Post session - Quick review

It was an insipid session of trade for Indian equity markets, which listlessly gyrating for the entire part of the session, closed with slender gains. Lacking any significant positive upside trigger, bourses witnessed consolidation after three successive sessions of gains, as markets cautiously awaited action in terms of reforms of  diesel price after the cabinet reshuffle. However, lack of fresh buying interest near resistance levels also acted as a barrier. 30 share benchmark index of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), Sensex, adding little over 0.10%, concluded above the 17250 level. Similarly, the widely followed barometer 50 share index of National Stock Exchange (NSE) Nifty ended little above its previous close, over the 5200 mark. The broader indices, outperforming their larger counterparts, went home with gains of over three fourth of a percent. In the range-bound session, trade of over 80 lac core was done in terms of volume turnover.

The cautious undertone of global equity markets transpired into the domestic markets, on renewed doubts of the European Central Bank's scope for further measures to fight the region's debt crisis. After the mixed close of regional counterparts, European shares pared partial gains, after Bundesbank head Jens Weidmann poured cold water on expectations of a bold move at Thursday's ECB meeting saying that governments overestimate the central bank's capacities and place too many demands on it. Further, soft Chinese manufacturing data too undermined investor confidence.

Closer home, indices remained lackluster after HSBC purchasing managers’ index (PMI), a headline index designed to measure the overall health of the manufacturing sector, expanded at the slowest pace in the past eight months to 52.9 in July, 2012 as against 55.0 in the previous month of 2012. Meanwhile, monthly release of Auto sales number was a mixed bag, on one hand, Maruti Suzuki India and Mahindra & Mahindra slipped by 0.70% after reporting July sales number. Sales at India's largest passenger car maker Maruti Suzuki  rose 9% year-on-year to 82,234 units in July, while the  Utility vehicle major Mahindra & Mahindra, reported a 18.73% rise in sales at 47,059 units for July against 39,633 units in the same month last year. On the other hand, TVS Motors Company gained over percentage and half even after reporting 15% drop in July vehicle sales number.

Meanwhile, most of corporate earnings impressed investors; as leading tyre company Ceat spiked up over 4%. The company registered a net profit of Rs 25.75 crore for the quarter under review as compared to a net loss of Rs 41.90 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. Drug maker, Glaxosmithkline Consumer Healthcare too surged over a percent as the company reported better than expected 30% jump in its Q2FY13 net profit at Rs 106.60 crore as compared to Rs 82.46 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2011. Additionally, film exhibitor, PVR, shot over 12%, after the positing strong set of Q1 numbers. Consolidated net profit of the group stood at Rs 7.6 crore during the quarter as against loss Rs 13.2 crore in the previous quarter. However, the shares of drug maker, Cipla , were complete hit, as company surpassed market expectation by reporting a surge of 58.19% in its net profit at Rs 400.76 crore for the June quarter, as compared to Rs 253.34 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. Sectorally, Healthcare, Capital Goods and Power counter stole the limelight, while Metal, Oil & Gas and Information technology emerged as the top laggards. The market breadth on the BSE ended positive; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1689:1129 while 134 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex gained 21.20 points or 0.12% and settled at 17,257.38. The index touched a high and a low of 17,291.99 and 17,189.16 respectively. 13 stocks were seen advancing against 16 declining ones while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index (Provisional)

The BSE Mid-cap index gained 0.94% while Small-cap index was up 1.16%. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Health Care up 1.22%, Capital Goods up 0.98%, Power up 0.75%, Realty up 0.64% and FMCG up 0.43% were the top gainers, while Metal down 0.71%, Oil & Gas down 0.68%, IT down 0.42%, TECk down 0.39% and PSU down 0.27% were the top losers in the space.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up 4.31%, BHEL up 2.32%, Tata Power up 1.68%, HDFC up 1.21% and SBI up 1.19% while, Coal India down 2.50%, ONGC down 2.31%, Hero MotoCorp down 1.85%, Tata Steel down 1.11% and TCS down 1.10% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, with clear signs that weak global economic conditions were dragging down export orders, manufacturing activity grew at a slower clip in July on the back of power outages and a moderation in new order inflows, which continued to rise but at the weakest rate since last November as new export orders fell for the first time since October 2011. Dollar appreciation could be mentioned as a driver behind falling export business. But the impact of unusual severe blackouts of the last two days of July, which hit grids in a dozen northern states, home to around 670 million people, was not included in the survey.

According to the HSBC purchasing managers’ index (PMI), a headline index designed to measure the overall health of the manufacturing sector, expanded at the slowest pace in the past eight months to 52.9 in July, 2012 as against 55.0 in the previous month of 2012. However, a figure above 50 signals increase in production while, a number below 50 indicates contraction.

Underscoring the global effect of the current downturn caused by the euro zone's 2-1/2 year old sovereign debt crisis, the new export orders sub-index fell to 49.7 from 52.3 in June, its first sub-50 reading in nine months. Further, manufacturing firms in India signaled rising charges during July. Although the output price inflation persisted in the sector for 35 successive months, but the rate of increase during July slowed from the reading in the previous month. Meanwhile, quantity of purchases in the Indian manufacturing sector increased moderately, with the pace of increase being the slowest since September 2011.

Since, manufacturing accounts for around 15 percent of India's gross domestic product, so a slowdown would not augur well for Asia's third-largest economy, already struggling with its weakest growth in almost a decade. Further, reasoning deficient monsoon, deceleration of industrial growth, RBI, in its first quarter monetary policy review 2012-13, revised downward the GDP forecast for the current financial year to 6.5 per cent from 7.3 per cent. India VIX, a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility gained 2.74% at 16.45 from its previous close of 16.01 on Tuesday. (Provisional)

The S&P CNX Nifty gained 5.60 points or 0.11% to settle at 5,234.60. The index touched high and low of 5,246.35 and 5,212.65 respectively. 28 stocks advanced against 22 declining ones on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were Cipla up 4.46%, Kotak Bank up 3.71%, Ambuja Cement up 3.19%, JP Associates up 3.07% and Reliance Infrastructure up 2.49%. On the other hand, Coal India down 2.59%, ONGC down 2.32%, Sesa Goa down 2.13%, Hero MotoCorp down 1.88% and TCS down 1.58% were the top losers. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading on a mixed note, with France's CAC 40 up 0.31%, Germany's DAX down 0.01% and Britain’s FTSE 100 up 0.58%.