Post Session: Quick Review

Thursday turned out to be a disappointing session of trade for Indian equity benchmarks where key gauges ended the session with a cut of around a percent, breaching their crucial 7,550 (Nifty) and 24,700 (Sensex) levels. Sentiments remained dampened since beginning of trade with as traders remained on sidelines ahead of fourth quarter corporate earnings. A weak quarter could hit sentiment further after the Reserve Bank of India failed to impress markets on Tuesday by cutting interest rates by 25 basis points, as some had hoped the central bank would act more boldly.

Markets managed to pare most of their losses in noon deals but bout of selling pressure in last leg of trade dragged benchmarks to end near intraday lows. Traders failed to get any sense of relief with industry body CII terming the GDP calculation methodology an ‘imprecise science’ and pegging the country's economic growth at around 8 per cent for the current fiscal, higher than the RBI's projection of 7.6 per cent. Investors also shrugged off Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan’s statement that conditions are in place for the Indian economy to start growing faster in the next few quarters as banks pass on its rate cuts to their borrowers. 

On the global front, European markets after a positive opening entered into red terrain with CAC, DAX and FTSE were trading with a cut of around one third of a percent in early deals. Asian markets ended mostly in green after a sharp rise in oil prices whetted risk appetites and boosted Wall Street, with even Japanese stocks regaining a little ground despite a rising yen.

Back home, markets participant failed to get any kind of solace with Ratings agency Moody’s statement that India’s rising foreign direct investment provides stable financing of its current account deficit and is a credit positive, implying that it would count positively towards a ratings upgrade at the time of the review. Selling in metal counter too dampened sentiments as copper futures dropped in the global commodities markets.

Telecom stocks remained under pressure despite Union cabinet deciding to allow telecom companies to use spectrum allocated to them without auction to offer new services to consumers at a provisional price recommended by the telecom regulator. The cabinet decision will allow companies to deliver third generation or fourth generation mobile services as well as to share and trade the spectrum with other operators. Aviation stocks edged lower as global crude oil prices rose.

The NSE’s 50-share broadly followed index -- Nifty -- declined by around seventy points to end below the psychological 7,550 support level, while Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index -- Sensex -- dropped by over two hundred and ten points to finish below the psychological 24,700 mark. Broader markets too traded under pressure and ended the session with a cut of around half a percent.

The market breadth remained in the favour off decliners, as there were 1,107 shares on the gaining side against 1,456 shares on the losing side while 124 shares remain unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex ended at 24685.42, down by 215.21 points or 0.86% after trading in a range of 24647.48 and 25013.13. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.45%, while Small cap index down by 0.42%. (Provisional)

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 0.57%, Energy up by 0.57%, PSU up by 0.27% and Oil & Gas up by 0.13%, while Consumer Durables down by 2.03%, Capital Goods down by 1.18%, IT down by 1.18%, FMCG down by 1.17%, Auto down by 1.17% were the losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 3.99%, Coal India up by 2.32%, Lupin up by 1.31%, ONGC up by 0.83% and Dr. Reddys Lab up by 0.77%. On the flip side, Adani Ports &Special down by 3.81%, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.82%, HDFC down by 2.73%, Larsen & Toubro down by 2.36% and Wipro down by 2.02% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, the Cabinet has given its approval to implementation of the National Hydrology Project (NHP). It will be a central scheme with an outlay of over Rs 3,679 crore. The project is expected to boost India's prestige in the field of scientific endeavour. It will help in gathering Hydro-meteorological data which will be stored and analysed on a real time basis and can be seamlessly accessed by any user at the State/District/village level.  The project envisages to cover the entire country as the earlier hydrology projects covered only 13 States.

The project includes Rs.3, 640 crore for National Hydrology Project and Rs. 39.7674 crore for National Water Informatics Centre (NWIC) to be taken up in two stages. It also provides for establishment of NWIC as an independent organization under the control of Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation. Fifty per cent of the total project amount, that is Rs 1,839.8 crore, would be loaned from World Bank while the remaining amount would be central assistance from budgetary support.

The project will help in the development of real-time flood forecasting and reservoir operations in a manner that does not result in sudden opening of gates leading to the inundation of the areas.  Further, NHP will facilitate integrated water resource management by adopting river basin approach through collation and management of hydro- meteorological data. It will also help in water resource assessment and prioritize its allocations and use for irrigation.  Besides, the project is expected to assist in promoting 'efficient and equitable' use of water, especially groundwater, at the village-level and provide information on quality of water.

The CNX Nifty ended at 7546.45, down by 67.90 points or 0.89% after trading in a range of 7535.85 and 7630.75. There were 15 stocks advancing against 36 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were BHEL up by 4.70%, Coal India up by 2.05%, Lupin up by 1.66%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.14% and Aurobindo Pharma up by 1.01%. On the flip side, Tata Power down by 3.91%, Adani Ports &Special down by 3.37%, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.86%, HDFC down by 2.83% and Larsen & Toubro down by 2.39% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading in red; Germany’s DAX decreased 26.26 points or 0.27% to 9,598.25, France’s CAC dropped 17.58 points or 0.41% to 4,267.06 and UK’s FTSE 100 was down by 4.2 points or 0.07% to 6,157.43.

Asian equity markets ended mostly higher on Thursday on surge in oil prices and easing concerns about an April US interest rate increase following cautious comments by policy makers in the US Federal Reserve minutes. Japanese stocks edged up, snapping a seven-day losing streak as buying in defensive stocks offset weakness in exporters which lost ground on the yen's strength. The yen held at an 18-month high against the dollar after the Fed's March meeting minutes confirmed the dovish bias of US policymakers. However, China stocks ended lower as investors awaited a slew of Chinese economic data and stayed cautious on signs of increasing default risks in the country's corporate bond market.