Post Session: Quick Review

Extending previous session’s somberness, Indian equity markets ended lower on Monday, with cut of around two tenth of a percent which dragged both Sensex and Nifty below psychologically crucial 28,500 and 8,650 levels respectively on sustained selling activities ahead of U.S. Federal Reserve's two-day policy meet starting on Tuesday since this would provide the trajectory of the US economy, which will also reveal as to when the rate hike might take place.

Markets, largely overlooking release of good economic report and positive global set-up succumbed to selling pressure for yet another session on Monday, though recovery came to fore couple of times during trade, profit-booking took over soon. Meanwhile, trend was similar for broader indices, which went home with loss of around 0.25-0.85%. On the macro-front, contrary to the trend witnessed in retail inflation numbers, the annual rate of inflation, based on monthly wholesale price index (WPI) continued to show disinflationary trend by ebbing to all time low level of -2.06% in February as compared to -0.39% witnessed in January and 5.03% during the corresponding month of the previous year. Meanwhile, markets also failed to draw some solace from report from IMF which described Asia’s largest economy as rare bright spot on cloudy global horizon.

On the global front, Asian shares rose on Monday, lifted by Chinese shares which hit five-year highs after Beijing said it had plenty of scope to adjust policies to boost growth. Meanwhile, European stocks advanced on Monday, shrugging off losses on Wall Street and extending their recent sharp rally, as investors bet that a renewed drop in the euro would boost the region's economy and lift exporter earnings.

Closer home, most of the sectoral indices on BSE ended into negative territory, among them stocks from Metal, FMCG and Infrastructure counters were the worst performers of the session. On the flip side, massive buying was witnessed by stocks from IT, Realty and Technology counters, which were the top gainers of the session. In stock-specific activity, telecom stocks rang off in trade after reports suggested of aggressive bidding by telecom companies on tenth day of telecom spectrum auction on Saturday. The overall market breadth on BSE ended in the favour of declines which thumped advances in the ratio of 1859:1025; while 125 shares ended unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex concluded at 28437.71, down by 65.59 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 28384.09 and 28581.82. 11 stocks advanced against 19 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in red; the BSE Mid cap index down by 0.34%, while Small cap index down by 0.87%. (Provisional)

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.17%, Realty up by 1.15%, TECK up by 0.52%, Consumer Durables up by 0.39%, Bankex up by 0.25% while, Metal down by 1.49%, FMCG down by 0.96%, INFRA down by 0.83%, Power down by 0.78%, Oil & Gas down by 0.75% were the losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 2.28%, Sun Pharma Inds. up by 1.59%, Tata Power up by 1.57%, BHEL up by 1.45% and Wipro up by 1.37%. On the flip side, Sesa Sterlite down by 5.16%, Hindalco down by 3.64%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.80%, NTPC down by 2.35% and HDFC down by 1.66% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, Contrary to the trend witnessed in retail inflation numbers, the annual rate of inflation, based on monthly wholesale price index (WPI) continued to show disinflationary trend by ebbing to -all time low level of 2.06% in February as compared to -0.39% witnessed in January and 5.03% during the corresponding month of the previous year. The figure was way lower than street expected figure of around -0.80%. If that’s not enough, December WPI too was revised down to -0.50% from 0.11% earlier. Meanwhile, build up inflation rate in the financial year so far was -2.50% compared to a build up rate of 5.53% in the corresponding period of the previous year.

The major contraction in number came on account of sharp dip in the prices of fuel and vegetables. The index for Primary Articles, which occupies 20.12% in the overall inflation, declined by 1.9% to 241.9 (provisional) from 246.6 (provisional) for the previous month. This dip in primary article index came mainly on account of for `Food Articles` group which declined by 0.8% to 250.5 (provisional) from 252.4 (provisional) for the previous month due to lower price of egg (8%), fruits & vegetables and tea (5% each), moong (3%), ragi (2%) and coffee, pork, beef & buffalo meat and barley (1% each). The index for ‘Non-Food Articles’ group declined by 0.8 percent to 206.0 (provisional) from 207.6 (provisional) for the previous month.

Meanwhile, the index of Fuel & Power, which weighs 14.91% in the overall index, declined by 4.4% to 181.3 (provisional) from 189.7 (provisional) for the previous month due to lower price of furnace oil (14%), aviation turbine fuel and bitumen (13% each), high speed diesel (6%), petrol (5%), kerosene (4%) and LPG (3%). Additionally, the index of Manufactured Products group, which occupies the maximum 64.97% weight in the overall index, declined by 0.3% to 154.1 (provisional) from 154.5 (provisional) for the previous month.

Notably, while Inflation, as measured by the wholesale price index (WPI), marked the fourth straight month of deflation in price, this is completely contrary to the trend witnessed in Consumer price inflation (CPI) which rose for third successive month to 5.1% in February. However, CPI data despite rising remains to be well within RBI’s comfort zone, bolstering cases for further rate cut by India’s central bank.

The CNX Nifty concluded at 8633.15, down by 14.60 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 8612.00 and 8663.55. 24 stocks advanced against 26 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were DLF up by 4.38%, Asian Paints up by 2.90%, Zee Entertainment up by 2.77%, Jindal Steel & Power up by 2.23% and HCL Tech. up by 2.21%. On the flip side, Sesa Sterlite down by 5.31%, Hindalco down by 3.72%, Cairn India down by 3.39%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.96% and NTPC down by 2.26% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European Markets were trading in green; with UK’s FTSE 100 up by 34.67 points or 0.51% to 6,775.25; France’s CAC up by 41.21 points or 0.82% to 5,051.67 and Germany’s DAX up by 124.19 points or 1.04% to 12,025.80.

The Asian markets ended mostly in green on Monday, despite of downbeat session on Wall Street. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang stated that the country’s economy is facing considerable pressure due to the slowdown but the government has a host of policies to halt the slide. Growth in China’s fiscal revenue cooled to its slowest in at least a year between January and February as China’s foundering economy dampened tax collection and other key sources of government income. Fiscal revenue rose 3.2% to 2.57 trillion yuan ($410.5 billion) in the first two months of the year. That was far less than an average 8.6% gain in fiscal income seen in 2014, and the slackest pace seen in at least a year. China’s cooling housing sector, which accounts for about 15% of the Chinese gross domestic product, has been an increasing drag on the world’s second-biggest economy as a glut of unsold homes dampened home prices and property investment. Indonesian Trade Balance rose to a seasonally adjusted 0.74B, from 0.71B in the preceding month.