Post Session: Quick Review

Local equity markets witnessed consolidation on the last trading session of the holiday truncated week, which led Sensex and Nifty end flat but above psychologically crucial 27,850 and 8,300 levels respectively. The trend, broadly however turned out to be mixed for local equity markets, with Nifty negotiating a flattish to positive close and Sensex ending lower over 0.15%. Similarly, Small-cap index concluded lower with loss of 0.30%, while Midcap index ended with gains of around three tenths of a percent. Prevailing caution ahead of portfolio rejig, which is likely to take place over the weekend also underpinned market-participants to book their profits. As per reports, at least a dozen new ministers are set to be inducted by Narendra Modi government as part of the cabinet expansion that is likely to take place on Sunday, 9 November 2014.

On the global front, Asian shares concluded mostly negative on Friday even after the European Central Bank (ECB) said it would take more easing steps if necessary to boost growth as prevailing caution ahead of US jobs data due later on Friday, mainly weighed across Asia pacific region. Reports suggests that U.S. employers likely hired new workers at a fairly brisk clip last month, underscoring the economy's resilience in the face of slowing global demand. Meanwhile, European shares edged higher after ECB President Mario Draghi vowed to take more easing steps to spark growth in the euro-zone after leaving interest rates at a record low of 0.05%.

Back on the home turf, most of the sectoral indices on BSE concluded into positive territory, nevertheless stocks from Healthcare, Realty and Technology counters were the prominent gainers. Pharma stocks gained on weak rupee, with Dr Reddy's Laboratories hitting record high. On the currency front, Indian rupee, after making a weak start, continue to depreciate against dollar on Thursday tailing negative local equities, weaker Asian counterparts and increased demand for the US currency from importers, which weighed on the sentiment of Indian currency. Besides, shares of public sector oil marketing companies rose tailing fall in crude oil prices. BPCL, HPCL and IOC shares gained between 2%-4% after brent crude dropped for the second straight session on Friday, dragged below $83 by worries over the strong U.S. dollar. Lower crude oil prices will reduce under-recoveries of PSU OMCs on domestic sale of LPG and kerosene at controlled prices. Additionally, optimism witnessed in shares of Bharti Airtel got spilled across all the other telecom stocks. Reliance Communication and Idea Cellular gained in the range of 1%-2% after Bharti Airtel unveiled that it had called off its plans to acquire Loop Mobile, as the deal failed to secure regulatory approvals. With Loop Mobile’s licence expiring on November 29, and the company has no plans to extend it, which in turn hints at the end of the road for the service provider.

On the flip side, much of the drubbing was witnessed by Metal counter, followed by Capital Goods and Power counters which were the prominent losers of the session. Capital Goods counter drag was led by losses of L&T ahead of its earnings. The market breadth on the BSE remained in the favour of decliners; where advancing and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1446:1563, while 103 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

 The BSE Sensex ended at 27868.63, down by 47.25 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 27739.56 and 27980.93. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.35%, while Small cap index down by 0.39%. (Provisional)

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.43%, Healthcare up by 2.28%, TECK up by 0.49%, Consumer Durables up by 0.35% and IT up by 0.21%, while Metal down by 1.27%, Capital Goods down by 0.72%, Power down by 0.65%, Auto down by 0.46% and PSU down by 0.11% were the losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Dr. Reddys Lab up by 4.51%, Axis Bank up by 2.79%, Sun Pharma up by 2.48%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.55% and ONGC up by 1.25%. On the flip side, BHEL down by 3.24%, GAIL India down by 2.06%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.87%, Sesa Sterlite down by 1.79% and HDFC Bank down by 1.51% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, highlighting high growth potential of domestic power sector, Power Minister Piyush Goyal has asserted that power sector has the potential to attract $250 billion investments over the next five years, of which $100 billion will come from renewable energy sector and $50 billion for the transmission networks. 

Piyush Goyal added that at present the country produce one trillion units power a year and aim is to take it to two trillion by 2019. Renewable and stranded gas-based power plants only produce around 10 percent of total number of units and thus need to be revived. Minister further added that the government is taking measures to overcome fuel challenges to provide power to all 1.2 billion people. Government is planning to double coal production target to one billion tonnes in the next five years to meet rising energy demands in the country. The Minister also called for an increasing private sector role in coal production and expressed interest in new gas discoveries and ways to get gas plants back on stream.

Industry installed power capacity stands at around 248 GW, out of which coal-fired plants account for about 59% and hydro plants accounts for around 17% of India's totalled installed electricity capacity. Presently, coal shortage in the country has become a key concern for Indian power sector. Indian domestic coal demand is around 35 percent higher than domestic supply. Coal India (CIL) is the only producer of coal in the country, which is struggling to meet domestic coal requirements. CIL production fell 4.21 percent short of its production target to 462.53 million tonnes in FY14 amid concerns like shutdown of mining activities in Talcher Coalfields in Odisha. The government has set coal production target at 507 million tonnes to Coal India for FY15.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility surged 2.58% at 14.11 from its previous close of 13.66 on Wednesday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty ended at 8337.00, down by 1.30 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 8290.25 and 8360.35. There were 20 stocks advancing against 30 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were DLF up by 6.11%, Zee Entertainment up by 4.79%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 4.46%, Lupin up by 2.75% and Sun Pharma up by 2.62%. On the flip side, BHEL down by 3.47%, GAIL India down by 2.56%, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.55%, Sesa Sterlite down by 1.89% and Asian Paints down by 1.70% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European Markets were trading in the green; UK’s FTSE 100 was up 0.78%, France’s CAC was up by 1.03% and Germany’s DAX was up by 1.18%.

Asian markets ended mostly in red on Friday, with Chinese stocks closing in red before the release of trade data scheduled for tomorrow. Meanwhile, China’s central bank has published details on its latest tool to provide liquidity as banks see a rate cut as unlikely. The People’s Bank of China confirmed it pumped 769.5 billion yuan ($126 billion) into the country’s lenders in the last two months through a newly-created medium-term lending facility. The PBOC injected 500 billion yuan in September and another 269.5 billion yuan in October via the facility -- all termed at three months with an interest rate of 3.5%. On the other hand the Nikkei posted over half a percent of gains with Japanese companies heading towards their highest profits ever, as the falling yen boosts exporters. As the earnings season winds down in Japan -- almost all companies will have reported results by next week -- exporters are emerging as one of the biggest beneficiaries of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic policies. Taiwanese Trade Balance rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.62B, from 3.50B in the preceding month.