Post Session: Quick Review

Markets showed a choppy trade on Monday, though the major bourses managed to keep their head in green for most part of the day and ended the month on a flat note. Traders were a bit cautious ahead of the important Q2 GDP data announcement after the market hours and the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) fifth bi-monthly monetary policy review slated for Tuesday. While, it is highly unlikely that RBI governor Raghuram Rajan will tinker with the key rates, but traders will be eyeing his statement as the retail inflation continued to inch up, rising to 5 percent in October from 4.41 percent in September and 3.74 percent in the month before. On the same time, India`s economic growth likely picked up in the July-September quarter and restricted any serious profit taking. The markets also maintained pace on report that government in a move to bring the Congress on board and pass the Goods and Service Tax (GST) Bill in the Parliament, may opt for more than one GST rate. GST could help raise GDP growth to around 8 percent in the next fiscal year.

Most of the Asian markets fell  and some even dropped to a two-week low led by decline in currencies.The Shanghai Composite managed a modestly higher close after slipping  over 3 percent in early trading. On the other hand the Japanese market ended lower despite nations' output rising 1.4 percent from September, when it unexpectedly increased by 1.1 percent, while Retail sales rose 1.8 percent year-on-year following a 0.1 percent drop in September. The European markets too made a weak start, and the euro headed for its worst month versus the dollar since March amid prospects policy makers will further boost stimulus this week.

Back home, the choppiness increased in the final hours with benchmarks surging to near their intraday high but surrendering again to profit taking, while the Sensex managed a modestly positive close, the Nifty ended tad lower to its previous close. The marginal weakness in rupee too weighed on the market sentiments, as the traders turned cautious ahead of a series of key events, both global and domestic. Also, there was concern with report that foreign portfolio investors pulled out more than $1 billion from the domestic equity and bond market over the last one month. In 2015-16 so far, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have sold $2.40 billion in equity, the steepest selling since fiscal year 2009. Some buzz was seen in the auto stocks, as buying emerged in Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland ahead of their inclusion in MSCI India index which will be effective from 1st December. Capital goods stocks too remained in limelight, after the Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Minister Anant Geete said the government is committed to provide all necessary support to make India`s manufacturing sector globally competitive and a wide array of smart technologies needs to be adopted for the purpose. L&T gained around a percent, Siemens was up by over a percent, ABB too gained over half a percent.

The BSE Sensex ended at 26149.59, up by 21.39 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 26089.13 and 26231.06. There were 11 stocks in green against 19 stocks in red on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices outperforming the benchmarks ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.21%, while Small cap index gained 0.77%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.27%, Consumer Durables up by 1.12%, IT up by 0.90%, TECK up by 0.52%, Power up by 0.48%, while FMCG down by 0.18%, Oil & Gas down by 0.13%, Metal down by 0.09% were the losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 1.57%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.47%, ICICI Bank up by 1.43%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.32% and Tata Motors up by 1.31%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.93%, Vedanta down by 1.80%, GAIL India down by 1.69%, NTPC down by 1.62% and Reliance Industries down by 1.30% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, with an aim to help Indian drug makers to save cost on upgrading to international standards, India is nudging various semi-regulated markets like Myanmar and Kenya to accept its drug standards, instead of British Pharmacopoeia (BP) or the United States Pharmacopoeia (USP). Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) Director General PV Appaji has said that “We are in talks with various semi-regulated markets in ASEAN region, Africa and SAARC countries to accept Indian Pharmacopoeia instead of BP or USP”. The move will help many Indian drug makers, which are solely following IP, to save significantly on time, packaging and other costs needed to adopt either BP or USP.

Extending its support to this initiative, Pharmexcil has invited 10-15 drug regulatory heads from various countries to participate in the Indian Pharmaceutical Congress at Mysore next month. Apart from this the council is already in talks with representatives from Ghana, Kenya and Myanmar regarding the issue and has stated them that Indian drug standards are also at par with the USP or BP. It also added that if they accept, both Indian drug industry as well as these countries would be beneficial and these markets would be able to get drugs from the stock meant for Indian market, leading to saving in terms of cost and time and also they could avail of certain life saving drugs well in time.

Pharmacopoeia is a set of standards and quality specifications for ingredients, preparation and dosage forms of medicines manufactured, sold, consumed and exported in a country. Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) is an autonomous institution under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare which sets standards for all drugs that are manufactured, sold and consumed in India. Currently, Indian Pharmacopoeia (IP) is only followed in the Indian market. Last fiscal, India exported drugs worth over $15 billion.

The CNX Nifty ended at 7939.50, down by 3.20 points or 0.04% after trading in a range of 7922.80 and 7966.00. There were 17 stocks advancing against 32 stocks declining on the index, while one stock ended unchanged. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Power Grid Corpn. up by 2.02%, Indusind Bank up by 1.69%, Infosys up by 1.59%, Tata Power up by 1.43% and Tata Motors up by 1.38%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 2.23%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.15%, Vedanta down by 1.85%, Coal India down by 1.56% and NTPC down by 1.54% were the top losers. (Provisional)

The European markets after a soft start were trading mixed, France’s CAC was up by 15.49 points or 0.31% to 4,945.63, Germany’s DAX gained 76.99 points or 0.68% to 11,370.75, while UK’s FTSE 100 was down by 16.89 points or 0.26% to 6,358.26.

The Asian markets closed mostly lower on Monday as investors awaited key global policy and data events this week, including monetary policy meeting of the European Central Bank. Shanghai Composite rose modestly in volatile trade after posting their worst weekly performance since August last week on news of investigations into three major Chinese brokerages over suspected securities violations. Stocks in Hong Kong though tumbled ahead of an IMF decision to include the Chinese yuan in its Special Drawing Rights reserve currency later in the day and China's November PMI readings due on Tuesday. Japanese shares eased after a slew of data painted a mixed picture of the world's third largest economy. Japan's factory output rose 1.4% in October from a month ago, marking the second consecutive monthly rise, although the figure fell short of forecasts. Separate data showed retail sales rose 1.8 percent in the year to October, more than a 0.8 percent annual gain expected. Seoul shares too fell, pressured by a tumble in Chinese markets the previous session and data showing a surprise drop in industrial output.