive; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1509:1231 while 133 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex lost 74.73 points or 0.47% and settled at 15,738.63. The index touched a high and a low of 15,911.23 and 15,671.28 respectively. 10 stocks advanced against 20 declining ones on the index (Provisional)

The BSE Mid-cap index gained 0.03% while Small-cap index was up by 1.06%. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Capital Goods up 0.73%, Auto up 0.20%, FMCG up 0.17%, Realty up 0.16% and IT up 0.11% were the top gainers while Bankex down 1.22%, Oil & Gas down 0.96%, Consumer Durables down 0.93%, PSU down 0.59% and Metal down 0.46% were the top losers.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Wipro up 2.34%, BHEL up 1.83%, TCS up 1.02%, HUL up 0.84% and Sun Pharma up 0.58%.

On the flip side, NTPC down 3.33%, Tata Steel down 1.95%, JP Associates down 1.83%, DLF down 1.80% and Bharti Airtel down 1.52% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) governor, Duvvuri Subbarao has said that India’s economic growth will probably fail to meet the central bank's GDP target of 7.6% for the fiscal year 2011-12 citing concerns over the domestic macro-economic situation. The governor also was of the belief that RBI may revise the growth forecast for Asia’s third largest economy downward in its third quarter monetary policy review meeting scheduled on January 24, 2012.

Subbarao underscored that factors like stubborn inflation and depreciating rupee are serious cause of concerns for the economy’s growth. On one hand, the headline (WPI) inflation in the month of November stayed above the uncomfortable 9% levels for the twelfth straight month, despite thirteen interest rate hikes by Indian central bank since March 2010. While on the other, Indian rupee has become the worst performing currency in Asia depreciating over 15% in 2011 against the dollar.

The RBI had revised the GDP growth forecast for 2011-12 to 7.6%, from 8% on October, 2011 while, the government cut its full-year growth target to between 7.25 - 7.75% earlier this month from 9% in February. Meanwhile, an influential brokerage firm CLSA has slashed India’s GDP growth forecast to 6.7% for the current fiscal year ending March, 2012 from its earlier projection of 7.3%, owing to cyclical deceleration caused by high interest rates, policy inertia and the adverse impact of global headwinds.  

India VIX, a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility gained 2.04% at 27.39 from its previous close of 26.84 on Thursday. (Provisional)

The S&P CNX Nifty lost 20.05 points or 0.42% to settle at 4,713.80. The index touched high and low of 4,763.45 and 4,693.20 respectively. 20 stocks advanced against 30 declining ones on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were Siemens up 2.35%, BHEL up 2.26%, Grasim up 2.04%, Wipro up 1.92% and Axis Bank up 0.97%.

On the other hand, Ranbaxy down 4.12%, NTPC down 3.24%, Reliance Communications down 3.06%, BPCL down 2.73% and IDFC down 2.66% were the top losers. (Provisional)

The European markets are trading in green, with France's CAC 40 up 1.12%, Germany's DAX up 0.28% and FTSE 100 up 0.38%.