Post Session: Quick Review

The last trading session of the week turned out to be no different than the rest as bears refused to loosen their grip over the markets, which led to benchmark indices, Sensex and Nifty, end with a cut of over half a percent for the session, way below their crucial 20,700 and 6,150 levels respectively. Besides, negative global set-up, disappointing earnings from India's third-biggest state lender by assets, Punjab National Bank also perturbed the markets. The stock tanked over 4% after the bank’s net profit slumped 52.6% to Rs 505 crore from Rs 1,066 crore a year earlier on account of slower loan growth and worsening asset quality. Meanwhile correction that prolonged for fourth consecutive sessions at Dalal Street, led to steep cut of over 2% for the bourses for the week. The broader indices, however, ended on mixed note for the week, with CNX Midcap index ending lower by 0.30% and BSE Smallcap index gaining over a percent. Nevertheless, for the session, Midcap and Smallcap indices ended down by over quarter of a percent.

On the global front, Asian shares slumped to a four-week low on Friday after Wall Street suffered its biggest fall in more than two months, as investors looked to the US payrolls data for clues on when the Federal Reserve will scale back its stimulus. Meanwhile, European stock markets were trading downbeat after Standard & Poor's lowered France's credit rating. The ratings company lowered France’s long-term foreign and local-currency credit rating by one step to AA from AA+, citing that slower growth will constrain the government's ability to improve public finances.

Closer home, local equity markets after getting a weak start just kept grinding lower. Although, bit of recovery came towards the end of the trade, but that was very little to lift the markets from doldrums. Sectorally, Consumer Durable, Oil & Gas and Banking counters were the major pockets of weakness, while those from Health Care, Metal and Fast Moving Consumer Goods counters witnessing maximum buying interest, emerged as top gainers. Besides, plunge of PNB, weak results from Indian Bank also dragged the banking pack lower. Indian bank lost over 3% after the bank reported a fall of 38.44% in its net profit at Rs 305.76 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2013. The market breadth on the BSE ended in red; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1119: 1321, while 155 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex lost 156.62 points or 0.75% to settle at 20666.15.The index touched a high and a low of 20821.01 and 20600.90 respectively. Among the 30-share Sensex, 8 stocks gained, while 22 stocks declined. (Provisional)

The BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices ended lower by 0.15% and 0.28% respectively. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Realty up by 1.27%, Capital Goods up by 1.15%, Power up by 0.61%, Metal up by 0.35% and Health Care up by 0.31%, were the only gainers, while Consumer Durables down by 2.04%, Bankex down by 1.27%, Oil & Gas down by 1.19%, PSU down by 0.69% and Auto down by 0.45% were the top losers in the space. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 2.86%, Tata Motors up by 2.51%, L&T up by 1.55%, BHEL up by 0.74% and SSLT up by 0.50%, while, HDFC down by 3.77%, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.35%, ONGC down by 2.15%, Bajaj Auto down by 2.04% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.86% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, the Telecom Commission (TC), major decision-making agency of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), has asked the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to recommend the reserve price for the 800 MHz band within 15 days so that the government could auction the 800-MHz spectrum along with the 1,800-MHz and 900-MHz bands. The Telecom Commission is of the view that keeping 800 MHz band spectrum unsold would result in lower revenues for government and it may be appropriate to put the spectrum to auction to allow telecom players to determine the appropriate technology solution using the liberalised spectrum. The government has planned to conduct the auction on January 8, 2014.

Earlier, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had rejected TRAI's recommendation of an extended GSM band, taking spectrum out of the existing 800-MHz (CDMA) band as CDMA operators, including Reliance Communications, Sistema Shyam, and Tata Teleservices currently use it, and the proposed extended GSM band would block their further roll out.

Meanwhile, telecom Commission (TC) has also recommended raising reserve price for auction of pan-India mobile phone spectrum by 15% more than the price suggested by the TRAI in the 1,800 megahertz (MHz) and by 25% more in case of 900 MHz. Further, in order to enhance telecom geographical coverage, the Commission has also decided to modify the roll out obligation of telecom operators in a bid to ensure that all villages are connected. In India, around 50,000 more villages are yet to be covered by mobile operators.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility lost 1.15 % at 19.64 from its previous close of 19.87 on Thursday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty lost 53.00 points or 0.86% to settle at 6,134.25. The index touched high and low of 6,185.15 and 6,120.95 respectively. Out of the 50 stocks on the Nifty, 17 ended in the green, while 32 ended in the red and one stock remains unchanged.

The major gainers of the Nifty were Ranbaxy up 3.93%, Tata Steel up by 2.92%, DLF up by 2.45%, Tata Motors up by 2.33% and JP Associate up by 2.14%. The key losers were Axis Bank down by 4.72%, PNB down by 4.50%, HDFC down by 3.69%, ACC down by 2.74% and M&M down by 2.43%. (Provisional)

Most of the European markets were trading in red with, France’s CAC 40 down by 0.79%, Germany’s DAX down by 0.56% and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 down by 0.30%.

All the Asian markets concluded Friday’s trade in red as signs of strength in the US economy increased expectations that the Federal Reserve could start to roll back its stimulus earlier than expected. Investors are also eyeing the coming political meeting that will start in China this weekend - the so-called Third Plenum - where the new leadership is expected to provide an outline for economic policy for the next decade. China’s exports rose much faster than forecast in October after a surprise dip the previous month. Exports rose 5.6% from a year earlier, compared to a 0.3% drop in September. National Bureau of Statistics of China reported that Chinese Trade Balance fell to 0.00B, from 15.20B in the preceding month.

Indonesia’s central bank estimates that the economy will grow 5.7% this year, in line with its target of 5.5%-5.9%. The country posted 5.6% annual growth in the third quarter, the weakest in nearly four years, pulled down by weak exports and a slowdown in domestic demand. In October, annual inflation eased to 8.32%, but prices edged up 0.09% from the previous month. Department of Statistics Malaysia stated that Malaysian Trade Balance rose to 8.70B, from 7.10B in the preceding month.