Post session: Quick Review

Wednesday’s session turned out to be solid session of gains for D-Street on account of surge of index heavyweights such as Reliance Industries, Coal India Infosys along with private banking majors among others.  In absence of any positive trigger at home front, markets after making a positive start just went on adding ground to conclude near day’s high point on sustained buying activity by funds and retail investors thanks to positive global cues. By close of trade, both Sensex and Nifty gathered over half of a percent to conclude above psychologically crucial 28,700 and 8,700 levels respectively. Meanwhile, the session also turned out to be fruitful for broader indices, which ended with gains in the range of 0.60-1.75%.

On the global front, Asian shares were higher across the board on Wednesday, with Tokyo, Seoul and mainland markets hitting fresh highs after Bank of Japan kept its massive monetary stimulus intact as expected. Asian markets were seemingly unaffected by the weaker finish overnight in the U.S. as investors eyed continued gains in oil and the U.S. dollar ahead of the unofficial start of earnings season on Wednesday. Meanwhile, European stocks surpassed a record high Wednesday, with the energy sector thrust in the spotlight after Royal Dutch Shell PLC agreed to take over BG Group PLC in the largest energy industry deal this year.

Closer home, with buying being broad-based, most of the sectoral indices on BSE were trading into positive territory, however only exceptions were stocks from banking counter which the ended the positive session of trade, down in red. On the flip side, much of the buying was witnessed by stocks from Information Technology, Technology and Metal counters were the prominent gainers of the session.  Meanwhile, real estate companies rose after the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, gave its approval to amendments to the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2013. Banking stocks edged lower for yet another session after Reserve bank of India, in a much anticipated moved kept its monetary policy rates unchanged in its first bi-monthly monetary policy statement for 2015-16. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of advances which thumped declines in the ratio of 1801: 996; while 119 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex concluded at 28707.75, up by 191.16 points or 0.67% after trading in a range of 28566.61 and 28763.06. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.65%, while Small cap index up by 1.79%. (Provisional)

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.98%, TECK up by 1.74%, Metal up by 1.62%, Oil & Gas up by 1.55% and FMCG up by 1.46% while, Bankex down by 0.31% was the lone losing index on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Coal India up by 6.00%, Bharti Airtel up by 3.70%, Reliance Industries up by 3.51%, GAIL India up by 2.79% and TCS up by 2.24%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 2.27%, Sesa Sterlite down by 1.95%, ONGC down by 1.57%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.36% and Tata Power down by 0.83% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India) vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya has came in defence of the government, brushing aside the perception that not much has changed under the BJP-led NDA government he said that the turnaround in the economy is certainly there with both inflation and the current account deficit down, fiscal deficit under control and economy registering a growth of 7.4% last year.

He noted that the sentiment that nothing has changed on the ground is very much there, but said that the new government came with a lot of promises and, hence, people 'get impatient.' He added that it's been only 10 months since the Modi government came to power; give it more time.

In related development, Panagariya charged companies with not investing much in labour-intensive sectors and concentrating mainly on capital-intensive ones, adding to the unemployment woes of the country. He urged the industry to invest in labour intensive sectors without being wary of the trade unions. He further added that Unions are an integral part of the democratic set-up and there is no getting away from them.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility gained 0.68% at 14.34 from its previous close of 14.24 on Tuesday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty settled at 8714.40, up by 54.10 points or 0.62% after trading in a range of 8679.80 and 8730.50. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Coal India up by 5.77% and Reliance Industries up by 3.97% and Bharti Airtel up by 3.56% and BPCL up by 3.01% and Tech Mahindra up by 2.98%. On the flip side, Idea Cellular down by 2.51%, Yes Bank down by 2.40%, HDFC down by 2.18%, Sesa Sterlite down by 2.10% and ONGC down by 1.88% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European Markets were trading mostly in the green; France's CAC gained 0.15% and UK's FTSE 100 was up by 0.57%, while Germany's DAX was down by 0.27%.

The Asian markets closed mixed on Wednesday, with Chinese stocks were higher, as gains in the Financials, Life Insurance and Banking sectors led indices higher. The Bank of Japan on Wednesday decided by an 8 to 1 vote to leave the bank’s policy target unchanged while board member Takahide Kiuchi, who had been opposed to the October 31 easing, called for an even lower simulative target than the one before the last easing. Now that the two-year period is over, Kiuchi proposed that the BoJ should conduct money market operations and asset purchases so that the monetary base and the amount outstanding of its JGB holdings will increase at an annual pace about 45 trillion yen. Japan’s Economy Watchers Current Index rose to a seasonally adjusted 52.2, from 50.1 in the preceding month. Taiwanese Trade Balance fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.07B, from 4.56B in the preceding month while Taiwanese CPI rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 0.55%, from 0.01% in the preceding quarter.