Post session - Quick review

Barometer gauges after scaling new two and a half new year’s high in the previous session, emerged defiant on Monday as “profit booking” topped the agenda among the mind of the vigilant trader’s ahead of a key two-day European Union summit and the European Central Bank's policy meeting on Thursday. The bourses after lackadaisically wandering for the entire trading session, settled with slender loss, amidst cautious global environment after India's services sector expanded for the first time in two months in November as new business accelerated despite persistent inflationary pressures. The seasonally adjusted HSBC Markit Business Activity Index -- based on a survey of around 400 firms -- stood at 53.2 in November, above the 50-mark that separates growth from contraction.

However, the disappointing milieu enveloped Dalal Street post market participants analyzed the much hyped reports which stated that, central bank would trim cash reserve ratio (CRR) in order to pump in liquidity, were not going to materialize. However, trader’s even failed to draw some positive from Italian’s austerity measure. Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti's cabinet on Sunday approved a law aimed at making sure Italy cuts its budget deficit by 2013, including Euro 17 billion in new taxes, Euro 13 billion in public spending cuts, and Euro 10 billion in measures aimed at boosting economic growth.

Indian equity indices buckling under selling pressure showcased diverse trend from world stocks as Asian pacific stocks rose mostly higher amid hopes that a summit of European leaders later this week will yield a breakthrough for fixing the continent’s sovereign debt crisis. Meanwhile, the European shares too adding to last week's 8.5% jump, rose early on Monday, on French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel meet ahead of a key summit.

Back on the home turf, some solace came to the mind of the Indian investor’s who are currently in the state of flux over foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail sector issue, after cabinet granted its nod for hiking the FDI limit in the distribution platforms from 49 per cent to 74 per cent. Reacting to this, stocks like Dish TV and Hathway Cable & Datacom rose in the range of 0.50-1%. However, iniquity continued to linger for retail stocks, which today drifted lower for tenth session in a row after government decided to put the plan of opening up the retail market to global supermarket chains on back burner, which came on the heels of approving the same. Shocked by the government’s cold feet on this issue, Pantaloon Retail India, the largest in the country, was down by more than 12% at one point on Monday. Among the others, Shoppers Stop, Vishal Retail and Koutons Retail crashed 6.5-7%. Meanwhile, CESC, which runs Spencer retail, fell 4%. Parliament has been paralysed since the reform was announced on 24 November. It will return after a four-day break on Wednesday with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressing hope that legislative work could resume.

On the BSE sectoral front, stocks from Power, Capital Goods and Public Sector Undertaking were the one with anomalous gains, while the stocks belonging from the Metal, Consumer Durable (CD) and Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) were the one amongst shrunken counters. 30 share barometer index-Sensex-witnessing some recovery in the dying hours of trade settled with slender loss of over 25 points, withstanding its crucial psychological level 16800. In the similar way, broadly followed 50 share index-Nifty-on NSE-ended near its neutral line with a loss of over 10 points. Broader indices after commencing the session on a flat note ended mixed. The market breadth on the BSE ended neutral; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1345:1352 while 126 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex lost 28.21 points or 0.17% and settled at 16,818.62. The index touched a high and a low of 16,863.10 and 16,691.21 respectively. 12 stocks advanced against 17 declining ones while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index (Provisional)

The BSE Mid-cap index lost 0.08% while Small-cap index was up by 0.07%. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Power up 0.95%, Capital Goods up 0.81%, PSU up 0.30%, Bankex up 0.17% and Auto up 0.10% were the top gainers while Metals down 0.98%, Consumer Durables down 0.73%, FMCG down 0.62%, Realty down 0.50% and HealthCare down 0.43% were the top losers.

The top gainers on the Sensex were JP Associates up 2.53%, NTPC up 2.24%, BHEL up 2.04%, SBI up 1.35% and Hindalco up 0.67%.

On the flip side, Tata Steel down 1.74%, Sun Pharma down 1.68%, Sterlite down 1.37%, Jindal Steel down 1.11% and ITC down 1.02% were the top losers on the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in retail sector has been put on hold and any final decision by the government will be taken only after consulting all opposition political parties. The government is facing stiff resistances from retailers and opposition parties across India. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said ‘the government is willing to keep the decision in suspension. It will take a final decision only after consultations with all opposition parties and the stakeholders.

The opposition leaders have told finance minister that the government should come out with a statement on the issue, and they are also demanding an all party meeting in which they can be informed about the issue. Opposition parties have created logjam in Parliament for several days now.

The government is expected to make an announcement in the all party meeting, which is expected to be held on December 07, morning before the Parliament proceeding starts. Last week, in all party meeting, finance minister had said that he would get back to them after he consulted the Prime Minister and the Union Cabinet, which had taken the decision of allowing FDI in retail sector.

In November, the Union Cabinet approved 51% FDI in multi brand retail sector, which opened Indian retail markets for international super-chains such as Wal-Mart and Tesco. However, virtually every major political party including the left and BJP are of the view that the decision of allowing FDI in multi-brand retail will affect the livelihoods of farmers and small traders. 

India VIX, a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility gained 4.29% at 25.02 from its previous close of 23.99 on Friday. (Provisional)

The S&P CNX Nifty lost 6.60 points or 0.13% to settle at 5,043.55. The index touched high and low of 5,055.40 and 5,002.55 respectively. 19 stocks advanced against 30 declining ones while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were JP Associates up 2.60%, Axis Bank up 2.52%, NTPC up 2.00%, BHEL up 1.95% and PNB up 1.70%.

 On the other hand, HCL Tech down 2.46%, SAIL down 2.41%, Reliance Power down 2.38%, Tata Steel down 2.18% and Sterlite down 1.55% were the top losers. (Provisional)

The European markets are trading in green, with France's CAC 40 up 1.07%, Germany's DAX up 0.83% and FTSE 100 up 0.50%.

Most of the Asian equity indices snapped the day’s trade on higher note on Monday as investors hoped for progress in what could be a crucial week for curbing Europe’s debt crisis. Some encouraging signs for Europe emerged over the weekend, as Italy outlined a euro 30 billion ($40.2 billion) three-year austerity plan ahead of a key meeting of French and German leaders planned for later Monday. Moreover, investor confidence remained high after last week's rally that was spurred by the decision of six major central banks to provide cheap dollars to under-pressure lenders in a bid to boost financial markets.

Nikkei average rose over half a percent as banking shares edged higher, with Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group up 2.2 percent Mizuho Financial Group up 2.9 percent and Nomura Holdings 2.8 percent higher. While, Hong Kong shares up by 0.73 percent in thin Monday trade, boosted by strength in the Chinese financial and energy sectors with some investors betting on more easing measures by Beijing after fresh data pointed to a cooling economy in need of policy support.