Markets End Higher Despite Stormy Parliamentary Session

The Indian markets remained positive for most of the day and ended in the green despite a stormy first day of the winter session of the Parliament. The Trinamool Congress’ no-confidence motion against the UPA government on retail FDI was rejected by Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar over the shortage of the requisite support in numbers. At the same time, the global markets turned positive on the release of Chinese data. The flash reading of the Chinese manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to 50.4 for Nov 2012. This figure has gone beyond the 50 mark, which differentiates expansion to contraction, for the first time in 13 months.

These factors cumulatively resulted in the Sensex closing higher by 56.96 points or 0.31% at 18517.34 and Nifty closing higher by 12.95 points or 0.23% at 5627.75.

There were equal gains seen throughout the markets today. The midcaps and smallcaps saw gains on the same lines as those of the broader indices. The BSE midcap and smallcap indices closed higher by 0.32% and 0.39% respectively. The overall market breadth was a tad positive, with 1432 (48.66%) advances and 1363 (46.31%) declines.

As was the case yesterday, only 3 sectoral indices ended the day with losses today too. Auto dropped back into the negatives, down by 0.24%, while Consumer Durables and Oil & Gas ended the day lower 0.36% and 0.49% respectively. The highest losses among these sectors were seen in Tata Motors, HPCL and BPCL which lost 2.49%, 1.28% and 0.78% respectively. Retail stocks, which had gained considerably yesterday because of hopes on development on the retail FDI front, crashed today. Pantaloon Retail, Provogue and Shoppers Stop tanked by 5.64%, 1.63% and 0.94% respectively.

Blue Dart Express got locked at the 20% upper circuit, with its promoter DHL Express (Singapore) set to sell a 6.03% stake tomorrow. This stake offloading has come in after the SEBI mandated a cap to promoter shareholding at 75%.

Hindustan Copper gained 11.33% as an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) cleared 4% divestment in the company. Among other gainers were SBI, Larsen and Toubro and Infosys, which gained 1.89%, 1.72% and 1.55% respectively.