Post session - Quick review

Prolonging previous session’s woe, Indian equity markets concluded dejected on the most awaited day of the crucial Union Federal Budget 2012-13, that remained silent on many facets such as FDI in Retail and Aviation, Fiscal consolidation and implementation of GST. 

Market men for the second consecutive session, continued to square off their position as they digested a mix sops and imposts, since the budget proposed a marginal raise in income tax exemption limit of Rs 20,000 but also hiked service tax and standard excise duty by 2 per cent across the board to net an additional Rs 41,440 crore a year. An '80s-style' budget, which started with a lot of promise but by the end failed to give any roadmap about the reform process and plans to revive the economy, failed to impress investor’s, thereby feeding into the berserk bears.

Although, the barometer gauges depicted some confidence ahead of the budget but the excitement soon got fizzled out post the delivery of 110 minutes speech of Finance Minister Pranab Mukharjee. Stocks from Oil & Gas, Power and Capital Goods counters were the one among the prominent losers. Drag of Cairn India (6.02%), ONGC and Reliance Industries (3.27%) heaved the index pivotal by over 3% percentage Points. Cairn India, ONGC slumped post Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee proposed an 80 percent increase in the cess payable on local crude production.

Bucking the trend, however, stocks from Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), Auto sector and Consumer Durable counters amassed considerable gains. The uptake of FMCG counter came on the back of ITC, which spurted over 3% after FM proposed to hike in excise duty on beedi and other tobacco products.

Involved into their own affairs, Indian equity markets depicted no different trend to the regional counterparts. Asian stocks fell, after swinging between gains and losses, after the recent rally pushed its valuations to the highest level in almost two years. Traders in Asian pacific region took profits following strong gains as they awaited the release of more economic data from the US However, the European equities held near levels not seen since the summer on Friday, on track for their best weekly showing in a month and with charts pointing to scope for more near-term gains as long as economic data and earnings remain supportive.

Back on the home turf, the volatile session of trade that ended with huge volume of over 2.15 lac crore took, the 30 share barometer gauge of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE)-Sensex- lower by over 200 points, sub 17500 level. Meanwhile, the widely followed 50 share index of National Stock Exchange (NSE)-Nifty-too tanked by a huge 60 points to close sub 5400 level. Broader indices too were beaten out of shape as both midcap and smallcap index went home with loss of over 0.50% and 1% respectively.

The market breadth on the BSE ended negative; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1073:1769 while 123 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex lost 224.61 points or 1.27% and settled at 17,451.24. The index touched a high and a low of 17,871.00 and 17,426.58 respectively. 7 stocks advanced against 22 declining ones while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index (Provisional)

The BSE Mid-cap index lost 0.83% while Small-cap index shed 1.25%. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, FMCG up 2.55%, Auto up 0.37% and Consumer Durables up 0.07% were the only gainers while Oil & Gas down 3.69%, Power down 3.30%, Capital Goods down 3.08%, PSU down 2.87% and Metal down 2.32% were the top losers.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC up 4.75%, M&M up 3.01%, HUL up 0.86%, Maruti Suzuki up 0.70% and Coal India up 0.26%.

On the flip side, Sun Pharma down 7.85%, ONGC down 5.29%, NTPC down 4.07%, Tata Power down 3.92% and BHEL down 3.74% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee announced a Rs 1,00,000 crore increase in the agriculture credit target to Rs 5,75,000 for the next fiscal and raised the outlay for farm sector by about Rs3,000 crore. 'Agriculture continues to be a priority to the government. The total plan outlay for agriculture and cooperation has been increased by 18% from Rs17,123 crore in 2011-12 to Rs20,208 crore in 2012-13,' Mukherjee said in his Budget speech.

The allocation for scheme Bringing Green Revolution in Eastern India was also increased by Rs600 crore to Rs1,000 crore in next fiscal considering the success of the programme that led to an additional paddy production of 7 million tonne in the Kharif season of 2011-12 crop year. The allocation for Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna (RKVY) was also increased by 17% to Rs 9,217 crore. Farmers need timely access to affordable credit. It is proposes to raise the target for agricultural credit in 2012-13 to Rs 5,75,000 crore. This represents an increase of Rs1 lakh core.

The credit target for this fiscal has been set at Rs 4,75,000 crore. During April-November period, credit worth Rs 2,94,023 were disbursed by banks to farmers, according to data provided by Economic Survey. The outlay for Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna is being increased from Rs7,860 crore in 2011-12 to Rs9217 crore in 2012-13.

India VIX, a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility lost 9.00% at 23.13 from its previous close of 25.42 on Thursday. (Provisional)

The S&P CNX Nifty lost 62.65 points or 1.16% to settle at 5,317.85. The index touched high and low of 5,445.65 and 5,305.00 respectively. 11 stocks advanced against 39 declining ones on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were ITC up 3.97%, M&M up 3.49%, Ambuja Cement up 2.36%, HDFC up 0.91% and HUL up 0.77%.On the other hand, Sun Pharma down 7.75%, Cairn India down 6.56%, ONGC down 4.52%, NTPC down 4.29% and Siemens down 4.28% were the top losers. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading in green, with France's CAC 40 up 0.01%, Germany's DAX up 0.11% and Britain’s FTSE 100 up 0.24%.