Post session - Quick review

Indian equity indices showed a choppy trade on Friday, the bullish start lost momentum by the mid morning trade and then again shoot up in late afternoon trade to touch high points of the day, however the late profit booking once again dragged the markets lower from there. But despite all these volatility the markets managed a close of green supported by the surge in the realty sector. Capital goods sector too responded after a day of better than expected IIP numbers and the markets recovered more than what they have lost in last session. Meanwhile, the global cues played the main supportive factor for the upmove in the domestic markets. The US markets closed higher overnight despite weak economic data and most of the Asian markets closed with gains on optimism of some resolution to European debt crisis. Above all, the European markets made a jubilant start on strong demand in Spanish and Italian debt sales.

Earlier the markets made a gap-up start, recovering from the disappointments of the last session, though the other sectors showed strength the IT sector remained in the somber mood with majors like Infosys and TCS losing another couple of percent in morning trade. Commodity stocks were in demand tailing their global peers after the sign of some recovery in European debt crisis. The power sector continued their surge for most part of the day, Reliance Power, the ADAG company surged on reports that  permission has been granted by EGoM to the company to use incremental coal as and when available, after meeting Sasan requirements. While the PSU Coal India remained in jubilant mood after the company’s management agreed to a wage hike of 25% for its three lakh-odd mine workers. Meanwhile, the government reviewed the progress of over 100 coal and lignite blocks allocated to companies. The broader indices once again outperformed the benchmarks and closed with gains of over a percent. There was not much result announcements but Sintex industries despite posting stellar numbers failed to please the traders. The company’s net profit for the quarter zoomed by 404.61% at Rs 67.82 crore as compared to Rs 13.44 crore in the same quarter last year.

The market breadth on the BSE ended positive; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1896:917 while 81 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex gained 115.56 points or 0.72% and settled at 16,153.07. The index touched a high and a low of 16,257.34 and 16,049.78 respectively. 19 stocks advanced against 11 declining ones on the index (Provisional)

The BSE Mid-cap index gained 1.21% while Small-cap index was up by 1.52%. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Metal up 3.17%, Capital Goods up 2.85%, Power up 2.54%, Realty up 2.19% and PSU up 1.55% were the top gainers while Oil & Gas down 0.42%, Consumer Durables down 0.32%, IT down 0.15% and HealthCare down 0.13% were the only losers.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up 7.19%, Coal India up 5.76%, L&T up 3.60%, NTPC up 3.36% and Jindal Steel up 3.09%.

On the flip side, Gail India down 3.43%, Bajaj Auto down 2.91%, Maruti Suzuki down 1.83%, Sun Pharma down 1.56% and Hero MotoCorp down 1.26% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Exuding confidence over the recent set of encouraging economic indications, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee affirmed that the government will resort to proactive measures in order to keep the growth momentum going. The finance minister’s avowal came after the announcement of pleasantly surprising November industrial output figures which showed IIP surpassed all estimates to stage a sharp rebound to 5.9% in November while food prices fell for the second consecutive week as food inflation remained in the negative zone at -2.90% for the week ended December 31, 2011.

The finance minister was of the belief, if the growth trend in IIP numbers persists from here on, then the industry will certainly deliver an improved performance in the last quarter of this financial year, provided the government employs  some proactive measures. He underscored that building on this recovery with a stronger performance of capital goods and therefore investments would lead to recovery in growth momentum in the remaining months of the fiscal year.

Mukherjee also reckons that moderation in inflation would continue in coming months though, softening in the prices of manufactured goods, despite the rapid decline in non-food primary inflation, may be more gradual. He maintained if the declining trend persists then the overall inflation will be manageable and also said that the headline inflation should be between 6-7 percent by end March 2012.

However, food prices are likely to resume the rising trend and even reach around 7% mark by March-April, according to planning commission's principal adviser Pronab Sen as government is still to address some structural issues because of which average food inflation hovered around 7% between 2004 and 2009. Food inflation languished in the negative zone for the second straight week despite a slight uptick in prices because of the high statistical base of the last year.

India VIX, a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility lost 2.28% at 23.48 from its previous close of 24.03 on Thursday. (Provisional)

The S&P CNX Nifty gained 35.65 points or 0.74% to settle at 4,866.90. The index touched high and low of 4,898.85 and 4,834.20 respectively. 33 stocks advanced against 17 declining ones on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were Reliance Power up 7.22%, Tata Steel up 6.97%, Reliance Communications up 6.34%, Coal India up 5.02% and NTPC up 3.51%.

 On the other hand, Gail India down 3.27%, Bajaj Auto down 3.09%, Maruti down 1.91%, HCL Tech down 1.79% and Sun Pharma down 1.73% were the top losers. (Provisional)

The European markets traded in green, with France's CAC 40 up 0.98%, Germany's DAX up 0.39% and Britain’s FTSE 100 up 0.30%.

Most Asian markets rose on Friday as successful Italian and Spanish bond auctions and comments from the European Central Bank helped alleviate concerns about the region's debt crisis. Meanwhile, Japanese Nikkei ended up 1.36 percent as sentiment brightened on eased fears over the European debt crisis and an overnight rise on Wall Street. However, mainland Chinese stocks fell sharply after data showed the country's foreign-exchange reserves fell by $20.6 billion in the fourth quarter to $3.18 trillion amid a shrinking trade surplus and worries about foreign-exchange outflows. Moreover, Taiwan Weighted slipped marginally on caution ahead of presidential elections over the weekend.