Post Session: Quick Review

Late hour recovery helped trim partial portion of losses of Indian equity markets, which ended slightly in red, with loss of around two tens of a percent, aided largely by November trade data, which came in-line with the expectations and also bargain buying that got triggered at lower levels. On the macro-front, in positive news, India’s imports fell the most in four years, by 16.37% annually to $33.8 billion in November, leaving narrower trade deficit of $9.22 billion as against $17.2 billion deficit in November 2012, as per the latest data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Nevertheless, it turned out to be yet another down session of performance at Dalal Street as investors preferred staying on the sidelines ahead of November retail inflation data on Thursday, especially after RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan reiterated that the central bank's focus remains on controlling inflation, deterred sentiments. Street is widely expecting India’s inflation to remain close to 9-month highs in November, putting further pressure on the central bank to follow up on its back-to-back interest rate hikes despite slowing economic growth. Besides, cautiousness also played out ahead of release of October IIP data on December 12.

However, what started as an extremely disappointing session of trade turned out to be less of a disaster given the buying that emerged in the late hours of trade. Otherwise, markets which got off to sluggish start, had taken a turn for the worse after S&P underscored that India’s sovereign rating may come under pressure if general elections due by May next year end up with a hung parliament or with a government unable to push through reforms. Thus, by the close of trade, both Sensex and Nifty, recovering from lows, settled above the crucial 21,200 and 6,300 levels respectively.

On the global front, most Asian share markets ended lower on Wednesday as investors booked profits on a range of once-crowded positions, largely to the benefit of bonds and the detriment of the U.S. dollar. On the flip side, European shares steadied on Wednesday after falling in the previous session, as uncertainty over the outlook for U.S. monetary policy looked set to cap any broader gains.

Closer home, investors also going by the Finance Minister vows of no compromise on fiscal prudence, also placed their bets in rate sensitive banking stocks, during the last hour of trade, which after making it in the list of top gainers, led to substantial recovery. Sectorally, besides banking, Fast Moving Consumer Goods counter witnessed traction. Meanwhile, Sugar stocks, viz Bajaj Hindusthan, Shree Renuka Sugar, Balrampur Chini and Triveneri Engineering, etc, hogged limelight after Food Minister, K.V. Thomas, in an attempt to reassure the beleaguered sugar industry that the recently announced relief was on its way, exhorted the millers to diversify their product mix to meet the market demand. Additionally, tyre stocks gained across the board on renewed buying.   Apollo Tyres, CEAT, JK Tyre & Industries, MRF and TVS all rallied in the range of 2-4%. On the flip side, Capital Goods, Auto, PSU pivotals were the major laggards of the session. The market breadth on the BSE ended in red; advances and declines were in a ratio of 1143: 1348, while 164 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex lost 41.28 points or 0.19% to settle at 21213.98.The index touched a high and a low of 21215.94 and 21069.45 respectively. Among the 30-share Sensex, 12 stocks gained, while 17 stocks declined and one stock remains unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices ended higher by 0.03% and 0.15% respectively. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, FMCG up by 0.66% and Bankex up by 0.18%, were the only gainers, while Capital Goods down by 1.27%, Auto down by 1.06%, PSU down by 0.76%, Oil & Gas down by 0.74% and Metal down by 0.55% were the top losers in the space. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 2.46%, Coal India up by 1.56%, HDFC up by 1.54%, ITC up by 1.18% and ICICI Bank up by 0.79%, while, Tata Motors down by 3.10%, SBI down by 2.24%, Tata Power down by 2.11%, ONGC down by 2.08% and Gail India down by 2.00% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, in a positive news, India’s imports fell the most in four years, by 16.37% annually to $33.8 billion in November, leaving narrower trade deficit of $9.22 billion as against $17.2 billion deficit in November 2012, as per the latest data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Cumulatively, for the April-November period, the trade balance recorded a deficit of $99.9 billion. While, imports cumulatively declined by just 5.39% at $303.89 billion during this period.

Country’s exports grew by 5.86% year-on-year in November to $24.6 billion and cumulatively rose by 6.27% to $203.98 billion in the year through November.

The sharp slide in country’s import was mainly on account of decline in gold and silver imports sharply to $ 1 billion in November from $ 5.4 billion a year ago. Additionally, Oil imports during November, 2013 were valued at $12.96 billion, which was 1.1% lower than oil imports valued at $13.10 billion in the corresponding period last year.

Gold imports have been hit this year after the country took slew of measures to curb imports of the yellow metal, including imposing a record 10% import duty and requiring that 20% of imports be re-exported.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility lost 2.44% at 17.54  from its previous close of 17.98 on Tuesday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty lost 8.75 points or 0.14% to settle at 6,324.10. The index touched high and low of 6,326.60 and 6,280.25 respectively. Out of the 50 stocks on the Nifty, 19 ended in the green, while 31 ended in the red.

The major gainers of the Nifty were NTPC up 2.32%, HDFC up by 1.86%, HCL Tech up by 1.74%, Axis Bank up by 1.36% and Coal India up by 1.26%. The key losers were Tata Motors down by 3.38%, Bank of Baroda down by 2.17%, SBI down by 2.13%, BPCL down by 2.12% and Tata Power down by 2.11%. (Provisional)

Most of the European markets were trading in green with, France’s CAC 40 up by 0.63%, the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 up by 0.09% and Germany’s DAX up by 0.17%.

The Asian markets concluded Wednesday’s trade in red as liberalization pressure weighed on Chinese banks, while a stronger yen weighed on Japanese stocks. The Shanghai Composite lost and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropped after news that China’s four state-owned banks and a former state policy bank will issue a total of 19 billion yuan ($3.1 billion) worth of negotiable certificates of deposit - another step in China’s move toward liberalized interest rates, raising concerns about short-term pressure on bank profits. Indonesian businesses expressed concern that the government’s plan to impose higher taxes on shipments of goods from abroad may drag down earnings of importers and hurt consumer spending.

New home purchases in China continued to rise at a slow pace in the first 11 months of this year. The value of new homes sold across the country between January and November rose 31.1% percent on-year to 5.87 trillion yuan ($962 billion), slower than the 32.6-percent growth in the first 10 months and a 34.5-percent gain in the first three quarters. Japanese core machinery orders rose 0.6% in October from the previous month as some demand ahead of a planned sales tax hike leveled off. The rise was squarely in line with the 0.6% rise expected. It also came after a 2.1% decline in September.