Monday 13 January 2014

Benchmarks post highest single-day gain in 2014; Nifty reclaims 6,250 level

Boisterous benchmarks exhibited an enthusiastic performance on Monday, by rallying over one and a half percentage points and breaking a lot of psychological levels in their northbound journey. There appeared not even an iota of profit booking in the session, as the benchmarks managed to fervently gain from strength to strength with investors continuing their hunt for fundamentally strong but oversold stocks. Frontline indices not only managed to end near intraday high but also recorded their biggest single-day gain since November 25, 2013, settling comfortably above their crucial 6,250 (Nifty) and 21,100 (Sensex) bastions.

Sentiments remained up-beat since beginning on hopes that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will keep interest rates on hold for a second consecutive month at its policy review on January 28. Further, reports suggest that December consumer price inflation due for release later in the day is likely to ease. It may be recalled that weak festive demand and sluggish investment activity led to a slump in factory production in November when the output contracted to a six-month low of 2.1%. Investors shrugged off the fall in index of industrial production (IIP), which was sharper than October’s decline of 1.6%.

Firm opening in European counterparts too supported the sentiments with CAC, DAX and FTSE all trading higher in early deals after some corporates announced robust fourth quarter earnings. Moreover, most of the Asian equity markets shut shop in the positive terrain, as lower growth in US payrolls eased concerns the Federal Reserve may not go for aggressive stimulus cuts.

Back home, sentiments also got some boost after rupee strengthened significantly in Monday’s trade after the US dollar remained under pressure on the back of weak US jobs data. The partially convertible rupee was trading at 61.55 per dollar at the time of equity markets closing against the previous close of 61.89 on the Interbank Foreign Exchange. Some support also came in on report that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 68.16 crore on January 10, 2014.

Meanwhile, shares of oil and gas companies edged higher by up to 3 percent in early morning deals after the government officially notified the new gas pricing policy that would be applicable to all the domestically produced gas from April 2014, and will be effective for five years. As per the new pricing mechanism, the new gas price is likely to be $8.4/mmbtu for FY2015. Currently, the gas prices are in the range of $4.2-5.7/mmbtu for domestically produced gas. Moreover, stocks related to software and technology counters too remained on buyers’ radar after Infosys’ better-than-expected quarterly results. Additionally, shares related to banking space gained for the session on prospects of another status-quo stance of RBI in its upcoming third monetary policy review.

The NSE’s 50-share broadly followed index Nifty rose by over hundred points to end above its psychological 6,250 level, while Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index -- Sensex surged by over three hundred and seventy points to gain psychological 21,100 mark.

Moreover, broader markets too traded with traction and ended the session in the green with gain of around a quarter  percent. However, the market breadth remained in favour of decliners, as there were 1,333 shares on the gaining side against 1,397 shares on the losing side, while 146 shares remained unchanged.

Finally, the BSE Sensex surged by 375.72 points or 1.81%, to settle at 21134.21, while the CNX Nifty gained 101.30 points or 1.64% to settle at 6,272.75.

The BSE Sensex touched a high and a low of 21169.08 and 20850.54, respectively. The BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.15%, while the Small cap index gained 0.37%.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up 3.88%, Infosys up 3.29%, ICICI Bank up 3.09%, ONGC up 2.94%, and RIL up 2.58%, on the flip side Tata Power down 1.99%, Sun Pharma down 1.19%, Hindustan Unilever down 0.71%, Maruti Suzuki down 0.66%, and Hindalco Inds down by 0.41%,were the top losers on the index.

On the BSE Sectoral front IT up by 2.92%, Teck up by 2.40%, Oil & Gas up by 2.24%, Bankex up by 2.04% and Capital Goods up by 1.55%, were the top gainers, while Healthcare down by 0.68%, was the only loser on the sectoral front. Meanwhile, in order to allay concerns of domestic exporters over the withdrawal of preferential import duty scheme by European Union (EU), the Commerce Ministry is considering fresh incentives to help these sectors retain their competitiveness. The European Union (EU), India’s largest export market, has removed its preferential import duty scheme for some Indian products from 2014.

Till now, the EU’s generalized system of preferences scheme allowed duty-free or low-duty access for specific products in all 27 of its member countries. The withdrawal of preferential duty scheme is likely to impact country’s exports of various products including chemicals, textiles, minerals, raw hides & leather and automobiles including road vehicles, bicycles, aviation, space, boats and their parts. On becoming globally competitive these products have been removed out of the preferential duty advantage list, which is a big blow for the country. Meanwhile, the Ministry is looking at the option of providing cash incentives to the affected sectors under the existing Market Linked Focus Product Scheme giving cash benefits to exporters of specific products to specific markets, generally ranging between 2 percent and 5 percent.

The European Union (EU) accounts for around 16 per cent of the country’s total exports. During April-November 2013, India exported goods worth $33.27 billion to the 27-member bloc, recording 3.5 percent growth from a year earlier. India along with China were the top beneficiaries of the preferential duty scheme which provides preferential market access to exports from 90 developing and least-developed countries. Further, a number of countries, which have been graduated out of the scheme this year include Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Uruguay, Venezuela, Russia, Kazakhstan and Malaysia.

The CNX Nifty touched a high and low of 6,288.20 and 6,189.55 respectively.

The top gainers on the Nifty were TCS up by 4.34%, HCL Technologies up by 3.99%, ICICI Bank up by 3.49%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 3.35%, and DLF up by 3.26%, On the other hand, Ranbaxy Laboratories down by 5.58%, Lupin down by 1.71%, Tata Power Company down by 1.56%, Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries down by 1.17%, and Jindal Steel & Power down by 0.71%, were the top losers.

The European markets were trading in green, France's CAC 40 was up by 0.12%, Germany's DAX was up by 0.32%, and United Kingdom's FTSE 100 was up by 0.16%.

The Asian markets, barring Shanghai Composite and Straits Times concluded Monday’s trade in green on hopes that worse-than-expected jobs report from United States could lead the Federal Reserve to hold off any fresh cuts to its stimulus program. Thailand stocks were struggling, though were off session-lows, as thousands of people participated in an anti-government protest in the capital city of Bangkok. The Japanese market remained closed today on account of ‘Coming of Age Day’ holiday.  Indonesia’s rupiah gained the most in six weeks and the stock index had its biggest rally since September after an ore export ban was diluted. Indonesia will be shut on Tuesday for a public holiday and will reopen on Wednesday.

Shanghai’s tax revenue rose 8.7 percent from a year earlier to 801 billion yuan ($131.3 billion) in 2013, excluding taxes levied by the customs and stamp tax on securities transactions. The service industry paid nearly two-thirds of Shanghai’s tax revenue last year and financial firms took the lead as they made up 40 percent of the 100 top service taxpayers, underlining the city’s goal to be a global financial center.

Asian Indices
Last Trade
Change in Points
Change in %
Shanghai Composite
2009.56
-3.73
-0.19
Hang Seng
22888.76
42.51
0.19
Jakarta Composite
4390.77
135.80
3.19
KLSE Composite
1834.97
8.36
0.46
Nikkei 225
-  
-
-
Straits Times
3135.49
-8.38
-0.27
KOSPI Composite
1948.92
10.38
0.54
Taiwan Weighted
8566.20
36.85
0.43

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