Post session - Quick review

Indian equity markets, after getting a cautiously optimistic start, witnessed brutal hammering, concluded the last trading session of the week with nasty nick of over a percentage points. Caution ahead of next week’s resumption of parliament weighed heavily among investors, which also factoring in the worsening global risk environment, squared off their position in risky equities. Much of the drubbing came to the local equity markets in the last hour of trade, largely due to rate sensitive’s which dragged local barometer gauges to the lowest point of the day. In the rather week session of trade, barometer 30 share index, Sensex, knocked down a percentage, to conclude sub 18300 level, after touching an intra-day high level  past 18500 mark. Similarly, widely followed index, Nifty, to pummeling over a percentage point lost the psychological 5600 mark.  Further, trend was no different for broader indices, which went home with colossal losses of over a percent. For the week, both Nifty and Sensex witnessed nasty laceration of over two percent. The losses were minimal for CNX Midcap index, which ended with cut of over 0.30%. However, traders seem to have opted value picks from BSE Smallcap index, which amassed over half a percent by the close of the week.

On the global front, Asian pacific shares ended down in dumps on Friday, with the Sydney market suffering its second worst week of the year, as concerns over the U.S. fiscal cliff continued to hurt sentiment. However, Nikkei edged higher on Friday as investors reckoned that Japan's main opposition party will win next month's election and put more pressure on the central bank to stimulate the ailing economy. Meanwhile, European shares too suffered the hammering as U.S. President Barack Obama got prepared to hold talks with Republican lawmakers on the country’s so-called fiscal cliff. U.S. index futures dropped, while Asian shares rose.

Closer home, telecom stocks mostly lost out steam after telecommunications minister, Kapil Sibal, reported 2G spectrum story needs to taken forward with government intending to hold an auction of mobile phone airwaves that were left unsold at a sale this week before March 31, 2012.  All stocks, barring Bharti Airtel, were down and out in trade. Rate sensitive’s counters, Realty, Auto and Bankex, played the evil behind the sharp plunge of Indian equity markets. Banking stocks, which were trading downbeat from the start of the trade, concluded with bigger losses after Central bank governor Duvvuri Subbarao, said that India's inflation rate of 7.5 percent is still high, thereby dousing the rate cut hopes anytime soon. Further, even sugar stocks ended sour in wake of the reports, which suggested speeding up work to decide on decontrolling the sugar sector.
On BSE Sectoral front, Information Technology, Technology stocks staged resilience amidst sluggish trade. The market breadth on the BSE ended negative; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1099:1749 while 115 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex lost 201.99 points or 1.09% and settled at 18,269.38. The index touched a high and a low of 18,563.32 and 18,266.76 respectively. 5 stocks were seen advancing and 25 stocks were declining on the index (Provisional)

The BSE Mid-cap index was down by 1.12% while Small-cap index was up by 1.32%. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, IT up 0.17% and TECk up 0.16% were the only gainers, while Realty down by 3.94%, Auto down by 1.78%, Bankex down by 1.71%, FMCG down by 1.65% and Capital Goods down by 1.60% were the top losers in the space.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up 2.78%, Infosys up by 1.89%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up 1.75%, Coal India up 0.72% and Jindal Steel up 0.37%, while, Tata Motors down by 3.32%, HUL down by 3.08%, ICICI Bank down by 2.78%, Cipla down by 2.53% and Hindalco Industries down by 2.29% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, marking second reduction in rates since October, state-owned oil marketing companies (OMC’s) slashed the price of petrol by 95 paise per litre (minus state levies), effective November 15, midnight, on account of fall in international oil prices. The last reduction in petrol price before this was the 56-paise cut to Rs 67.90 a litre on October 9. Thereafter, the rate was increased by 29 paise in wake of government’s decision to raise the commission paid to petrol pump dealers.

Petrol in Delhi would now cost Rs 67.24 a litre, from earlier Rs 68.19 a litre. While, petrol price in Mumbai has been lowered by Rs 1.20 per litre to Rs 73.53, the same will cost Rs 70.57 a litre in Chennai from Friday instead of Rs 71.77 a litre currently. In Kolkata, the price has been cut by Rs 1.19 to Rs 74.55 per litre.

Basically, the trends in the international oil market and Indian rupee-USD exchange rate are being closely monitored and the same are usually reflected in future price change. At present, the international oil prices are relatively stable. However, there has been significant volatility in the rupee-dollar exchange rate with uncertainty about its future direction.

The government had in June 2010 deregulated petrol prices giving oil companies freedom to fix rates in line with the cost. However, prices have seldom moved in line with cost and oil companies have often buckled under political pressure to keep rates checked to help the government control inflation.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility gained 4.44% at 16.22 from its previous close of 15.53 on Thursday. (Provisional)

The S&P CNX Nifty lost 68.80 points or 1.22% to settle at 5,562.20. The index touched high and low of 5,650.15 and 5,559.80 respectively. 6 stocks advanced against 44 declining ones on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were Bharti Airtel was up 3.08%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up 1.88%, Infosys up 1.77%, ONGC up 1.20% and Jindal Steel was up 0.52%. On the other hand, IDFC down 3.61%, Reliance Infrastructure down by 3.53%, Tata Motors down by 3.29%, DLF down by 3.27% and Kotak Bank down by 3.19% were the top losers. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading in red with, France’s CAC 40 down 0.61%, Germany’s DAX down 0.82% and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 down 0.58%.

Asian markets ended mixed on Friday amid continued worries about eurozone and US fiscal crisis which dented investor’s sentiments. However, Nikkei ended with smart gains of 2.2% on hopes of further monetary easing measures by the Bank of Japan ahead of elections in December. Meanwhile, Chinese shares witnessed fifth loss in seven days on Friday, following other underperforming Asian peers as traders slashed risk exposure on uncertainty about the policies of the country's new leadership team.