Post Session: Quick Review

After hitting life time highs in the previous trading session, Indian equity markets surrendered to selling pressure on Tuesday, which took both Sensex and Nifty below the psychologically crucial 27,300 and 8,150 levels respectively, with loss of around quarter of a percent. Markets right from the start of the trade traded downbeat in absence of any positive trigger, rather they gradually kept losing ground until late deals when some buying activity took place, which lifted markets from day’s low point. Besides, absence of any positive triggers at domestic front, negative global cues, also added to the pressure of Indian equity markets.

Additionally, markets also failed to draw any sense of relief from reports which suggested of Finance Ministry pitching to Moody's for ratings upgrade on the back of improving macro-economic fundamentals. Finance Ministry informed Moody's that the Budget 2014-15 has provided an impetus to growth and the government is taking steps to keep the fiscal deficit under check. Indian economy witnessed better than expected growth in Q1FY15 at 5.7% y-o-y as compared to 4.7% growth recorded in same quarter last year and 4.6% in Q4FY14. However, the session turned out to be yielding for broader indices, which went home with gains in the range of 0.25%-0.45% respectively.

On the global front, Asian stock markets concluded mixed on Tuesday as profit-taking and a sharply higher dollar exerted both positive and negative impacts on the region. Meanwhile, European equities were trading lower on Tuesday as gains for shares in companies including Telecom Italia and ABB were offset by weaker energy shares following a sharp decline in crude oil prices.

Closer home, much of the weakness of markets were endorsed by stocks belonging from Realty, IT and Oil & Gas counters which were the top losers of the session, on the flip side, stocks from Consumer Durable, FMCG and Power were the top gainers of the session. Meanwhile, Metal shares fell on caution ahead of the Supreme Court's hearing on 'illegal' coal block allocations, due later in the day. The court on August 25 declared as illegal government allocations of coal blocks since 1993.

Besides, Retail stocks such as Koutons Retail, Future Retail, Pantaloons Fashion Retail and Shoppers’ Shop too came under pressure on the bourses as Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman reiterated that the Government will not allow foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail. The market breadth on the BSE remained in the favour of advances; advancing and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1667:1338, while 95 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex ended lower by 54.53 points or 0.20% at 27265.32 after trading in a range of 27177.09 and 27328.27. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.51%, while Small cap index up by 0.31%. (Provisional)

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.75%, FMCG up by 0.86%, Power up by 0.59%, Infrastructure up by 0.48%, Auto up by 0.34% while, Realty down by 1.11%, IT down by 0.82%, Oil & Gas down by 0.49%, TECK down by 0.45%, Capital Goods down by 0.43% were the losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up by 2.73%, Coal India up by 2.08%, Tata Motors up by 1.47%, ITC up by 1.26% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.92%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.51%, ONGC down by 1.41%, BHEL down by 1.41%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.39% and ICICI Bank down by 1.28% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, confident over the improving macro-economic indicators of the country, Finance Ministry has made a case for international rating agency Moody's to upgrade sovereign rating of India. Finance Ministry informed Moody's that the Budget 2014-15 has provided an impetus to growth and the government is taking steps to keep the fiscal deficit under check. Indian economy witnessed better than expected growth in Q1FY15 at 5.7% y-o-y as compared to 4.7% growth recorded in same quarter last year and 4.6% in Q4FY14.

Global rating agency Moody's has assigned 'Baa3' rating on India, with stable outlook. Moody's, rating reflects high domestic savings, adequate foreign exchange reserves and the challenges posed by large fiscal deficits, recurrent inflation and weak infrastructure.

However, official of rating agency had expressed concern over about fiscal deficit and the Finance Ministry has sought to comfort them on this front. The Ministry informed that fiscal deficit of the country will contain at 4.1 percent of GDP this year and lower it to 3 percent by 2016-17. The ministry also stated that an Expenditure Management Commission was set up which would look at broad contours of subsidy rationalization and could augur well for fiscal deficit management. On inflation front, the ministry has told the agency that efforts are being taken to keep inflation within the targeted levels and in case if monsoon is below normal and if production is marginally down then country's food stocks are adequate enough to take care of contingency.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility dropped 0.46% at 12.73 from its previous close of 12.79 on Monday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty edged lower by 21.60 points or 0.26% at 8152.30 after trading in a range of 8126.50 and 8174.55. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Cipla up by 2.53%, Coal India up by 1.89%, Indusind Bank up by 1.63%, ITC up by 1.50% and Tata Motors up by 1.41%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 1.84%, Asian Paints down by 1.63%, HCL Tech down by 1.52%, DLF down by 1.47% and Bajaj Auto down by 1.47% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European Markets were trading in the red; Germany’s DAX was down by 0.13%, France’s CAC was down by 0.14% and UK’s FTSE 100 was down by 0.16%.

Asian markets ended mostly in green on Tuesday, following gains on Wall Street despite poor Japanese growth data. Hong Kong market was closed on account of the day following the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival holiday. Bank of Japan board members at the August meeting said the focus for policymakers should be the underlying trend in prices as they assess whether sustained 2% inflation is possible by 2015, the minutes showed. Members expressed the recognition that, even though monthly figures for the CPI tended to draw attention in terms of the BoJ’s conduct of monetary policy, it was important to accurately gauge the underlying trend in prices.

China’s trade surplus surged to a record $49.8 billion in August, as imports surprisingly fell for a second straight month while export growth slowed. Imports fell 2.4% year-on-year to $158.6 billion while exports increased 9.4% to $208.5 billion. Japanese Household Confidence rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 41.2. Taiwanese Trade Balance rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.11B, from 2.61B in the preceding month.