Post session - Quick review

Indian equity markets, after getting flat to negative start, went on losing spree to conclude near the lowest point of the day. Squaring of position by investors ahead of holiday and also ahead of F&O expiry on Thursday led to colossal losses at Dalal Street. Lacking any positive catalyst, local equity markets failed to gather any steam in the lackluster session of trade, however major damage was done to benchmarks in the last leg of the trade. Further, even absence of cues from global front, also dissuaded investors from taking any position in risky asset class such as equities. 30 share barometer index, Sensex, blowing over 3/ 4 percent, concluded near the 18700 mark, after striking 18800 psychological level which proved as strong resistance level. Similarly, the wide-based National Stock Exchange index, Nifty, too taking a knock of close to half a percent, finished sub 5700 level. By the end of trade, broader indices also roiled under pressure, with Both Midcap and Smallcap indices closing with loss of around quarter percentage.

On the global front, Asian stocks dropped for a third consecutive session, after companies including Acer Inc. posted earnings that missed estimates and Moody’s Investors Service lowered credit ratings on five Spanish regions. However, the trade was also lackluster as Hong Kong markets were closed for a holiday. Meanwhile, European stocks tanked on Tuesday after Spain's central bank said the country's recession has probably deepened and the nation may not meet its deficit-cutting targets.

Closer home, major pressure was exerted from the stocks belonging from Consumer Durable, Information Technology and Metal counters, which topping the BSE sectoral list from behind, lugged the markets lower. On the flip side, Capital Goods counter emerged as the sole winner on the back of uptick of index heavyweight stock, Larsen & Tourbo, which continued its bulls run on good set of Q2 numbers.

Meanwhile, on the result front, there were more hits than misses. Markets gave a big thumb up to the Yes Bank’s Q2 numbers, which took the stock surging over 2%. The private sector lender net profit grew by 30.2 percent year-on-year - in-line with expectations - to Rs 306 crore in the quarter ended September 2012, helped by fall in non-performing assets. Additionally, Public sector lender, Bank of Maharashtra too galloped gains of over three percent after the bank’s net profit grew by 65 percent year-on-year to Rs 166 crore in the July-September quarter of current financial year, helped by falling non-performing assets (NPAs) and provisions. Moreover, leading private sector oil explorer, Cairn India’s stock also witnessed huge demand after the company reported three fold jump in Q2 consolidated net profit. During the quarter, the net profit rose to Rs 23.22 billion as compared to Rs 7.63 billion in the same period last year.

On the flip side, Drug maker, Lupin stocks slipped by over a percent after the company reported below estimates Q2 numbers. On consolidated basis, the company has posted a rise of 8.84% in its net profit after tax and minority interest at Rs 290.46 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2012 as compared to Rs 266.86 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. The market breadth on the BSE ended negative; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1308:1493 while 143 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex lost 81.70 points or 0.43% and settled at 18,711.74. The index touched a high and a low of 18,812.93 and 18,689.38 respectively. 7 stocks were seen advancing while 23 stocks were declining on the index (Provisional)

The BSE Mid-cap index was down by 0.25% while Small-cap index was down by 0.29%. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Capital goods up 0.92% was the sole gainer, while Consumer Durable down by 1.17%, IT down by 0.99%, Power down by 0.90%, Auto down by 0.89% and Metal down by 0.85% were the top losers in the space.

The top gainers on the Sensex were L&T up 1.97%, ICICI Bank up 0.58%, Coal India up by 0.53%, HDFC up by 0.33% and HUL up 0.16%, while, Jindal Steel down by 2.48%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.96%, Infosys down by 1.60%, Hindalco Industries down by 1.56% and ITC down by 1.24% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, In continuation of his government’s ongoing push to reforms, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be meeting the chiefs of top public sector undertakings (PSUs) on Tuesday to discuss ways to push economic growth through enhanced investments, besides providing them greater autonomy and empowerment. The meeting has been convened at the request of Heavy Industries Minister Praful Patel, who also holds charge of the Department of Public Enterprises.

The meeting, to be attended by 25 heads of companies, includes chairmen of SAIL, ONGC, Coal India, NTPC, Indian Oil, and BHEL to convey their views on several key issues like autonomy and empowerment of CPSEs, their disinvestment plans and changes in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) system and mostly Maharatnas and Navratnas, will be the first interaction of the Prime Minister collectively with captains of public sector undertakings (PSUs).  Moreover, the meeting will discuss on flexibility to the boards of CPSEs, professionalism, future investment plans, capital expenditure and their plan to go global.

Earlier, Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, had held a meeting with top nine CPSUs on September 9, on the matter and asked these companies to invest more. These nine CPSUs alone have nearly Rs 1.80-lakh crore as cash reserves. However, during 2010-11, the 248 CPSEs touched an all time high investment of more than Rs 6.66 lakh crore, which was 15 per cent more than the previous year and the total turnover of all PSUs went up by 18.3 per cent to Rs 14.7 lakh crore in the 2010-11 fiscal.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility gained 5.13% at 13.71 from its previous close of 13.04 on Monday. (Provisional)

The S&P CNX Nifty lost 27.00 points or 0.47% to settle at 5,690.15. The index touched high and low of 5,720.80 and 5,681.45 respectively. 12 stocks advanced against 38 declining ones on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were BPCL was up 1.91%, L&T up 1.74%, Siemens up 1.01%, IDFC up 0.72% and Coal India was up 0.46%. On the other hand, Jindal Steel down 2.57%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.98%, Kotak Bank down by 1.97%, Lupin down by 1.68% and Hindalco Industries down by 1.52% were the top losers. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading in red with, France’s CAC 40 down 0.65%, Germany’s DAX down 0.78% and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 down 0.67%.

Asian shares closed mixed as investors remained cautious after global shares faltered overnight on weak earnings reports. Japan Nikkei erased early gains and ended marginally higher as gains stemmed from the yen's undermining because of expectations that the Bank of Japan will opt to ease monetary conditions further when its board meets to review policy on October 30. Seoul shares slipped ahead of quarterly results from domestic blue chip stocks, while Chinese shares went home with red mark as investors await a turnaround in the domestic economy.

Hong Kong markets were closed for a holiday and will resume trading on Wednesday.