Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity markets witnessed a sharp turnaround rally on Friday, taking the benchmarks above the crucial levels from a sluggish trade. The local markets that bucking the trends remained in negative terrain for most part of the day suddenly spiked up in final hours to end near the highs of the day. Earlier, the stock markets edged lower, heading for their first weekly loss in three, on continued concerns about earnings and weighed down by report of India's merchandise exports contracting for the 10th month in a row, declining by 24.33 percent in September to $21.84 billion. Though, the imports too shrank 25.42 percent to $32.32 billion in September on yearly basis, thus narrowing the trade gap to 10.47 billion from $ 14.47 billion recorded in the same month of 2014. Also, there was some concern with the RBI releasing a report on the financial performance of non-government non-financial companies stating that Indian corporates as a whole saw their net profits fall 9.5 per cent in the first quarter of this financial year, though it was still better than better than the 12.5 per cent decline seen in the previous quarter. While, the manufacturing sector performed poorly, the IT sector showed a very low but positive y-o-y growth in net profit.

The global markets though showed firm trend and following the rally in the US markets overnight, the Asian markets ended mostly in green led by the Chinese market which gained over one and half a percent, as the government unveiled further reforms of state-run industries. European shares too made a positive start on hopes that weak economic data from China, Europe and the US will persuade the Federal Reserve against raising interest rates this year.

Back home, the markets that were trading lower since morning, got some boost with the positive start of the European markets. Also, traders’ sentiments were supported by data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) of the oil ministry that India's fuel demand in September rose at the fastest pace in more than a decade, providing further evidence of a pickup in industrial activity. Traders also reacted positively to different result announcements and eyeing the market heavyweight Reliance Industries numbers slated to be announced later in the day. There was some action in infra stocks, after Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said that around 96,000 kilometers of roads are being laid across India annually and the target would soon be improved to 1.5 lakh kilometers per year.  The telecom stocks too kept buzzing after the telecom regulator asked telcos to compensate consumers Re 1 for every call dropped on their networks, subject to a cap of three call drops a day, starting from January 1, 2016. Trai also raised the penalty on telecom operators to up to Rs. 2 lakh for poor mobile service quality, including call drops. The regulatory body considers a benchmark rate of 2 percent and 3 percent (worst affected cell) as a call drop rate threshold for each telecom service provider in each circle. Bharti Airtel declined by a quarter percent, while Idea Cellular lost over a percent, however RCom gained over 4%. Auto makers bucked the trend  and rose on hopes for rising sales during the ongoing festive season after the Reserve Bank of India cut interest rates by a bigger-than-expected 50 basis points last month.

The BSE Sensex ended at 27229.81, up by 219.67 points or 0.81% after trading in a range of 26917.12 and 27239.22. There were 20 stocks on gainers side against 10 stocks on decliners side on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices too managed a positive close; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.40%, while Small cap index was up by 0.04%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 1.98%, Bankex up by 1.43%, Oil & Gas up by 1.18%, Auto up by 0.96%, PSU up by 0.72%, while Realty down by 1.39%, Consumer Durables down by 0.48%, Metal down by 0.43%, IT down by 0.06% were the losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Larsen & Toubro up by 2.98%, SBI up by 2.95%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.62%, HDFC up by 1.62% and Tata Motors up by 1.52%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 2.06%, Tata Steel down by 1.14%, Coal India down by 0.89%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.79% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.47% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that India’s economic growth rate will be more than 7.5 percent in the fiscal year 2015-16. He stated that while India’s macroeconomic indicators are positive, inflation has come down, Indirect tax revenues are showing a positive trend, and CAD is under control, all these positive indicators point to India's economic revival and the government is following the fiscal consolidation road map and will stick to fiscal deficit target.

Besides, Jaitley said that there is scope of increasing GDP by 2 percent by taking cumulative measures including rationalisation of taxes etc, adding that subsidy rationalisation, implementation of DBT, bank recapitalisation, investment in infrastructure and irrigation sector are priority areas of the government. He further said that even when globally the economic situation is not that good, India's industrial and manufacturing output are showing improvement.

While talking about the agricultural sector, Jaitley has said that the agriculture sector needs to be more productive in order to raise its contribution in overall GDP. He further added that though 55 percent of India’s populations are engaged in agriculture sector, it contributes only 15 percent to GDP.

The CNX Nifty ended at 8241.50, up by 62.00 points or 0.76% after trading in a range of 8147.65 and 8246.40. There were 33 stocks in green against 16 stocks in red, while one stock remained unchanged on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were SBI up by 3.09%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.98%, BPCL up by 1.98%, Yes Bank up by 1.90% and Asian Paints up by 1.70%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 2.20%, Adani Ports &Special down by 1.73%, Idea Cellular down by 1.31%, Bank Of Baroda down by 1.06% and Tata Steel down by 0.88% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading in green, France’s CAC was up by 38.48 points or 0.82% to 4,713.77, UK’s FTSE 100 gained 53.58 points or 0.85% to 6,392.25, while Germany’s DAX increased 87.17 points or 0.87% to 10,151.97.

The Asian equity markets ended mostly in green on Friday, shrugging off the weak cues overnight from Wall Street, as weak US economic data boosted expectations that the Federal Reserve will hold off on raising interest rates this year. Indonesia Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro stated that the 2015 state budget deficit is still under control and expects it will not exceed 2.5 percent of projected gross domestic product despite the low tax revenue. The minister latest estimate means Indonesia will see its deficit exceed the revised budget for this year, set at Rp 222.5 trillion ($16.6 billion), equivalent to 1.9 percent of GDP. This assumption relies heavily on estimates that state revenue will increase by 14 percent and tax collections will be 30 percent higher this year. Tax collection, though, has lagged severely. As of October 5, tax collection for the year, excluding excise and export-import duties, amounted to Rp 686 trillion, or just 53 percent of the full-year target of Rp 1,294 trillion. Japan’s industrial production fell to a seasonally adjusted -1.2% compared to the preceding month. China will aim to have the capacity to make 30 million autos a year by 2020, a figure that is lower than estimates of its current annual production capacity.