Post session - Quick review

Indian equity markets showed a bit choppy trade on Monday, though the start of the F&O January series expiry week was on a positive note but traders remained concerned ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) monetary policy review scheduled to be announced on Tuesday. There is wide expectation that the RBI will go for atleast 25 basis points cut in its key policy rates. RBI’s likely cut in repo rate, first time in nine months gave much needed impetus to the rate sensitives and they remained firm since morning. However, the RBI remains cautious with inflation remaining around 7 percent. Last week, Governor Duvvuri Subbarao had said that inflation remained too high and spread jitters on the street.

On the global front the mood was more or less positive, as the US markets had ended higher on Friday, while most of the Asian markets ended in green, after the report of rise in Chinese industrial companies’ profits, signaling that the Chinese growth story is again gaining traction. The European markets made a flat start and the major indices were trading on edge with investors awaiting some key economic reports from the US.

Back home, domestic markets despite some recovery attempt in last, ended flat but the overall trade remained choppy and after the mid noon trade major indices never looked confident with traders frequently resorting to profit booking at higher levels. Initially there was some strength with the prediction of FICCI that Indian economy is likely to grow at a rate of 6.7% in the 2013-14, but soon trade turned cautious. Traders were also waiting for the Macro Economic and Monetary Developments Document due to be released by the RBI later in the day. However, the rate sensitives remained in jubilant mood since morning and the realty, auto and banking sector posted notable gains showing their confidence of a probable rate cut. The IT and technology stocks too traded with traction as the rupee turned weak against dollar owing to the month end dollar demand from the importers. On the same time, the oil and gas sector stocks remained under pressure despite the Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas M Veerappa Moily saying that his ministry will soon bring in a Uniform Gas Price Policy.

The market breadth on the BSE ended positive; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 922:766 while 1284 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex lost 10.40 points or 0.05% and settled at 20093.13. The index touched a high and a low of 20172.45 and 20062.79 respectively. 15 stocks were seen advancing while 15 stocks were declining on the index (Provisional)

The BSE Mid-cap index and Small-cap index were up by 0.15% and 0.33% respectively. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Realty was up by 1.90%, Auto up by 1.03%, Bankex up by 0.72%, IT up by 0.37% and TECk up by 0.25% were the top gainers. While, Oil & Gas down by 1.30%, Consumer Durables down by 0.93%, Capital Goods down by 0.93%, Power down 0.56% and PSU down by 0.56% were the few losers in the space. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 2.57%, Sterlite Industries up by 2.05%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.03%, ICICI Bank up by 1.81% and Hindalco Industries up by 1.72%, while, RIL down by 1.77%, ONGC down by 1.67%, L&T down by 1.08%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.08% and Jindal Steel down by 0.97% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, to ensure parity in the price of imported and locally-produced gas, the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas will soon bring in a Uniform Gas Price Policy. The Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas M Veerappa Moily said 'I have worked out the policy, but don't know whether it has to go to the Cabinet or not. The proposed policy will ensure one price for gas that is imported and that is produced here as imported gas currently costs high'.

Moily said that the gas price depends on the country from where it is imported. In Qatar it is a little less ($18), other countries it is $21, while, shale gas may work out very cheap. He pointed out that India might achieve self-sufficiency in gas by 2016-17.

On New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP), Moily said that 40 oil and gas blocks have been approved under the NELP and the contractors, including our own PSUs, have taken them. However, defence, environment and some other departments raised some objection and wanted the No-Objection Certificate withdrawn.

Nearly $13 billion has been invested in those projects and is left to the Cabinet to decide whether or not to clear them. By adding further, Moily said that the implementation of the NELP will help us to ease out the situation in which some of the projects are facing obstacles. He said 'may be in June, two MMSCMD (metric million standard cubic metres per day) gas of ONGC will be available.    

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility gained 2.70% at 15.17 from its previous close of 14.77 on Friday. (Provisional)

The S&P CNX Nifty lost 0.60 points or 0.01% to settle at 6,074.05. The index touched high and low of 6,088.40 and 6,061.40 respectively. 23 stocks advanced against 27 declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were DLF was up by 2.83%, Tata Motors up by 2.52%, Axis Bank up by 2.18%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.10% and HCL Tech was up by 1.84%. On the other hand, Reliance Infrastructure down by 2.37%, Jaiprakash Associates down by 1.96%, ONGC down by 1.79%, Reliance Industries down by 1.69% and UltraTech Cement down by 1.40% were the top losers. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading in red with, France’s CAC 40 down by 0.07%, Germany’s DAX down by 0.08% and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 down by 0.05%.

Most Asian markets went home with green mark, as Shanghai Composite ended with 2.4% gains on Monday after profits at major industrial enterprises rose by 5.3% in 2012 from a year earlier. Hong Kong stocks closed higher after touching a 21-month high, followed by Chinese market’s gains. However, South Korea's Kospi ended lower as foreign investors reduced their holdings, while Japan's Nikkei went home with red mark after touching a fresh 32-month high above 11,000 in the morning, boosted by a weaker yen.