Post Session: Quick Review

Extending its declining streak to third consecutive session, local equity markets witnessed heavy drubbing for yet another session on Monday, thereby ending with a loss of around one percent that dragged both Sensex and Nifty below psychologically crucial 27,200 and 8,250 (four week low) levels respectively. The massive sell-off was led by losses in blue chips on continued worries about retrospective taxes and lower-than-expected January-March earnings so far. Meanwhile, market-participants also squared off their position in the F&O expiry week in order to avoid volatility related to the event later in the week. Meanwhile, later FII’s sell-off also added to the pessimistic environment. Foreign portfolio investors have sold Indian shares worth at least $656.6 million in the last eight sessions, excluding Daiichi Sankyo Co’s $3.2 billion share sale in Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, which was heavily subscribed by overseas investors. The session also turned out to be harrowing for broader indices, which went home with loss of around 2.10-2.80%.

On the global front, Asian markets finished mostly higher, boosted by Wall Street's strong performance on Friday and a bounce in iron ore prices. The price of iron ore gained 6% on Friday to $57 (£37) a tonne, its highest price since mid-March. Meanwhile, European shares edged lower on Monday, with persistent concerns about Greece’s debt situation prompting some investors to take profits after recent strong gains.

Closer home, all the sectoral indices on BSE concluded into negative territory, stocks from Healthcare, Realty and Oil & Gas counters were the top losers of the session. Meanwhile, banking stocks also tanked after ICICI Bank declared Q4 numbers. ICICI Bank fell 2% after bank’s net profit rose 10.18% to Rs 2922 crore on 12.23% rise in total income to Rs 16234.73 crore for the quarter under review on Y-o-Y basis. On the flip side, Andhra Bank soared after reporting over two fold jump in its net profit at Rs 185.24 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 as compared to Rs 88.08 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. Additionally, Bharti Infratel ended near record high level after company’s fourth quarter (January-March) net profit climbed 10 percent to Rs 557.5 crore compared to Rs 506.9 crore in December quarter, supported by other income despite higher tax cost. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of decliners which thumped advances in the ratio of 669:2058; while 87 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex concluded at 27176.99, down by 260.95 points or 0.95% after trading in a range of 27141.55 and 27567.28. 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 2.10%, while Small cap index lost 2.85%. (Provisional)

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare down by 3.21%, Realty down by 3.96%, Oil & Gas down by 2.48%, Consumer Durables down by 2.17% and FMCG down by 1.73%, while there were no gainers. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 3.23%, Sesa Sterlite up by 1.93%, Wipro up by 1.58%, Bajaj Auto up by 0.91% and Tata Motors up by 0.43%. On the flip side, SBI down by 3.14%, Bharti Airtel down by 3.11%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 3.04%, BHEL down by 2.96% and HDFC down by 2.88% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, the coal Ministry is looking to tighten up the process in the next round of coal blocks auction and may cap the number of bids a corporate can make for a mine at one, in case multiple bids are made, the best one will be counted. In the previous round of auctions, one group could not only put in more than one bids but all or many could make it to the final list. Now, it will be just one bid from one group.

In the last two auctions, while there were norms set for a minimum number of bids for a mine to be put up for auction, no restrictions were placed for multiple bids by one group. For the mines auctioned till now, bidders were required to make a price offer at the technical bid stage itself. Only 50 per cent of those who qualified in the technical stage (subject to a minimum of five bidders) were allowed to participate in the financial bidding and were then ranked according to the initial price offering.

Naveen Jindal's Jindal Steel & Power (JSPL) put in multiple bids for same mines - Gare Palma IV/8, Jamkhani, Utkal C, Gare Palma IV/1, Gare Palma IV/2&3, and Gare Palma IV/7, while Aditya Birla Group and Sesa Sterlite used sister companies to make several bids. The government has rejected bids received in the last round for four coal blocks. The mines whose bids were rejected include Gare IV/2, Gare Palma IV/3 and Tara coal blocks in Chhattisgarh in which JSPL had emerged as the highest bidder, and Gare Palma IV/1 mine bagged by Bharat Aluminium Company.

After the success of two rounds of coal blocks auction, the government will be launching a new round of coal block auctions. This will be a part of the 204 blocks, which are being auctioned. The government has already garnered over Rs 2 lakh crore by auctioning just 33 blocks.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility declined 1.93% at 18.73 from its previous close of 18.36 on Friday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty settled at 8213.80, down by 91.45 points or 1.10% after trading in a range of 8202.35 and 8334.45. There were 9 stocks advancing against 41 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Maruti Suzuki up by 3.02%, Sesa Sterlite up by 2.49%, Wipro up by 2.03%, Idea Cellular up by 1.73% and PNB up by 1.30%. On the flip side, BPCL down by 6.18%, Cairn India down by 4.66%, Asian Paints down by 3.44%, BHEL down by 3.29% and SBI down by 3.08% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European Markets were trading in the red; Germany's DAX lost 0.10%, France's CAC declined 0.82% and UK's FTSE 100 was down by 0.06%.

The Asian markets made a mixed closing on Monday, though there was big gains in the mainland Chinese market with Shanghai Composite rising over 3% to hit a new 3-years high after fresh weak industrial-profit data added to pressure on policymakers to unveil more stimulus to boost growth. Chinese industrial firms fell 0.4 percent in March from a year earlier to 508.61 billion yuan ($82 billion), compared with a 4.2 percent fall in the first two months of the year, falling for the sixth straight month. Seoul market turned lower as renewed worries about Greece’s ability to pay its creditors prompted investors to lock in some profits at higher levels after recent sharp gains. Meanwhile, the Japanese market too moved lower on stronger yen and as caution set in ahead of central bank meetings this week in Japan and the United States. The weak economic data from US underlined concerns that the recovery is losing momentum. In other markets, Hang Seng and Taiwan Weighted ended in green, while the Jakarta Composite suffered sharp cut of around 3.5%.