Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity markets witnessed consolidation on penultimate session of F&O expiry as traders settled positions amidst prevailing caution about ongoing national elections, with Mumbai set to go to the polls on Thursday. Additionally, Ukraine tension which swayed on the global risk appetite also weighed on the sentiment of local equity markets.

In the range-bound session of trade, benchmarks ended almost from where they started. By close of trade, while Sensex ended below the crucial 22,800 with negative bias, Nifty ended above the crucial 6800 bastion, with positive bias. Much of profit-booking witnessed in last hour of trade offset most of the bourses’ gains. Additionally, broader indices too following suite, settled for a mix close, while Midcap index settled with loss of over one tenth of a percent, Small-cap index ended a tad above neutral line.

On the global front, overnight gains of Wall-street failed to translate into Asian pacific region, in response to Japan's announcement of another massive trade deficit. Business remained thin as traders returned from the long weekend. Japan’s trade deficit in March quadrupled year-on-year to $14 billion owing to the rising cost of importing fossil fuels and consumers rushing to buy before the April 1 sales tax hike. However, European shares rose in early trade on Tuesday, adding to last week's rally, with AstraZeneca's stock surging on merger and acquisition talk.

Closer home, most of the sectoral indices ended into negative terrain, stocks from Capital Goods, Oil & Gas and Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) counters showed a degree of performance. Meanwhile, banking counter also failed to show up in green despite in-line with estimates earnings of HDFC Bank’s quarterly net profit which rose 23% to Rs 2,326 crore. On the flip side, pockets of major weakness were the stocks of Metal, IT and Teck counters.

In non-sectoral gauge stocks activities, Railways stocks, like Transformers and Rectifiers, Kalindee Rail, Kernex Micro and Texmaco Rail sped up in trade. On the flip side, Tyre stocks got bashed up after MRF reported disappointing set of Q2 numbers. The company, on standalone basis, has reported a fall of 18.87% in its net profit at Rs 170.87 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2014 as compared to Rs 210.61 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. The market breadth on the BSE ended positive; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1522: 1326, while 126 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex lost 6.46 points or 0.03% to settle at 22758.37. The index touched a high and a low of 22853.03 and 22727.63 respectively. Among the 30-share Sensex, 11 stocks gained, while 19 stocks declined. (Provisional)

The BSE Mid cap index ended lower by 0.15% and Small cap index ended higher by 0.01%. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Capital Goods up by 1.19%, Oil & Gas up by 1.15%, PSU up by 0.34%, Consumer Durables up by 0.27% and Bankex up by 0.16% were the only gainers, while Metal down by 0.79%, IT down by 0.55%, Teck down by 0.52%, FMCG down by 0.46% and Auto down by 0.44% were the top losers in the space. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Gail India up by 1.67%, HDFC Bank up by 1.63%, L&T up by 1.35%, ONGC up by 1.08% and Coal India up by 0.96%, while, SSLT down by 3.96%, Wipro down by 2.64%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.22%, SBI down by 0.99% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.90% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, in order to boost the growth of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector, the Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India (ECGC), a state owned enterprise controlled by the Ministry of Commerce, will offer direct factoring facility for MSMEs sector. Factoring is a cash management tool under which an enterprise or business person sells accounts receivable at a discount to a third party funding agency to raise capital.

The ECGC has planned to introduce direct factoring facility service in the second quarter of the current financial year, which would help small enterprises to meet their working capital requirements without approaching banks. The ECGC had already launched a new country-risk rating for the benefit of MSMEs.

It has become imperative for India to boost the MSME sector which contributes around 8% of the country's GDP, 45% of the manufactured output and provides employment to over 8 crore people. Meanwhile, the government has been taking various measures to boost the sector’s growth and has increased Budget allocation for the sector to Rs 24,000 crore in the 12th Five-Year Plan from Rs 11,000 crore in the previous five-plan period. The government has also set up a six-member inter-ministerial panel, which will suggest measures to boost the MSME exports.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation volatility gained 2.99% at 33.35 from its previous close of 34.38 on Wednesday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty lost 2.00 points or 0.03% to settle at 6,815.65. The index touched high and low of 6,838.00 and 6,806.25 respectively. Out of the 50 stocks on the Nifty, 19 ended in the green, while 30 ended in the red and one stock remained unchanged.

The major gainers of the Nifty were BPCL up 4.37%, Lupin up by 2.83%, Gail up by 1.75%, HDFC Bank up by 1.71% and L&T up by 1.69%.

The key losers were SSLT down by 4.12%, Wipro down by 2.65%, PNB down by 2.22%, Jindal Steel down by 1.86% and IndusInd Bank down by 1.63%. (Provisional)

Most of the European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC 40 was up 0.75%, UK’s FTSE 100 was up 0.92% and Germany’s DAX was up by 1.11%.

The Asian markets concluded Tuesday’s trade mostly in green, in the first full day’s trade after the Easter break, with Wall Street providing another strong lead. In Japan the earnings season gets under way next week with the release of reports from big names. Japan’s annual export growth slowed sharply in March due to weaker shipments to China, casting doubt that a recovery in external demand could help offset the impact of the April 1 sales tax hike. Ministry of Finance data showed that exports rose 1.8% in March from a year earlier, following a 9.8% annual gain in the previous month.

Foreign Direct Investment in Shanghai grew 14.2% from a year earlier to $1.65 billion in March, up from an 8.5% increase in February. The rise in the city’s FDI indicated foreign investors’ confidence in the local business conditions. The gain also contrasted with the 1.47% decline in FDI in China. Buying sentiment for new homes rebounded in Shanghai last week but sales were still below the weekly average as home-seekers and real estate developers were still cautious overall. The purchases of new homes, excluding government-funded affordable housing, jumped 25% from the previous week to 183,500 square meters.