Post Session: Quick Review

Wednesday’s session turned out to be a disappointing day of trade for Indian equity markets. The frontline indices ended below their psychological 7,900 (Nifty) and 26,000 (Sensex) levels as investors started taking profits off the table in the late hours of the session. The key gauges displayed listless performance for most part of the trade as the aimless benchmarks appeared exhausted and showed only sideways kind of movement in a tight band, lacking any significant upside triggers. Though, bit of gains witnessed in early deals on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that a number of sovereign and pension funds, including from Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Russia, have evinced interest in the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), were completely washed away, as traders maintained a cautious stance ahead of the expiry of December F&O contracts.

Traders also remained cautious with World Bank chief economist Kaushik Basu’s statement that the Indian economy is expected to grow at 7 to 7.5 percent in 2016. Until October, the World Bank retained India's growth forecast at 7.5 percent for 2015-16 and expected it to be 7.8 percent in 2016-17 and 7.9 percent in 2017-18. Investors failed to draw any sense of relief with Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Secretary Amitabh Kant’s statement that Foreign Direct Investment in the last 17 months into India has surged by 35 percent, even as across the world it has fallen by 16 percent.

Selling magnified in dying hour of trade, tailing weakness in European counters. CAC, DAX and FTSE all were trading lower with a cut of around half a percent as weak commodity prices impacted the shares of mining and energy companies. Asian markets exhibited mixed trend on Wednesday. Though, the Japanese market edged higher on the final trading day of the year 2015, with the positive lead overnight from Wall Street and higher commodity prices lifting investor sentiment.

Closer home, depreciation in Indian rupee too dampened sentiments. The rupee was trading lower by 4 paise to 66.43 against the dollar at the time of equity markets closing at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market on increased month-end demand for the US currency from importers. Liquor stocks like United Breweries, United Spirits, Tilaknagar Industries continue to end lower for second day in a row after the Supreme Court of India upheld the Kerala liquor ban policy. However, companies related to insurance business viz. Aditya Birla Nuvo and Bajaj Finserv edged higher, as the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) has said that the existing micro insurance products will continue to be on offer till March 31, 2016. Earlier, it was mandated that all existing micro insurance products that are not in compliance to the IRDAI regulations 2015 shall be withdrawn with effect from January 1, 2016.

The NSE’s 50-share broadly followed index Nifty declined by over thirty points to end below the psychological 7,900 support level, while Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index -- Sensex declined by around one hundred and twenty points to end below its crucial 26,000 mark. Broader market, however, some managed to end the session in green terrain.

The market breadth remained in favor of advances, as there were 1,387 shares on the gaining side against 1,275 shares on the losing side while 291 shares remain unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex ended at 25960.03, down by 119.45 points or 0.46% after trading in a range of 25939.25 and 26130.20. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.23%, while Small cap index up by 0.08%. (Provisional)

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 0.48%, Utilities up by 0.38%, Metal up by 0.28%, Power up by 0.27% and Basic Materials up by 0.16% while, IT down by 1.19%, TECK down by 0.75%, Energy down by 0.66%, Oil & Gas down by 0.62% and Bankex down by 0.41%, were the losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 1.12%, Tata Motors up by 0.77%, ITC up by 0.63%, BHEL up by 0.47% and Dr. Reddys Lab up by 0.47%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.52%, TCS down by 1.38%, SBI down by 1.16%, Reliance Industries down by 1.15% and Maruti Suzuki down by 1.09% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, the government, based on the recommendation of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), has approved four foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals amounting Rs 1,810 crore including that of HDFC Standard Life Insurance, Firefly Networks and Software is Correct, lnc.

The proposal of HDFC Standard Life will entail foreign investment of Rs 1,700 crore.  HDFC Standard Life had approached the FIPB for transfer of its shares currently held by HDFC to Standard Life (Mauritius Holdings) 2006, thereby increasing foreign shareholding in insurance JV from 26 per cent to 35 per cent. FireFly Networks had sought approval of the existing foreign investment (50 per cent indirect) and to permit commencement of activities as a Telecom Infrastructure Provider Category-I. The proposal does not entail any new FDI.

However, out of the nine proposals which were discussed by the FIPB, four was deferred and one was withdrawn. The four deferred proposals include Aviva Life Insurance to increase the foreign shareholding from 26 per cent to 49 per cent. It also included Tata Sikorsky which had sought FIPB approval for non-resident to non-resident transfer of 26 per cent of the shares of Tata Sikorsky Aerospace from United Technologies International Corporation - Asia Private to Lockheed Martin Global, Inc. (USA). Besides, the proposal of Sharekhan and Quantum Simulators was also deferred. The one proposal which was withdrawn was that of SunE Solar BV as it came under automatic route.

The CNX Nifty ended at 7896.25, down by 32.70 points or 0.41% after trading in a range of 7889.85 and 7944.75. There were 19 stocks advancing against 30 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Zee Entertainment up by 2.92%, Tata Steel up by 1.35%, Tata Power up by 1.12%, Indusind Bank up by 0.98% and Tech Mahindra up by 0.97%. On the flip side, PNB down by 2.00%, HCL Tech. down by 1.83%, BPCL down by 1.51%, Infosys down by 1.51% and TCS down by 1.39% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading in red; Germany’s DAX decreased 56.9 points or 0.52% to 10,803.24, UK’s FTSE 100 declined 39.16 points or 0.62% to 6,275.41 and France’s CAC was down by 16.46 points or 0.35% to 4,684.90.

Asian equity markets ended mixed on Wednesday. Trading volumes were light across the region, despite an overnight rally in Brent crude oil prices driving up US stocks. Japanese stocks ended up on last trading day of 2015, as the dollar steadied at mid-120 yen range on optimism over the world's largest economy. Japanese markets are closed for a public holiday on 31 December. China stocks reversed initial losses to end slightly higher, helped by a late rally in banking shares. However, activity was thin as traders awaited manufacturing activity surveys for December, which are expected to show the economy remains sluggish. Hong Kong stocks fell in thin trading, undermined by selling in energy and financial shares, amid lingering worries about China's economy.