After previous day’s carnage, the Indian equity market ended with smart gains on Wednesday as the benchmark indices bounced back with vengeance. Sentiment got a boost after the Congress-led UPA government raised the growth projection for fiscal year 2013-14. India’s economy may grow at 6.1-6.7% for the year 2013-14, the government forecast in a report.
“We remain optimistic that the Finance Minister will deliver a reform-centric Budget addressing the fiscal and current account deficits in the wake of the sustained country downgrade scare. Attempts to revive the industry cycle, infrastructure and deepening the corporate bond market are some market-friendly measures likely to be taken up,” says Amar Ambani, Head of Research, IIFL
Coming back to today’s session, top gainers among the BSE sectoral indices were Capital Goods index up 2.4%, followed by BSE Realty index up 2.1% and BSE Oil & Gas index up 1.1%. On the other hand, BSE IT index was the top loser down 1% and BSE Teck index declined by 0.23%.
Mayhem in the mid-cap stocks continued on Wednesday as almost 20 stocks in the mid-cap category fell from 15% to 42% in the day’s trade. The selloff however has gone unexplained lately prompted by which SEBI launched a probe to check the insider trading angle. There are rumours of heavy scale sale of pledged shares as promoters go bankrupt.
Some of the stocks that were the biggest losers in the intra-day trade on the BSE were: Core Projects (-42.3%), Onelife Capital (-20%), PG Electroplast (-19.9%), Plethico (-19.9%), Rushil Décor (-19.9%), Gravita India (-19.97%), Frontline Bsns (-19.95%), JINDALCOTEX (-19.95%), SYNCOM HEAL (-19.58%), Nath Pulp (-16.9%), Hindustan Tin (-15.54%).
Finally, BSE Sensex closed at 19152, up 137 points over the previous close. It had earlier touched a day’s high of 19213 and a day’s low of 18997. It opened at 19090.
The NSE Nifty closed at 5,797, up 35 points over the previous close. It earlier touched a day’s high of 5,818 and a day’s low of 5749. It opened at 5,784.
RIL, Wipro, SBI, ICICI Bank, NTPC, Bajaj Auto, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, BHEL, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Steel, ONGC, Hindalco Inds, Mahindra & Mahindra were among gainers in Sensex and Nifty.
Infosys, TCS, Dr Reddys Lab, Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp, Coal India, HDFC Bank were among losers in Sensex and Nifty.
The advance decline ratio was in favour of the bulls. 1442 stocks advanced against 1357 declining stocks, while 131 stocks remained unchanged.
The INDIA VIX slipped 6.5% at 16.23. It hit a day’s high of 17.36 and day’s low of 16.11.
Stocks which hit 52-week high during the week were Kansai Nerolac, Malabar Trad, Blue Blend India, Shree Mfg and Rutron Intl.
Stocks which hit 52 week low during the week were BEML, Ambalal Sarabhai, Bihar Sponge, Chambal Fert and SAIL.
Shares of Jet Airways were locked at 20% upper circuit after Abu Dhabi based airliner Etihad confirmed reports of it paying US$70mn to Jet Airways to buy 3 Heathrow slots at the London airport for the Indian carrier. Etihad Airways is to buy 24% stake in Jet for US$400mn.
Shares of L&T ended higher by 3% after the company won orders worth Rs15.04bn across various business segments in February 2013.
Shares of Hindalco erased early losses and slightly edged higher by 0.5%. The company announced that, due to continuation of illegal strike by workmen at Company’s Silvassa plant, the Company is forced to declare a lock-out there. The Company does not expect any adverse impact on the Company’s financials due to the lock-out.
TCS hit 52 week high after the company settled a lawsuit related to salary issue of two employees in a US court after agreeing to pay almost US$30mn.
Most Asian markets ended with gains on Wednesday as U.S. economic data and comments from Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke helped lift the mood in global markets. The Shanghai Composite index in China gained by 0.9%, the Strais Times index rose by 0.2%, the Kospi index was up 0.2% and Taiwan index added 0.22%.
Hong Kong’s finance minister on Wednesday pledged modest income tax breaks and waivers on property rates. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong edged higher by 0.3%.
Only the Nikkei index in Japan ended in the negative terrain, the index ended lower by 1.2%.
The European stock indices were trading mostly higher on Wednesday, recouping from the previous day’s losses, which came after inconclusive election results in Italy. The FTSE index was up 0.3%, the CAC index was slightly higher by 0.2%. While the DAX index in Germany edged lower by 0.2%.