Post session - Quick review

Consolidation came into play after nine consecutive session’s smart rally, which took benchmark equity indices lower than the previous closing level, as market-men preferred to cash in profits in absence of fresh positive triggers. In the choppy session of trade, benchmark equity indices swirling in and out of the positive territory finally settled in the favour of red, with modest losses. However, 30 share barometer index of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), Sensex, despite losing quarter of points, settled above the 18500 mark. On the flip side, 50 share index, Nifty, on NSE, losing over slender 0.15%, failed to hold the 5600 crucial mark.  Meanwhile, broader indices depicted larger degree of outperformance, as both Midcap and Smallcap indices went home with gains of over 3/ 4 percent.

Subdued equity markets performance could be well contributed to the bleak global cues, which discouraged market-men for piling up aggressive bets. Meanwhile, some sense of cautiousness also was drawn on account of political drama in the country, as Trinamool Congress chief (TMC) Mamata Banerjee’s 72-hour deadline to the UPA government, to roll back its FDI and diesel price hike decision, ends today and is expected to draw some action. On the global front, Asian shares ended down in dumps as markets calculated the impact on growth from the Federal Reserve's aggressive stimulus and eyed whether Spain will request a bailout to ease its fiscal strain. Additionally, concerns over growth slowdown in China, the world's top consumer of raw materials and the second-largest economy, also weighed on sentiment as investors took profits from last week's rallies. Meanwhile, with no astonishment, hesitant Spain sent European share rally into reverse, as Investors worried about Spain's willingness to accept an EU/IMF bailout, which overshadowed the recent progress policymakers made in fighting the euro zone debt crisis.

Closer home, stocks from Public Sectoral Undertaking (PSU), Capital Goods (CG) and Power counters, acted in the best of their will, while stocks from Oil & Gas, Information Technology and Health Care counters, emerged as weak spells of the trade. Oil & Gas pivotal was mainly dragged by market bellwether, Reliance Industries, which plunged over 2% after its share prices rose above the maximum buyback price of Rs 870 per share for the first time since the offering was announced on January 20. Mukhesh Ambani owned Reliance surged 10.5% over the previous four sessions, riding a rally in cyclical stocks on the back of India's reform measures and the Fed's QE3. On the flip side, PSU banking shares extended their rally for the second day in a row after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) slashed cash reserve ratio (CRR) by 25 bps to reduce borrowing costs. The market breadth on the BSE ended positive; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1708:1183 while 118 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex lost 40.68 points or 0.22% and settled at 18,501.63. The index touched a high and a low of 18,580.48 and 18,469.51 respectively. 15 stocks were seen advancing while 15 stocks were declining on the index (Provisional)

The BSE Mid-cap index was up 0.89% while Small-cap index was up 0.79%. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, PSU was up 1.66%, Capital Goods was up 1.21%, Power up 1.01%, Bankex was up 0.80% and Realty up by 0.70% were the top gainers, while Oil & Gas down 1.14, IT down by 0.55%, Health Care down by 0.37%, Metal down by 0.29% and TECk down by 0.08% were the losers in the space.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up 5.30%, SBI up 3.99%, Gail India up by 2.75%, Jindal Steel up 2.65% and Infosys up 1.34% while, Wipro down by 3.70%, TCS down by 2.94%, RIL down by 2.12%, Hindalco Industries down by 2.09% and Cipla down by 1.54% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, driven by the rise in food inflation, annual rate of inflation, based on the consumer prices index (CPI) in India, creeping higher in the month of August, entered double digit figure of 10.03 percent. Food inflation in the CPI accelerated to 12.03 percent in August from 11.53 percent in August. According to the data released by Central Statistics Office, provisional annual inflation rate based on all India general CPI (Combined) for August 2012 on point to point basis stood at 10.03 percent as compared to 9.86 percent for the previous month of July 2012. However, July consumer price inflation was revised lower to 9.76 percent from 9.86 percent earlier.

According to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, which released the monthly provisional CPI on Base 2010=100 along with annual inflation rates for August 2012, all India provisional General (all groups), CPI numbers of August 2012 for rural, urban and combined were at 124.3, 121.11 and 122.9 respectively. The corresponding inflation rates for rural and urban areas for August came in at 9.90 percent and 10.19 percent respectively as against July’s  9.76 percent and 10.10 percent, respectively, which indicated that the rate of price rise rose in both in rural and urban areas.

India has the highest retail inflation among the BRICS group of emerging economies - Brazil, Russia, China, and South Africa -- and is way above the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s comfort level. However, unlike most central banks, the RBI uses wholesale inflation in its policy formulation, as annual consumer price inflation data was only launched this year in January.

Driven by higher food prices due to deficient monsoon, the wholesale price index (WPI), India's main inflation gauge, shockingly rose at 7.55% for the month of August, as compared to 6.87% (Provisional) for the previous month and 9.78% during the corresponding month of the previous year. Meanwhile, furthering its anti-inflationary stance, the RBI, in its mid-quarter monetary policy review, leaving the key policy rates, viz. repo and reverse repo rate unchanged, only slashed cash reserve ratio (CRR) of scheduled banks by 25 basis points from 4.75 per cent to 4.50 per cent of their net demand and time liabilities (NDTL) effective the fortnight beginning September 22, 2012

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility gained 0.28% at 17.83 from its previous close of 17.78 on Monday. (Provisional)

The S&P CNX Nifty lost 10.15 points or 0.18% to settle at 5,599.85. The index touched high and low of 5,620.55 and 5,586.45 respectively. 25 stocks advanced against 25 declining ones on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were PNB up 7.90%, BHEL up 5.20%, SBI up 3.39%, Bank of Baroda up 3.02% and GAIL India was up 2.71%. On the other hand, Cairn India down 3.81%, Wipro down by 3.78%, TCS down by 3.00%, Hindalco Industries down 2.39% and Reliance Industries down 2.15% were the top losers. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading in red with France’s CAC 40 down 1.27%, Germany’s DAX down 1.14% and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 down 0.84%.

Most Asian stocks ended lower on Tuesday on the back of profit-taking after last week's huge gains sparked by the US Federal Reserve stimulus plan and following losses on Wall Street. Increasing geo-political worries between Japan and China dragged down shares of Tokyo- listed companies like Honda Motor and Fast Retailing on Shanghai Composite and slowing growth in the U.S. also pressurized the market to an extent. However, gains among utilities restricted losses on Japan’s Nikkei 255 as equity markets reopened today after a public holiday. Meanwhile, Korea Composite closed higher amid alternate bouts of buying and selling throughout the day. Hong Kong shares fell from a 4-1/2-month high in light trade, due to weakness in commodity sectors.