Post session - Quick review

Union Budget turned out to be largely a non-event for the market, lacking any substance and not worthy of the expectations that P Chidambaram stoked in his commentary in the past. The markets though appearing energetic at the start of the budget, witnessed a smart rally in the mid-morning deals, but ran out breath soon, felling like a house of cards, as the Union Budget 2013-14 lacked any big-bang announcement, that the investor’s community was largely expecting from the once called investors friendly Finance Minister P. Chidambaram. The markets already factoring in the good outlook of the economy to contain the fiscal deficit at 5.2% of the Gross Domestic Production (GDP) or 2012-13, failed to find any further cues to hinge on. Further, February month F&O expiry too turned out to be huge let down for Indian equity markets, which after taking a breather in the previous session, again witnessed brutal laceration that took benchmark 30 share index, Sensex, below the psychological 19,000 level. Likewise, the widely followed index, too taking a knock of over  a percent and half, ended below the crucial 5700 level, the lowest seen since November 26,2012. For the session, both Sensex and Nifty incurred colossal loss of over 5%, while CNX midcap index tumbled by 10%, BSE Smallcap index took a cut of massive over 12%.

Shrugging off positive global cues, markets were now worried over FII investment, with the ghost of General Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAAR), re-haunting the markets. Against industry expectations of no retrospective taxation, FM announced that modified provisions under GAAR will be effective from April 1, 2016. However, even the announcement to liberalize investments towards developing the country’s infrastructure and construction projects and reference to capital market reforms also failed to excite investors.

On the global front, Asian shares extended gains for a second day on Thursday as sentiment improved after US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke reaffirmed his commitment to strong stimulus, while Italy found investor confidence in its debt despite political turmoil. Moreover, European shares too rose after Draghi Stimulus Comments.

Closer home, although no negative surprises came to the fore, the Union Budget 2013-14 failed to provide any major boost, thus having neutral impact. Stocks from Consumer Durable, IT and  Technology stocks only managed to show some resilience. On the flip side, Power, Capital Goods and bankex counters were the major sulking pockets amongst the other. Shares in public sector banks fall on concerns about liquidity in the banking system after the government set its target for gross market borrowing at Rs 6.29 trillion in 2013/14, above estimates of less than Rs 6 trillion. Further, the banks also sulked after government announced a capital infusion of Rs 140 billion for public sector banks, which was below market estimates for Rs 200 billion. Besides, carmakers too suffered major blow from the proposal of hiking the  excise duty on SUV’s to 30%. However, the budget bought good news for textile stocks as FM proposed Rs 2,400 crore for textile technology up-gradation. Additionally, Education stocks too hogged lime light after Chidambaram proposed to allocate Rs 65,877 crore to Education sector; representing 17% hike from 2013. The market breadth on the BSE ended negative; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 883: 1946 while 101 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex lost 224.25 points or 1.17% to settle at 18928.16.The index touched a high and a low of 19322.28 and 18793.97 respectively. 7 stocks were up, while 23 stocks declined on the index. (Provisional)

The BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices declined by 2.02% and 1.91% respectively. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Consumer Durables was up by 1.00%, IT was up by 0.64% and TECk up by 0.33% were the only gainers, while Power down by 4.15%, Capital Goods down by 3.03%, Bankex down by 2.99%, PSU down by 2.64% and Realty down by 2.26% were the only losers in the space. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 2.29%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.07%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.03%, Tata Motors up by 0.52% and Coal India up by 0.40%, while, SBI down by 4.96%, ICICI Bank down by 3.15%, Tata Steel down by 3.04%, Hindalco Industries down by 3.03% and L&T down by 2.87% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, as per the latest Economic Survey, during the 11th Five Year Plan (2007-12), India witnessed a peak power shortage of 9% when over 50,000 MW new generation capacity was created during the same period. Peak power shortage is shortfall in generation capacity when electricity consumption is maximum.

The economic survey also noted that the resources currently allocated to energy supply are not sufficient for narrowing the gap between energy needs and energy availability. In India, electricity is produced with the help coal, crude oil, water and natural gas. As on March, 2011 country's estimated coal reserves were at about 286 billion tonnes, lignite at 81 billion tonnes, crude oil at 757 million tonnes and natural gas at 1,241 billion cubic metre (BCM). 

Further, the country's excessive reliance on imported crude oil make it imperative to have an optimal energy mix that will allow it to achieve its long-run goal of sustainable development. Import dependence on crude oil is projected at 78% while that in coal will be 22.4% by 2016-17, the survey said.

For the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17), the capacity addition is estimated at 88,537 MW comprising of 26,182 MW in the central sector, 15,530 MW in the state sector and 46,825 MW in the private sector respectively. The capacity addition target for the year 2012-13 was set at 17,956 MW. A capacity of 9,854 MW has been added till December 2012.

Meanwhile, electricity generation by power utilities during 2012-13 was targeted to go up by 6.05% to 930 billion units. The growth in power generation during April-December, 2012 was 4.55% as compared to about 9.33% during April-December, 2011.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility lost 8.44% at 14.86 from its previous close of 16.23 on Wednesday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty lost 98.00 points or 1.69% to settle at 5,698.90. The index touched high and low of 5,849.90 and 5,671.90 respectively. 11 stocks advanced against 39 declining ones on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were TCS up by 2.53%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.01%, Bajaj-Auto up by 0.96%, HCL Tech up by 0.71% and Kotak Bank was up by 0.69%. On the other hand, Reliance Infrastructure down by 9.44%, SBI down by 5.08%, Ranbaxy down by 4.95%, Bank of Baroda down by 4.64% and IDFC down by 4.49% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Most of the European markets were trading in green with, Germany’s DAX up by 0.54%, the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 up by 0.33% and France’s CAC 40 up by 0.34%.

Tracking Wall Street’s rally, Asian markets went home with strong gains, as head of European Central Bank consoled worries over the euro zone. Japan’s Nikkei ended higher as the yen sank on confirmation that Japan's government had put forward Haruhiko Kuroda to take over at the Bank of Japan. Chinese markets too closed higher, while the Hang Seng also ended in positive territory. However, bucking the trend, Indian equity markets missed the broad uptrend and slid lower on proposal of  higher taxes on wealthy individuals in his annual budget.