Weakness persist in markets; inflation in line with expectation

Indian equity markets continue trading lower and not paying much attention to the inflation numbers for the month of December, which has come in at 7.47% versus 9.11% (MoM), in line with market expectations. However, primary articles inflation has come in at 3.07% versus 8.53%, fuel group inflation at 14.91% versus 15.48%, food group inflation at 0.74% versus 8.54% while manufactured products inflation has come in at 7.41% versus 7.7%. On inline inflation numbers, market is hopeful of a possible rate cut in January 24 policy review. On sectoral front, most of the sectors were trading in red. Select information technology stocks have moved up with investors picking them up after recent sharp losses. The rupee's weakness against the dollar is also contributing to the gains of IT stocks. A few stocks from the FMCG space too were trading higher. While metal, capital goods, bank and healthcare stocks were mostly trading weak. Stocks from oil, power and realty sectors were also trading lower. On the global front, Wall Street ended on a weak note on Friday and Asian markets are mostly down with notable losses at present amid worries about the European economy following Standard & Poor's downgrading several European nations. Back home, the market breadth favoring the negative trend; there were 1,119 shares on the gaining side against 1,199 shares on the losing side while 102 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 16,088.98, down by 65.64 points or 0.41%. The index has touched a high and a low of 16127.11 and 16037.60 respectively. There were 10 stocks advancing against 20 declines on the index.

The broader indices were mixed at this point of time; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.43% while the small cap index was trading up by 0.22%.

Most of the sectoral gauges were in red on the BSE, the top losers were Oil & Gas down by 1.41%, Bankex down by 1.31%, Health Care down by 0.98%, Capital Goods down by 0.87%, Realty down by 0.84%.

On the flip side IT was up by 1.59, TECk up 1.42% and FMCG up by 0.26%.

The top gainers of the Sensex were TCS up by 2.14%, Infosys up by 1.55%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.42%, Tata Power up by 1.35% and Maruti Suzuki up by 1.25%.

On the other hand, the top losers were Sun Pharma down by 2.13%, Reliance down by 1.99%, HDFC Bank down by 1.88%, L&T down by 1.72% and HUL has lost 1.61%.

Meanwhile, exports of services like software, construction, and transportation from India declined slightly in the month of November to $11.28 billion over the previous month, according to the data released by Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The central bank’s provisional aggregate data on India’s international trade in services, which is released on a monthly basis with a lag of 45 days, showed that the exports stood at $11.45 billion in October.

India’s services sector, which plays a major role in India’s economy as it constitutes about 60 percent of the GDP, saw its imports rise to $7.40 billion in the month under review as against $6.82 billion in October. Thus, services exports during the first eight months of this fiscal stood at around $124 billion, while imports were over $69 billion during the April-November period.

In the first six months of the fiscal, the country’s net foreign inflows from trade in services were at $46.4 billion while merchandise exports in the eight-month period from April-November aggregated to $192.69 billion and imports equaled $309.5 billion. 

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 4,840.40, down by 25.60 points or 0.53%. The index has touched a high and a low of 4,852.05 and 4,827.05 respectively. There were 13 stocks advancing against 36 declines and one remained unchanged on the index. 
The top gainers of the Nifty were TCS up by 2.23%, HCL Tech up by 1.75%, Infosys up by 1.66%, IDFC up by 1.48% and Tata Power up by 1.46%.

On the other hand, RPower down by 3.13%, Kotak Bank down by 2.80%, JP Associates down by 2.80%, Sesa goa down by 2.31% and Sun Pharma down by 2.26% were the top losers on the index.

All the Asian markets continue to trade lower; Shanghai Composite was down by 1.09%, Hang Seng was down by 1.12%, Jakarta Composite was down by 0.82%, Nikkei 225 was down by 1.47%, Straits Times lost 1.38%, Seoul Composite was down by 0.74% and Taiwan Weighted was lower by 1.09%.