Post Session: Quick Review

The penultimate session of the Year ‘2013’ lacked the required fervor and ended with loss of quarter of a percent, below the crucial 21,150 (Sensex) and 6,300 (Nifty) levels respectively. Despite some positive trigger at home front, investors preferred unwinding their position approaching the end of the tumultuous year. Although, some recovery attempt was witnessed in afternoon deal, however the efforts turned out to be half-hearted as barometer gauges once again resumed their declining spree and ended a little above the day’s lowest point. Benchmarks managed to recoup most of their early losses in afternoon deals after RBI, painting an optimistic picture on the external front, underscored that the country was ready for the US Federal Reserve's tapering, while pegging the current account deficit at below 3% for this fiscal in its eighth Financial Stability Report. In its report, it noted that “delay in the tapering of the $85 billion-a-month bond buyback programme by the US Fed (tapering will start from January 1) gave the country time to replenish the forex reserves and rein in the high current account gap”. The session belonged to Smallcap index, which ended with gains of over quarter of a percent, on the flip side, Midcap index, in-line with larger peers, went home with loss, albeit slender.

On the global front, Asian markets mostly rose on Monday, with Tokyo cheering the yen's fall to a five-year low against the dollar and regional traders broadly upbeat towards the end of a tumultuous year. On the flip side, European shares were trading mostly lower, consolidating in holiday-thinned trade after two weeks of strong gains that have pulled markets to five-year highs.

Closer home, only few sectors, namely Metal, Oil & Gas and Fast Moving Consumer Goods counters were gainers on the BSE, while stocks from Realty, Banking Information Technology, pivotal were the top laggards of the session. Information Technology, which were the story for the Year 2013, were down on profit-booking as investors opted for unwinding their bullish position in the defensive sector towards the end of the year. Additionally, banking stocks edged lower after RBI in its ‘Financial Stability Report-December 2013’, underscored that risks to the banking sector have increased during the past half-year and that all the risks dimensions captured in the banking stability indicator show increase in vulnerabilities in the banking sector. On the flip side, Rail stocks, viz Kalindee Rail, Titagarh Wagaon, Texmaco Rail and Hind Rectifiers, gained momentum on reports that the government is likely to allow foreign direct investment in railways early next month. The original proposal had mooted 100% FDI in the railways, but this cap could be lowered to 74% in some areas. Also, foreign money would be allowed only in construction and maintenance of railway projects, and not in operations, reports added. Besides, select telecom stocks like Bharti Airtel and Idea cellular also rang-loud in trade after the Department of Telecom (DoT) postponed the bidding for next spectrum auction by 10 days from January 23 to February 3 amid pending issues, including spectrum usage charges, and a demand from operators seeking more time. Idea Cellular stocks gained ground on receiving its shareholders’ approval for increasing the investment limit for overseas investors to 49%. The market breadth on the BSE ended in green; advances and declines were in a ratio of 1365: 1155, while 145 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex lost 62.87 points or 0.30% to settle at 21130.71.The index touched a high and a low of 21304.70 and 21089.21 respectively. Among the 30-share Sensex, 12 stocks gained, while 18 stocks declined. (Provisional)

The BSE Mid cap index ended lower by 0.06% and Small cap index ended higher by 0.20%. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Metal up by 0.65%, Oil & Gas up by 0.15%, FMCG up by 0.09% and PSU up by 0.04%, were the gainers, while Realty down by 1.70%, Bankex down by 0.81%, IT down by 0.77%, Teck down by 0.56% and Auto down by 0.47% were the top losers in the space. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 4.13%, Coal India up by 2.67%, HDFC up by 1.28%, Tata Motors up by 0.84% and RIL up by 0.66%, while, Infosys down by 1.72%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.65%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.65%, Cipla down by 1.41% and L&T down by 1.29% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, as per Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia the Indian economy is likely to grow at a pace of 7.5-8 percent in the next year. Ahluwalia asserted that in a globalised world India cannot become self-reliant and the prevailing economic slowdown is mainly caused by global factors and partially by domestic factors.

Referring to the Indian economic growth over the period of time, Ahluwalia emphasized that reforms have been carried out gradually in large diversified highly democratic country in order to pick up economic growth. However, it takes time to bring economic turnaround. The Indian economy grew by 9 percent for five years in the previous decade, while it came down to 6 percent due to the global financial crisis.

Presently, domestic economy growth has recorded to 4.8 percent in Q2 FY14 as comparison to 4.4 percent in Q1 FY14. Furthermore, the current account deficit (CAD) has narrowed to $5.2 billion, or 1.2% of GDP in Q2 FY14 as against the 4.9% of GDP in the Q1 FY14 on the back of growing exports and declining imports of the country.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility gained 2.86% at 15.08 from its previous close of 14.66 on Friday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty lost 22.05 points or 0.35% to settle at 6,291.75. The index touched high and low of 6,344.05 and 6,273.15 respectively. Out of the 50 stocks on the Nifty, 18 ended in the green, while 32 ended in the red.

The major gainers of the Nifty were BHEL up 4.13%, Coal India up by 2.72%, HDFC up by 1.22%, Reliance Industries up by 0.76% and Hindustan Unilever up by 0.75%. The key losers were DLF down by 3.38%, ACC down by 2.56%, Ranbaxy down by 2.42%, JP Associate down by 2.32% and UltraTech Cement down by 2.23%. (Provisional)

Most of the European markets were trading in red with, France’s CAC 40 down by 0.13%, the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 down by 0.18% and Germany’s DAX down by 0.19%.

The Asian markets, barring Shanghai Composite concluded Monday’s trade in green. A weaker Japanese currency helped to propel stock prices higher, boosting profits in Japan’s export-oriented corporate sector. Policies that have spurred yen weakness are part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s plan to revive the country’s long-stagnant economy. Bank Indonesia sees the country’s foreign debt level, public and private, as still being within safe levels. South Korean Industrial Production fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of -1.3%, from 3.3% in the preceding month whose figure was revised up from 3.0%.

In Hong Kong, mortgage loans drawn down in November decreased 0.4% to $11.2 billion compared with October, the Monetary Authority stated. Mortgage loan approvals decreased 2.1% to $14.6 billion. Mortgage loans financing primary market transactions decreased 2.3% to $3.5 billion, and those financing secondary market transactions decreased 6.2% to $8 billion. The number of mortgage applications in November decreased 11.9% month-on-month to 7,567. Hong Kong Trade Balance fell to a seasonally adjusted -44.6B, from -38.5B in the preceding month.