Post session - Quick review

Indian equity markets staged a heartwarming session of trade, whereby benchmark equity indices extending their winning streak to sixth consecutive session, mustered gains of close to half a percent. Across the globe cheer after Barack Obama, overcoming a stiff initial challenge from his Republican challenger Mitt Romney, won a second term in the White House, mainly provided a shot adrenaline to local equity markets, as this re-ignited expectations that quantitative easing in the United States, the world's biggest economy, will continue in its current form.

After opening lower, benchmarks equity indices went on gaining spree after the results of  US elections were unveiled, where President Barack Obama rolled to re-election with a clear victory over the opposition, however, chink of profit-taking, which emerged in the fag end of the trade, dragged benchmark equity a tad lower from intra-day high level. 30 share index, Sensex, on Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), puffing up over 3/4 percent, ended past the crucial 18900 level. Similarly, widely followed index, Nifty, on NSE, too spurting over half a percent, concluded near a month high level, which was above 5750 psychological mark. Broader indices too went home with gains of over 0.75%.

On the global front, after the sanguine close of Asian pacific shares, European stocks too rallied early on Wednesday as the re-election of U.S. President Barack Obama fuelled expectation the Federal Reserve's loose monetary policy will continue. Banking stocks were among the biggest gainers amongst European region after France's BNP Paribas pleased investors with forecast-beating quarterly earnings.

Closer home, gains of Realty, Bankex and Information Technology (IT) stocks, mainly glorified D-Street. Interest rate sensitive Realty, Bankex and Auto mainly hinged higher on expectation of rate cut from the central bank in the first quarter of 2013. Information Technology too welcomed re-appointment of US president Obama by staging favorable trend, with concerns over outsourcing issue lingered.  On the flip side, Oil & Gas stocks running out of fuel, emerged as the sole losers on the index.

On the result front, corporate earnings were mixed bag. Bharti Airtel, lost over half a percent on reporting 29.78% fall in its net profit, on consolidated basis at Rs 721.20 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2012 as compared to Rs 1027.00 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. Additionally, Cadila Healthcare, too tumbled down over 3% on reporting 57.81% drop in its net profit at Rs 97.45 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2012 as compared to Rs 230.98 crore for the same quarter in the previous year.

On the flip side, UCO Bank scooped up gains of over percent despite registered a fall of 55.06% in its net profit at Rs 103.71 crore as compared to Rs 230.75 crore in the corresponding month previous year. Jubilant FoodWorks too edged higher over 2% on posting 36.67% surge in its net profit at Rs 32.35 crore for the quarter as compared to Rs 23.67 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. Reliance Capital, too rallied over 3% on reporting reported over 12 fold jump in its consolidated net profit at Rs 401.00 crore for the quarter as compared to Rs 33.00 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. The market breadth on the BSE ended positive; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1624:1240 while 140 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex gained 79.34 points or 0.42% and settled at 18,896.72. The index touched a high and a low of 18,973.43 and 18,786.14 respectively. 23 stocks were seen advancing while 7 stocks were declining on the index (Provisional)

The BSE Mid-cap index was up by 0.80% while Small-cap index was up by 0.68%. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Realty was up by 2.83%, Bankex up by 1.12%, IT up by 0.75%, TECk up by 0.63% and Capital Goods up 0.61% were the top gainers, while Oil & Gas down by 0.50% was the only loser in the space.

The top gainers on the Sensex were SBI up by 1.80%, HDFC up 1.65%, BHEL up by 1.59%, NTPC up by 1.19% and Hindalco Industries up 1.11%, while, Tata Power down by 2.72%, Coal India down by 0.88%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.82%, Reliance Industries down by 0.76% and Cipla down by 0.34% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) could ease monetary policy as early as January, Governor Duvvuri Subbarao stated on Monday, given the easing price pressure in Asia’s third-largest economy in the early next year. However, he added that it would be 'difficult and inappropriate' to say now which instrument the RBI would use the next time it eased policy. Further, justifying its stance on account of lack-of coordination between RBI and government, he underscored that RBI takes the economic impact of government policies into account in its decisions, but its actions aren't dependent on any specific reforms.

The central bank kept its key lending rate steady at 8.0%, while slashing banks' cash reserve ratio (CRR) by 25 bps to 4.25% at its meeting October 30, to prevent a crunch in liquidity, which could otherwise come under pressure close to festivals such as Diwali in November.

The lack of a rate cut disappointed India's government, which last month announced a five-year roadmap to limit its budget deficit to 5.3% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the fiscal year through March and to narrow it gradually to 3.0% by fiscal 2017. The RBI has been urging the government to bring down the deficit to give it space to take growth-supportive monetary steps.

Though, RBI has one more meeting scheduled in the last month of the Calendar Year when Subbarao said easing was “highly improbable.” He said that the central bank would next review policy at meetings on January 29 and in mid-March, noting the first-quarter easing guidance was based on forecasts for growth and inflation. Not weaving too many hopes, Governor stated that RBI after assessing the situation in January would try and act according to its guidance. However, should the situation be different, then India’s apex bank will have to defer until March.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility lost 4.60% at 14.51 from its previous close of 15.21 on Tuesday. (Provisional)

The S&P CNX Nifty gained 31.15 points or 0.54% to settle at 5,755.55. The index touched high and low of 5,777.30 and 5,711.40 respectively. 38 stocks advanced against 10 declining ones while 2 stocks remained unchanged on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were JP Associates was up 5.52%, Bank of Baroda up 2.65%, PNB up 2.44%, IDFC up 2.43% and DLF was up 2.42%. On the other hand, Tata Power down 2.87%, Coal India down by 0.97%, Reliance Industries down by 0.89%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.79% and Siemens down by 0.72% were the top losers. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading in green with, France’s CAC 40 up 0.82%, Germany’s DAX up 0.48% and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 up 0.30%.

Most Asian stock markets went home with the green mark as Barack Obama was re-elected as U.S. president, which is expected to add further monetary easing in the world’s largest economy. However, Japan's Nikkei ended little unchanged after bobbling between gains and losses. China's Shanghai Composite closed lower ahead of the once-in-a-decade top leadership change, while Hong Kong's market closed the shutter on positive note, snapping two days of losses. Moreover, Seoul markets gained marginally and Kospi ended higher, led by exporters.