Post Session: Quick Review

Local equity markets lost ground for sixth straight session on Friday, which dragged both Sensex and Nifty below psychologically crucial 28,750 and 8,700 levels with cut of over half a percent against the backdrop of negative global set-up. Lack of buying activity from market-participants ahead of Delhi polls scheduled to take place over the weekend weighed on the sentiment. The upcoming election in Delhi, which is expected to a tight contest between Arvind Kejriwal and the BJP have created a lot of uncertainty among investors and un-nerved markets, while the fears of BJP losing the battle further played havoc on investors’ mind. Back to Dalal Street, markets for the entire trading session has been grinding lower , though recovery came to fore for couple of times, bears hit back with vengeance. The session turned out to be daunting for broader indices, which went home with sharper cuts in the range of 1.05%-1.50%.

On the global front, Asian shares edged higher on Friday as oil prices continued to rebound amidst prevailing caution ahead of the US nonfarm payrolls report for January later in the session. Street widely expects US employers to have taken on 234,000 workers in January, below December's increase of 252,000. The jobless rate was expected to remain at a 6-1/2-year low of 5.6 per cent, while average hourly earnings is expected to show a rise of 0.3 percent following the previous month's fall of 0.2%. Meanwhile, European stocks, pausing just below multi-year highs hit recently dipped on Friday as investors awaited the U.S. non-farm payrolls report for January due later in the session.

Closer home, most of the sectoral indices on BSE concluded into negative territory, only stocks from Information Technology, Fast Moving Consumer Goods and Technology counters were the prominent gainers of the session. IT stocks edged higher on demand as Cognizant Technologies Solutions Corp posted robust revenue growth forecast for 2015. Cognizant forecast 2015 revenue growth of at least 19 per cent after growing at just 16 per cent in 2014. Like its Indian rivals - TCS and Infosys - Cognizant also gets the largest chunk of its revenue from financial services clients. It gets nearly 80 per cent of revenue from North America IT. On the flip side, stocks from Auto, Healthcare and Banking counters were the prominent losers of the session. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of decliners, which thumped advances in the ratio of 880:1988, while 104 shares remained unchanged (Provisional).

The BSE Sensex ended at 28717.91, down by 133.06 points or 0.46% after trading in a range of 28647.14 and 28922.85. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in the red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.06%, while Small cap index down by 1.82%. (Provisional)

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.89%, FMCG up by 0.84%, TECK up by 0.74% while, Auto down by 2.77%, Healthcare down by 1.72%, Bankex down by 1.27%, Power down by 1.25% and Oil & Gas down by 1.09%, were the losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were HDFC up by 2.56%, Sesa Sterlite up by 1.64%, Infosys up by 1.61%, ITC up by 1.59% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.99%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 5.02%, BHEL down by 4.94%, Tata Steel down by 3.00%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.69% and Sun Pharma down by 2.57% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, with a view to solve the problems being faced by Indian Metal Recycling Industry, Union Minister Vishnu Deo has stated that the Mine Ministry will be looking into issue of import duty on scrap, special additional duty and trade pacts with countries.

This development comes after Metals Recycling Association of India expressed its apprehension over metal recycling being badly affected by heavy import duty, Special Additional Duty (SAD) regime and certain Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with countries and hence demanded government to draft a Metal Recycling Policy to grant 'Industry status' to the sector and rationalize duty structures to make it a globally competitive industry.

Further, it also urged the Ministry of Steel and Mines to consider the removal of import duty and SAD, levied on imported scrap products on immediate basis in the forthcoming budget and expressed the dire need of government's intervention to save the already bleeding industry from dying. Lastly, the association also requested the Government of Maharashtra to create special recycling zones in the State.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility rose 0.33% at 20.68 from its previous close of 20.61 on Thursday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty ended at 8661.05, down by 50.65 points or 0.58% after trading in a range of 8645.55 and 8726.20. There were 13 stocks advancing against 37 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Cairn India up by 2.87%, HDFC up by 2.74%, NMDC up by 2.03%, Infosys up by 1.67% and Sesa Sterlite up by 1.35%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 5.02%, BHEL down by 4.59%, DLF down by 3.51%, Sun Pharma down by 3.41% and Jindal Steel & Power down by 2.90% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European Markets were trading in the red; UK's FTSE 100 was down by 0.43%, France's CAC was down by 0.47% and Germany's DAX was down by 0.89%.

The Asian indices reversing their last session’s performance, ended mostly in green on Friday. While the Chinese markets declined on profit taking, the Japanese market surged keeping the spirit high throughout the day, tracking the overnight gains in the US markets. The equity indices in the region were optimistic about the monthly US jobs data, which is likely to show an increase of about 230,000 jobs in January following the addition of 252,000 jobs in December. Japanese shares were additionally jubilant as oil prices steadied and Greece reassured investors that its banks will retain funding access. On the economic front, Japan's official reserve assets increased by $555 million month-over-month to $1,261.103 billion in January.