Post session - Quick review

Squandering a positive start, Indian equity markets went into a tizzy on Friday after a couple of errors while punching trades resulted in razor-sharp fluctuations in the key stock indices and momentary panic among traders, that kept the sentiment grave for the entire trading session at Dalal Street. After rising for fifth consecutive session, benchmark equity indices also ran out of steam on account of intense selling pressure, as investors scrambled to book profit post previous session’s spectacular rally in Indian equity markets.

Thus, in the high-volume session of trade, 30 share benchmark indices offloading over 150 points, settled above 18,800 level, which turned out to be strong bastion, while widely followed index, Nifty, which dipped to 4888 level on freak trade, concluded above the 5700 crucial mark, to end with cut of over 50 points. Additionally, distortion was also apparent in broader indices, which ended with a nasty laceration of over a percent. However, the week turned out to be charming for benchmark equity indices, which went home with gains of 1% (Sensex) and 0.80% (Nifty). Furthermore, NSE Midcap index lured gains of 1.14%, while BSE Smallcap index captured gains of 1.9% for the week.

Positive global set-up also worked much towards the recovery of Dalal Street. On one hand, Asian pacific shares ended jaunty after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said the bank stands ready to buy bonds to ease the region’s debt crisis. While on the other hand, European counters too got off to an optimistic start as expectations for a sentiment boost from US macro data partly offset lingering concerns about crisis-struck Europe.

Closer home, benchmark equity indices, extending the winning streak to fifth consecutive session, touched a 15 months high level in the early deals after the Congress-led UPA government unveiled a second wave of reforms, approving proposals allowing foreign investors to own up to 49 per cent in insurance firms and pension funds, with Companies Act Bill and the Forward Contracts Bill also seeing the light of the day. However, the 'abnormal' orders amounting to the worth of Rs 650 crore placed by stock broker Emkay Global in multiple trades of various stocks at low prices, mainly led to a “Freaky Friday” at Dalal Street.

In sector specific action, Consumer Durable, Auto and Fast Moving Consumer Goods, lured maximum buying interest, while on the flip side,  Teck, Information technology, Realty and Bankex, suffered nasty brunt of profit-booking, which dragged these pivotals with a loss of above 1% each. Appreciation of Indian currency to 6-months high level near psychological ‘51/$’ mark, mainly led to downfall of IT stocks, as stronger rupee impacts exporter’s, which derive lion share of their revenue in American currency. The market breadth on the BSE ended negative; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1081:1780 while 135 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex lost 139.64 points or 0.73% and settled at 18,918.51. The index touched a high and a low of 19,137.29 and 18,757.34 respectively. 9 stocks were seen advancing while 21 stocks were declining on the index (Provisional)

The BSE Mid-cap index was down by 0.84% while Small-cap index was down 0.95%. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Consumer Durables was up 0.71%, Auto was up by 0.53%, Oil & Gas was up 0.50%, Capital Goods was up 0.32% and FMCG up 0.28% were the top gainers, while TECK down by 1.72%, IT down by 1.70%, Health Care down by 1.61%, Bankex down by 1.18% and PSU down by 0.34% were the top losers in the space.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors was up 2.57%, HUL up 1.51%, M&M up by 1.16%, Hindalco Industries up 1.01% and ONGC up 0.92%, while, HDFC down by 5.18%, Sun Pharma down by 2.48%, Wipro down by 2.36%, Infosys down by 1.88% and ICICI Bank down by 1.73% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, in a slew of big decisions to continue with reforms to boost economic growth and investor sentiment,  the Cabinet on Thursday cleared all amendments to the insurance bill, allowing 49% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in insurance from the present 26%. With the Cabinet approving the proposal, the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill is likely to be taken up by Parliament for passage in the forthcoming Winter Session. The cabinet also cleared the Pensions Bill and allowed 26% FDI in Pension Funds. Since, the 49 per cent cap is much higher than the 26 per cent recommended by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, the proposed changes to both the bills will have to be cleared immediately by both houses of the Parliament before they can come into effect. The FDI limit in pension will follow FDI limit in insurance. If insurance bill passes with 49 per cent, pension will also be 49 per cent. Till now, 26 per cent FDI was allowed in the insurance sector, while the pensions business was closed to foreign investment. The government had attempted to push the nine-year-old Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill, which seeks to give statutory status to the pension regulator, in June as well, but put it on hold due to the impending presidential elections. These bills had also been deferred earlier because of opposition from Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress, which has since quit UPA after the government refused to roll back some of its last month's decisions.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility gained 2.06% at 16.78 from its previous close of 16.44 on Thursday. (Provisional)

The S&P CNX Nifty lost 46.20 points or 0.80% to settle at 5,741.40. The index touched high and low of 5,815.35 and 4,888.20 respectively. 14 stocks advanced against 35 declining ones while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were Tata Motors was up 2.62%, HUL up 1.63%, M&M up 1.23%, Hindalco Industries up 0.93% and ONGC was up 0.88%. On the other hand, HDFC down 5.08%, Reliance infrastructure down by 2.76%, JP Associates down by 2.64%, Wipro down by 2.59% and Sun Pharma down 2.55% were the top losers. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading in green with, France’s CAC 40 up 0.80%, Germany’s DAX up 0.59% and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 up 0.38%.

Asian markets went home mostly higher on Friday as investors were geared up to take risk after a report showed the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose less than expected last week and the European Central Bank said it was ready to buy bonds of troubled euro zone countries. Japan’s Nikkei posted modest gains and ended higher as Bank of Japan kept monetary policy unchanged, but cut its assessment of the economy, citing weakening exports and production. Meanwhile, Hang Seng market garnered half a percent gains with mainland automakers leading the gainers; Malaysia's KLSE Composite ended marginally down. Financial markets in China remained closed.