2020 to end with flying colours

By Arun Kejriwal

New Delhi, Dec 27 (SocialNews.XYZ) Markets saw a sharp plunge when trading began for the week on Monday on account of the new Covid-19 virus strain found in UK. BSESENSEX and NIFTY lost about 4.5 per cent on an intraday basis but recovered a fourth on that day itself. The story of the week is the fact that all losses of Monday were just about recovered in the next three days. This shows the market resilience and the bulls resolve to just not let go. They have the market in full control.

BSESENSEX gained 12.85 points or 0.03 per cent to close at 46,973.54 points while NIFTY lost 11.30 points or 0.08 per cent to close at 13,749.25 points. The low of the day on Monday was 44,923.08 points while it was 13,131.45 points for NIFTY. The broader markets saw BSE100, BSE200 and BSE500 lose 0.12 per cent, 0.14 per cent and 0.20 per cent respectively. BSEMIDCAP was down 0.70 per cent while BSESMALLCAP lost 0.53 per cent.

The Indian Rupee gained 2 paisa or 0.03 per cent to close at Rs 73.54 to the US dollar. Dow Jones gained 20.82 points or 0.07 per cent to close at 30,199.87 points. The high for the year remains at 30,344 points and on a year-to-date basis, Dow is up 5.82 per cent.

Indian markets have fared quite well during the calendar year 2020. BSESENSEX gained 5,719.80 points or 13.86 per cent compared to the year end 2019 figure while NIFTY gained 1,580.80 points or 12.99 per cent. BSEMIDCAP is up 2,708.87 points or 18.10 per cent while BSESMALLCAP is up 3,976.16 points or 29.02 per cent. Clearly the small and midcap sectors have outperformed the benchmark indices. If one were to take the gains from the year lows made in March 2020, the gains in BSESENSEX and NIFTY are in excess of 80 per cent while in the case of small and midcap they would be closer to doubling.

The week saw the primary market issue of Antony Waste Handling Cell Limited opening and closing for subscription. The issue was in a price band of Rs 313-315 and consisted of a fresh issue of Rs 85 crore and an offer for sale of 68,24,933 equity shares. The issue was subscribed 15.04 times with the QIB portion subscribed 9.67 times, HNI portion 18.69 times and Retail portion 16.55 times. There was a total of 9.55 lac application forms.

Shares of Mrs Bectors Food Specialities Limited listed on Thursday the 24th of December and were a roaring success. The company had tapped the capital markets with a fresh issue of Rs 40.5 crore and an offer for sale of Rs 500 crore at a price of Rs 288. Shares listed at Rs 500 and closed at Rs 595.55, a gain of Rs 307.55 or 106.79 per cent. Delivery percentage on non-anchor basis was 88.27 per cent. There was hardly any institutional activity reported on the exchanges in the concerned scrip, indicating that the gains were more of being speculative in nature.

Anil Agarwal, the promoter of Vedanta Limited, bought 18.15 crore shares of the company through multiple block deals at an average price of Rs 160 on the exchanges on Friday. This is in sharp contrast to the man offering to buyback his shares at Rs 87.25 a few months back. When LIC had offered to sell shares in the buyback at Rs 320 a piece, many people had raised eyebrows. Further ISEC, the broking arm of ICICI had through a report informed investors that they had a sell rating on the stock and the target price of the same was around Rs 130. The Vedanta group is likely to be the successful bidder for the assets of Videocon and is also in the running for the acquisition of BPCL. So much for a group who says they did not have money to buyback shares of Vedanta beyond Rs 125-130. Incidentally Vedanta shares gained Rs 15.30 or 10.38 per cent to close at Rs 162.65.

The week ahead sees December futures expiring on the last trading day of the calendar year, 31st December. The current series has seen gains of 762.25 points or 5.87 per cent so far. With four days to go and having seen the market resilience with the sharp fall last Monday, one should expect the bulls to press the pedal. Expect a flareup leading into Thursday which would also be the day when NAV of mutual funds are calculated.

On the Covid-19 front, the world saw 8,07,20,289 patients, 17,64,698 deaths and 5,69,11,409 patients who have recovered. In India, we saw 1,01,88,392 patients, 1,47,659 deaths and 97,61,538 patients who have recovered. Compared to the previous week, the world saw 40,77,222 new patients, 72,468 deaths and 31,45,700 patients who recovered. In India we saw 1,56,733 new patients, 2,146 deaths and 1,81,136 patients who recovered.

FII's who normally take a break in the last fortnight of December have been active till the end of last week. They have bought on a net basis Rs 41,325 crore in December so far while Domestic institutions have sold Rs 33,051 crore in December. What will be the approach in the last four days is anybody's guess but looking at the relentless way that they have been investing with over $20 billion invested in 2020, I believe they won't stop for the next four days.

The week ahead sees expiry in four days. Expect markets to be super volatile with an upward bias. The bulls would go all out to press home the advantage while bears will try to salvage some pride. Use rallies to book profits and as mentioned last week, try to improve the stocks fundamentally in the portfolio. Expect to end 2020 with flying colours.

(Arun Kejriwal is the founder of Kejriwal Research and Investment Services. The views expressed are personal)

Source: IANS