Post session - Quick review

Protracting previous session’s euphoria, Stock markets in India staged huge confidence, ahead of the crucial Reserve Bank of India’s quarterly monetary policy review, led by the strong buying in interest rate sensitive’s Realty, Bankex and high beta Power and Capital Goods counters. Amassing gains steadily, equity markets after vehemently rallying over a percentage points, concluded near the high point of the session.  Both the barometer indices Sensex and Nifty, after starting off the week on a sanguine note, concluded surpassing the 17100 and 5200 crucial mark respectively. Mounting optimism that central banks from across the world will take concrete steps to tackle problems in their region, sweetening the demand for risky asset class such as equities. However, select section of market is expecting RBI to continue to show its unwavering commitment to balance unhinging inflation and stay on the sidelines on July 31, 2012.

On the global front, positive opening of European markets provided the required fillip to the equity markets, on hopes for more central bank stimulus measures in Europe and the United States to help global economic growth. Asian pacific shares too shut shop in green.

Closer home, slew of upbeat earnings in the banking space, also excited the markets, besides the banking gauge on BSE. Public sector lender Allahabad Bank shot above 5% on reporting 23% jump in the April-June quarter of 2012 net profit at Rs 514 crore due to lesser provisions. Meanwhile, Bank of Baroda’s scrip rose over 3% on reporting a rise of 10% in its Q1FY13 net profit at 1,139 crore on the back of strong fee income. Additionally, Oriental Bank of Commerce too shot over 9% at Rs 228 after reporting a better-than-expected net profit of Rs 391 crore for the quarter ended June 2012, on the back of higher other income and lower provisioning. However, stocks of Spicejet by spurting over 20%, took markets by surprise. After being in the red for five consecutive quarters, Spicejet flew back into black, reporting a net profit of Rs 56 crore in the June quarter as against a loss of Rs 71.96 crore a year ago.  The market breadth on the BSE ended positive; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1588:1162 while 127 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex gained 298.92 points or 1.78% and settled at 17,138.11. The index touched a high and a low of 17,163.95 and 16,919.14 respectively. 28 stocks were seen advancing against 2 declining ones on the index (Provisional)

The BSE Mid-cap index gained 1.56% while Small-cap index was up 1.35%. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Power up 3.49%, Realty up 3.16%, Capital Goods up 2.85%, Consumer Durables up 2.70% and Bankex up 2.52% were the top gainers, while there were no losers in the space.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up 4.60%, SBI up 4.52%, GAIL India up 4.00%, BHEL up 3.99% and Tata Motors up 3.85% while, ONGC down 0.43% and HUL down 0.02% were the only losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has projected a rise in steel price by 7.2% this year due to constrained availability of raw materials and subdued demand, as the construction gathers pace after monsoon season. Albeit, the international prices of the alloy fell drastically due to unfavorable macro-economic environment.

Heavy demand from the user industries, firmness in domestic iron ore prices and a weaker rupee are the main causes of the price hike in domestic market. CIME expects that the price rise of iron might be at a modest pace during the July-September season as demand for steel usually weakens in monsoons.

It also expressed hopes that the supply of iron ore might improve with the starting of mining activity in Karnataka and expects 8.5% growth in finished steel production. Earlier in June, the finished steel prices had fallen by 0.5-1%, due to steep correction in international prices.  India VIX, a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility gained 0.97% at 16.60 from its previous close of 16.44 on Friday. (Provisional)

The S&P CNX Nifty gained 100.45 points or 1.97% to settle at 5,200.30. The index touched high and low of 5,206.60 and 5,129.75 respectively. 46 stocks advanced against 4 declining ones on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were Reliance Infrastructure up 5.54%, JP Associates up 5.23%, Cairn India up 5.16%, IDFC up 4.54% and SBI up 4.53%. On the other hand, Ambuja Cement down 1.21%, HUL down 0.13%, HCL Tech down 0.12% and ONGC down 0.02% were the top losers. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading in green, with France's CAC 40 up 0.87%, Germany's DAX up 0.94% and Britain’s FTSE 100 up 0.55%.

All the Asian markets, barring Shanghai Composite, went home in green on the first day of week on hopes that the U.S. Federal Reserve and European Central Bank will act to support their fragile economies. However, Korean shares touched four weeks high, while Japan's Nikkei stock average was up 0.4 percent after hitting a one-week high. Meanwhile, euro weakened 0.3% after rallying 1.4% last week to its highest level since July 5.