Post session - Quick review

Huge gains were witnessed at Dalal Street on Wednesday as investors rushed to buy riskier equities following a report that Europe's key bailout fund would be significantly expanded, although the report had since then been called into question by officials and other news media. According to the UK's Guardian newspaper report, France and Germany reached an agreement to boost the euro zone rescue fund to Euro 2 trillion ($2.76 trillion) to lend additional support to countries struggling under the region's sovereign debt crisis. The news that came ahead of an October 23 summit wherein European leaders are expected to emerge with a definitive plan for Greece, emboldened investors to go long on equities, thereby leading to a shimmering day of gains at Indian equity market. Nothing practically could hinder the spirit at Dalal Street, not even a cut to Spain's sovereign credit rating by Moody's Investors Service. The credit rating agency downgraded Spain's bond rating to A1, from AA2, with a negative outlook citing Spain's vulnerability to the tenuous situation in Europe and the country's weak growth prospects.  The surge of the frontline indices could also be credited to the performance of Index heavyweights such as Reliance Industries, Infosys, ITC and ICICI Bank, TCS.

On the global front, US stocks surged late in trading as buyers ramped buying onto report of agreements to strengthen the euro zone's rescue fund to bid up stocks aggressively. The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 180.05 points, or 1.58 percent, at 11,577.05. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 24.52 points, or 2.04 percent, at 1,225.38. Meanwhile, Asia Pacific stocks heartened by earnings from a few top US companies like Intel, Yahoo! and Bank of America have edged higher from the biggest loss in two weeks. However, Apple Inc which reported a rare miss in quarterly results after sales of its flagship iPhone fell well short of Wall Street expectations provided a lid to the gains of the bourses. Meanwhile, European shares too tailing the overnight trend at Wallstreet rallied early in trade.

Back home, bourses put forth an tough face of resilience and went on capturing ground even after India’s finance minister Pranab Mukherjee while addressing key economic issues said that India's economic growth will be slower than government projections, highlighting how high inflation, rising interest rates and global financial turbulence threatened the country's momentum .He said, “Let me not hide the fact that I have been disappointed by our growth components over the last few months. It is evident that India's growth rate in 2011-12 will be less than what we presented in February when I presented the budget”. The budget had projected economic growth of around 9 percent this fiscal year. Mukherjee hinted that RBI may continue to tighten monetary policy, in contrast to most other major emerging economies, to keep stubbornly-high inflation in check despite fears of a broader economic slowdown. However, the rate sensitive’s featured in the best performance, contributing the most to the session’s gains- as market men factoring in 25 bps rate hike in RBI’s monetary policy review on October 25,2011, anticipated it as  the end to RBI’s long stretched tightening campaign. Besides this, Stocks from Oil & Gas counters also staged a good performance as the index pivotal gained over 2%. Stocks of PSU Oil Marketing Companies stood up in trade after brent crude dropped below $111 on Wednesday as concerns over demand growth weighed after Moody's Investors Service cut Spain's sovereign ratings by two notches.

Meanwhile, gush of earning reported came as a delight for the markets, India's No 3 lender, HDFC Bank, which posted a 31.49 percent rise in quarterly profit, beat street estimates, on higher fee and net interest income and stable asset quality. The bank net profit in the fiscal second quarter ended September rose to Rs 1199.35 crore as compared to Rs 912.14 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2010. Meanwhile, other stock that showcased remarkable performance were Coromandel International, which gained over 6% after reporting its Q2 numbers as the company net profit fell lower than expected. The company’s net profit after tax for the quarter fell 20.36% at Rs 278.82 crore as compared to Rs 350.10 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2010. Another stock that gained substantial traction in the trade was Hindustan Zinc- which surged over 2% after the company reported its net profit at Rs 1344.69 crore as compared to Rs 948.72 crore for the September quarter of the previous fiscal, up by 41.74%. Among others who reported their Q2 numbers were Mastek, Dish TV, Bajaj Finance and Crompton Greaves.

30 share barometer index on Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) - Sensex- capturing over 300 points surpassed the 17k level and ended at sniffing distance of 17100 mark.  Meanwhile, the 50 share index on National Stock Exchange (NSE)-Nifty- gaining over a century of points finished the trade above 5100 mark. The market breadth on the BSE ended positive; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1659:1153 while 113 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex gained 321.55 points or 1.92% and settled at 17,069.84. The index touched a high and a low of 17,106.99 and 16,874.34 respectively. 30 stocks advanced against 0 declining ones on the index (Provisional)

The BSE Mid-cap index gained 1.27% while Small-cap index was up 0.67%. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Realty up 3.07%, Bankex up 2.72%, Oil & Gas up 2.14%, Auto up 1.75% and Capital Goods up 1.68% while there were no losers.

Buying was witnessed across the board, however, the top gainers on the Sensex were DLF up 4.03%, Hero MotoCorp up 3.88%, JP Associates up 3.40%, L&T up 3.32% and Sun Pharma up 3.30%.

Meanwhile, amid the volatile international crude prices trend, state-run oil marketing companies have once again started pitching for the price hike. The companies fear that they will not be able to meet the country's fuel demand after two and a half months unless the government raises fuel prices or immediately transfers cash to compensate them for losses.

Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation suffered a combined loss of 9,361 crore in the first quarter of this year. After that, petrol prices increased sharply. The three state oil companies have combined borrowings of over 120,000 crore, which is hurting the state firms particularly because interest rates have risen sharply. It is being reported that government has still not paid the subsidy for the first quarter, forcing the companies to borrow in the high interest rate environment.

Earlier, the government also removed the 5% customs duty on crude oil and cut the excise duty on diesel by 2.60 per litre to reduce the burden on the oil companies as well as the consumers and the Oil Minister Jaipal Reddy persuaded the empowered group of ministers to allow a price increase for cooking gas and kerosene last June, while  the state-run firms are free to raise petrol prices, which they have increased a dozen times in the last 16 months. But they lose heavily on sales of kerosene and cooking gas.  And in near term there is unlikely to be any price rise soon by the government in view of several states assembly elections and it even can’t go for rising subsidy as it is falling short of its revenue target

India VIX, a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility lost 7.14% at 24.05 from its previous close of 25.90 on Tuesday. (Provisional)

The S&P CNX Nifty gained 99.70 points or 1.98% to settle at 5,137.20. The index touched high and low of 5,148.05 and 5,075.30 respectively. 48 stocks advanced against 2 declining ones on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainer on the Nifty were, DLF up 3.96%, Sun Pharma up 3.93%, Hero MotoCorp up  3.61%, JP Associates up 3.40%  and ICICI Bank up 3.39%.

 On the other hand, SesaGoa down 2.56% and Tata Power down 0.30% were the only losers. (Provisional)

The European markets are trading in green, with France's CAC 40 up 1.15%, Germany's DAX up 1.37% and FTSE 100 up 1.12%.

Most of the Asian equity indices finished the day’s trade in the positive terrain on Wednesday as investors’ sentiment lifted by rise in Wall Street overnight on report that France and Germany had agreed to more than quadruple the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) bailout fund. Moreover, robust earnings from chip giant Intel also provided some support but a downgrade of Spain’s credit rating tempered the mood in the regional markets. Meanwhile, Japanese Nikkei rise 0.35 percent on Wednesday after a report raised expectations that Europe will act to strengthen the euro zone’s rescue fund. However, Chinese Shanghai Composite edged lower in the trade over concerns that the country’s economic growth will continue to slow, with the declines led by metals firms due to weaker product prices, while property developers continued their downward trend because of signs Beijing is unlikely to ease controls on the real-estate market soon.