Sensex climbs in late trade…Ends near day’s high

Indian stock indices finished near day’s peak, spurred by growing speculation about impending policy measures from the Centre to give a fillip to the rapidly decelerating economy. Media reports say that the Government is contemplating kick-starting it’s disinvestment plan soon. The Finance Ministry is also reportedly considering plans to speed up the approval process for the core sectors of the economy, besides boosting a comatose primary market. An intraday recovery in the European markets also played a role in lifting the frontline indices towards the close of trade. Before the late spurt though, the key Indian indices had been essentially subdued. The BSE Sensex ended at 17,633, up 75 points or 0.4% over the previous close. It had earlier touched a day's high of 17,642 and a day's low of 17,522. It opened at 17,551. The NSE Nifty finished at 5,347, up 27 points or 0.5% over the previous close. It earlier touched a day’s high of 5,352 and a day’s low of 5,309. It opened at 5,316. The broader indices too managed to eke out modest gains today, leading to a slightly positive market breadth. The BSE Small-Cap index and the BSE Mid-Cap index both gained ~0.5% apiece. Realty, Consumer Durables, Capital Goods and Power indices were the top winners today followed by PSU and Oil & Gas indices. The Auto index was the biggest laggard. The INDIA VIX on NSE was marginally in the red. HDFC, DLF, RelInfra, Sterlite Industries, Sesa Goa, Bajaj Auto, Siemens, Bharti Airtel, Wipro and BHEL were the top leaders. ACC, Ambuja Cements, Axis Bank, Asian Paints, SBI, Maruti and L&T too gained modestly. Tata Motors, HUL, Hindalco, Hero MotoCorp, Tata Steel and TCS were the top laggards. Asian markets are mixed on Monday, with sentiment hurt by disappointing GDP data out of Japan. Stocks across the region struggled in a choppy session. Japan's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew at an annualized pace of 1.4% in the three months through June, a Cabinet Office report showed in Tokyo today. That was less than the median estimate of 2.3% and down from 5.5% growth clocked in the previous quarter. Unadjusted for prices, Japan's second-quarter GDP contracted at a 0.6% annual pace. Today’s report adds pressure on policy makers to prevent a steeper slowdown in the world’s third-largest economy. Analysts said that the Japanese market was likely to remain in a "holiday mode" this week. Traded volume on the Nikkei index was ~20% below the 30-day average because of the O-bon holiday, a festival starting today during which many Japanese companies close for as long as a week. Chinese stocks fell by the most in almost a month after Bank of America Corp. cut its economic growth forecasts for China. The brokerage lowered its 2012 growth estimate to 7.7% from 8%, also lowering estimates for the third-quarter and fourth-quarter GDP expansion. Barclays last week cut China’s economic growth forecast for this year to 7.9% from 8.1%. Deutsche Bank also lowered its growth forecasts for China last week. European stock markets pared their losses in midmorning action, spurred by strength in the Banking and Utility space. The Stoxx Europe 600 index was down 0.1% flat at 269.53, after trading as low as 268.88 earlier in the day. The DAX 30 index in Germany, the CAC 40 index in France and the FTSE 100 index in the UK were more or less flat. US stock market futures pointing to a mildly negative start on Wall Street later today, as investors continue to fret about slowing global growth. Japan reported a sharp drop in second-quarter GDP growth and brokerages cut their forecasts for China's GDP growth in the wake of last week's downbeat data.