Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity benchmarks traded in green throughout the session and ended near the highest point of the day. Covering-up of pending short positions with Thursday being this year’s last session of the expiry in the derivatives segment supported the upside. The rupee staged a mild recovery against the dollar at the Forex market following fresh selling of the US currency by banks and exporters. The dollar’s weakness against some currencies overseas and a better trend at the domestic equity market supported the local currency. PM Modi’s 50-day demonetisation drive ends tomorrow (December 30) and there are expectations of tax sops from the government to boost the economy. There will also be concern since over 90 percent of junked notes are already deposited in banks, dimming the expectation that RBI will be able to give a substantial dividend to the government. The markets traded in green but on a cautious note in early deals receiving some support with report that the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the Road Connectivity Project for Left Wing Extremism (LWE) Affected Areas. Some support also crept on report that India Inc raised a whopping Rs 38,645 crore in November through private placement of corporate debt bonds, a surge of 57 percent from the year-ago level, for business expansion and propping up working capital requirements. The sentiments remained on upbeat note with Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal statement that demonetisation is a radical reform that will change the way of life. The move will increase the tax base and improve gross domestic product (GDP) by 2 percent if completed. Meghwal said that once the entire process of cash ban is completed, consumption and investments will pick-up rapidly.

On the global front, Asian markets ended mixed, with Japan’s Nikkei closing in red as the yen firmed and Toshiba Corp dived after news of potential massive write-downs led to a downgrade of its credit ratings. South Korea’s stock exchange ended flat in green. South Korea’s finance ministry revised its gross domestic product forecast for 2017, down to 2.6 percent from 3.0 percent earlier. Seoul also reported that industrial output jumped 3.4 percent in November from the previous month, its strongest monthly gain in almost seven years. European shares were trading lower as banking shares and miners fell. Banking stocks were among the top fallers, led lower by Credit Suisse after a media report stated that the US Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the sale of $850 million bonds.

The BSE Sensex ended at 26350.07, up by 139.39 points or 0.53% after trading in a range of 26166.67 and 26429.63. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.26%, while Small cap index was up by 1.11%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.65%, Consumer Durables up by 1.59%, Auto up by 1.53%, Metal up by 1.50% and PSU up by 1.16%, while Capital Goods down by 0.15% was the sole loser on BSE sectoral front. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 1.80%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.76%, HDFC up by 1.38%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.37% and NTPC up by 1.37%. (Provisional)

On the flip side, Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone down by 1.27%, Sun Pharma down by 1.21%, Infosys down by 1.02%, Larsen & Toubro down by 0.94% and GAIL India down by 0.25% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, two days before the cut-off date for depositing demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, the union cabinet has approved an ordinance to impose penalties on those who will hold the scrapped 500 and 1,000 rupee notes beyond March 31, 2017. The ordinance will come into force once the president gives his assent but it will have to be passed by parliament within six months.

The ordinance, named as 'The Specified Bank Notes Cessation of Liabilities Ordinance', is to extinguish liability of the government and the central bank on the demonetised high-denomination notes to prevent future litigations. Cases were filed in courts across the country questioning the government’s power to cull currency by an executive decision. The banned notes can be deposited in banks till December 30 and thereafter at select RBI counters till March 31 next year.

The Ordinance makes holding of old 1,000 and 500 rupee notes after March 31 beyond a threshold amount a criminal offence that will attract a monetary fine of Rs 10,000 or five times the cash held, whichever is higher as well as could also attract a jail term and furnishing wrong information while depositing the old currency between January 1 and March 31 will attract a fine of Rs 5,000 or five times the amount. A maximum of 10 banned notes may be allowed to be held by any person.

The CNX Nifty ended at 8105.10, up by 70.25 points or 0.87% after trading in a range of 8020.80 and 8111.10. There were 41 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Grasim Industries up by 4.38%, Yes Bank up by 3.35%, BPCL up by 3.23%, Eicher Motors up by 2.95% and Bosch up by 2.62%. (Provisional)

On the flip side, Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone down by 1.64%, Sun Pharma down by 1.01%, Infosys down by 0.85%, Aurobindo Pharma down by 0.81% and Larsen & Toubro down by 0.74% were the top losers. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading in red; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 7.41 points or 0.1% to 7,098.67, Germany’s DAX decreased 38.16 points or 0.33% to 11,436.83 and France’s CAC decreased 7.66 points or 0.16% to 4,840.35.

Asian equity markets ended mixed on Thursday, with the Japanese shares closing lower as weakness on Wall Street and a stronger yen hurt sentiment. Meanwhile, Chinese shares ended almost flat, with optimism spurred by fading liquidity stress but investors kept wary by the prospect of regulatory measures to curb aggressive investment in stocks by insurers. Investors stayed cautious following news that the insurance regulator planned to establish a discriminatory supervision system that would keep a closer watch on some unconventional insurance products, in the latest move to rein in aggressive stock investment.