Bottom fishing help benchmarks to register first positive close in nine

The eight back to back sessions of subdued performance finally came to a halt, with both the gauges snapping the session above their psychological 18,450 (Sensex) and 5,600 (Nifty) bastions as investors went for bargain hunting. A relief rally was long due for the markets however, Wednesday’s gains for benchmark indices was merely a glimpse of a pullback rally considering the fact that key gauges have lost over massive three percentage points in the previous eight sessions of downtrend. Nonetheless, the bourses showed some fervor in the session and garnered around three fourth of a percent as market participants hunted for badly beaten down but fundamentally strong bets.

Sentiments also got some boost after government announced that it will place bills to liberalize the insurance and pension sectors and a bill to amend banking regulations which includes increasing the voting rights of large shareholders in private banks to 26 percent from 10 percent, in the winter session of the parliament which will begin from November 22, 2012. The market sentiment also remained up-beat by provisional data showing that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net buyers of Indian stocks on November 20, 2012. 

However, global cues remained unsupportive as European counters lost steam in early deals on fresh worries over Greece after international lenders failed to reach a deal for the payment of a new tranche of aid to the debt-stricken country. Meanwhile, Asian shares staged mixed close as investors refocused on the risk of US fiscal crisis following Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's remark that the budget impasse was already damaging growth. Sentiment in Asian-pacific region were also affected as Japan on Wednesday posted its worst October trade figure in over 30 years, underscoring persistent weakness in the world's third-largest economy amid the global slowdown and a spat with China.

Back home, retail stocks were on buyers’ radar on hopes that FDI issue may get resolved in the winter session of Parliament that will start from November 22, 2012. Sentiments also got some support from Aviation stocks as scrips like Jet Air India, Spicejet, and Kingfisher Airlines all edged higher as the number of passengers carried by air carriers rose 13.36% in October 2012 over September 2012. Further, sentiments were buttressed by the sparkling gains in Pharmaceuticals stocks, viz. Aurobindo Pharma, Cipla, Ranbaxy Lab and Sun Pharmaceuticals, which rallied ahead of GoM decision for resolving deadlock on Pharma pricing. The GOM meet for resolving deadlock assumes importance with the expected attendance of the finance minister, where hopes are high that the pricing policy, which has been mired since 2003, will be revamped. Some amount of support also came in from public sector oil marketing companies as stocks like BPCL, HPCL and IOC edged higher after international crude reversed most of its last session gains on Tuesday and plunged sharply as supply concern eased on report that Israel and Palestinians were near a truce.

The NSE’s 50-share broadly followed index Nifty rose by over forty points to end comfortably above its psychological 5,600 support level, while Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index -- Sensex gained over one hundred and thirty points to finish above the psychological 18,450 mark. Moreover, broader markets too traded in the green and ended the session with a gain of about half a percent.

The overall volumes stood below Rs 1.67 lakh crore, which remained on the higher side as compared to that on Tuesday. The market breadth remained in favor of advances as there were 1,487 shares on the gaining side against 1,360 shares on the losing side while 137 shares remain unchanged.

Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 131.06 points or 0.72% to settle at 18,460.38, while the S&P CNX Nifty rose by 43.25 points or 0.78% to end at 5,614.80.

The BSE Sensex touched a high and a low of 18,478.50 and 18,309.81, respectively. The BSE Mid-cap index was up by 0.37% and Small-cap index was up by 0.39%.

Cipla up 2.61%, Sun Pharma up 2.43%, Tata Power up 1.98%, Jindal Steel up 1.97% and ITC up by 1.96% were the major gainers on the Sensex. On the flip side, NTPC down 3.46%, BHEL down 2.70%, Hero MotoCorp down 1.00%, Bharti Airtel down 0.63% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.52% were the major losers on the index.

The few gainers on the BSE sectoral space were Realty up 2.47%, FMCG up 1.41%, Consumer Durables (CD) up 1.40%, Bankex up 1.27% and IT up 0.85%. While, Power down 0.99%, Auto down 0.24% and PSU down 0.19% were major losers on the BSE sectoral space.

Meanwhile, after slipping for last five months, domestic airline passenger traffic, gained some momentum in October as it grew by 13.36 per cent and stood at 45.50 lakh from 40.18 lakh in September 2012, according to data released on Tuesday by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). The respite came after the passenger traffic fell 8.03 per cent for the fifth consecutive month in September and stood at 40.18 lakh from 43.69 lakh in August.

However, airline passenger traffic in India, dipping by 15.7% in October compared with a year ago turns out to be the sharpest fall in traffic this year, importantly in redeeming month for Indian carriers. The October-December quarter, is peak season for domestic airlines.

The civil aviation ministry data, however, showed that the total passengers carried by all domestic airlines in the January-October period fell by 2.47 percent at 483.94 lakh passengers from 496.19 lakh during the corresponding month of 2011. The total passengers carried by all the domestic airlines in the January-September period had grown marginally by 0.90 per cent at 438.39 lakh passengers from 442.18 lakh during the corresponding period of 2011.

Further, in terms of market share, Indigo maintained its top position with 27.8 per cent followed by Air India with 20.8 percent, Spicejet at third position with 19.1 percent and at fourth position Jet Airways-Jetlite (Jet Konnect) combine with 24.7 per cent. However, it is Air India whose share is on the rise for six successive months.

The S&P CNX Nifty touched a high and a low of 5,620.20 and 5,561.40 respectively.

The top gainers on the Nifty were JP Associates up 3.14%, Cipla up 3.00%, Sun Pharma up 2.58%, Ambuja Cement up 2.27% and ICICI Bank up by 2.14%.

The top losers on the index were NTPC down 3.92%, BHEL down 3.07%, PowerGrid down 1.68%, Cairn down 1.36% and PNB down by 0.75%.

European markets were trading in red. France’s CAC 40 down 0.14%, Germany’s DAX down 0.01% and Britain’s FTSE 100 was down by 0.11%.

Asian markets ended mixed on Wednesday as investors were still worried over euro zone debt crisis after European officials failed to reach a deal on a bailout for Greece. Meanwhile, fears on the US fiscal cliff remained in focus after the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warning over the looming economic condition. China's Shanghai Composite went home with green mark reversing early losses, while Hong Kong's market closed in positive territory on signs of a Chinese recovery. However, Seoul shares erased early gains to end lower after Greek aid talks ended inconclusively.