Post Session: Quick Review

Overcoming a subdued start, Indian equity markets witnessed a heartwarming session of performance, where the benchmarks steadily gaining momentum, ended near day’s high point, with gains of over half a percent on Monday. Upmove in select blue-chip stocks on better than expected earnings, namely ITC and Wipro, kept the mood buoyant for Indian equity markets, despite mostly negative global environment. By close, both Sensex and Nifty, ended past the crucial 21,200 and 6,300 levels respectively. Meanwhile, broader indices, outperforming larger peers, settled with gains of over 3/ 4 of a percent.

On the global front, Asian markets closed mostly lower on Monday, after China released data showing the economy in 2013 maintained its slowest growth rate for more than a decade. China's economy grew 7.7 per cent in the quarter through December, down from 7.8 per cent the previous quarter. For the full year too, the economy expanded 7.7 per cent, equal to 2012 for the weakest performance since the 1990s. Additionally, European shares retreated from five and half-year highs on Monday, with banking shares coming under pressure after Deutsche Bank posted a surprise pre-tax loss and miners slipping in the wake of data showing easing Chinese growth.

Closer home, bourses’ gains were largely on the back of stocks belonging to Information Technology, Fast Moving Consumer Goods and Realty counters, which were the top performers of the session. On the flip side, Oil & Gas, PSU and Capital Goods were top laggards of the session. Additionally, Oil marketing companies, HPCL and IOC slipped as the cabinet is likely to take a decision to hike cap on subsidized LPG cylinders from 9 to 12 a year. Decline of index heavyweight, Reliance Industries (RIL), mainly spelled pessimism for entire Oil & Gas pivotal.

On the result front, RIL stocks lost ground after unveiling almost flat profitability in its Q3 result after market hours on Friday. The company's net profit rose 0.2% to Rs 5511 crore on 10.5% growth in revenue to Rs 106383 crore in Q3 December 2013 over Q3 December 2012. On the flip side, Wipro spurted 3% on good Q3 result. The company’s consolidated net profit from continuing operations jumped 27% to Rs 2010 crore on 18% growth in revenue from continuing operations to Rs 11330 crore in Q3 December 2013 over Q3 December 2012. While, UltraTech Cement met street expectations with the third quarter (October-December) net profit falling 38.4% year-on-year to Rs 370 crore dented by lower selling prices due to the subdued demand.

The market breadth on the BSE ended negative; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1423: 1218, while 156 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex gained 141.43 points or 0.67% to settle at 21205.05. The index touched a high and a low of 21221.37 and 21001.13 respectively. Among the 30-share Sensex, 16 stocks gained, while 13 stocks declined and one stock remains unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices ended higher by 1.08% and 0.73% respectively. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, IT up by 2.83%, Teck up by 2.50%, FMCG up by 1.08%, Bankex up by 0.75% and Auto up by 0.72% were the top gainers, while Oil & Gas down by 0.96% and PSU down by 0.01% were the only losers in the space. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 5.30%, Wipro up by 3.78%, SSLT up by 2.37%, ITC up by 1.59% and SBI up by 1.43%, while, RIL down by 1.92%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.19%, Coal India down by 1.18%, Tata Power down by 1.08% and Sun Pharma down by 0.99% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has proposed allowing subscribers of National Pension System (NPS) to withdraw up to 25 per cent of accumulated funds. The PFRDA has now sought public comments on draft guidelines till February 15.

As per the proposal guidelines, the withdrawal amount will be treated as partial withdrawal and will use for meeting medical treatment expenses, higher education of children, marriage of daughters and house purchase. However, partial withdrawal is allowed only after 10 years of contribution by the subscriber. Furthermore, the subscriber cannot withdraw more than 25 per cent of the contribution made by them. Presently, partial withdrawals are not permitted and NPS subscriber had to completely exit the scheme for withdrawal before maturity. Referring to frequency of withdrawal, the proposal noted that the subscriber will be allowed to withdraw for maximum 3 times and there should be a gap of at least 5 years between two withdrawals.

The National Pension System (NPS) is a defined contribution based pension system launched by Government of India (GoI) with effect from 1 January 2004. The scheme is a long-term, retirement savings product that accumulates and generates maximum pension wealth. NPS is mandatory for all government employees who joined services after April, 2004 and is also open to private sector.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of marginally lost 0.38% at 15.35 from its previous close of 15.41 on Friday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty gained 41.65 points or 0.67% to settle at 6,303.30. The index touched high and low of 6,307.45 and 6,243.35 respectively. Out of the 50 stocks on the Nifty, 29 ended in the green, while 21 ended in the red.

The major gainers of the Nifty were TCS up 5.51%, Wipro up by 3.85%, HCL Tech up by 3.71%, IndusInd Bank up by 2.75% and SSLT up by 2.44%. The key losers were Reliance Industries down by 1.89%, Tata Power down by 1.15%, Grasim down by 1.11%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.05% and NMDC down by 0.93%. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading in red; France’s CAC 40 was down 0.05%, Germany’s DAX down by 0.29% and UK’s FTSE 100 down by 0.07%.

The Asian markets concluded Monday’s trade mostly in red, with investors eyeing Chinese economic data including GDP, retail sales and industrial production. China’s annual growth eased to 7.7 percent in the fourth quarter as investment and demand flagged late in the year. That leaves growth in the Chinese economy at 7.7 percent for all of 2013, unchanged from revised levels in 2012. On a quarterly basis, gross domestic product (GDP) rose 1.8 percent from July-September, slower than expectations for 2.0 percent and a reading of 2.2 percent in April-June.

Meanwhile, average new home prices in 70 Chinese cities rose to another high year-on-year in December, though sequential gains have moderated, as recent curbs in some major cities hurt some consumers’ appetite for homes. For the 12th consecutive month, prices rose from a year earlier. Chinese Industrial Production fell to 9.7%, from 10.0% in the preceding month while Chinese Retail Sales fell to an annual rate of 13.6%, from 13.7% in the preceding month. Moreover, Chinese Fixed Asset Investment fell to a seasonally adjusted 19.6%, from 19.9% in the preceding month. Indonesia’s government is hoping to raise Rp 10 trillion ($833 million) from the sale of rupiah-denominated bonds with various tenors as part of its efforts to plug the country’s budget deficit.