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 hold on to their crucial 28,000 (Sensex) and 8,600 (Nifty) levels. Despite trading jubilantly in early deals, key gauges entered into red and traded choppy for most part of the session, as investors remained on sidelines ahead of outcome of the US Federal Reserve meeting, though it is widely expected that the rates would be kept unchanged. Sentiments also remained dampened after the outgoing RBI governor Raghuram Rajan has said that governments should look beyond 'uninformed and motivated' public criticism and protect the independence of their central banks to ensure stable sustainable growth. He also said that the slowdown in credit growth has been largely because of stress in public sector banks stemming from past mistakes in lending and will not be fixed just by a cut in policy rates.

However, traders opted to buy beaten down but fundamentally strong stocks in last leg of trade which helped markets regain green terrain. Traders took some encouragement after the State Finance Ministers have endorsed the Constitution Amendment Bill for the Goods & Services Tax with some tweaks, giving the NDA government the upper hand in hardball negotiations with the Congress. Some relief also came with NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya’s statement that a good monsoon can help add a percentage point to India’s GDP growth in the current fiscal, from 7.6% in 2015-16.

Firm opening in European counter too supported domestic benchmarks. European markets were trading with traction in early deals. Asian markets ended mostly in green, led by around two percent gain in Japanese Nikkei on hopes of stimulus by the Bank of Japan. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stated that the planned stimulus package expected next week would be over 28 trillion yen ($265 billion).

Back home, buying in infrastructure stocks too aided sentiments with report of infrastructure spending picking up in the country and NHAI is executing 205 projects including 18 worth Rs 13,500 crore on hybrid annuity mode. Also, NHAI is looking to bid out 30,000 km of projects in the next 2-3 years, which include several Greenfield expressway projects. Aviation stocks flied high on report that the air traffic in India grew by a strong 22 per cent between January and June. Air traffic grew at double-digit pace in June, with airlines reporting robust occupancy figures.

The NSE’s 50-share broadly followed index -- Nifty -- rose by over twenty points to end above the psychological 8,600 support level, while Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index -- Sensex -- surged by around fifty points to finish above the psychological 28,000 mark. Broader markets traded with traction and ended the session with a gain of around half a percent.

The market breadth remained in the favour of decliners, as there were 1,318 shares on the gaining side against 1,346 shares on the losing side while 201 shares remain unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex ended at 28024.33, up by 47.81 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 27899.93 and 28210.88. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.60%, while Small cap index up by 0.49%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Finance up by 0.93%, Bankex up by 0.89%, Basic Materials up by 0.75%, Auto up by 0.71% and Industrials up by 0.70%, while Healthcare down by 0.75%, FMCG down by 0.51%, Energy down by 0.39%, Consumer Durables down by 0.23% and Realty down by 0.08% were the top losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 3.05%, Adani Ports &Special up by 1.83%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.67%, HDFC up by 1.48% and Tata Motors up by 1.31%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 10.62%, ITC down by 1.31%, Reliance Industries down by 1.30%, Tata Steel down by 1.13% and Axis Bank down by 1.08% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, Central excise collection from both the Mumbai Zones put together (Zone-I and Zone-II) in the first quarter of 2016-17, surged by 36 percent to Rs 15,729 crore from Rs 11,551 crore a year ago. Chief Commissioner of Central Excise and head of the Mumbai Zones, Subhash C Varshney said that the healthy jump in revenue collection was due to the massive rise in duty on diesel and petrol. During the first quarter the duty on petrol rose to Rs 21.48 per litre from Rs 17.46 per litre a year ago, while the same on diesel jumped to Rs 17.33 from Rs 10.26 per litre during the year-ago period.

As per the breakup of revenue collection from both the zones, earning from Zone-I was Rs 7,089 crore against the moving target of Rs 5,072 crore. Similarly, revenue collection by Zone-II during the period was Rs 8,640 crore against the moving target of Rs 6,531 crore. The zone had collected only Rs 4,792 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. Furthermore, both the zones are gearing up to meet the revenue collection target of Rs 53,300 crore, which includes Rs 23,300 crore for Zone-I and Rs 30,000 crore for Zone-II, for the entire fiscal.

The revenue collection from BPCL and HPCL, which fall under Zone-II, almost doubled to Rs 8,399 crore from Rs 4,727 crore a year ago. Similarly, revenue collection from cigarette major Godfrey Phillips during the reporting quarter was up 51 per cent to Rs 165 crore from Rs 109 crore in the year-ago period. Revenue payment by cement major ACC went up 43.2 per cent to Rs 284 crore from Rs 198 crore in the year-ago period.

The CNX Nifty ended at 8615.80, up by 25.15 points or 0.29% after trading in a range of 8572.05 and 8665.00. There were 34 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Infratel up by 4.72%, ICICI Bank up by 3.42%, Zee Entertainment up by 2.80%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.94% and Adani Ports &Special up by 1.92%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 10.23%, ITC down by 1.73%, Idea Cellular down by 1.53%, Tata Steel down by 1.29% and Reliance Industries down by 1.07% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 22.31 points or 0.33% to 6,746.34, France’s CAC surged 63.44 points or 1.44% to 4,458.21 and Germany’s DAX was up by 84.57 points or 0.83% to 10,332.33.

Asian equity markets ended mostly higher on Wednesday, with stimulus hopes weakening the yen and triggering a broad rally in Japanese shares. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the government will draft a stimulus package worth more than 28 trillion yen to reinvigorate the flagging economy. Revived expectations for additional policy stimulus from the Bank of Japan later this week also boosted investor sentiment. Hong Kong shares ended up after official data showed profits of China's major industrial firms rose 5.1 percent year-over-year in June, bringing the annual growth for the year to date to 6.2 percent. However, Chinese shares slumped on fears of regulatory scrutiny after Chinese President Xi Jinping reportedly called for the prevention of asset bubbles.