Post Session: Quick Review

Extending their southbound journey to third straight session, Indian equity markets taking a knock of over half a percent, settled below the psychological 20,500 (Sensex) and 6750 (Nifty) levels respectively. Sentiment turned weak as foreign investors sold index futures worth Rs 1170 crore over the last two sessions. Lenders lead the declines given the sector comprises a major portion of index futures. Additionally, disappointment over Consumer goods maker HUL’s earnings was also sensed across Dalal Street, while earnings from JSPL, Dabur India further aggravated the sentiment.

Thus, in absence of any positive trigger at home front, frontline indices underperformed the globe. Meanwhile, broader indices staged an indecisive show; with Midcap index settling with gains of over one tenth of a percent and Small-cap index ending higher with gains of over 0.10%.

On the global front, most Asian stocks advanced, with a surge in Hong Kong shares spurring a regional gauge to climb from a three-week low as investors weighed earnings. Additionally, European stocks rose on Tuesday, as optimism surrounding corporate earnings and merger moves eclipsed the crisis in Ukraine, while rising euro zone money market rates and strong German consumer confidence supported the euro.

Closer home, the sell-off was broad-based, as none of the sectoral indices on BSE was spared in green, barring Consumer Durable counter, which managed to eke out slender gain. On the flip side, stocks from Metal, Banking and Auto counters were the top losers of the session. In non-sectoral gauge activity, telecom stocks gained some limelight after the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) cleared the 3G intra-circle roaming agreements signed between Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular, saying the pacts didn't violate any license conditions and also quashed the penalties levied on the three operators by the telecom department (DoT). The stocks related to the news although rose higher in a knee jerk reaction, but soon edged lower on profit booking and ended into negative territory by close of trade.

On the earnings front, JSPL crashed as much as 7% after the company posted a net profit of Rs. 402 crore for the January-March period, lagging expectations. The company's total income for the period also came in below expectations at Rs 5102 crore against estimates of Rs. 5559 crore. Meanwhile, Dabur India slipped over a 1% despite meeting street estimates. FMCG major Dabur India met street expectations with the fourth quarter (January-March) net profit rising 17.3 percent year-on-year to Rs 235.3 crore on revenues of Rs 1,774.4 crore (up 15.5 percent Y-o-Y). The market breadth on the BSE ended negative; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1277: 1510, while 123 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex lost 165.42 points or 0.73% to settle at 22466.19. The index touched a high and a low of 22681.89 and 22443.56 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 0.44% and 0.02% respectively. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, while Consumer Durables up by 0.18%, was the only gainer, Metal down by 2.69%, Bankex down by 1.27%, Auto down by 1.19%, Power down by 1.11% and FMCG down by 0.83% were the top losers in the space. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 0.59%, Coal India up by 0.39%, HDFC up by 0.20%, BHEL up by 0.08%, while, Tata Steel down by 4.79%, Hindustan Unilever down by 3.13%, Tata Power down by 3.01%, Hindalco Inds down by 2.55% and Maruti Suzuki down by 2.17% were the top losers in the index  (Provisional)

Meanwhile, just days after partially lifting the Goa mining ban, the Supreme Court (SC) has indicated that it will pass an interim order on a plea for halting illegal mining activities in Odisha and the priority before it would be to stop 40 out of 56 iron ore mines operating under “deemed-renewed leases.”

A green bench headed by Justice AK Patnaik, though ruled out the possibility of a blanket ban on mining and limited its potential directive to 40 iron ore mine lease, which have been identified as operating under the provision of ‘deemed renewed’ leases after expiry of their lease period, by apex court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC).

The order by the bench, also comprising justices SS Nijjar and FMI Kali-fulla, was reserved after scrutinizing the interim report submitted by the CEC that spelt out the status of leases and approvals of miners in Odisha. The interim report underscored huge number of mining leases in the state that had been operational long after the expiry of the lease period. The 40 such leases included those of Tata Steel, Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and Jindal Steel and Power, operating under the deemed approved norms.

CEC pointed that in total there were 187 iron ore and manganese mines in Odisha, out of which 56 were functional, while as many as 131 mining leases did not have required statutory approvals or lapsed leases that were not operational. It further highlighted that of the 131 mines, 102 were sans forest clearances or environmental clearances and were hence suspended and classified as ‘non-working leases’, while of working 56 iron ore mines, only 16 had lease deeds executed in their favour and the rest 40 leases expired and were operating as ‘deemed approved’.

The apex court-appointed committee also elucidated that Odisha government, on this issue, said that renewal application of miners were under 'various stages of examination' and in some cases 'in-principle' decision to grant renewal had been taken but follow up actions were under process.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation lost 1.06% at 31.05 from its previous close of 31.38 on Monday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty lost 46.00 points or 0.68% to settle at 6,715.25. The index touched high and low of 6,779.70 and 6,708.65 respectively. Out of 50 stocks in Nifty, 14 stocks ended in the green and 35 in red, while 1 stock ended unchanged.

The major gainers of the Nifty were Ambuja Cement up 3.49%, Grasim up by 1.39%, BPCL up by 1.10%, ACC up by 0.95% and Tech Mahindra up by 0.75%.  The key losers were Jindal Steel down by 9.01%, Tata Steel down by 4.88%, HUL down by 3.36%, Tata Power down by 3.01% and Hindalco down by 2.73%. (Provisional)

European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC 40 was up 0.07%, UK’s FTSE 100 was up 1.25% and Germany’s DAX was up by 0.68%.

The Asian markets concluded Tuesday’s trade mostly in green with Hong Kong shares jumping on bargain-hunting following a rebound on Wall Street, while investors await the release of key economic data later in the week. Japanese market has been closed for the day on account of ‘Showa Day’ holiday. The International Monetary Fund revised its forecast of China’s economic growth to 7.5% for this year and 7.3% in 2015 but it warned the slowdown in the country’s economy was sharper than envisaged despite the upward adjustment. But the revision in both growth figures marked a rise of 0.3% points from the previous forecast in October. Homebuyers and real estate developers in Shanghai retained their positive sentiment last week despite an overall weakness in the market. The purchases of new homes, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, rose 7% week on week to 196,400 square meters, up for the second straight week.