Post session - Quick review

Domestic equity markets closed marginally in red after a choppy trade on Wednesday. The global cues along with some local jitters restrained the markets to move higher. The cautiousness prevailed in the markets from the very beginning and after getting a slightly higher start the benchmark indices were dragged down in red, weighed by the plunge in IT sector stocks. Though, the sector major TCS reported a better than expected numbers for the December quarter but the traders took a cautious approach anticipating slowdown due to economic turmoil in Europe and the United States. Meanwhile, the global cues more or less remained passive as the US markets closed higher after the report of New York manufacturing activity improving in January. Though, the Asian markets snapped the session mixed but the Chinese markets suffered cut of over a percent on concern that a property-market slowdown will slow the demand for building materials and consumer goods. The European stocks too fell on Wednesday after the World Bank cut its global growth forecast by the most in three years.

Earlier, the markets made a flat start on expected lines as the regional peers were showing similar trend, it seemed that the markets will consolidate after a big rally of last session. Though it was the surge in the index heavy weight Reliance Industries that lifted the markets higher in very early trade, the company will be considering a share buyback on Friday. The stock moved higher by over four percent, in the intraday trade it even surged by over six percent. However, IT metals, capital goods and technology stocks continued putting pressure throughout the day, which capped the recovery chances of the markets in the last. Some buying was also seen in the high beta realty sector that too supported the markets from slipping further in the rangebound trade. Though oil & gas remained the top gainer but one sector that kept buzzing whole day was power, ahead of a meeting of top power sector corporate and PM. A high level delegation consisting of top corporate leaders of the power industry like Ratan Tata, Anil Ambani, Prashant Ruia, L Madhusudan Rao, Anil Aggarwal and Ashok Hinduja were supposed to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss issues relating to shortage of coal and gas, issues arising out of coal imports becoming unviable, tariff hike and pending reforms in the power sector. One of the non sectoral gauges that kept its gains intact was airlines,the Aviation Ministry said it would recommend that the government allow foreign airlines to buy stakes of up to 49 percent in Indian carriers. Stocks like Kingfisher Airlines closed higher by 0.60%, Jet Air India gained 4.96% and Spicejet was up by 2.46%. There was consistent selling in every sector barring some realty and oil & gas stocks, the broader indices too suffered heavy profit booking and lost over a percent.

The market breadth on the BSE ended negative; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1104:1655 while 145 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex lost 43.12 points or 0.26% and settled at 16,422.93. The index touched a high and a low of 16,517.96 and 16,384.48 respectively. 10 stocks advanced against 20 declining ones on the index (Provisional)

The BSE Mid-cap index lost 1.15% while Small-cap index was down by 1.03%. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Oil & Gas up 2.68% and Realty up 0.67% were the only gainers while Metal down 2.43%, IT down 2.41%, Capital Goods down 2.28%, TECk down 1.97% and PSU down 1.41% were the top losers.

The top gainers on the Sensex were RIL up 4.17%, HDFC Bank up 3.18%, ONGC up 1.83%, DLF up 1.54% and Hero MotoCorp up 1.44%.

On the flip side, Tata Steel down 4.64%, Coal India down 3.49%, BHEL down 3.05%, TCS down 2.90% and Wipro down 2.83% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

India's cash strapped aviation industry is likely to get a new lease of subsistence as the Civil Aviation and Union Finance ministers in their meeting agreed upon permitting foreign carriers to buy stakes in Indian airline up to 49 percent. The proposal to allow foreign airlines, which are at presently barred from owning stakes in domestic carriers, to infuse 49 percent foreign direct investment (FDI) in Indian carriers will soon be presented before the Union Cabinet for approval.

The development has emerged after months of lobbying by loss making airlines like Kingfisher Airlines and GoAir and also after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assured the country will find ways and means to help domestic airlines. 49 percent FDI already exists in the Indian aviation sector, but only from financial and other non-airline investors from abroad. Once the move materializes, it would enable the much needed cash injections for the distressed Aviation sector which have been struggling in the extremely competitive market and help it tide over the current financial crisis.

Meanwhile, the ministers also agreed upon to provide Air India with Rs 150 crore for payment of portion of pending salaries and allowances of employees, including pilots. Aviation minister is of the belief that the amount released would be sufficient to pay at least some part of their wages and PLI (productivity-linked incentives). A decision on the airline's loan restructuring and the proposal to allow local airlines to import ATF is also expected in the next meeting of the group of ministers.

India VIX, a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility gained 0.30% at 22.68 from its previous close of 22.61 on Tuesday. (Provisional)

The S&P CNX Nifty lost 21.60 points or 0.43% to settle at 4,945.70. The index touched high and low of 4,980.65 and 4,931.05 respectively. 17 stocks advanced against 33 declining ones on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were RIL up 4.26%, HDFC Bank up 3.16%, Reliance Infra up 2.61%, Reliance Power up 2.20% and ONGC up 2.06%.

 On the other hand, Tata Steel down 4.52%, SAIL down 4.29%, Coal India down 3.48%, Kotak Bank down 3.26% and Axis Bank down 3.16% were the top losers. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading on a mix note, with France's CAC 40 down 0.20%, Germany's DAX up 0.09% and Britain’s FTSE 100 down 0.23%.

Asian markets ended mixed on Wednesday, there was some upmove in early trade on the back of upbeat US and German data as well as successful bond auctions in Spain and Greece. Investors remained cautious as eurozone fears continued to cast a shadow while financial plays were weighed by disappointing earnings from banking giant Citi.  However drop in Shanghai came amid expectation that Beijing won't ease its monetary policy too much. The mainland Chinese stocks declined, giving up some of their previous session’s gains. China Securities Journal said the government may take steps to bolster long-term investor shareholdings.