Post Session: Quick Review

May month’s F&O expiry session turned out to be a dismal one for local equity markets, which after surrendering all its gains in afternoon deals ended lower with cut of over two tenth of a percent that dragged both Sensex and Nifty below psychologically crucial 27,550 and 8,350 levels respectively. Besides, jitters on account of F&O expiry, growing concerns over lack-lustre corporate earnings too hurt the sentiment, since weak earnings growth posted by most of the Indian companies stoked fears that a rebound in growth could take longer than expected.

Market-participants also remained on the tenterhook ahead of release of Q1GDP numbers on Friday that may show the economy growing faster than China for a second consecutive quarter, though select portion of experts believe there to been little progress to show on the ground.  The session also was disappointing for broader indices, which went home with losses in the range of 0.15-0.55%. Nevertheless for the series, both Sensex and Nifty accumulated gains of over a percent. While, CNX Midcap index ended with gains of over 2.50%. Pessimistic global set-up also weighed on the sentiment.

On the global front, mainland markets in Asia were the biggest losers in the region on Thursday, as fears over tighter requirements on margin financing ignited risk-off sentiment. The rest of the region, meanwhile, shrugged off an inspiring lead from the US overnight to trade mixed. Meanwhile, European shares edged lower at the open on Thursday, giving back some of the late gains made the previous day as euphoria about a possible deal between Greece and its creditors faded.

Closer home, sectoral indices on BSE ended mixed. Consumer Durables, Information Technology and Oil & Gas counters turned out to be top gainers, while Healthcare, Banking and Metal counters turned out to be prominent losers of the session. Weakness of Rupee mainly lifted Information Technology shares higher, while profit-booking on account of bad loan concerns dragged banking counter lower.

On the earnings front, Jindal Steel & Power plunged over 8% after reporting consolidated net loss of Rs 519.30 crore in Q4FY15 as against net profit of Rs 402.50 crore in Q4FY14. Meanwhile, Reliance Infrastructure tanked over 1.25% after company’s consolidated net profit fell 26.1% to Rs 459.11 crore on 0.2% decline in total income to Rs 5027.63 crore in Q4 March 2015 over Q4 March 2014.  The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of decliners which thumped advances in the ratio of 1403:1264, while 109 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex concluded at 27506.71, down by 57.95 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 27354.35 and 27666.37. There were 10 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.53%, while Small cap index lost 0.16%. (Provisional)

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.31%, IT up by 0.67%, TECK up by 0.41%, FMCG up by 0.20% and Oil & Gas up by 0.17%, while Healthcare down by 1.31%, Bankex down by 0.51%, Metal down by 0.38%, INFRA down by 0.20% and Realty down by 0.15% were the losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 2.57%, Vedanta up by 2.34%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.73%, Infosys up by 1.67% and ITC up by 1.12%. On the flip side, Tata Power down by 2.44%, Cipla down by 2.19%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.13%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.87% and Sun Pharma down by 1.71% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal giving sigh of relief to the stressed power plants has said that the government is looking at seeding a 'power fund' with support from international investors to pick up stressed assets for revival.

The minister further stated that a lot of international investors have shown interest in investing in India and added that a good corpus could be created by roping in international companies and the Centre could acquire the stressed assets in a very attractive manner. He said the fund could pick up stressed power plants and revive them. Goyal has however said that the problems faced by power sector were being exaggerated.

The Minister added that a self-hedging mechanism to allow foreign investors of solar power projects to get dollar tariffs is being worked out. Under the mechanism, distribution utilities quote their price (the rate at which they will buy from the generator) in dollars for 25-year contracts, but the end consumer will be sold the electricity in rupees.

The Minister also indicated that by raising the coal cess four-fold over the last year to Rs 200 per tonne, a huge sum of around Rs 30,500 crore is likely to be generated this year. Proceeds from the coal cess will go to the National Clean Energy Fund. He added that steps were on to augment Coal India production and 60 new mines were on the anvil.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility declined 0.86% at 17.13 from its previous close of 17.28 on Wednesday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty settled at 8319.00, down by 15.60 points or 0.19% after trading in a range of 8270.15 and 8364.50. There were 18 stocks advancing against 31 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Vedanta up by 2.69%, Tata Motors up by 2.67%, BPCL up by 2.61%, Infosys up by 2.44% and PNB up by 1.96%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 2.59%, Tata Power down by 2.31%, Sun Pharma down by 2.13%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.02% and Grasim Industries down by 1.87% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European Markets were trading mostly in red; Germany's DAX lost 0.31% and France's CAC was down by 0.60%, while UK's FTSE was up by 0.11%.

Asian markets made a mixed closing on Thursday with Chinese market suffering sharp plunge of over 6% after more brokers tightened margin trading requirements for clients and the central bank drained money market liquidity. It was their worst trading day since January 19 when markets fell over 7 per cent on an earlier crackdown on margin trading. It was reported that the central bank, the People’s Bank of China drained tens of billions of yuan from the financial system by selling repurchase agreements to targeted financial institutions. Also, there was speculation that the US is close to raising interest rates that spurred capital outflows.The slump in the Chinese markets weighed on the sentiment of all the emerging markets. Philippine equities slid to a four-month low after the nation’s economic growth trailed estimates.  On the other hand the Japanese market ended in green as the yen touched a 12-year low versus the dollar.