Post Session: Quick Review

There was complete carnage at Indian equity markets, where major indices suffered a nasty blow of close to two percent, biggest percentage fall since September 3,2013 and settled below the crucial 20,700 (Sensex) and 6,150 (Nifty) levels respectively. Indian equity markets, in-line with most of the emerging market witnessed a brutal sell-off on concerns over US Federal Reserve further tapering its stimulus this week. Nevertheless, losses at Dalal Street were also exacerbated by uncertainty ahead of the RBI's third quarter monetary policy review. Swinging between hope and despair, traders though widely expect RBI to hold key rates on Tuesday, but would be vigilant over its policy tone, especially after hawkish comments on inflation from the central bank governor and a RBI panel report that recommended taming retail inflation a priority. 

In the broad-based selling pressure, broader indices too ended with deeper cuts of over two percent. Part of the today’s trading session’s massive losses could be attributed to F&O expiry week.

In the global market, Asian shares dived on Monday on stimulus pullback qualms and tighter credit conditions in China, which raised fears of a sharper economic slowdown. Additionally, European stocks fell in early trade on Monday, mirroring the downbeat mood of Asian equities, resuming last week’s sell-off.

Closer home, it turned out to be freefall, as none of the sectoral indices were spared in green. In the sea of red, Realty, Metal and Banking counters were the top laggards. Rate sensitive, realty and banking tanked ahead of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s  third- quarter review of monetary policy for 2013-14 on Tuesday. Additionally, shares of telecom companies ended in red after Telecom EGoM capped new spectrum usage fee at 5%. The market breadth on the BSE ended in red; advances and declines were in a ratio of 645: 1949, while 119 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex lost 389.88 points or 1.84% to settle at 20743.68. The index touched a high and a low of 20899.03 and 20688.03 respectively. Among the 30-share Sensex, 3 stocks gained, while 27 stocks declined. (Provisional)

The BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices ended lower by 2.75% and 2.56% respectively. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Realty down by 6.70%, Metal down by 3.93%, Bankex down by 3.63%, Auto down by 3.19% and Power down by 3.13% were the top losers, while there were no gainers in the space. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 2.44%, Cipla up by 0.33% and ITC up by 0.25%, while, Tata Steel down by 5.96%, Tata Motors down by 5.74%, ICICI Bank down by 4.53%, Tata Power down by 4.36% and Axis Bank down by 4.14% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, India's crude oil production rose by 1.6 percent to 3.25 million tonnes (MT) in December 2013 from 3.20 MT in the same month of last year, on the back of higher output from Cairn India's Rajasthan oilfields helping to offset the drop in production from state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) fields. ONGC’s crude oil production declined by around 3 percent to 1.88 MT in December from 1.94 MT recorded in same month of previous year. On the other hand, Cairn India's oil output soared by around 16 percent to 0.83 MT.

Indian natural gas production dipped by 9.9 percent to 3,001 million cubic meters in the month as Reliance Industries' KG-D6 field reported 35.8 percent drop in offshore natural gas output to 672 million cubic meters. RIL's domestic refinery at Jamnagar recorded 11.9 percent drop in fuel output in December due to a planned maintenance shutdown. Country’s overall fuel production from 22 domestic refineries declined by 1.7 percent 18.63 MT in December’ 2013 from 18.95 MT petroleum products produced in December’ 2012.

As India’s oil and gas demand has been increasing at robust pace, it has become imperative to enhance the country’s oil and gas production. Oil ministry has formulated a roadmap for cutting India's dependence on imports to meet its oil and gas needs. India currently imports around 80 percent of its oil needs and the Ministry wants this to be cut to 50 percent by 2020 and by 25 percent in 2025 through intensive exploration and exploitation of untapped reserves.

Oil Minister M V Moily has also announced setting up of a Multi-Organisational Team (MOT) to re-examine India’s hydrocarbon resources in all 26 sedimentary basins in the country. India will offer at least 46 oil and gas blocks soon under the 10th round of NELP auction under completely revamped terms. Tenth round of NELP auction will be the second highest offering of blocks since the advent of NELP in 1997, a common platform for public and private sector companies to bid for the blocks.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility gained 17.64% at 18.67 from its previous close of 15.83 on Friday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty lost 121.35 points or 1.91% to settle at 6,145.40. The index touched high and low of 6,188.55 and 6,130.25 respectively. Out of the 50 stocks on the Nifty, 5 ended in the green, while 45 ended in the red.

The major gainers of the Nifty were Hindustan Unilever up 2.54%, HCL Tech up by 0.93%, Cipla up by 0.87%, ITC up by 0.14% and UltraTech Cement up by 0.01%. The key losers were JP Associate down by 13.81%, DLF down by 8.66%, Ranbaxy down by 8.43%, Tata Motors down by 5.95% and Tata Steel down by 5.93%. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading in red with, France’s CAC 40 down by 0.15%, the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 down by 2.65% and Germany’s DAX down by 0.41%.

The Asian markets concluded Monday’s trade in red on fears of more tapering in Federal Reserve's policy meeting. Indonesia’s bonds fell, with the 10-year yield rising the most in three weeks, on concern inflation will accelerate and there will be further cuts to US stimulus. In China, the sales of pre-owned homes rose to an eight-year high in Shanghai in 2013, with robust sentiment prevalent in the luxury sector. The purchases of these homes totaled 293,000 units last year, up 58.8 percent from 2012. Shanghai’s gross domestic product expanded 7.7% last year, at the same rate as the national average but faster than its 7.5% rate in 2012. The city registered a 7.6% GDP growth in the fourth quarter of 2013, compared with 7.8% in the third quarter, 7.6% in the second quarter and 7.8% in the first quarter.

Japan’s trade deficit unexpectedly widened in December month with exports growing less than forecast. Exports rose 15.3% from a year earlier while imports grew by 24.7% from December 2012. The resulting trade deficit was 1.302 trillion yen ($12.8 billion), widening from ¥1.293 trillion and above a projected ¥1.256 trillion trade gap predicted. The deficit was the 18th in a row for Japan. South Korean Consumer Confidence rose to 109, from 107 in the preceding month. Hong Kong Trade Balance fell to a seasonally adjusted -54.4B, from -44.6B in the preceding month.