Post session - Quick review

Jubilation returned to the Dalal Street on Tuesday and after a consolidation phase of four straight days the markets rallied to break past their crucial levels, which for the past many days has became elusive. The slightly positive start on the back of supportive global cues slowly took a turn for the good and pulled the benchmark indices up by over 2 percent for the day. The overnight positive cues of the US markets spread to the Asian pack and the hopes of solution to the European debt crisis led the markets across the globe in jubilant mood.After a meeting in Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned Greece it will get no more bailout funds until it agrees with creditor.

Early the day started on an optimistic note and the bulls took the charge, consistent buying in leading sectors like oil & gas, banks, capital goods and telecom helped the market to sustain its morning gains. Index heavyweights like Reliance Industries, L&T and BHEL were up by 2-4%. Technology stocks like Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services moved higher on expectation to show better quarterly numbers. The broader markets too surged in tandem with the benchmarks. However, the much needed support came to the markets in the form of bounce back in the rupee, which surged to its four week high after the volatility lessened in the money market and with Global ratings agency Moody upgrading India's short-term country ceiling on foreign currency bank deposits to P3 from Non Prime. Auto sector too surged by around 3 percent despite SIAM lowering car sales growth forecast for the third time to 0-2 per cent for the ongoing fiscal citing unfavourable macro economic conditions, however, it said that the sales may see a jump of 11-13 per cent in FY13.

The market breadth on the BSE ended positive; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1938:822 while 152 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex gained 356.32 points or 2.25% and settled at 16,171.04. The index touched a high and a low of 16,180.97 and 15,898.32 respectively. 27 stocks advanced against 3 declining ones on the index (Provisional)

The BSE Mid-cap index gained 2.17% while Small-cap index was up by 2.55%. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Realty up 4.20%, Capital Goods up 3.52%, Bankex up 3.25%, Metal up 3.02% and Auto up 2.86% were the top gainers while there were no losers.

The top gainers on the Sensex were M&M up 5.05%, L&T up 4.30%, Hindalco up 4.20%, SBI up 4.09% and DLF up 3.96%.

On the flip side, TCS down 0.30%, Gail India down 0.13% and Wipro down 0.07% were the only losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, in order to get the natural gas, currently supplied to non-core users like refineries and steel plants, re-allocated to core sectors, the Association of Power Producers (APP) have requested the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas to consider discontinuing gas to non-core sectors and utilize the same for core sectors like power and fertilizer. Private power producers informed that over 18 million standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) of natural gas is presently being supplied to non-priority sectors.

The private electricity generators are awaiting gas allocation by the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGOM) as gas-based power projects with a generation capacity of about 4,000 MW are ready to commence power generation before March 31, 2012. The association also underscored the fact that public money in the form of debt provided by various Indian banks and financial institutions is at a grave risk unless these projects start commercial operation by March 31, 2012. Private power producers’ association is also of the belief that around 80 mmscmd of gas can be released for allocating to upcoming projects provided the capacity utilization of all power plants is rationalized at around 60 percent.

At a time when India’s power industry is going through a challenging period and availability of gas is also becoming scant due to the sharp and constant reduction in gas throughout from refining major Reliance Industries, there is urgent need of government interventions and swift decision making in order to avoid idling of capacity. With the country’s overall gas based power capacity amounting to 16,600 MW, the total consumption of gas by these plants currently stands at 66 mmscmd with an average capacity utilization of around 70 percent.

India VIX, a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility lost 6.54% at 24.00 from its previous close of 25.68 on Monday. (Provisional)

The S&P CNX Nifty gained 107.75 points or 2.27% to settle at 4,850.55. The index touched high and low of 4,855.90 and 4,768.25 respectively. 48 stocks advanced against 2 declining ones on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were Reliance Power up 5.80%, PNB up 5.24%, M&M up 5.08%, Reliance Infra up 4.67% and Hindalco up 4.37%.

On the other hand, Ranbaxy down 0.94% and TCS down 0.12% were the only losers. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading in green, with France's CAC 40 up 1.61%, Germany's DAX up 2.06% and Britain’s FTSE 100 up 1.04%.

Sentiments remained bullish in the Asian region and all the equity indices rallied on Tuesday with major indices garnered gain of over a percentage point on signs that the US economy may be strengthening. Improving economic data out of the US was one key factor working in favor of markets. The US added 200,000 jobs in December in a burst of hiring that drove the unemployment rate down two notches to 8.5 percent, its lowest in almost three years.

Chinese benchmark Shanghai Composite surged over two and half a percent on Tuesday, after weaker-than-expected China trade data boosted hopes that Beijing would relax monetary policy to contain a slowdown in the world's second-largest economy moreover, Seoul index rose about one and half a percent as investors relished the prospect of stimulus moves by the Chinese government following weaker than expected trade data and hints of policy easing.