Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity markets succumbed to selling pressure after six straight sessions of gains as bulls took a breather from their gaining spree tailing somber global cues. Markets, gaining for a seventh consecutive session on Monday, rose to their highest in nearly a month in intra-day session of trade as stocks focused on the domestic market such as Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and Maruti Suzuki rose on hopes of fresh foreign allocations at the start of the year. However, profit-booking which kicked in the last hour of trade mainly dragged the markets into negative territory. By close of trade, both Sensex and Nifty sliding around two tenths of a percent, concluded below psychologically crucial 27,850 and 8,400 levels respectively. However, broader indices outperforming larger counterparts were trading with gains of over one tenth of a percent.

On the global front, Asian stocks were mixed on the first trading day of the week, following a weak lead from Wall Street and continued jitters in the oil market. US stocks ended near unchanged on Friday, with the S&P 500 down for a third session after economic reports showed manufacturing slowing, but still in expansion mode at the end of 2014. US construction spending fell 0.3 per cent to an annual rate of $975.0 billion in November from the revised October estimate of $977.7 billion. The drop in construction spending came as a surprise to economists, who had expected spending to increase by about 0.5%. Meanwhile, worries over Greece's future in the euro zone kept shares under pressure on Monday. Political uncertainty in Greece was firmly in the spotlight ahead of elections later this month as German Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said the German government wanted Greece to stay in the euro zone. The January 25 election in Greece could vault the left-wing Syriza party into power, raising the risk of a sovereign default and severe losses for the European Central Bank on any Greek bonds it holds.

Closer home, most of the sectoral indices on BSE ended in the green, as stocks from Auto, Consumer Durables and Capital Goods counters were the prominent gainers of the session. On the flip side, stocks from Technology, Information Technology and Metal counters were the top losers of the session. Capital Goods stocks gained on robust PMI data for the month of December which was at its highest since end-2012, while auto Stocks were in limelight after reporting their December Sales figures. Conversely, IT stocks amid concerns over cross-currency movements. Among IT stocks, TCS and HCL Tech were down over 1%. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of advances, which thumped decliners in the ratio of 1547:1421, while 120 shares remained unchanged (Provisional).

The BSE Sensex ended at 27842.32, down by 45.58 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 27786.85 and 28064.49. There were 14 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.16%, while Small cap index up by 0.11%. (Provisional)

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 1.14%, Consumer Durables up by 1.11%, Capital Goods up by 0.73%, Realty up by 0.22% and FMCG up by 0.22% while, TECK down by 1.07%, IT down by 1.01%, Metal down by 0.45%, Healthcare down by 0.30% and Bankex down by 0.25% were the losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 2.68%, Tata Motors up by 2.46%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.65%, Tata Steel up by 1.57% and ONGC up by 1.09%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 2.63%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 2.34%, Hindalco down by 1.81%, HDFC down by 1.60% and Coal India down by 1.43% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, in a major boost to e-governance programme, the government has allocated Rs 1,900 crore for the implementation of 'Panch Deep' e-governance programme to automate transactions of the Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) in order to provide best health services to workers and labourers of unorganised sectors across India. Union Minister for Labour Bandaru Dattatreya has stated that enrolment of insured persons in biometric system as per the WHO standards, installation of computers at all ESIC locations, connecting all ESI offices with headquarters and computerization of hospital information system, enterprise resource planning and accounts would be taken up under the programme. 

The Minister further added that under the project, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution would be installed across the country, which will give a unique card to the employees, which would help build a massive database of health records of all the members. The Centre has decided to revamp public hospitals and will give Rs 5 crore each to repair or renovate hospitals with 200 or more beds. Hospitals with less than 200 beds would get Rs 3 crore, while smaller dispensaries Rs 50 lakh.

Referring to Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), the Minister added that out of 4,30,977 established employees, 29,000 members will get Universal Account Number (UAN) soon. So far labour identification numbers (LIN) to 7.41 lakh members applied online was delivered.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility rose 2.04% at 14.07 from its previous close of 13.79 on Friday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty ended at 8377.50, down by 17.95 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 8363.90 and 8445.60. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Maruti Suzuki up by 2.63%, Tata Motors up by 2.40%, Tata Steel up by 1.75%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.59% and IDFC up by 1.42%. On the flip side, DLF down by 2.69%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 2.34%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.15%, Hindalco down by 1.94% and Tech Mahindra down by 1.84% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European Markets were trading mostly in the red; UK's FTSE 100 was down by 0.49% and France's CAC was down by 0.04%, while Germany's DAX was up by 0.06%.

The Asian equity benchmarks ended mostly in red on Monday, with Japanese stocks closing lower on the first trading day of the year after fluctuating though out the day. An economic rebound and loose money policy under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe briefly halted a long slide in Japan’s commercial property market, but the benefits of Abenomics appear increasingly limited to Tokyo, leaving a moribund hinterland. Japanese manufacturing activity showed sustained growth in December, suggesting domestic demand continues to recover after the economy fell into a surprise recession last year. The final Markit/JMMA Japan Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) was 52.0 in December, slightly less than a preliminary reading of 52.1 and unchanged from the final reading in November.

South Korea received a record high $19 billion in pledges of foreign direct investment during 2014, as interest from Europe and China surged. The total is 30.6 percent higher than in 2013, when there were pledges of about $14.6 billion. Pledged inflows from the European Union, the largest foreign investor in South Korea, grew 35 percent to $6.5 billion while those from China rose 147 percent to $1.2 billion. Thailand CPI fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 0.60%, from 1.26% in the preceding month.