Post session - Quick review

Indian markets added modest gains on Monday to their last session’s positive ending, supported by some good global cues and encouraging earnings number on the domestic front. Though, the start was marginally positive but major indices once seemed faltering, coming very close to breaching the neutral line, but the optimism of rate sensitive banking sector supported the markets.

Though, the US markets snapped the last week on a negative note but Asian markets made a mostly positive start of the new week on the comment of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao that China will focus more on bolstering economic growth. But all eyes were on the European markets, as G-8 leaders on May 19 urged Greece to stay within the euro area. However, the cautiousness prevailed in the region ahead of the German and French leaders meet today to discuss the euro after the Group of Eight nations exposed disagreement on a rescue strategy.

The European markets made a soft-to-flattish start and that discouraged the domestic markets from going further high, and they started losing some strength. However, trade remained stable and markets bounced back to surge to the high points of day, once the European markets started showing sign of recovery, moving higher by about half a percent. Though, choppiness returned to the markets in the last and traders opted to book some profit taking the markets lower. One other factor that continued weighing down the markets was weakness in the rupee that despite all effort continued hovering near its all time low.

Rate sensitive sectors like, realty, banking and capital goods remained in jubilant mood since beginning, the defensive FMCG along with IT and Technology counters which witnessed good amount of sorting suffered cut of over a percent each. However, one other sector that remained in limelight was power, adding gains of about a percent on some good result announcements in the segment. Also, one non sectoral gauge, media and entertainment too remained buzzing throughout the day after Aditya Birla Group during the weekend agreed to make a financial investment of 27.5% in Living Media India, part of India Today Group, through its private investment company. TV Today Network touched its upper circuit limit of 20%, ND TV too touched the roof, up by 10%, Reliance Broadcast Network was up by 0.71% and Entertainment Network was up by 0.40%.

The broader indices that looked firm since beginning, outperforming the benchmarks, too managed to post a good show despite losing some strength, while the BSE Mid cap index was up by around half a percent small cap index snapped the trade higher by a percent.

The market breadth on the BSE ended positive; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1632: 1041 while 125 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex lost 0.54 points and settled at 16,152.21. The index touched a high and a low of 16,298.39 and 16,149.61 respectively. 17 stocks advanced against 13 declining ones on the index (Provisional)

The BSE Mid-cap index gained 0.32% while Small-cap index was up by 0.98%. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Realty up by 1.96%, CG up by 1.92%, Power up by 0.98%, Bankex up by 0.74 % and OIL&GAS up by 0.55%, however FMCG down by 1.25%, IT down by 1.25% and TECk down 1.05% CD down 0.26%, were the top losers. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up 4.16%, SBI up 3.27%, Maruti Suzuki up 2.99%, BHEL up 2.68% and Coal India up 2.57%. While, Wipro down 2.56%, ITC down 2.17% Infosys down 1.92%,  NTPC down 1.62% and Sterlite Inds down 1.44%were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia has opined that it may be tough for India to achieve a 7.5% growth in the current fiscal but the country has the potential to grow by 8-9% for the next two decades.

The observation is based on the fact that India has achieved a near 7% growth in an uncertain global environment which reflects its underlying potential. Ahluwalia has observed that growth in the last quarter did not show robustness. Moreover inflation accelerated to 7.23% last month combined with a depreciating rupee. The high Current Account Deficit (CAD) further made matters worse. Going forward he is hopeful that the government will take tough decisions to attract foreign capital. These include raising prices of petroleum, restoring fiscal credibility and removing implementation bottlenecks from infrastructure projects.

He has stated categorically that fuel prices have to be raised and people should be educated about this as 80% of petroleum is imported, not increasing its domestic prices in accordance with global rates will only create troubles for the sector. Regarding the depreciating rupee, the deputy chairman stated that as long as the variation is not too much, we don’t need to worry about it. Its movement is the result of an uncertain global environment and the RBI has enough ‘ammunition’ to deal with it. Inflation, he feels needs to be brought down.

India VIX, a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility gained 1.57% at 23.92 from its previous close of 23.55 on Friday. (Provisional)

The S&P CNX Nifty gained 4.75points or 0.10% to settle at 4,896.20. The index touched high and low of 4,937.50 and 4,888.50 respectively.28 stocks advanced against 22 declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were  Tata Power up 4.73%, Bank Baroda up 3.92%, RELINFRA up 3.37 %, SBI up 3.27 % and BHEL up 3.14 %.(Provisional)

On the other hand Wipro down 2.62%, ITC down 2.17%, Infosys down 2.09%, HINDUNILVR down 1.50% and STER down 1.39%were the top losers. (Provisional)

The European markets too were trading in mixed zone, with France's CAC 40 up 0.52%, Germany's DAX up by 0.80% and Britain’s FTSE 100 down 0.79%.

After fall massively last week, sentiments turned bullish in the Asian region and most of the Asian counters snapped the day’s trade in the positive terrain on Monday after G-8 leaders avowed that they want Greece to continue in the euro-zone moreover, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao comment that China will focus more on bolstering economic growth too aided the sentiments. It also led the Chinese shares end higher by 0.2 percent.
 
Moreover, Seoul shares bounced back on bargain-hunting, up by a percent after sharp falls in the previous few sessions, with global jitters partially soothed by a pledge from world leaders to try to keep Greece in the euro zone while, Japanese shares closed marginally in the positive with the headline Nikkei index staging a small rally after tumbling last week on euro-zone worries. However, Hong Kong shares edged lower for a fourth straight session on Monday in dismal turnover, dragged down by weakness in HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe’s largest bank, as investors await details of a pledge by global leaders over the weekend to keep Greece in the euro zone.