Post Session: Quick Review

Snapping two consecutive sessions’ gaining streak, local equity markets clocked a downbeat session on Wednesday, nursing heavy losses of around a percent, which dragged both Sensex and Nifty below the psychologically crucial 26,000 and 7,700 levels respectively. Bout of aggressive selling pressure which crept into markets in the second half of trading session, mainly led to obliteration, also dragging broader indices lower for the session. On the broader front, while Midcap index concluded with a cut of over 3/4th of a percent, Midcaps settled lower with loss of over one tenth of a percent. Profit-booking by market-participants after two consecutive sessions of gains on the back of somber global cues, mainly was the reason enough behind the plunge of Indian equity markets.

On the global front, Asian markets and European shares moved lower on concerns about escalating tensions in Ukraine. Sentiment was hurt after a Polish official warned about the potential for Russia to invade Ukraine. Besides reports which suggested of Russian troops massing at the eastern Ukrainian border, where pro-Moscow rebels were in conflict with the Ukrainian government - ratcheting up geopolitical tension in the region, also dampened sentiment.

Closer home, in the selling pressure which was broad-based, most of the sectoral indices on BSE concluded into negative territory, except for stocks from Information Technology and Technology counters which advanced after Rupee depreciated to five months low, since majority of technology companies derive their majority revenues from clients overseas. However, Metal, Banking and Realty counters were the weak spells of trade. While, hawkish language of RBI in its third bi-monthly monetary policy review perturbed banking shares, disappointing Q1 numbers of Hero MotoCorp dragged Auto pivotal. However, recovery of Hero MotoCorp shares failed to lift the Auto pivotal. The company’s net profit rose 2.58% to Rs 562.76 crore on 14% increase in total income to Rs 7,149.59 crore in June quarter ended over the corresponding quarter of the previous year. In stock-specific activity, Indian state-run oil retailers gained after leading advisory service in its report underscored sector headed into 'a sweet spot'. Additionally, sugar stocks too sweetened after 95-odd private sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh decided to crush no sugarcane in the 2014-15 season, scheduled to start from October until the state government gives in to two of their demands, with the first being linking mandated price to the market price of sugar and the other being, stopping its ongoing coercive action against mills for not clearing past arrears to farmers for cane. The market breadth on the BSE remained evenly divided; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1,485: 1,479, while 126 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex declined 242.74 points or 0.94% to settle at 25665.27. The index touched a high and a low of 25901.68 and 25621.85 respectively. 8 stocks gained against 22 declines on the index. (Provisional)

The BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices too ended in the red, the BSE Midcap was down by 0.77%, while the BSE Small cap index was lower by 0.15%. (Provisional) 

On the BSE sectoral front, IT up by 0.67% and TECk up by 0.10% were the major gainers in the space, while Metal was down 1.90%, Bankex was down 1.82%, Realty was down 1.25%, PSU was down 1.16% and Infrastructure was down by 1.07% remained the top losers on the sectoral space. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 2.02%, RIL up by 0.55%, M&M up by 0.49%, Hero MotoCorp up by 0.42% and HUL was up by 0.41%. On the flip side, ITC down by 2.97%, ICICI Bank down by 2.63%, SSLT down by 2.48%, Axis Bank down by 2.34% and Tata Motors down by 2.30% were the major losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, the retail inflation for factory workers eased to 6.49 percent y-o-y in the month of June as compared to 7.2 percent in the previous month mainly driven by low prices of food items, soft coke and medicines. The retail inflation, which is based on Consumer Price Index-Industrial Workers (CPI-IW), stood at 11.06 percent in the same month last year. Inflation in food articles for industrial workers dropped to 5.88 percent in June 2014 from 7.66 percent in May and 14.86 percent during the same month of previous year.

Among the food products, price rise was seen in rice, fish, vegetables, sugar, cigarette, goat meat, poultry, chicken, milk, onion, potato, tomato and electricity. However, the increase was restricted due to lower prices of wheat, wheat flour, edible oils, fruits and medicines.

At centre level, Vishakhapathnam, Bengluru, Kodarma,Goa and Madurai recorded maximum increase of 6 points each followed by Ahmedabad and Hubli Dharwar (5 points each).  Among others, 4 points rise in index was observed in 8 centres, 3 points in 11 centres, 2 points in 16 centres and one point in another 16 centres. Whereas, a decline of 8 points was reported in Giridih, 2 points each in Yamunanagar and Sholapur, and one point in 5 centres. Indices of remaining 12 centres experienced no change in the reported month. Furthermore, the indices of 36 centres are above and other 42 centres are below national average.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility rose 2.50% at 14.29 from its previous close of 13.94 on Tuesday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty ended lower by 74.50 points or 0.96% to settle at 7,672.05. The index touched high and low of 7,740.95 and 7,658.95 respectively. 12 stocks ended in the green against 18 stocks ending in red. (Provisional)

The major gainers of the Nifty were Infosys up by 1.34%, Power Grid up by 1.28%, Asian Paints up by 1.04%, M&M up by 0.80% and RIL was up by 0.63%. On the flip side, the key losers were ITC down by 2.99%, PNB down by 2.71%, ICICI Bank down by 2.67%, SSLT down by 2.44% and Axis Bank down by 2.35%. (Provisional)

European markets were trading in the red; Germany's DAX was down by 1.03%, France's CAC 40 was down by 1.42% and UK's FTSE 100 was down by 1.13%.

Asian equity indices ended mostly in red on Wednesday, with the regional index extending yesterday’s losses, amid escalating tensions in Ukraine. Indonesia’s economic expansion continued to slow in the second quarter, dragged by falling growth in investment. Gross domestic product rose 5.12% in the April-June period from the same period last year, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) reported. The BPS revised first-quarter growth to 5.22%. Investment growth slowed to 4.5% in the first quarter, year on year, compared to 5.1% in the first quarter. Hong Kong’s home sales, which hit a two-year high in July, lack the catalyst to rebound further as government policies to contain prices deter speculators. Monthly sales volume may be capped at around 7,000 to 8,000 in the third quarter as existing homeowners are reluctant to sell and investors are discouraged by additional taxes. Japan’s index of leading economic indicators rose to a seasonally adjusted 105.5, from 104.8 in the preceding month whose figure was revised down from 105.7. Malaysian Trade Balance fell to 3.97B, from 5.70B in the preceding month.