Post Session: Quick Review

Second half of the trading session turned out to be bit productive for Indian equity markets, helping them to eke out modest gains of close to two tens of a percent by the close of trade on Tuesday. Benchmark equity indices after almost exhausting all their gains in early afternoon deals, saw some buying interest returning to the street during the late hours of trade. Nevertheless, the bulls failed to showcase much of spirited performance as witnessed in the previous session, given that investors remained edgy ahead of release of minutes Fed's October 29-30 meeting due later in the day, to gain some insight on when central bank will start reducing its purchases of government bonds and mortgage securities totaling $85 billion a month. Meanwhile, early optimism witnessed on Dalal Street mainly was on account of positive global set-up, while support also crept after Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram underscored that the government was taking measures to provide a boost to economic growth.  Further, PMEAC Chairman C Rangarajan statement that country’s current account deficit (CAD) will be contained below target limit too added to early optimism. Thus, by the close of trade, gaining for third consecutive session, while Sensex ended above the crucial 20,850, Nifty settled past the crucial 6,200 level respectively. Meanwhile, broader indices outperforming larger peers, went home with gains of over quarter of a percent.

On the global front, Asian stocks ended mostly lower as a string of record highs on Wall Street instilled caution about a possible bubble in stock markets fueled by easy monetary policy. Meanwhile, European shares, too getting negative hand over from Asian counterparts, were on way to snap their three consecutive sessions’ gaining streak.

Closer home, consolidation gripped Dalal Street after two consecutive sessions’ of up-run, which had led Sensex recover almost 60% of losses incurred during last week. Nevertheless, support from Realty, Capital Goods and Technology counters kept the momentum going for Dalal Street. On the flip side, Consumer Durables, Fast Moving Consumer Goods and Health Care counters were the top laggards of the session. Meanwhile, Aviation stocks, viz Jet Air India, Spicejet, also flew higher on the news that the domestic airlines flew 50.08 lakh passengers in October this year, up by almost 10% over the 45.55 lakh passengers carried by them in the same period last year.

The market breadth on the BSE ended positive; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1305:1199, while 154 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex gained 23.93 points or 0.11% to settle at 20874.67.The index touched a high and a low of 20934.40 and 20828.69 respectively. Among the 30-share Sensex, 15 stocks gained, while 15 stocks declined. (Provisional)

The BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices ended higher by 0.48% and 0.36% respectively. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Realty up by 1.54%, Capital Goods up by 1.21%, Teck up by 0.42%, IT up by 0.26% and Bankex up by 0.25% were the top gainers, while Consumer Durables down by 0.78%, FMCG down by 0.42%, Power down by 0.23% and Healthcare down by 0.22% were the only losers in the space. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Jindal Steel up by 4.11%, Hindalco Industries up by 4.08%, SBI up by 3.22%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.79% and Gail India up by 2.04%, while, SSLT down by 1.78%, HDFC Bank down by 1.28%, Coal India down by 1.09%, Tata Steel down by 1.05% and Bajaj Auto down by 1.00% were the only losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, in a temporary arrangement, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (I&B) has decided to grant an interim hike of 19% in the existing rates for the advertisements released by the Directorate of Audio-Visual Publicity (DAVP) in the print media, till a committee appointed by it, finalizes new rates.

I&B Minister Manish Tewari underscored that DAVP's print media advertisement policy mandates constitution of Rate Structure Committee (RSC) every three years for consideration of revision of rates. The Minister highlighted that while the rates recommended by sixth Rate Structure Committee (RSC) were effective for a period of three years up-to October 14 this year and the seventh RSC, which was constituted in the Ministry on May 31, would soon submit its recommendations.

He, however, added that the validity of last rate card was effective only upto October 14, 2013 and the Ministry had received representations for grant of interim relief to meet the pending revision of rate card. However, this proposal for grant of an interim hike was considered by the I&B Ministry in consultation with Finance ministry and concurrence of the Election Commission.India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility gained 2.55% at 19.30 from its previous close of 18.82 on Monday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty gained 12.60 points or 0.20% to settle at 6,201.60. The index touched high and low of 6,212.40 and 6,180.20 respectively. Out of the 50 stocks on the Nifty, 26 ended in the green, while 24 ended in the red.

The major gainers of the Nifty were Hindalco up 4.33%, Jindal Steel up by 4.00%, PNB up by 3.93%, JP Associate up by 3.11% and SBI up by 3.04%. The key losers were BPCL down by 2.11%, SSLT down by 1.78%, Power Grid down by 1.40%, HDFC Bank down by 1.28% and Tata Steel down by 1.22%. (Provisional)

Most of the European markets were trading in red with, Germany’s DAX down by 0.34%, the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 down by 0.55% and France’s CAC 40 down by 0.93%.

The Asian markets concluded Tuesday’s trade on a mixed note with shares in Shanghai and Hong Kong closing in red after rallying yesterday on Chinese reform blueprint that pledged a greater role for private firms in the economy. Hong Kong Financial Secretary John Tsang stated that the country will not experience stagflation - slow economic growth coupled with high inflation - as external economic conditions are not particularly weak, and inflation is not serious. He added that GDP was 2.9% in Q2 and 3% for the first half of the year, while the rise in inflation was not high.

Consumer confidence in China continued to pick up in the third quarter, as consumers from small cities grew more optimistic about their financial conditions and were willing to spend more against the backdrop of a modest economic recovery. China’s consumer confidence index stood at 110 in the third quarter, steady from the second quarter and up from 106 in the third quarter of 2012. China attracted $8.42 billion worth of foreign direct investment in October, up 1.24% from a year earlier. FDI in the January-October period rose 5.77% from a year earlier to $97.03 billion.