Post Session: Quick Review

Thursday’s session turned out to be weak session of trade at Dalal Street, whereby benchmark equity indices clocked their first fall in five sessions  and ended lower with a cut of close to a percent, below the crucial 20,600 (Sensex) and 6,100 (Nifty) levels respectively. Throughout the session, benchmarks for once did not break-out in green and kept grinding lower, ending the session near day’s low point.  Besides, the somber front-line counterparts, broader indices also ended lower, just the losses were not as wide as former.

In-line with global peers, benchmarks staged a dismal session of trade on account of reduced global risk appetite after US Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting showed that it remained on track to taper its stimulus despite a recent spate of downbeat economic data. Thus, absence of positive trigger at home front and feeble global cues mainly marred the sentiment.

On the global front, Asian markets ended lower on Thursday, with Japan and Hong Kong leading the region down, as an important measure of Chinese manufacturing activity dropped to a seven-month low. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index tumbled after the initial February reading on HSBC’s preliminary manufacturing purchasing managers index slid to 48.3 from a final score of 49.5 in January. Additionally, European shares also sagged on downbeat Chinese and French data. France's service sector shrank the most in nine months in February, with Markit's index for the sector falling to 46.9 from 48.9 in January, well under economists' average expectations for an increase to 49.4.

Closer home, traders at Indian equity markets overlooked the report of HSBC that foreign investors have been broad buyers of Indian shares in the October-December quarter, with increases in foreign institutional investments (FIIs) in about 75 percent of the BSE 200 companies. On the BSE, while most of the sectoral indices ended in red, stocks from Power and Capital Goods counters were the only gainers of the session. On the flip side, stocks from Bankex, Metal and Public Sector Undertaking counters were the top laggards of the session. While, Metal stocks melted on weak Chinese data, power stocks gained momentum tracing the spending gains of Tata Power. The market breadth on the BSE ended negative; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1205: 1464, while 151 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex lost 170.84 points or 0.82% to settle at 20552.13. The index touched a high and a low of 20662.66 and 20522.04 respectively. Among the 30-share Sensex, 4 stocks gained, while 26 stocks declined. (Provisional)

The BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices ended lower by 0.02% and 0.14% respectively. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Power up by 0.35% and Capital Goods up by 0.03% were the only gainers, while Bankex down by 1.63%, Metal down by 1.16%, PSU down by 0.98%, FMCG down by 0.89% and Oil & Gas down by 0.84% were the top losers in the space. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Dr Reddys Lab up by 2.07%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.15%, Tata Power up by 1.03% and L&T up by 0.38%, while, SBI down by 2.10%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.08%, ICICI Bank down by 2.01%, Tata Steel down by 1.75% and Hindalco down by 1.72% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, India’s foreign direct investment (FDI) in December 2013 remained unchanged at $1.10 billion, same as a year ago period and lower compared to $1.64 billion in the month of November. However, for the nine month period April-December, FDI equity inflows showed a modest decline of 2 percent to $16.56 billion from $16.94 billion during the corresponding period of the previous year.

As per the data from the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), during the first nine months of the fiscal, the highest FDI contributor was services with investment of $1.59 billion, followed by pharmaceuticals $1.26 billion, construction development $ 914 million and automobiles $871 million.

Region wise, Mauritius once again led the inflows with $3.67 billion of FDI during April-December, followed by Singapore $ 3.2 billion, UK $3.14 billion and the Netherlands $ 1.6 billion. On Domestic city wise, New Delhi, followed by Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Ahmedabad attracted maximum FDI during the nine months period ended April-December.

The nation requires about $1 trillion of FDI between 2012-13 and 2016-17, the 12th Five-Year Plan period, to fund infrastructure projects. Recently the government has proposed relaxation of norms for foreign investment in construction, a move that could open up funds flow into the financially stressed sector and can improve the FDI in the country.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of marginally gained 0.59% at 15.16 from its previous close of 15.07 on Wednesday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty lost 61.05 points or 0.99% to settle at 6,091.70. The index touched high and low of 6,129.10 and 6,086.45 respectively. Out of the 50 stocks on the Nifty, 9 ended in the green, while 41 ended in the red.

The major gainers of the Nifty were JP Associate up 5.47%, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories up by 1.88%, Bajaj-Auto up by 1.54%, Tata Power up by 1.42% and L&T up by 0.50%.

The key losers were Bank of Baroda down by 3.47%, Kotak Bank down by 2.43%, Grasim down by 2.24%, IndusInd Bank down by 2.15% and ICICI Bank down by 2.12%. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading in red; France’s CAC 40 was down 0.50%, Germany’s DAX was down 1.30% and UK’s FTSE 100 was down 0.51%.

All the Asian markets barring Jakarta Composite concluded Thursday's trade in red following a weak lead from Wall Street. Minutes of the US Federal Reserve's latest policy-setting meeting released overnight pointed out that the Fed was on track to cut its bond-buying stimulus in coming months as long as the economy continues to grow as expected. The sentiments remain dampened as disappointing Chinese manufacturing data underlined concerns over the strength of the region’s largest economy. China’s Shanghai Composite fell from a two-month high as a bigger-than-estimated decline in a manufacturing gauge. The HSBC and Markit Economics revealed that the PMI came in with a score of 48.3, touching a seven-month low and well shy of forecasts for a score of 49.5.

Japanese stocks declined as traders continued to monitor movements in the currency market with firmer yen amid worries about emerging markets. Japan’s Ministry Finance reported that country’s trade deficit in January widened to 2.79 trillion yen against the expectation of 2.489 trillion yen. Exports grew 9.5% to 4,798.57 billion yen from a year earlier, while imports surged 25.0% to 6,432.11 billion yen. Now the Bank of Japan will have to take appropriate measures to counter downside risks and make adjustments as appropriate.