Post session - Quick review

Indian markets suffered a setback on Thursday as despite getting a decent lead, markets lost traction in very early trade and could never return to the green throughout the session. There was sharp selling pressure on the infra stocks that dragged the markets lower in the last hour of trade, while the mid cap continued reeling under pressure. Earlier, the sanguine global cues gave a good start to the domestic markets after US markets rallied overnight, most of the Asian peers too showed good gains supported by the better than expected manufacturing data from China.

However, the domestic markets could not keep up the momentum going for long and slipped into red within half an hour of trade. While the IT and technology counters tried to hold the gains, the rate sensitives dragged the markets lower ahead of the RBI’s quarterly monetary policy review scheduled next week. Traders remained cautious despite Finance minister P Chidambaram sought to bury differences with the Reserve Bank of India, saying the central bank had the final call on monetary policy. Till now finance ministry has been suggesting to shift to a monetary easing stance given the severe moderation in industrial growth and a decline in exports. Traders are now expecting a modest 25 basis points (bps) rate cut against the previous expectation of generous 50 bps. Sectorally realty, auto, power and metal suffered a severe beating, while the defensive FMCG witnessed some buying, IT and capital goods despite losing some steam managed a close in green. In non sectoral gauges aviation remained in a somber mood since the morning after the Supreme Court restrained the Federation of Indian Airlines from levying a transaction fee, in any form or in any name, while booking tickets and directed the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation to examine the tariff structure of the airlines in view of the wide range of their base prices.

The earnings disappointments coupled with some individual stock developments too pressurized the markets. Reliance Communication reported a 43.5 percent fall in consolidated net profit for the October-December quarter and slumped by over 8 percent. However, the company reported a standalone net profit of Rs 110 crore during the quarter against a net loss of Rs 277 crore in the same period a year ago. Jaiprakash Associates too got pummeled after it postponed the sale of a stake in Jaypee Infratech. At the same time, L&T reported a 13 percent rise in net profit to Rs 1,122 crore for the third quarter compared with Rs 992 crore a year earlier and said that it is seeing early signs of a government push on infrastructure spending.

The market breadth on the BSE ended in red; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 724:1037, while 1224 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex lost 94.58 points or 0.47% and settled at 19932.03. The index touched a high and a low of 20072.28 and 19884.20 respectively. 10 stocks were seen advancing while 20 stocks were declining on the index (Provisional)

The BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices decline 2.67% and 2.56% respectively. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, FMCG was up by 1.24%, Capital Goods was up by 0.59%  and IT up by 0.20%  were the only gainers, while Realty down by 4.25%, Auto down by 2.44%, Power down by 2.19%,  Metal down by 2.01% and PSU down by 1.55% were the top losers in the space. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Larsen & Toubro up by 1.84%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.80%, ITC up by 1.57%, TCS up by 0.93% and ONGC up by 0.90%, while, Tata Motors down by 5.93%, Gail India down by 4.76%, Cipla down by 3.98%, Hindalco Industries down by 3.82% and Tata Power down by 3.23% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, to restructure the debt of the state power distribution companies, the Power Ministry will seek a budgetary financial support of Rs 1,200 crore from the Ministry of Finance, for 2013-14. In this regard, Power Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia will be meeting the state energy ministers on February 5, to bring them on board with the Centre's financial restructuring package plan to bailout the discoms.

Though, the Power Ministry has now extended the last date for the states to apply for restructuring the loans of their respective electricity boards to March 31. The earlier date was December 31, 2012. The accumulated losses of discoms are estimated to be whopping Rs 2.46 lakh crore as on March 2012 and the same was pegged at around Rs 1.9 lakh crore till March 2011.

Back on, in September last year, the government had approved the scheme for restructuring of Rs 1.9 lakh crore (till March 2011) debt of State Electricity Boards, in which 50 percent of the short-term outstanding liabilities would be taken over by the state governments. While, the balance 50 percent loans would be restructured by providing moratorium on principle and best possible terms for repayments.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility gained 5.77% at 14.46 from its previous close of 13.67 on Wednesday. (Provisional)

The S&P CNX Nifty lost 35.65 points or 0.59% to settle at 6,018.65. The index touched high and low of 6,065.30 and 6,007.85 respectively. 14 stocks advanced against 36 declining ones on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were Larsen & Toubro was up by 1.79%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.78%, ITC up by 1.45%, TCS up by 1.38% and Kotak Mahindra Bank was up by 1.23%. On the other hand, Tata Motors down by 6.12%, Jaiprakash Associates down by 5.64%, GAIL down by 4.63%, CIPLA down by 3.68% and Hindalco Industries down by 3.82% were the top losers. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading mixed, France’s CAC 40 was up by 0.18% and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 was up by 0.22%, while Germany’s DAX declined by 0.01%.

Most Asian market ended lower on Thursday as positive Chinese manufacturing data was dominated by lower than expected results from Apple Inc. Meanwhile, China's HSBC flash purchasing managers' index (PMI) rose to 51.9 in January to a two-year high, indicating a bounce in manufacturing activity and recovery in the world's second largest economy. Shanghai Composite closed in negative territory after surrendering early gains, after North Korea said it would carry out a nuclear test that will target the United States, dramatically stepping up its threats against a country. China's positive data helped Japan's Nikkei to end higher, as firms with high exposure to the Chinese economy snatched gains.

Stock markets in Indonesia and Malaysia remained close for the trade today.