Post session - Quick review

The Indian equity markets presented a good show on the first day of the F&O expiry week and after a flat start in the backdrop of mixed global cues, surged to attain good high for the day. Though, the US markets surged on Friday on getting slew of good economic reports but the Asian markets were not looking convinced and while the Japanese market moved higher supported by the exporters on optimism that recovery in US will revive demand, the Chinese and Taiwanese market lost strength on some domestic issues. Meanwhile, the major European markets remained closed, though the head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde said that the world economy was in danger and urged Europeans to speak with one voice on a debt crisis that has rattled the global financial system.

Back home, the domestic markets feasted on domestic cues only and the technology stocks took the lead for the day, barring some last hour profit booking in health care all the sectoral gauges gathered good gains for the day. Initially it was the gains in individual heavy weights that helped the markets gain momentum, RIL, Infosys, TCS and L&T all moved higher on the back of short covering and on hopes of global economic recovery. RIL was up by over 2 percent as the government is set to approve Reliance Industries’ long pending proposal to develop four satellite discoveries in the D6 block with some conditions on Tuesday. Meanwhile one pack that remained in limelight since morning was telecom, shares of Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular gained momentum after telecom tribunal TDSAT directed the government not to take any "coercive" action against three telecom firms over inter-circle roaming (ICR) agreement on 3G till January 3. High beta realty sector too was in the jubilant lot and some of the stocks even soared by 7 percent. The volume too gained pace and by the end total trade was worth over one lakh crore, amid expectation of volatility the benchmark indices spurted in last to snap the session just below the high points of the day. The broader indices though underperformed their larger peers but they too closed with gains of about a percent.

The market breadth on the BSE ended positive; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1670:1010 while 173 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex gained 227.42 points or 1.44% and settled at 15,966.12. The index touched a high and a low of 15,998.44 and 15,761.18 respectively. 26 stocks advanced against 4 declining ones on the index (Provisional)

The BSE Mid-cap index gained 0.85% while Small-cap index was up by 1.04%. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, TECk up 2.77%, IT up 2.54%, Realty up 1.50%, Metal up 1.29% and Consumer Durables up 1.18% were the top gainers while HealthCare down 0.18% was the sole losers.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hero MotoCorp up 4.75%, Bharti Airtel up 4.69%, Infosys up 3.16%, Tata Steel up 3.04% and TCS up 2.76%.

On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down 0.96%, Cipla down 0.76%, Hindalco down 0.74% and ONGC down 0.19% were the only losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, India’s foreign direct investment (FDI) declined by over 50% to $1.16 billion in October for the second month in a row, reflecting economic slowdown in the world's major economies. India received $2.33 billion overseas investment in the same month last year. In September, the inflows were at $1.76 billion, down by 16.5% year-on-year.

However, in April-October 2011, the FDI rose 50.3% to $20.8 billion, from $13.84 billion in the year-ago period as inflows were healthy in the initial months. Though in August FDI inflows had increased over two-fold to $2.83 billion, year-on-year, in July they declined after a significant jump for two consecutive months - May and June. 

Uncertain economic conditions in the US and Europe are one of the major reasons for the declining FDI in India. However, despite uncertainties in the global economy, FDI is likely to touch $35 billion in 2011-12, as against $19.4 billion in the last fiscal on account of major deals like RIL-BP and Posco.

Mauritius, Singapore, the US, the UK, the Netherlands, Japan, Germany and the UAE are major sources of FDI for India. In April-October 2011, the sectors that engrossed the maximum FDI include services, construction activities, power, computers and hardware, telecom and housing and real estate.

In order to attract more inflows by easing FDI procedures, the Reserve Bank of India said that transfer of shares between Indians and non-residents will not require its permission in several key areas like financial services.

During 2010-11, equity inflows through the FDI route had declined 25% to $19.43 billion, from $25.6 billion in 2009-10 compared to $27.3 billion in 2008-09.

India VIX, a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility lost 2.88% at 26.60 from its previous close of 27.39 on Friday. (Provisional)

The S&P CNX Nifty gained 61.70 points or 1.31% to settle at 4,775.70. The index touched high and low of 4,787.25 and 4,718.15 respectively. 39 stocks advanced against 11 declining ones on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were Hero MotoCorp up 4.54%, Bharti Airtel up 4.45%, Reliance Communications up 3.35%, Infosys up 3.24% and Tata Steel up 3.02%.

On the other hand, Axis Bank down 1.41%, BPCL down 1.27%, Maruti down 1.06%, Ranbaxy down 1.05% and Hindalco down 0.94% were the top losers. (Provisional)

The European markets are trading in green, with France's CAC 40 up 0.99%, Germany's DAX up 0.46% and FTSE 100 up 1.02%.

Shrugging off upbeat US economic data, most of the Asian equity indices snapped the day’s trade in the red on Monday amid ongoing concerns over Europe’s fiscal woes and investor caution in the last trading week of the year. Though most markets in the Asia pacific region remained closed, China stocks ended down by about 0.7 percent in thin volume amid concerns over an expected increase in supply in the coming year. The Shanghai Composite Index fell below the psychologically important 2,200 level again although trading remained light in holiday-thinned session, with turnover falling to a three-year low.

However, Japanese Nikkei rose by a percentage point as investors across the region reacted to upbeat US economic data and a move by lawmakers to extend temporary tax breaks and unemployment benefits, ending earlier Republican threats to block the moves.

Shanghai Composite was down 14.67 points or 0.67% to 2,190.11, Seoul Composite was down 10.52 points or 0.56% to 1,856.70 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 18.15 points or 0.26% to 7,092.58.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 was up by 84.18 points or 1.00% to 8,479.34, remained the lone gainer amongst the Asian pack.

Stock markets in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore remained closed on Monday in observance of the Christmas holiday.