Post session - Quick review

Benchmark equity indices just about managed to showcase an average session of performance, in absence of a dominant positive trigger. Both FDI in retail debate in Parliament and Reserve Bank of India's impending open market operation failed to lift sentiment at D-street in any meaningful way, with trader’s now shifting their focus on vote to held on December 5 at Lok Sabha, which could decide the fate of Proposal of opening of ‘FDI in Retail’. 

Nevertheless, Indian equity markets managed to gain a little traction on hopes of government being able to push through FDI in Retail, albeit with riders. Both Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samajwadi Party apparently look in the favor of casting their vote in the favour of government provided the latter allows states to decide whether or not to permit FDI entry. Meanwhile, opening the big debate on UPA government’s decision to allow the FDI in multi-brand retail, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday slammed the government for taking the decision unilaterally.

In the spark-less session of trade, 30 share index, Sensex, accumulated 3/10 points to end past 19300 level, while 50 Share index, Nifty, too gaining similar magnitude gains, ended past 5850 level. Meanwhile, broader indices too ended with gains.

On the global front, Asian shares ended mix after US manufacturing activity hit a three-year low in November. The losses in Asian stock markets were suggestive of some caution after gains in the past few weeks, with some of the negative bias seeping over from weakness in the US economy and continued stalemate in the U.S. Congress over proposals to avert a fiscal cliff - $600 billion worth of tax increases and spending cuts that will be automatically triggered in early 2013. Meanwhile, European shares turned slightly positive on Monday, with a rise in defensive stocks in the healthcare sector - seen as among the most resilient to an economic downturn - offsetting concerns over the U.S. budget.

Closer home, Oil & Gas, Realty and Power counters, turned out to be pillars of strength for bourses. While, Consumer Durables, Information Technology and Auto counters emerged as top laggards. Mild profit taking was visible in HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Andhra Bank post Moody's, which met the finance ministry official, expressed concerns on banks' stressed assets. Moody's, in it’s report said its outlook on the Indian banking system over the next 12 months to 18 months remains negative due to a challenging operating environment which is likely to pressure banks’ profits. Additionally, even HealthCare counters too emerged as gainer after the government on Monday said all foreign investments in existing pharmaceutical companies would be cleared by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) in a bid to ensure availability of medicines at affordable prices. Interestingly, all paper stocks witnessed significant gains today following talks of US Based International Paper’s reported interest in West Coast Papers. Market talks suggest that the global paper giant is in negotiation to buy out majority stake of West Coast Papers’ promoters. The company, however, has denied any stake sale. While West Coast Papers surged 5%, Rama Newsprint rose 14.5% and AP Papers gained 3.2 %. The US based firm last year acquired AP Papers Mills.

The BSE Sensex accumulated 42.80 points or 0.22% and settled at 19348.12. The index touched a high and a low of 19373.94 and 19263.71 respectively. 11 stocks advanced against 19 stocks declines on the index (Provisional). The market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1598 shares on the gaining side against 1336 shares on the losing side while 126 shares remain unchanged. (Provisional)

Broader indices too ended in green terrain; both BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices ended up with gains of 0.10% and 0.59% respectively. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Oil & Gas up by 1.57%, Realty up by 0.84%, Power up by 0.83%, Bankex up by 0.75% and Health Care up by 0.32% while, Consumer Durable down by 0.72%, Information Technology down by 0.68%, Auto down by 0.43%, Metal down by 0.35% and TECk down by 0.27% were the losers on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up by 4.00%, RIL up by 2.49%, SBI  up by 1.59%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.55% and ICICI Bank up by 1.53%.(Provisional)

On the flip side, M&M was down by 1.75%, Wipro was down by 1.65%, NTPC down by 1.34%, Sterlite Industries down by 1.29% and TCS were down by 1.25% were the top losers on the Sensex. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, in the pre-budget recommendations to the government, the industry body, Assocham President Rajkumar Dhoot has advised raising personal income tax exemption limit to Rs 3 lakh, reducing service tax and excise to 8% from 12% and increase in deduction of interest on housing loan to 5 lakh to revive consumer demand and to boost investment. The pre-budget memorandum for 2013-14 was jointly released by the chamber including President Dhoot, Chairman and Co-Chairman of taxes council Ved Jain and J.K. Mittal and chamber's Secretary-General D.S. Rawat.

Dhoot has also asked for reduction of corporate tax to 25% from 30%, besides demanding grant of infrastructure status to special economic zones and industrial parks. According to Assocham’s pre-budget memorandum for 2013-14, the base exemption limit of resident individual below the age of 60 years should be raised to Rs 3 lakh, to incentivize people to come into the tax net, ensure higher collection from greater compliance and encourage consumption and savings.

Moreover, the chamber said the tax base for goods and services has already expanded to generate high revenue and the government can selectively increase customs duty rates to neutralise the effect of lower tax rate of excise duty and service tax. Besides, by increasing customs rates, the government can protect the domestic industry from unfair competition from countries like China.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility gained 1.85% at 15.91 from its previous close of 15.62 on Monday. (Provisional)

The S&P CNX Nifty gained 18.30 points or 0.31% to settle at 5,889.25. The index touched high and low of 5,894.95 and 5,859.00 respectively.  22 stocks advanced against 28 declines on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers of the Nifty were JP Associates up by 4.52%, Tata Power up by 3.95%, Reliance Industries up by 2.59%, Ranbaxy up by 2.26% and Reliance Infrastructure up by 1.84%. (Provisional)

On the flip side, Wipro down by 2.1%, M&M and Ambuja Cements were down by 2.05%, TCS down by 1.82% and Grasim Industries down by 1.34%, were the top losers on the Nifty. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading in green with, France’s CAC 40 up by 0.69%, Germany’s DAX up by 0.13% and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 gained 0.15%.(Provisional)

Asian markets went home on mixed note following weak US manufacturing data and renewed fears over U.S. economic outlook. However, Hong Kong and Shanghai rebounded from the previous day's losses and ended with green mark. Nikkei came off the previous session gains and closed lower, as exporters came under pressure from a bout of profit taking sparked by the weak U.S. data. Moreover, South Korea market ended in negative territory with Posco declining by 1.9%.