Post Session: Quick review

After showing downbeat trend for seven consecutive sessions, local equity markets finally managed to eke out some gain, as investors taking opportunity of the slack period initiated buying at lower level, which in turn led to some recovery at D-Street. Benchmarks after getting a cautious start gathered steam, steadily ending the session in green. However, bit of profit booking which got triggered during the dying hours of the trade pulled the benchmarks off their high.  Select investors preferred booking profits ahead of the release of key macro-data, viz, Q3 Current Account Deficit, Balance Of Payments and Trade Data in the Holiday Truncated week. Markets will remain closed on March 27 and 29 on account of ‘Holi’ and ‘Good Friday’ respectively. Looming worries over political uncertainties also capped the further upside of the bourses. On Monday, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh revived talk of the Third Front, which as per political connoisseurs is an indirect indication of early elections. Nevertheless with support of positive global cues, Sensex, gained close to 25 points, to close above the psychological 18700 level, Nifty, too gaining over 10 points, ended around 5650. The session turned out to be disappointing for broader indices, which failed to gain any traction.

On the global front, Asian pacific shares ended in green, while European shares too were trading firm, supported by some buyers taking advantage of a drop in prices on fears that Cyprus's raid on bank deposits could become the template for future euro zone bailouts. Cyprus remained the focus for markets after Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem on Monday according to media reports said that the structure of the island's rescue package could serve as a template for future bailouts in region.

Closer home, the gains of defensive Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), Health Care (HC) combined with rate sensitive Auto and Bankex counters, led to some positive momentum at Indian equity market. Similarly, investors also lined up to buy shares from Consumer Durable, Information Technology and Technology counters. However, stocks from Realty, Capital Goods and Oil & Gas space hitting rock bottom, capped the room for further expansion. Even shares of Indian Overseas Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and Syndicate Bank were under the hammer after rating agency Moody’s on Monday downgraded its Standalone Bank Financial Strength Rating (BFSR) for these banks, citing falling asset quality, pressure on profitability and capital generation.

The market breadth on the BSE ended negative; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1296: 1456 while 133 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex gained 10.01 points or 0.05% to settle at 18691.43.The index touched a high and a low of 18758.88 and 18612.37 respectively. 15 stocks were up, while 14 stocks declined and one stock remains unchanged on the index. (Provisional)

The BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices ended higher by 0.06% and 0.11% respectively. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Consumer Durables up by 1.84%, FMCG up by 1.22%, TECK up by 0.66%, IT up by 0.47% and Health Care up by 0.36% were the top gainers, while Oil & Gas down by 2.13%, Realty down by 1.81%, Capital Goods down by 1.81%, Power down by 0.99% and PSU down by 0.45% were the top losers in the space. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 2.98%, Hindustan Unilever up by 2.15%, Tata Motors up by 1.72%, HDFC up by 1.62% and Wipro up by 1.36%, while, RIL down by 3.25%, Gail India down by 3.20%, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.97%, Tata Steel down by 2.72% and L&T down by 2.24% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, expressing hope that the ways to revive global growth and faster movement on reform of institutions of global, political and economic governance will be discussed during the BRICS Durban Summit, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh left for 4-day visit to Durban on March 25. 

Accompanied by a high-power delegation including Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, steps to ensure global macroeconomic stability as well as mechanisms and measures to promote investment in infrastructure and sustainable development are expected to be discussed.

As per Singh, at the time when the world is facing multiple challenges, the Durban Summit will provide a useful and timely opportunity to consult and coordinate on a broad range of issues with BRICS partners. By adding further, Singh said over the last few years, BRICS has emerged as a consequential voice in the international arena. Close coordination between its members through the means of an annual summit and several area-specific meetings as necessary has strengthened cooperation and has improved the effectiveness of the forum.

BRICS Summit is the annual summit of the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. During the visit, the Prime Minister will also hold substantive bilateral meetings with other BRICS leaders, including the newly appointed Chinese President Xi Jinping.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of marginally lost 3.42% at 15.80 from its previous close of 16.36 on Monday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty gained 3.15 points or 0.06% to settle at 5,637.00. The index touched high and low of 5,655.30 and 5,612.05 respectively. 24 stocks advanced against 23 declining and 3 stocks remain unchanged on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 3.08%, Hindustan Unilever up by 2.50%, Ranbaxy up by 2.33%, Coal India up by 1.68% and Tata Motors was up by 1.55%. On the other hand, Reliance Infrastructure down by 5.69%, Siemens down by 5.65%, Reliance down by 3.37%, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.95% and GAIL down by 2.88% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Most of the European markets were trading in green with, Germany’s DAX up by 0.26%, the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 up by 0.10% and France’s CAC 40 up by 0.56%.

Asian markets ended mixed on Tuesday as investors were cautious about potential future fallout from the Cyprus bailout scheme. China’s Shanghai Composite went home with red mark, weighted down by mid-sized bank’s losses on worries about tighter mortgage lending restrictions. South Korean shares bucked the downtrend and closed higher, helping to limit losses for the whole region. Japan’s Nikkei ended in negative territory despite a weaker yen, as concerns about Europe weighed.