Post Session: Quick Review

Indian markets got butchered on Monday with the mildly soft beginning turning into intense sell-off in the last, dragging both the benchmarks below their crucial psychological levels and straight fourth session of losses. Though, the global cues made their impact on the Indian markets but the domestic factors too contributed to the slump. Local markets that looked stablising in the second half near their lows, witnessed across the board intensified selling in the final hours that took the markets considerably lower for the day. Traders apart from corporate earnings were eyeing the developments during the second part of Budget session of Parliament. The Budget session of Parliament resumed from April 20 and is expected to be stormy session with lots of important bills lined up to come, while the most controversial Land acquisition amendment ordinance being tabled in Lok Sabha.

The weak global cues contributed most to the down fall of the Indian markets, while the US markets slumped on Friday after regulators in China banned the margin trading businesses of brokerages from taking part in umbrella trusts, and said that fund managers can lend shares for short selling. Though, the Chinese shares erased early gains on fears of a regulatory crackdown. But, the Chinese steps to stimulate its slowing economy after 100 basis point cut by the Chinese central bank in the reserve requirement ratio, gave a positive start to the European markets and also supported the oil prices.

Back home, the start was on a positive note and it seemed that domestic markets will buck the global trend supported by good earnings announcement from the market heavy weight, Reliance Industries, during the weekend, but RIL itself witnessed profit booking despite reporting its highest quarterly net profit in more than seven years in March quarter. With the sharp fall on Monday, Sensex lost over 1200 points in just 4 sessions, slipping below the 28000 mark, while the Nifty lost its crucial 8500 level on earnings growth concerns. Traders remained concerned whether the government in the second part of the budget session will be able to push through the bills on land acquisition and goods and services tax. Rupee too traded near its more than a month low and added to the downward pressure, after a spurt in dollar outflows triggered by the greenback's strength globally. Back on the street, the fall in the broader markets was much severe and both the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices lost around two percent. None of the sectoral indices was seen gaining any traction, even realty overlooked the global rating agency Fitch’s report that the likely upturn in the country’s investment climate and reduction in interest rates will improve the property market by the end of March 2016. The banking sector that was looking confident in early trade, too lost its traction and slumped around one and half a percent.

The BSE Sensex ended at 27886.21, down by 555.89 points or 1.95% after trading in a range of 27802.37 and 28539.46. There were just 2 stocks in green against 28 stocks in red on the index.(Provisional)

The broader indices too were butchered; the BSE Mid cap index was dropped 2.02%, while Small cap index plunged by 2.17%.(Provisional)

All the sectoral indices ended in red, the top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty down by 2.78%, FMCG down by 2.71%, Capital Goods down by 2.17%, IT down by 2.08%, Power down by 2.04%.(Provisional)

The gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma Inds. up by 0.66% and ICICI Bank up by 0.31%. On the flip side, Reliance Industries down by 4.46%, Hero MotoCorp down by 3.96%, Cipla down by 3.03%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.96% and Axis Bank down by 2.94% were the top losers.(Provisional)

Meanwhile, India’s exports contracted by 21.06 percent to $ 23.95 billion, while imports fell by 13.44 percent to $ 35.74 billion in March that led to trade deficit to its highest level in four months at $11.79 billion, as exports continued to fall, underscoring risks for growth prospects in Asia’s third largest economy. For the whole 2014-15, trade deficit widened to $ 137 billion.

Cumulative value of exports during April-March 2014-15 was $310.53 billion, as against $314.41 billion, down 1.23 percent, over the same period last year, while cumulative value of imports during April-March 2014-15 was $ 447.54 billion, as against $ 450.21 billion, down 0.59 percent, over the same period last year.

According to the Commerce Ministry data, the trade deficit for April-March, 2014-15 was estimated at $ 137.014 billion which was higher than the deficit of $ 135.79 billion during April-March, 2013-14.

Although, a plunge in global prices of crude oil by nearly half since last June, lessened India’s import bill but a drop in exports in recent months continued to weigh on the trade. Oil imports contracted 53 percent to $7.4 billion, while non-oil imports that signal economic activity in the domestic economy remained barely changed at $22.8 billion. On the other hand Petroleum exports fell 60 percent in March to $2.4 billion and jems and jewellery, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and engineering goods contracted by 8.36 percent, 2.03 percent, 5.36 percent and 2.55 percent, respectively.

The CNX Nifty ended at 8448.10, down by 157.90 points or 1.83% after trading in a range of 8422.75 and 8619.95. There were 7 stocks in green against 43 in red on the index.(Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Bank Of Baroda up by 1.07%, Lupin up by 0.95%, BPCL up by 0.71%, Sun Pharma Inds up by 0.58% and ACC up by 0.53%. On the flip side, NMDC down by 5.09%, Reliance Industries down by 4.45%, Hero MotoCorp down by 3.91%, Indusind Bank down by 3.68% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 3.01% were the top losers.(Provisional)

Most of the Asian markets ended in red barring, FTSE Bursa Malaysia which was up by 2.8 points or 0.15% to 1,848.66 and KOSPI Index gaining 3.21 points or 0.15% to 2,146.71.

On the other hand, Hang Seng plunged by 558.19 points or 2.02% to 27,094.9, Shanghai Composite lost 70.22 points or 1.64% to 4,217.08, Straits Times was down by 21.94 points or 0.62% to 3,503.25, Nikkei 225 ended lower by18.39 points or 0.09% to 19,634.49, Taiwan Weighted lost 18.08 points or 0.19% to 9,552.85 and Jakarta Composite ended down by 9.84 points or 0.18% to 5,400.81.

European Markets made a positive start, France’s CAC increased 12.64 points or 0.25% to 5,155.90, UK’s FTSE 100 was up by 42.04 points or 0.6% to 7,036.67 and Germany’s DAX gained 138.45 points or 1.18% to 11,827.15.

Asian equity indices ended mostly in the red terrain on Monday as investors remained concern about mounting fears about a Greek default and uncertainty over the timing of a Federal Reserve rate hike. Moreover, apprehensions about whether China will be able to keep its economy from losing too much steam too kept investors on edge. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng remained the top loser among Asian peers, down by over two percent as investors turned cautious after the buying frenzy that sent both Chinese and Hong Kong stocks surging in the past few weeks. Chinese Shanghai too edged lower as a crackdown by the China Securities Regulatory Commission on margin lending overshadowed positive sentiment arising from additional policy easing to bolster the slowing economy. China’s securities regulator on Friday said it would allow fund managers to lend shares for short-selling amid the continued surge in stock prices. The China Securities Regulatory Commission also tightened rules on margin lending and warned investors to be rational, sending stock-index futures down more than 5 percent in after-hours trading Friday. However, Seoul shares rose for a seventh consecutive session, with auto, chemical and other large-cap shares pacing the gainers, buoyed by the Chinese stimulus action.