Sensex & Nifty gain admist volatility

Indian markets had decent gains in today’s session, after remaining sideways for the major part of the day. The RBI raised the repo and reverse repo rates by 25 basis points to 8.50% and 7.50%respectively. The GDP growth rate for FY11-12 has been revised to 7.6% from the earlier 8%, while the projection of WPI inflation has been kept unchanged at 7% for March 2012. The central bank has also deregulated the savings interest rates.

Benchmark Indices
Index	Closing	% Change
SENSEX	17254.86	1.86
NIFTY	5191.6	1.83
Hang Seng	18968.2	1.05
Nikkei	8762.31	-0.92
Shanghai	2409.67	1.66
Live
FTSE	5560.08	0.22
DAX	6106.43	0.84
CAC	3207.89	-0.39

European markets are trading in a volatile manner, as investors await tomorrow’s European leaders’ meeting to resolve the region’s debt crisis.

Among the sectoral indices IT, Auto and Teck showed a strong upward movement, while Capital Goods and Bankex moved southwards.

Sectoral Indices
Category/Index	Close	Change(Pts)	Change (%)
Broad
MIDCAP	6,116.43	24.65	0.4
SMLCAP	6,800.68	-5	-0.07
BSE-100	8,954.52	140.47	1.59
BSE-200	2,098.18	30.38	1.47
BSE-500	6,583.83	85.86	1.32
Sectors
AUTO	9,277.76	265.43	2.95
IT	5,781.26	150	2.66
OIL&GAS	8,987.41	195.26	2.22
TECk	3,486.08	74.84	2.19
METAL	11,357.73	215.47	1.93
CG	10,564.29	193.46	1.87
FMCG	4,077.28	56.84	1.41
HC	6,032.07	80.14	1.35
REALTY	1,815.41	24.02	1.34
POWER	2,146.44	26.02	1.23
PSU	7,373.77	-3.85	-0.05
BANKEX	10,919.40	-133.02	-1.2
CD	6,568.77	-199.13	-2.94

Asian markets had a mixed run today, ahead of the European leaders’ meeting for the sovereign debt crisis. Hong Kong and China traded in the green zone, while Japanese markets ended the day in red.

Dow Jones Futures is currently trading 3 points or 0.03% down at 11822, indicating a negative to neutral sentiment in the US markets.
Among the Sensex stocks, Auto stocks like Mahindra and Mahindra, Bajaj Auto, Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki all traded higher in the range of 3-5%. Metals stocks like Sterlite Industries, Tata Steel and Hindalco also traded in the green. IT heavyweights like Infosys and Wipro were up 3.59% and 2.61% respectively. Post the monetary policy announcement, banking stocks witnessed very high volatility. SBI and HDFC bank ended the day down by 3.46% and 2.21% respectively.

NTPC’s shares were up 1.43% to Rs 173.60, after posting a decent set of Q2 FY12 numbers. Its topline increased by 18.4% to Rs 15377 crore, while the bottomline increased by 15% to Rs 2424 crore. 

Delta Corp tanked 5% to Rs 95.95 after disappointing Q2 numbers. Its sales declined by 82% to Rs 49.45 crore and Net Profits slumped 96.6% to Rs 4.93 crore. 

Kotak Mahindra Bank posted a 19% jump in Net Profits at Rs 433 crore. The scrip was trading in a very narrow range throughout the day on the back of its Q2 results and the RBI’s policy. However, the scrip surged 5.23% to Rs 494.85 towards the day’s end.
We advise our reader to keep track of companies like Muthoot Finance, Indian Hotels, NHPC, Tata Global Beverages, etc., as they are going to post their Q2 FY12 numbers. 

The BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 2425 crore, higher than Rs 2026 crore as on 24th October, 2011. The market breadth, which indicates the overall health of the market, was positive. Out of a total of 3208 stocks traded, 1623 stocks advanced while 1450 declined. 135 stocks remained unchanged.

In conclusion, we, at DSIJ, believe that the market will remain volatile. Investors should watch out for the European leaders’ meeting tomorrow, which will give direction to the market. The forthcoming Q2 results season may also give rise to market speculation on the outcome of individual companies’ results.