Post Session: Quick Review

Buying activity which took place during last leg of trade mainly drove the markets higher and key domestic benchmarks managed to keep their head above water on first day of 2016. Markets traded choppy for most part of the day’s session, as traders remained cautious concerned for most of the session with the Indian core sector growth contracting by 1.3% in November after expanding for six consecutive months, mainly dragged down by a sharp slowdown in electricity production and a contraction in cement and steel output. Sentiments also remained dampened with report that the external debt of the country rose 1.7% to $483.2 billion at the end of September an increase of $8.0 billion over the level at end-March 2015, due to long-term liabilities, especially commercial borrowings and non-resident Indian deposits.

But domestic gauges staged a smart recovery in last leg of trade, supported by short-covering in beaten down but fundamentally strong stocks. Some support came with report that India’ s fiscal deficit for the first eight months of the current financial year narrowed compared to the same period a year ago, led by encouraging tax and non-tax collections, despite high capital spending by the government to boost the economic growth. The country’s fiscal deficit for April- November 2015-16 stood Rs 4.83 lakh crore, or 87 per cent of the Budget Estimate (BE) for the whole 2015-16.

On the global front, most Asian markets remained closed on account of New Year holiday. The US markets closed lower on Thursday, ending the final trading day of 2015 with a whimper rather than a bang, as the S&P 500 Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average both snapped multiyear winning streaks.

Back home, some support also came in on reports that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 1123.41 crore yesterday as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges. Shares of aviation companies like Jet Airways (India), SpiceJet and Globalvectra and Interglobe Aviation flied higher and hit their fresh 52-week highs on back of heavy volumes cut in Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) prices. Stocks related to Oil & gas and power counters remained in action after Qatar nearly halved the price of gas it sells under a 25-year contract and waived a payment liability of Rs 12,000 crore arising from India's refusal to import the committed number of shipments in 2015.

The NSE’s 50-share broadly followed index -- Nifty -- rose by around twenty points to end above the psychological 7,950 support level, while Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index -- Sensex -- surged by around fifty points to finish above the psychological 26,150 mark. However, broader markets outperformed benchmarks and ended the session with a gain of around a percent.

The market breadth remained in the favour off advances, as there were 1,973 shares on the gaining side against 846 shares on the losing side while 132 shares remain unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26160.90, up by 43.36 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 26008.20 and 26197.27. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.92%, while Small cap index up by 0.88%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.99%, Industrials up by 1.48%, Capital Goods up by 1.01%, Auto up by 0.93% and Power up by 0.89%, while IT down by 0.34% and TECK down by 0.30% were the only losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Adani Ports &Special up by 2.76%, Tata Motors up by 2.75%, Coal India up by 1.73%, SBI up by 1.34% and BHEL up by 0.97%. On the flip side, GAIL India down by 1.82%, NTPC down by 1.30%, TCS down by 1.03%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.91% and Wipro down by 0.72% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, Engineering Exports Promotion Council (EEPC) is strictly against the government’s move to restrict steel imports by way of fixing Minimum Import Price (MIP) stating that if the MIP is imposed, it would be a complete destruction of the medium and small scale engineering sector. It further said that MIP would significantly push the import price of a variety of steel products.

EEPC in its statement has said that “There is no justification for the government to help handful of big steel makers, by way of fixing MIP, at the cost of millions of SME export firms which will be forced to pay much higher price for their raw material.”

The government is considering imposing a minimum import price for about a dozen steel products. The move is aimed at checking cheap imports, especially from surplus producers like China, Japan and South Korea. This is being done to protect the handful of primary steel producers on the grounds that they are over-leveraged and their bank loans could become NPAs. In the first eight months of the current fiscal the engineering exports, largest contributor in the country's export basket, have fallen by over 14 per cent to $39.85 billion.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7963.20, up by 16.85 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 7909.80 and 7972.55. There were 29 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Bosch up by 2.96%, Tata Motors up by 2.71%, Adani Ports &Special up by 2.55%, PNB up by 1.64% and Ultratech Cement up by 1.56%. On the flip side, GAIL India down by 1.43%, NTPC down by 1.20%, HCL Tech down by 1.08%, Zee Entertainment down by 0.99% and Tata Steel down by 0.92% were the top losers. (Provisional)