Post Session: Quick Review

Snapping two consecutive sessions’ gaining streak, local equity markets witnessed massacre and ended with cut of over 2%, which dragged both Sensex and Nifty below psychologically crucial 27,000 and 8,150 levels respectively. Relentless selling by both funds and retail investors amidst fears that crucial goods and services tax (GST) and Land bill may not see the light of the day in the current session of parliament after being referred to select panel, mainly dragged the markets lower. Besides, cautiousness ahead of the release of Industrial production figures for the month of March and Retail inflation data for the month of April, also kept market-participants on the tenterhooks. Apart from this, global jitters on account of insufficient progress on talks between debt-strapped Greece and its creditors added to the pessimistic milieu.

On the global front, Asian shares ended mixed on Tuesday, as investors weighed a raft of corporate report cards in the region and kept an eye on Australia's federal budget and Greece's debt crisis. Meanwhile, European shares fell for the first time in four days as euro area government bonds declined and investors watched developments in Greek bailout talks.

Closer home, with across the broad selling pressure, none of the sectoral indices on BSE concluded into negative territory, nevertheless stocks from Realty, Power and Capital Goods counters were the top losers of the session. Banking stocks witnessed much of drubbing ahead of the release of April CPI data, which will be guide RBI’s decision on interest rates in its upcoming monetary policy meeting. Banking stocks also slid on account of disappointing number of UCO Bank, which slid over 8% after reporting net profit of Rs.209.20 crore for the fourth quarter ended 31 March 2015 as against Rs 303 in crore the same quarter last fiscal. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of decliners which thumped advances in the ratio of 1941:765; while 97 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex concluded at 26877.48, down by 629.82 points or 2.29% after trading in a range of 26837.39 and 27502.91. There were just 2 stocks in green against 28 stocks in red on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in red; both the BSE Mid cap index as well as the Small cap index were down by 1.72%. (Provisional)

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty down by 3.30%, Power down by 3.12%, Capital Goods down by 3.10%, Bankex down by 3.09%, Metal down by 2.97%, while there were no gainers on the index. (Provisional)

The only gainers on the Sensex were Dr. Reddys Lab up by 3.31% and Hero MotoCorp up by 3.10%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 6.38%, Vedanta down by 5.24%, BHEL down by 4.71%, ICICI Bank down by 4.42% and Tata Power down by 3.64% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, amid signs of improvement in the general economic conditions, car sales grew 18% in April, the fastest rate in the last 30 months. According to data reported by the industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam), car sales volumes in April were at 1.6 lakh units, higher than 1.35 lakh units sold in the same month last year. The new models launched by companies have also resulted in creating demand. These include Honda's Mobilio, Tata's Bolt and Zest, Maruti's Ciaz and Hyundai's Elite i20.

As per SIAM’s data, passenger vehicle sales were up 15.83% in the domestic market, the seventh straight month of growth. The industry produced 1,909,327 vehicles (all categories) in April 2015 as against 1,861,874 in April 2014, registering a marginal growth of 2.55 per cent. The medium and heavy commercial vehicle segment (M&HCV) too saw positive growth for its ninth straight month, M&HCV sales were up 24.94% at 19,277 units, while those of LCV were down 3.82% at 26,595 units.

Although, the car sales numbers surged to their 30 months high, they were much lower than the 2.33 lakh units sold at the peak of the industry in March 2012. The condition was even worse for the motorcycle segment. In April, motorcycle sales were down 3% at 8.8 lakh units against 9 lakh units in the same month of the previous year, it was the seventh straight month of decline in sales. The overall two wheeler category witnessed a de-growth of 2.77% to 8,81,751 units in April 2015 when compared to 9,06,909 units in the year ago period. The impact of unseasonal rains is clearly showing its impact on the demand for the volume-heavy motorcycles, and a sub-normal monsoon can hit the demand for cars too.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility soared 10.30% at 20.54 from its previous close of 18.62 on Monday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty settled at 8126.95, down by 198.30 points or 2.38% after trading in a range of 8115.30 and 8326.65. There were 2 stocks advancing against 48 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The only gainers on Nifty were Hero MotoCorp up by 3.45% and Dr. Reddys Lab up by 3.25%. On the flip side, Bank of Baroda down by 6.66%, Tata Steel down by 6.23%, Cairn India down by 5.67%, Vedanta down by 5.23% and BHEL down by 5.16% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European Markets were trading in the red; Germany's DAX lost 2.17%, France's CAC declined 1.77% and UK's FTSE was down by 1.70%.

The Asian markets closed mixed on Tuesday, while China stocks closed higher as gains in the Electricity, Utilities and Retailers sectors led shares higher. China is likely to maintain a surplus on its current account this year, while cross-border capital flows could become more volatile, the country’s foreign exchange regulator stated. The State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) stated in its annual report for 2014, that the country had a current account surplus of $219.7 billion in 2014, up 48 percent from the previous year. The regulator added that China will also keep diversifying its foreign exchange reserve investment in 2015 and improve profitability. Members of Japan’s top economic advisory panel will propose that the government focus on higher economic growth and spending cuts to meet fiscal targets. Private-sector members of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy (CEFP) will propose later that the government keep gross domestic product growth above 2 percent in real terms and 3 percent in nominal terms. Japan’s index of leading economic indicators rose to a seasonally adjusted 105.5, from 104.8 in the preceding month.