Late hour surge takes the market higher for the fourth straight session

Indian markets witnessed a breakout from their consolidation mood on Wednesday to end near the high points of the day, extending gains for the fourth straight session. Though, the trade remained range bound for most part of the day and bourses seemed struggling to move higher, also there were rounds of volatility too, with sometimes the benchmarks seemed very close to entering the red on profit booking in the sectors that had performed well in last couple of sessions. However, the mood on the street remained cautious and traders largely preferred to remain on sidelines ahead of the US Fed’s release of minutes from its last policy meeting later in the day, which will provide a detailed look at what members of the central bank's policy committee were discussing when they issued their last directive.

The overall global cues remained mixed, unable to give any direction to the local markets. While the US markets ended mixed, the Asian peers too snapped the session on similar note, with some of the indices including the Japanese market, ending in red. The European markets too made a listless start and turned negative soon after the beginning; however the quantum of losses was minimal.

Back home, the markets gained some traction in the last leg of trade, once again supported by the spurt in the banking stocks, while other laggards of the day, barring metal too added strength. However, the trade remained dull for most part of the day and traders kept considering only value buying. Some support to the market also came with sustained capital inflows from foreign funds. The foreign institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 292.23 crore, while domestic institutional investors were net sellers worth Rs 154.83 crore on Tuesday. Sectorally, while the IT, Tech, Consumer Durables and Capital Goods led the market gains, Metal and Power suffered profit booking. There was some buzz in the telecom stocks, as the telecom secretary announced that the much-awaited guidelines for mergers and acquisitions of telecom companies will be in place within 10 days. The healthcare or Pharma index showed good upmove supported by surge in Ranbaxy on reports that New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman will announce a settlement with US units of Ranbaxy Laboratories and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries over allegations the two rival generic drug makers made an unlawful agreement to restrict competition. The non sectoral gauge of sugar was in jubilant mood on Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) report that the country’s sugar output fell over 13 per cent to 14.4 million tonnes so far this year on delayed crushing, compared to 16.6 million tonnes of sugar in the corresponding period of the 2012-13. All the major sugar companies gained anywhere between 4-10%. Shree Renuka Sugars was up by 6.11%, Bajaj Hindusthan gained 5.40%, Balrampur Chine surged by 9.28% and Triveni Sugar was up by 4.11% on the BSE.

The market breadth remained in favour of advances, as there were 1,459 shares on the gaining side against 1,215 shares on the losing side, while 155 shares remained unchanged.

Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 88.76 points or 0.43%, to settle at 20,722.97, while the CNX Nifty added 25.65 points or 0.42% to settle at 6,152.75.

The BSE Sensex touched a high and a low of 20,750.52 and 20,629.56, respectively. The BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.50%, while the Small cap index gained 0.66%.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 2.35%, Infosys up by 2.01%, TCS up by 1.49%, Wipro up by 1.35% and HDFC Bank up by 1.33%, while, Tata Power down by 2.02%, SSLT down by 1.79%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.54%, Tata Steel down by 1.31% and NTPC down by 1.30% were the top losers in the index.

On the BSE Sectoral front, IT up by 1.48%, Teck up by 1.22%, Healthcare up by 1.17%, Consumer Durables up by 1.11% and Capital Goods up by 1.04% were the top gainers, while Metal down by 1.06%, Power down by 0.41%, FMCG down by 0.18% and Auto down by 0.09% were the top losers in the space.

Meanwhile, In order to help existing and prospective shareholders with accurate and relevant information about the financial and operating performance of the companies, Capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has proposed that listed firms should file an Annual Information Memorandum (AIM), on the lines of practices followed in the US and other large markets.

The memorandum, which is proposed to be filed by the top 200 companies by market capitalization from the next financial year beginning April 1 and by other firms from April 1, 2015, can also be used as a reference document while raising funds. However, the company wanting to use AIM as draft offer document for future capital raisings would be required to submit an auditor’s examination report along with AIM.

According to the regulator, companies must give complete details of capital structure, borrowings, lending, share pledge, specific mention of important changes in the business of the company during the financial year, information regarding legal cases on promoters, details of public issues such as convertibles and Foreign Convertible Bonds or FCCBs and the reason for un-utilized proceeds. Although, such information is available on stock exchanges in bits and pieces for secondary market participants, there is no single document which contains all subsequent updates of the company at one place. It is in view of this, SEBI is mulling consolidated 'annual info' filing by firms and floated draft proposal inviting public comments to be submitted to the regulator on ore before March 9, 2014.

The CNX Nifty touched a high and low of 6,160.35 and 6,125.75 respectively.

The major gainers of the Nifty were Ranbaxy up 2.79%, TCS up by 2.17%, Sun Pharma up by 2.17%, Lupin up by 2.14% and Infosys up by 2.12%. On the other hand, Tata Power down by 2.83%, Jindal Steel down by 2.79%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.89%, SSLT down by 1.53% and Tata Steel down by 1.49% were the top losers.

The European markets were trading in red, France's CAC 40 was down by 0.19%, Germany's DAX was down by 0.37% and United Kingdom's FTSE 100 was down by 0.23%.

The Asian markets barring Nikkei 225 and Seoul Composite, concluded Wednesday’s trade in green with some of the regional gauges heading for a one-month high, led by health-care stocks. Sentiment remained muted elsewhere across the Asia-Pacific region after some disappointing economic data out of the United States and due to caution ahead of the minutes of the Federal Reserve's January 28-29 meeting due to be released later in the global day. China’s Shanghai Composite index rose as energy companies strengthened and investors speculated smaller banks will form alliances to expand their business on mobile devices. China is targeting 9.5 percent growth in industrial production this year, slightly below the 9.7 percent growth posted in 2013.

Japanese stocks fell, with a pause in the yen's slide and some profit taking after the previous session's sharp rally. The yen was trading above 102 against US dollar. Malaysia's inflation increased in January, and exceeded economist’s expectations. According to the Department of Statistics, inflation from 3.2 percent in December accelerated to 3.4 percent in January. Economists had forecast a modest rise to 3.3 percent. The consumer price index moved up 0.6 percent in January on a monthly basis.