Post Session: Quick Review

Buying in the last hour of the session added light to D-street’s dull day, where in bourses gyrating in a tight range in the first half of the session looked set for a negative close. Support emerged at lower level and aided the benchmarks in reclaiming their lost 19350 (Sensex) and 5900 (Nifty) levels and end with gains of close to half a percent. Steady performance from European counterparts also soothed investors’ sentiment. European shares rose on Monday, building on last week's steep advance, after the formation of an Italian coalition government ended two months of political uncertainty. Additionally, Asian pacific shares managed mostly positive close by the end of the trade as investors counted on easy money from central banks in the euro zone and United States to offset the risk of further disappointment from global economic data. However, activity in Asian pacific region was sporadic with Japanese markets closed for a holiday and China off until Thursday.

Besides, positive global set-up, slew of good corporate earnings, also added to the vigor of the session. India's largest consumer goods major, HUL’s stock ascended over 7% after the company reported 15% increase in net profit for the fiscal fourth quarter ended March 31, 2013, at Rs. 787.20 crore. Company’s volumes growth, which was seen a major area of concern for the consumer goods major, came in at 6%. Additionally, Bank of Maharashtra too impressed market-men. Bank of Maharashtra’s stocks skyrocketed over 12% on reporting over three and a half fold jump in Q4 net profit.

Markets started relinquishing their gains in the late morning deals due to prevailing caution ahead of RBI’s monetary policy review later this week. Meanwhile, parliament deadlock, which threatened Finance Minister P. Chidambaram's ambitious reform agenda, also acted as road block for equity markets. Nevertheless, breaking free, benchmark equity indices regained momentum in the last hour of trade as investors lapped up stocks from Fast Moving Consumer Goods, Consumer Durables and Power counters. While Information Technology stocks were up on renewed buying, FMCG stocks rose after the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Friday, 26 April 2013, forecast normal southwest monsoon seasonal rainfall during 2013. However, Metal and HealthCare counters were the only losers amongst the BSE Sectoral space.  The market breadth on the BSE ended positive; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1287: 1071, while 132 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex gained 100.78 points or 0.52% to settle at 19387.50.The index touched a high and a low of 19428.94 and 19284.40 respectively. 19 stocks were up, while 11 stocks declined on the index. (Provisional)

The BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices ended higher by 0.68% and 0.27% respectively. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Consumer Durables up by 2.43%, FMCG up by 2.30%, Realty up by 1.53%, Power up by 1.44% and Teck up by 1.04% were the top gainers, while Metal down by 0.79% and Health Care down by 0.08%, were the only losers in the space. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 6.98%, Wipro up by 3.57%, Hero MotoCorp up by 3.24%, Sterlite Industries up by 2.29% and ITC up by 1.69%, while, Jindal Steel down by 4.24%, Coal India down by 1.74%, Sun Pharma down by 1.50%, HDFC down by 0.99% and Tata Steel down by 0.80% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, Concerned over the widening trade deficit, the government has set up a six-member inter-ministerial committee under the chairmanship of Finance Secretary R S Gujral which will suggest measures to boost the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) exports. The sector contributes around 8% of the country's GDP, 45% of the manufactured output, 40% of the total country’s exports and provides employment to about 60 million persons through 26 million enterprises.

The committee will suggest short and long term measures to enhance exports from MSME sector and will submit its recommendations by mid-May. Issues related to MSMEs need to be looked with greater depth as exports are not doing well due to which the country's trade deficit touched an all-time high of $190.1 billion in FY13. Moreover, the sector would also help in boosting the growth of manufacturing sector.  

The widening trade gap is adding woes on the Current Account Deficit (CAD) front, which has emerged as a tough policy challenge for the government. CAD crossed 6.7 percent of the GDP in the third quarter of last fiscal. However, in order to increase shipments from the country, the government is taking every step including recent announcement of incentives and revamping of special economic zone (SEZ) policy.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility gained 3.24% at 14.33 from its previous close of 13.88 on Friday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty gained 29.40 points or 0.50% to settle at 5,900.85. The index touched high and low of 5,918.65 and 5,868.80 respectively. 29 stocks advanced against 21 declining and one stock remains unchanged on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were Hindustan Unilever up by 7.11%, Reliance Infrastructure up by 4.35%, IndusInd Bank up by 3.68%, JP Associate up by 3.00% and Hero MotoCorp was up by 2.70%. On the other hand, Jindal Steel & Power down by 3.95%, NMDC down by 2.33%, Coal India down by 1.93%, Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries down by 1.63% and SBI down by 1.04% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Most of the European markets were trading in green with, France’s CAC 40 up by 0.62% and Germany’s DAX up by 0.26% while the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 down by 0.02%.