Post Session: Quick Review

The Indian equity markets despite a firm start showed rounds of volatility during the day. While the good global cues gave an encouraging start some political developments led the markets lurch going through the second half of the trade. Markets all of a sudden started losing their strength after the Supreme Court slammed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for sharing its probe report on the coal block allocations with the Law Minister and several top ranking officials in the PMO. Also, there was disappointing report that World Bank scaled down India's growth forecast to 6.1 per cent for the current fiscal from 7 per cent projected six months ago.

The domestic markets got the support of surge in most of the Asian market, which followed the US indices that rose overnight on some positive economic data. Though, the Chinese market remained closed and the Japanese market ended with marginal cuts, rest of the indices in the Asia-Pacific posted good gains. The positive start of the European markets added some fillip to the domestic markets, though they turned flat after the initial deals.

Back home markets got a good recovery in the second half of the trade on bounce back in the pharma and metal counters, while the FMCG remained firm adding up to gains and pushing the markets higher. Though, the trade remained choppy and the major indices continued to oscillate between red and green after the Supreme Court asked CBI to explain why it kept the Supreme Court in the dark about the disclosure of its probe report with the government. Markets slipped to the lowest point of the day as the report created chaos in the parliament; however one positive thing happened amid the chaos, the Finance Bill and demands for grants for various ministries were passed without debate after opposition walkout. It came as a big relief to the investors, also the government ruled out imposition of a wealth tax on agriculture land. There were some good earnings announcement that helped the market recovery. Bharti Infratel reported a 34 % rise in net profit on a consolidated basis for the fiscal, KPIT Cummins' net profit were up by 17% and ING Vysya Bank reported a 34% jump in Q4 profit. However, the one stock that guided the gains in the local market was Hindustan Unilever (HUL), Unilever plc, its parent company announced a voluntary open offer to hike stake in HUL up to 75 per cent from the current 52.48 per cent at a price of Rs 600 a share, higher by more than 20 percent from its last closing, it boosted the morale of the investors. On sectoral front, FMCG gained over four and half a percent, while metal, healthcare and technology gained by about a percent each. On the other hand realty lost over a percent, while the capital goods, consumer durables and banking lost about half a percent on BSE.

The market breadth on the BSE ended negative; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1067: 1271, while 144 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex gained 102.07 points or 0.53% to settle at 19,489.57.The index touched a high and a low of 19,622.68 and 19,317.38 respectively. 18 stocks were up, while 12 stocks declined on the index. (Provisional)

The BSE Mid cap index ended up by 0.52% and Small cap index closed lower by 0.25%. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, FMCG up by 4.35%, Metal up by 1.17%, Health Care up by 0.86%, Teck up by 0.66% and Auto up by 0.64% were the top gainers, while Realty down by 1.05%, Oil & Gas down by 0.50%, Bankex down by 0.43%, Consumer Durables down by 0.36% and Capital Goods down by 0.36%, were the losers in the space. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 17.28%, Sterlite Industries up by 4.03%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.24%, Wipro up by 1.75% and Coal India up by 1.64%, while, HDFC down by 1.94%, HDFC Bank down by 1.71%, Hindalco Industries down by 1.57%, L&T down by 1.10% and Bajaj Auto down by 0.80% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, to promote the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects in sectors like coal, road and rail, the government has made a strong case for setting up independent regulatory authorities to meet all the challenges that the sectors are facing. While addressing an event, Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram said, 'the regulatory authorities have to be empowered and they have to be given enough authority to be able them to deal with the issues which are arising on the regulatory side.'

By adding further, Mayaram said that there is a need to re-look at the existing regulatory authority and ways to further empower them. The independent regulatory authorities to be able to look at specific sector related problems must be independent of the government and other party, he added.

Regarding the problems being faced by PPP projects, he said that the government cannot bailout projects which fail due to commercial reasons and it can step in if the failures are on account of regulatory hurdles. Therefore, the distinction between the two kinds of failures is necessary.

Further, in order to bring in adequate resources for setting up of a sound and efficient infrastructural base, the government has entered into the 'Public Private Partnership (PPP)' programme. For the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17), the government has set the $1-trillion investment target for the infrastructure sector.  

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility gained 5.37% at 15.10 from its previous close of 14.33 on Monday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty gained 20.75 points or 0.35% to settle at 5,924.85. The index touched high and low of 5,962.30 and 5,867.80 respectively. 24 stocks advanced against 26 declining and one stock remains unchanged on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were Hindustan Unilever up by 17.17%, Sesa Goa up by 3.09%, HCL Tech up by 2.74%, M&M up by 2.65% and NMDC was up by 2.27%. On the other hand, JP Associate down by 2.60%, IDFC down by 2.45%, IndusInd Bank down by 2.24%, PNB down by 1.96% and HDFC down by 1.94% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading mixed, France’s CAC 40 was down by 0.22% and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 down by 0.06%, while Germany’s DAX was up by 0.67%.

Asian markets ended mostly higher on Tuesday as investors’ sentiments were boosted by reports that a new government was finally formed in Italy after months of deadlock and on expectations for US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank to continue with growth-supportive monetary stimulus measures. Japan's Nikkei, which was closed on Monday for a holiday, went home with red mark, as a stronger yen outweighed data pointing to a tentative recovery in the world's No. 3 economy.

Mainland Chinese markets remained closed for a holiday.