Post session - Quick review

Barometer gauges managed to gain some traction after previous session’s nasty cut, which made select fundamentally strong blue chip stocks available at attractive valuations. However, what seems to be an extraordinary session of gains ended as ordinary on reports stating impossibility of hiking diesel prices before vice presidential polls on August 7, 2012 is over. Tapering optimism seen earlier on account of petrol price hike by 70 paise per litre, which sparked expectation of diesel price hike being around the corner. Local equity markets cooled off from the high point of the day, by the end of the trade, also as investor’s winded position ahead of expiry of F&O series on Thursday. Thus, the session full of news flow, traded on huge volumes, as turnover of over Rs 2.30 lac crore was witnessed. 30 share barometer index, Sensex, on Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE)-despite gaining close to quarter percent ended sub 17000 level. Meanwhile, the widely followed index, Nifty, of National Stock Exchange (NSE), too ended below the 5150 bastion.  The broader indices too managed to sneak out moderate gains, both Midcap and Smallcap indices ended with gains of over 0.15%.

Sector wise, stocks from FMCG, Consumer Durable and Oil & Gas counters emerged as the pillar of strength, while the stocks belonging to Capital Goods, Information Technology and Technology counters emerged as the pocket of weakness. Additionally, retail stocks gained traction after Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council chairman, C Rangarajan urged moving ahead in the FDI in multi-brand retail by attaining approval through executive orders without approaching parliament.

Mixed global cues, failed to lend support to the Indian equity markets. European shares bobbed as investors largely shrugged off a relatively decent Spanish Treasury bill auction, amid ongoing concerns that the country may ultimately require a sovereign bailout. Meanwhile, Asian shares exhibited mixed trend as the report of China's manufacturing output in July growing at its fastest pace in nine months was weighed down by the Spain's debt woes.

Closer home, result loaded session, was full of action, as slew of corporate announced their earnings, India's largest consumer goods maker HUL, stole the show by touching a record high level on reporting strong operating numbers for the April-June quarter, with net sales rising 14% year-on-year to Rs 6,250 crore . India's fourth-largest drug maker by sales, Lupin too managed to gain traction on reporting four-fold rise in its Q1 numbers at Rs 357.23 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2012. Meanwhile, LIC housing Finance spurted over a percentage despite reporting lower than expected first quarter, its net profit rose 11% year-on-year at Rs 228 due to higher interest cost, which also dented its net interest income marginally by Rs 11 crore to Rs 350.

On the flip side, Flagship company of Hinduja group, Ashok Leyland plunged over 2% after the company registered a fall of 22.42% in its net profit at Rs 66.94 crore for the quarter under review as compared to Rs 86.29 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. Meanwhile, leading public sector lender, Canara Bank lost close to percent and half after reporting lower than expected numbers. An increase in bad assets primarily dented the profit margin due to higher loan provisions. Additionally, India's No. 3 software services exporter Wipro which too joined sector bellwether Infosys in giving a muted forecast for its main IT services business as global spending on outsourcing services slowed, sent the stock tumbling to a nine-month low. The market breadth on the BSE ended flat; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1386:1389 while 142 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex gained 43.71 points or 0.26% and settled at 16,921.06. The index touched a high and a low of 16,962.74 and 16,839.70 respectively. 14 stocks were seen advancing against 16 declining ones on the index (Provisional)

The BSE Mid-cap index gained 0.16% while Small-cap index was up 0.19%. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, FMCG up 1.99%, Consumer Durables up 1.25%, Oil & Gas up 0.74%, Health Care up 0.43% and Metal up 0.25% were the top gainers, while Capital Goods down 1.21%, IT down 0.57%, TECk down 0.18%, Auto down 0.16% and Realty down 0.12% were the top losers.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HUL up 7.60%, Sterlite Industries up 2.81%, Maruti Suzuki up 2.03%, Bharti Airtel up 1.37% and GAIL India up 1.15% while, Wipro down 3.07%, L&T down 1.50%, Sun Pharma down 1.50%, BHEL down 1.05% and M&M down 0.82% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, the meeting of Group of Ministers (GoM) for discussing the draft coal regulatory bill is likely to be held for the first time this week on July 25. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had approved the formation of the nine-member GoM under the chairmanship of Home Minister P Chidambaram and the cabinet in its meeting had considered the note regarding constitution of coal regulatory authority and referred it to the GoM for the immediate roll out.

The coal ministry had moved a draft bill to the cabinet, which had not found consensus on some of the provisions in the Bill. The authorization for determining the price of raw and washed coal as well as any other by-product generated during the process of coal washing was one of the contentious issues. And the report points out that the price determined for coal produced by captive mines would be a basis to calculate the royalty and the price of coal declared as ‘surplus.’

The proposed regulator would also consider factors such as commercial principles, efficiency, competition, economic viability, and gross calorific value-based grading of coal to determine the price. Further, the regulator would also be responsible for granting or cancelling mining authorization, monitoring the utilization of funds for the implementation of coal conservation and development, and specifying procedure for automatic coal sampling and weighing.India VIX, a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility lost 9.05% at 16.97 from its previous close of 18.66 on Monday. (Provisional)

The S&P CNX Nifty gained 10.85 points or 0.21% to settle at 5,128.80. The index touched high and low of 5,144.00 and 5,103.25 respectively. 26 stocks advanced against 24 declining ones on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were HUL up 7.57%, Ranbaxy Laboratories up 3.03%, Sterlite Industries up 2.71%, Maruti Suzuki up 2.23% and Sesa Goa up 1.66%. On the other hand, Wipro down 3.07%, SAIL down 2.80%, L&T down 1.75%, Kotak Bank down 1.48% and Sun Pharma down 1.41% were the top losers. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading on a mixed note, with France's CAC 40 down 0.08%, Germany's DAX down 0.10% and Britain’s FTSE 100 up 0.13%.