Post session - Quick review

Indian equity markets after trading listlessly for the entire trading session managed to halt two day’s losing streak in order to negotiate a green close on Tuesday. Oscillating in a tight band, barometer gauges kept trading around its neutral line in absence of any significant positive trigger. However, emergence of bargain buying at attractive valuation by select group of investor’s acted as saving grace for Indian equity markets, which in the previous session slipped lower to two week’s low.  Nevertheless, the choppy session of trade, with low volume turn-over of little more than a lac crore, showed signs of consolidation, as bourses failed to show any prominent vehemence.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), after losing 375 points in the past two sessions, gained a little over 15 points to settle sub 17250 level,  a level which emerged as hard nut to crack as barometer gauge faced substantial resistance near to that level.  Similarly, the 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), also after shied away from 5250 level to end with slender gains of close to 10 points.

The sentiment at Dalal Street got pounded with the fall of Indraprastha Gas, which slipped more than 31%, toppled the selling list. The stock tanked after the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) asked the company to lower its network tariff to Rs 38.58/mmbtu and compression charge to Rs 2.7/ kg as against the company's request for Rs 104/scm and Rs 6.6/kg. Sentiment effect spilled over to other gas services providers like Gujarat State Petronet and Petronet LNG, which tanked 4-8%. Gujarat Gas tumbled 11.5%.

However, market men glued to cautious approach ahead of the release of February factory output data and March inflation data, key prints for providing cues on central bank’s stance in its Annual monetary policy review on April 17, 2012. But, the up move of the Bankex stocks came as a major reprieve to the bourses as the index pivotal grabbed close to half a percentage points. Abandoned by the worries over low growth in deposits at a time when credit was high, mainly led to the drag on banking stocks. However, short covering post two sessions of drubbing covered up the fall. Uptake of Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) along with other rate sensitive’s like Auto and Realty counters also palliative belligerent bears. On the flip side, slide of Capital Goods (CG), Metal and Information Technology (IT) counters offset the additional gains. Unlike the benchmark indices, broader gauges failed to end in green as both midcap and smallcap index went home with loss of over and close to 0.15% respectively.

The market breadth on the BSE ended negative; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1438:1335 while 140 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex gained 18.97 points or 0.11% and settled at 17,241.11. The index touched a high and a low of 17,274.69 and 17,135.76 respectively. 11 stocks advanced against 19 declining ones on the index (Provisional)

The BSE Mid-cap index lost 0.26% while Small-cap index was down 0.13%. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, FMCG up 1.97%, Auto up 0.83%, Bankex up 0.59%, Realty up 0.27% and Consumer Durables up 0.09% were the only gainers while IT down 0.96%, Capital Goods down 0.93%, Metal down 0.87%, Oil & Gas down 0.79% and TECk down 0.77% were the top losers.

There top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up 4.23%, HUL up 2.87%, Tata Motors up 2.86%, SBI up 2.32% and ITC up 2.08% while, BHEL down 3.13%, GAIL India down 2.18%, ONGC down 1.84%, Infosys down 1.76% and Jindal Steel down 1.51% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, the rating agency, CRISIL, in a bid to capture demand-side pressures on prices has released a new indicator for inflation called the Crisil Core Inflation Indicator (CCII). The indicator is derived from the existing Wholesale Price Index (WPI) and is expected to supplement the existing indicators that influence the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) interest rate decisions.

As per the rating agency, a good core inflation measure should exclude the impact of temporary movement in overall inflation, and the CCII does just that. CCII includes processed food and metal products to take into account the second-round of impact of supply shocks and it excludes base metal prices which are directly influenced by international prices.

It plans to release the CCII every month using WPI data published by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. As per its first forecasts, it expects inflation to drop to around 4% in 2012-13 from nearly 7% in 2011-12. This is expected to create a conducive environment for rate cuts by the RBI. However, the timing and quantum of the cuts will depend on other factors such as oil prices and the government's actions towards fiscal consolidation.

The government has recently started releasing the Consumer Price Index (CPI) along with the traditional wholesale price index (WPI) in a bid to gauge the impact of price rise on the actual consumer. Also the RBI is expected to release its monetary policy on the 17th of this month.

India VIX, a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility lost 1.83% at 21.92 from its previous close of 22.33 on Monday. (Provisional)

The S&P CNX Nifty gain 8.95 points or 0.17% to settle at 5,243.35. The index touched high and low of 5,255.80 and 5,211.85 respectively. 22 stocks advanced against 28 declining ones on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were Tata Power up 4.69%, Reliance Communications up 3.43%, Tata Motors up 2.90%, HUL up 2.58% and SBI up 2.55%. On the other hand, Ranbaxy down 2.42%, BHEL down 2.35%, Ambuja Cement down 2.27%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down 2.24% and ONGC down 2.18% were the top losers. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading in red, with France's CAC 40 down 1.22%, Germany's DAX down 0.85% and Britain’s FTSE 100 down 0.79%.

Stock markets in the Asian region exhibited mixed trend on Tuesday as investors cautiously re-evaluated the global growth outlook following recent downbeat economic data in the US and China. In Tokyo, the Nikkei Stock Average reversed course to finish the day down 0.10 percent, as the yen appreciated after the Bank of Japan left its policy interest rate and the size of its asset purchases unchanged. The drop marked a sixth straight day of decline for Japanese shares.

Meanwhile, Chinese Shanghai Composite surged by 0.90 percent after the nation posted a trade surplus of $5.35 billion in March, reversing a $31.48 billion deficit in February due to much weaker-than-expected imports. Imports grew 5.3 percent in March from February’s 39.6 percent increase. However, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost about 1.2 percent as traders returning after a four-day weekend responded to a disappointing US jobs report.