Post Session: Quick Review

After taking a breather in the previous session, local equity markets put-up a tough face of resilience on Friday in light of sluggish domestic developments, which casted yet another doubt on India’s growth story, as Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) on Friday slashed its economic growth projections for the current fiscal to 6.7% from an earlier 7.5-8%. After Slipping near intra-day’s lows in the wee hours of trade, benchmarks slug hard to wind-up in green territory by the close of the trade. However, much of exuberance of the markets, which was witnessed up till the noon session of the trade, also got tempered after the much-awaited Comptroller and Auditor General's report on coal block allocation pegged the loss caused due to allocation of coal blocks at Rs 1.86 lakh crore, bigger than the 2G case. Majority of the pressure came on the power stocks named in the CAG report, which named 25 companies, including Essar Power, Hindalco, Tata Steel, Tata Power and Jindal Steel and Power, which got the blocks in various states. 30 share barometer index of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), Sensex, after piercing through the 17,800 level, settled below the 17,700 bastion, with moderate gains of over 0.15%. Similarly, the widely followed 50 share barometer index of National Stock Exchange (NSE), Nifty, too appearing at a striking distance of surpassing the 5400 mark, settled above the 5350 bastion.  For the week, both Sensex and Nifty rallied over 0.75% each.

Positive global developments also propped up the sentiment for Indian equity markets. Asian shares rose broadly on Friday, as encouraging signs about the U.S. housing market as well as German Chancellor Angela Merkel's voice of support for the ECB action to resolve the debt crisis helped improve investor appetite for risk asset class such as equities. Meanwhile, European shares hit a five-month high on Friday, on expectations that policymakers might resolve their differences and work closely to tackle the debt crisis. Additionally, speculation concerning Spain receiving its first, 30 billion euro tranche of the EU for banking bailout also boosted sentiment.

Closer home, stocks from defensive Fast Moving Consumer Goods and Health Care combined with Information Technology and Auto counters, lent a supporting hand to the bourses, on the flip side, stocks from Realty, Power and Metal counters emerged as the pocket of weakness of Indian equity markets.  Information Technology stocks rallied on easing euro zone debt worries, as these companies derive lion share of their revenue from these markets. Major beneficiaries were Mahindra Satyam, Rolta India, Infosys, MphasiS and TCS. The market breadth on the BSE ended negative; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1339:1491 while 142 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex gained 24.23 points or 0.14% and settled at 17,681.44. The index touched a high and a low of 17,801.39 and 17,622.62 respectively. 15 stocks were seen advancing against 15 declining ones on the index (Provisional)

The BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap index gained 0.01% each. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, FMCG up 1.28%, IT up 1.06%, TECk up 0.80%, Auto up 0.69% and Consumer Durable up 0.56% were the top gainers, while Realty down 1.72%, Power down 1.51%, Metal down 1.48%, Capital Goods down 0.89% and PSU down 0.68% were the top losers in the space. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up 2.27%, ITC up 1.53%, Infosys up 1.52%, Wipro up 1.39% and HUL up 1.31% while, Jindal Steel down 4.19%, Tata Power down 3.36%, Hindalco Industries down 2.52%, Gail India down 1.79% and L&T down 1.59% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, in light of deteriorating global economic environment, Private Equity (PE) investments in India have dwindled by 35% to $1,616 million across 97 deals in the second quarter of 2012 over the same period a year ago. For the second quarter of the previous year, PE firms pumped in $2,477 million by way of 126 transactions.

A host of factors like slowing growth, depreciating currency, volatility in equity markets, elevated interest rates and a sense of 'policy paralysis' have clouded the economic sentiment domestically in the recent past. However, the prominent issue, which drew foreign investors’ flak, was the introduction of GAAR in Budget 2012 to check tax evasion, which was later deferred to April, next year.

Sector-wise, IT and IT-enabled Services (ITe’S) space took the lead during the quarter as the leader in both volume and value with 38 deals worth $ 321 million in the June quarter of this year. The space was closely followed by the energy sector, which attracted $290 million worth of investments in April-June 2012, while the healthcare sector too enticed an investment worth $243 million. Additionally, investments in the education sector recorded nearly 100 per cent growth to $71 million in April-June 2012, from $37 million in the second quarter of calendar year 2011.

India VIX, a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility gained 0.25% at 15.73 from its previous close of 15.69 on Thursday. (Provisional)

The S&P CNX Nifty gained 4.10 points or 0.08% to settle at 5,367.05. The index touched high and low of 5,399.95 and 5,341.70 respectively. 20 stocks advanced against 29 declining ones while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were Tata Motors up 2.06%, HUL up 1.75%, ITC up 1.74%, Infosys up 1.58% and Wipro up 1.36%. On the other hand, Jindal Steel down 4.29%, Tata Power down 3.85%, Reliance Infrastructure down 3.22%, DLF down 3.13% and Hindalco Industries down 2.78% were the top losers. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading in green, with France's CAC 40 up 0.25%, Germany's DAX up 0.26% and Britain’s FTSE 100 up 0.21%.

Asian markets closed shutter on a mixed note on Friday amid German Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced support for the European Central Bank's efforts to contain the debt crisis in the euro zones. South Korea's Kospi was dropped by 0.5%, as foreign investors offloaded Samsung Electronics, on the back some disputes between the Korean electronics giant and Apple affected investor sentiment, while weaker yen supported Japan's Nikkei, which was up 0.8%. Meanwhile, Hong Kong shares were up on Friday, ended the week almost where they started, helped by broad strength in riskier sectors.

Jakarta Composite was not trading as Indonesian banks, the stock exchange and other financial institutions will be closed for five days, from Friday until Wednesday, due to public and Idul Fitri holidays.