Post Session: Quick Review

Ending lower for seventh consecutive session, Indian equity markets succumbing to selling pressure cracked over 1.50% on Monday that dragged both Sensex and Nifty below psychologically crucial 28,200 and 8,550 levels respectively as exit polls showed BJP facing electoral defeat in Delhi, the first state election defeat since Modi swept to power last year.

Reports suggested that anti-corruption Aam Aadmi Party, or Common People's Party, is likely to win 38 seats in the 70-seat Delhi Assembly. Markets tanked as BJP’s defeat dented Modi's aura of electoral invincibility, raising concerns about whether the Government could gain control of the Upper House of Parliament, where the Bharatiya Janata Party lags behind, making efforts to pass legislation more difficult since state elections have a bearing on seats for the upper house of parliament. Moreover, prevailing concern over release of Q3GDP data later in the day, also weighed on the sentiment. Besides, discouraging third quarter earnings by some blue-chip companies and weakness in the rupee, dampened trading sentiments. Thus, amid broad-based weakness, broader indices too ended lower with cut of over 1.50%.

On the global front, Asian pacific shares wobbled on Monday after dismal Chinese trade figures fuelled concerns over a slowdown in the world’s second largest economy. Data published on Sunday showed China's trade performance slumped in January, with exports falling 3.3% from year-ago levels while imports tumbled 19.9%, far worse than street had expected. Meanwhile, European shares, too receiving negative handover from Asian counterparts, were trading into negative territory also as investors remained worry cautious following jitters over Greece. Standard & Poor’s cut Greece’s rating on Friday, while Moody’s said it was placing Greece’s government bond rating on review for downgrade.

Closer home, most of the sectoral indices on BSE ended into negative territory, nevertheless stocks from Capital Goods, Realty and Metal counters were the prominent losers of the session. While, slide of L&T shares weighed on Capital Goods counter, dismal Chinese trade figures which fuelled concerns over a slowdown in the world’s second largest economy took the shine away from Metal counter. India’s biggest engineering and construction company Larsen and Toubro (L&T) reported a 14% decline in standalone net profit at Rs 1,060 crores for the quarter ended Decmber 2014 after a fall in revenue at its power and metallurgical business.

Additionally, shares of power distribution companies also declined on reports suggesting the victory AAP at Delhi elections. As Delhi's Chief Minister for 49 days, AAP’s leader, Kejriwal had ordered the state auditor to look into the accounts of power distribution companies to see if they were profiteering; he had also threatened to cancel the licences of Delhi's two electricity distributors over power supply issues. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of decliners, which thumped advances in the ratio of 938:1908, while 104 shares remained unchanged (Provisional).

The BSE Sensex ended at 28227.39, down by 490.52 points or 1.71% after trading in a range of 28183.32 and 28566.50. There were 6 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in the red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.41%, while Small cap index down by 1.50%. (Provisional)

The losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods down by 4.31%, Realty down by 2.73%, Metal down by 2.54%, Auto down by 2.27%, Bankex down by 2.06%, while there were no gainers on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Dr. Reddys Lab up by 2.01%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.40%, Sun Pharma up by 1.34%, Wipro up by 1.33% and ONGC up by 1.21%. On the flip side, Larsen & Toubro down by 7.60%, Tata Steel down by 6.17%, Sesa Sterlite down by 4.65%, Cipla down by 4.15% and SBI down by 3.67% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, reversing the trend, India's coal import fell by 20% at 15.73 million tonnes during January as against 19.75 Mt in December, 2014 due to lower demand from domestic steel makers. The January imports, however, were a marginal 2% more than the 15.37 MT imports in the same month of last year. Notably, Indian power companies have imported 163 MT stem coal out of the country's total coal imports of 210.55 MT in the entire 2014, accounting for more than 77% of imports.

Of the total imports during January this year, non-coking coal rose marginally higher at 15.91 MT compared to 15.36 MT in December, led by higher demand from country's fuel-hungry power plants, which have been battling fuel scarcity for a long time now.

Besides, imports of metallurgical coke, which is also used by the steel firms, were down to 98,770 tonnes from 1.76 lakh tonnes. Petroleum coke imports also decreased to 4.78 lakh tonnes from 6.9 lakh tonnes in December, 2014. Moreover, there was no import of pulverized coal in January as against 2.9 lakh tonnes in the previous month.

On the flip side, Anthracite coal imports rose to 52,293 tonnes in January from 33,190 tonnes in December 2014. Additionally, India's imported coal stocks, including steam coal and coking coal at eight major and two private ports rose by 2.27% to 8.207 MT in January-end against 8.025 MT as on December 26.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility surged 6.53% at 22.03 from its previous close of 20.68 on Friday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty ended at 8526.35, down by 134.70 points or 1.56% after trading in a range of 8516.35 and 8605.55. There were 10 stocks advancing against 40 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Dr. Reddys Lab up by 2.09%, HCL Tech up by 1.70%, Sun Pharma up by 1.63%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.61% and ONGC up by 1.42%. On the flip side, Larsen & Toubro down by 7.44%, Tata Steel down by 6.06%, Sesa Sterlite down by 4.84%, DLF down by 4.44% and GAIL India down by 4.17% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European Markets were trading in the red; UK's FTSE 100 was down by 0.18%, France's CAC was down by 0.26% and Germany's DAX was down by 0.54%.

The Asian indices ended mostly in red on Monday, on dismal Chinese trade data, raising concerns about a deepening slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy. China’s trade performance slumped in January, with exports falling 3.3 percent from year-ago levels, while imports tumbled 19.9 percent, far worse than expected, highlighting deepening weakness in the Chinese economy. Largely as a result of the sharply lower imports - particularly of coal, oil and commodities - China posted a record monthly trade surplus of $60 billion. The slide in imports is the sharpest since May 2009, when Chinese factories were still slashing inventories in reaction to the global financial crisis. Exports have not produced a negative annual reading since March 2014. The dismal trade performance will increase concerns that an economic slowdown in China - originally considered a desirable adjustment away from an investment-intensive export model toward one based on domestic consumption - is at risk of derailing.

Japan’s central bank policymaker stated that the country will not slip back into deflation as improvements in the economy offset the temporary pressure on prices from slumping oil costs, signaling that no immediate expansion of monetary stimulus was necessary. Taiwanese Trade Balance rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.80B, from 4.45B in the preceding month.