Post Session: Quick Review

Building on previous session’s exuberance, Indian benchmark equity indices ended around record highs for 2013, as investors bee-lined for equities amidst positive global set-up. Witnessing a spate of profit-taking in the afternoon deals, markets showed splendid recovery from intra-day low as buying emerged at that level.

Benchmark 30 share index, Sensex added half a percent, to end past the crucial psychological 20,000 level, it’s highest since January 2013, while Nifty, soared three-tens of a percent, to end past the crucial 6050 level. Broader indices too, gaining traction went home higher by close to half a percent. Victory of Congress in Karnataka assembly polls combined with batch of positive corporate earnings supported the markets. Riding the anti-incumbency wave, Congress wrested its 7 year old southern fort by putting up an impressive show.

On the global front, demand for miners helped European shares edge higher on Wednesday, following strong Chinese trade data which served to underpin major European indexes around multi-year high. Asian shares ended on a strong note following the release of unexpectedly positive Chinese trade data and a record day on Wall Street. China's exports rose 14.7% in April, while imports grew 16.8%, leaving the country with a trade surplus of $18.16 billion for the month.

Closer home, markets added gains even after the Supreme Court slammed Attorney General GE Vahanvati and former Additional Solicitor General Haren Raval for misleading the court over the sharing of CBI's status report into the Coalgate scam with the political executive. Batch of strong earning provided the required fillip to the markets. Lupin’s stock scaled a new high after the company reported 51% rise in FY13 consolidated net profit, while earnings of HDFC also cheered investors. the stock rallied close to 4% after the entity reported 17.27% increase in net profit at Rs 1,555 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2013 against Rs 1,326 crore in a year ago quarter.

Amid across the board buying, there were no losers on BSE sectoral front. However, stocks from Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), Banking and Oil & Gas counters, were the top performing indices. The market breadth on the BSE ended positive; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 975: 974, while 84 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex gained 135.75 points or 0.68% to settle at 20,024.70.The index touched a high and a low of 20,037.27 and 19,851.22 respectively. Among the 30-share Sensex pack, 14 stocks gained while rest of them declined (Provisional)

The BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices ended higher by 0.46% and 0.54% respectively. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Metal up by 1.96%, FMCG up by 1.82%, Bankex up by 0.42%, Health Care up by 0.19%, Oil & Gas up by 0.06% and Realty up by 0.04% were the top gainers, while Capital Goods down by 0.58%, Auto down by 0.53%, Metal down by 0.41%, Power down by 0.29% and Consumer Durables down by 0.25%, were the only losers in the space. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were HDFC up by 3.85%, ITC up by 2.27%, HDFC Bank up by 1.38%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.23% and  Hindalco Industries up by 0.83%, while, Bharti Airtel down by 1.82%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.78%, Tata Steel down by 1.45%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.35% and Jindal Steel down by 1.13% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, in order to make bill paying system convenient in the country, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) committee headed by G Padmanabhan, has proposed to set up a single platform for all direct bill payments. The proposed Indian bill payment system aims to bring all banks, billers and customers on one platform through the Government Internal Revenue Order (GIRO) system.

The GIRO model will enable payment of dues such as taxes, insurance premium, utility payments, university fees, school fees and examination fees, etc. Further, the GIRO will enable the setting up of a centralized infrastructure bringing all the billers and banks to the bill platform through aggregators. In a GIRO payment system, up to three banks collecting bank, payer bank and the payee bank may be involved and the customers can access the payment channel through any available outlet.

As per the central bank, over 30.8 billion bills are generated each year in the top 20 cities in the country. While cash and cheque collections constitute over 90% of the transactions and electronic payments continue to be low.  The RBI committee has also suggested setting up a separate organization to operate and manage it on commercial lines. Currently, direct bill payments are limited to only some utility providers and lack interoperability, customer convenience and access to electronic payment modes.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility gained 1.57% at 16.76 from its previous close of 16.50 on Tuesday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty gained 38.05 points or 0.63% to settle at 6,081.60. The index touched high and low of 6,083.55 and 6,024.95 respectively. 23 stocks advanced against 26 declining and one stock remains unchanged on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were HDFC up by 4.75%, ITC up by 2.83%, Lupin up by 2.57%, UltraTech Cement up by 2.51% and IndusInd Bank was up by 2.08%. On the other hand, Ranbaxy down by 3.08%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.37%, Tata Steel down by 1.76%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.71% and Bank of Baroda down by 1.43% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Most of the European markets were trading in green with, France’s CAC 40 up by 0.64%, Germany’s DAX up by 0.55% and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 up by 0.28%.

Asian markets ended mostly higher after touching nearly two-year high on Wednesday, as strong Chinese trade data added to positive sentiments of record highs in global equities overnight. Chinese shares closed higher, as exports and imports in the world's number two economy were up 14.7% and 16.8% respectively in April. Hong Kong market went home with green mark, with banking heavyweight HSBC Holdings PLC leading gains after reporting strong earnings.