Post Session: Quick Review

Last hour volatility that crept into Indian equity markets led to flat end of trade with negative bias as investors squared off their position ahead of local holiday on Thursday and on account of palpable caution ahead of results day on May 16. However, what started as fairly stable session of trade turned out to be a choppy one. By close of trade, while Sensex settled with loss of over two tenths of a percent below the crucial 22,450 level, Nifty settled flat above the crucial 6700 bastion. However, the losses were wider for broader indices, which nursed heavy loss of over a percent.

On the global front, Japanese stocks led the gains of Asian pacific region after Bank of Japan stood pat on policy. Moreover, European shares taking positive handover from Asian peers, were trading into positive terrain on account of massive gains of French conglomerate Alstom, which jumped 7% after saying it would review a binding offer from General Electric for its energy business by the end of May and left the door open for a competing bid from Germany's Siemens.

Closer home, benchmarks got off to a positive start, following positive lead from Wall Street and upbeat earnings announcements. The rally was mainly led by surge of blue-chip stocks like Reliance Industries, HDFC twins, ICICI Bank among others. However, the gains were halved by noon deals with the start of European counterparts. Nevertheless, the last hour of selling took away all the sheen, though some recovery emerged thereafter but was way little to snap the three consecutive sessions’ downtrend of the markets.

Amidst the broad-based selling pressure, stocks from Auto, Fast Moving Consumer Goods and Oil & Gas counters were the one to depict resilience. However, massive drubbing was witnessed in stocks from Realty, Power and Capital Goods counters. Banking stocks, which held up in trade for most part of the session, also settled with loss of close to half a percent. 

The market breadth on the BSE ended negative; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 999:1768, while 154 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex lost 48.39 points or 0.22% to settle at 22417.80. The index touched a high and a low of 22680.46 and 22284.96 respectively. Among the 30-share Sensex, 11 stocks gained, while 19 stocks declined. (Provisional)

The BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices ended lower by 1.12% and 1.65% respectively. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Auto up by 0.37%, FMCG up by 0.16% and Oil & Gas up by 0.03% were the gainers while, Realty down by 5.30%, Power down by 2.08%, Capital Goods down by 2.03%, Consumer Durables down by 2.00% and Metal down by 1.15% were the top losers in the space. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hero MotoCorp up by 3.01%, ONGC up by 1.94%, Dr Reddys Lab up by 1.55%, Tata Motors up by 1.55% and HDFC up by 1.53% while, Tata Power down by 3.46%, BHEL down by 3.05, SSLT down by 2.65%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.13% and L&T down by 1.86% were the top losers in the index (Provisional)

Meanwhile, as monsoon rainfall is likely to be weak this year, the agriculture ministry is making unprecedented preparations to make sure that food production will not badly hit by the weather. At Present, chief officials of the Agriculture Ministry are on state tours and are consulting with farmers on drought preparedness. However, in the previous year, agriculture ministry did not take any action even after the month of June went without rain. The Ministry is working hard to counter impact of weak monsoon rains amid concerns that inflation may remain sticky in the current financial year as a possible El Nino effect on the monsoon is likely to push up food prices and geopolitical uncertainties are also expected to pump up global commodity rates.

The Agriculture Ministry has also planned to suggest farmers to use of seeds that are less water intensive as well as contingency plans. Agriculture Commissioner JS Sandhu has asserted that Ministry’s plan include recommending short-duration crops in some regions and planting of Basmati, which needs lesser water than regular grades of rice. Further, he added that states will be recommended to coordinate with different departments like irrigation and power to ensure supply of canal water and electricity.

Over the past four months, retail prices of pulses and rice have already risen 10% to 27% from a year earlier due to unseasonal rain and hailstorms.  On commodity wise, prices of urad dal has increased from Rs 41,000 per tonne to Rs 45,000 per tonne in last four months, while prices of yellow peas have gone up to Rs 30,000 per tonne from Rs 26,500 per tonne.  India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation lost 1.47% at 30.59 from its previous close of 31.05 on Tuesday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty lost 5.15 points or 0.08% to settle at 6,710.10. The index touched high and low of 6,780.15 and 6,656.80 respectively. Out of 50 stocks in Nifty, 19 stocks ended in the green and 29 in red, while 2 stocks ended unchanged.

The major gainers of the Nifty were Hero Moto Co up 3.47%, Tata Motors up by 1.94%, ONGC up by 1.94%, Asian Paint up by 1.57% and DR Reddy up by 1.44%.  The key losers were DLF down by 9.03%, Tata Power down by 3.40%, BHEL down by 2.95%, SSLT down by 2.62% and Bharti Airtel down by 2.09%. (Provisional)

European markets were trading in red; France’s CAC 40 was down by 0.38%, UK’s FTSE 100 was down by 0.69% and Germany’s DAX was down by 0.17%.

The Asian markets concluded Wednesday’s trade mostly in green. The Bank of Japan held fire on expanding its stimulus program despite tepid industrial production data and a recent sales tax rise that have fanned fears over the strength of the country’s recovery. Bank of Japan policymakers lowered their expectations for the economy with fiscal year growth slated to come in at 1.1%, down from an earlier 1.4% forecast. The bank's semi-annual report, which gauges the median of BOJ members’ views, also expects core inflation for the year to March to be 1.3% matching an earlier forecast. Japan’s Average Cash Earnings rose to a seasonally adjusted 0.7%, from -0.1% in the preceding quarter whose figure was revised down from 0% while Japanese Housing Starts fell to a seasonally adjusted -2.9%, from 1.0% in the preceding quarter.

Indonesia’s proposed 2015 budget assumes economic growth of 5.5% to 6.3%, versus a 6% target this year. In the budget proposal to be sent to parliament, the government will set a year-end inflation rate target for 2015 at 3.5 to 5.5%. The inflation forecast is higher than Bank Indonesia’s target of around 3 to 4% next year. Singapore Unemployment Rate rose to 2.1%, from 1.8% in the preceding quarter. Thai Trade Balance fell to a seasonally adjusted 3.48B, from 3.90B in the preceding month.