Post Session: Quick Review

Erasing most of their initial gains, Indian equity benchmarks ended Wednesday’s trade with slender gains. Markets made a decent opening as traders remained encouraged with good GDP numbers. The economy clocked 7.6 per cent growth rate for 2015- 16 fiscal, up from 7.2 per cent a year ago. The full-year growth was fuelled by close to eight per cent growth rate in the fourth quarter of 2015-16. Some support also came with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that Indian economy is treading the upward curve in its growth trajectory and investors wanting higher returns should park funds in infrastructure and manufacturing sector. Also, the Finance Ministry pinning hopes of a good monsoon has said that it expects GDP growth rate to notch up to 8 percent in the current financial year.

Traders also rejoiced with the India’s eight core sectors growth surging by 8.5 percent in April to a four year high, compared to (-) 0.2 percent in same month last year. In slew of good economic data, the Centre met the fiscal deficit target of 3.9% of GDP in FY16 on the back of several measures taken by the government. However, markets failed to uphold momentum and started paring gains gradually as the day progressed, as investors opted to take some of their profits near 8,200 (Nifty) and 26,800 (Sensex) marks, which proved to be a strong resistance levels for Indian equity markets. Weakness in Indian rupee too weighed down sentiments. The rupee erased its initial gains and was trading weak at 67.40 on fresh dollar demand from importers.

Selling got accelerated after European counters making a weak start with all CAC, DAX and FTSE were declining over half a percent in early deals. Asian markets too ended mostly in red terrain as a slip in crude oil prices dampened investors’ appetite for riskier assets, while the recently bullish dollar stalled against the euro and yen following a mixed bag of US economic data. Back home, manufacturing sector output showing some improvement in the month of May, the seasonally adjusted Nikkei India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index edged higher, coming at 50.7 in May compared with 50.5 in April. Though, the manufacturing output in India grew at its slowest pace in five months in May, suggesting that the sector is still in the doldrums.

On the sectoral front, shares of state-run oil marketing companies such as BPCL and IOC edged higher following a hike in petrol and diesel prices. On the flip side, banking counter remained under pressure after private agency said that PSU banks unlikely to achieve FY17 loan recovery targets. Shares of aviation companies edged lower after oil marketing companies announced hike in aviation turbine fuel by over 9% from June 01, 2016. Aviation Turbine Fuel (Domestic) has been hiked to 9.2% to Rs 46,729.48 in Delhi effective from June 1 compared with Rs 42,784.01 last month.

The NSE’s 50-share broadly followed index Nifty gained around twenty points and managed to hold the psychological 8,150 support level, while Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index -- Sensex rose around fifty points to finish tad below its psychological 26,700 mark. Broader markets too struggled to get any traction and ended the session mixed.

The market breadth remained in favor of decliners, as there were 1,329 shares on the gaining side against 1,302 shares on the losing side while 161 shares remain unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex ended at 26713.93, up by 45.97 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 26671.86 and 26857.25. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.30%, while Small cap index up by 0.18%. (Provisional)

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 1.60%, TECK up by 1.13%, IT up by 0.83%, Realty up by 0.37% while, Bankex down by 1.19%, Capital Goods down by 0.61%, Auto down by 0.60%, Metal down by 0.55%, Power down by 0.46% were the losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Adani Ports &Special up by 4.88%, Asian Paints up by 3.63%, Bharti Airtel up by 3.23%, ITC up by 2.46% and Coal India up by 2.04%. On the flip side, SBI down by 3.15%, Tata Motors down by 2.44%, ICICI Bank down by 1.92%, Cipla down by 1.78% and BHEL down by 1.74% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, in order to align the domestic rates of the automobile fuels with global prices, the PSU Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have once again increased prices of petrol by Rs 2.58 per litre and diesel rates by Rs 2.26 per litre, effective from the midnight of May 31 and June 1. It was the second hike in last one month, the prices were last hiked on May 17, when petrol price was increased by 83 paise and diesel was made costlier by Rs 1.26 per litre in line with rising crude oil and product prices in the global market.

While it was the second consecutive hike in petrol prices, it marked the seventh straight fortnightly increase in diesel rates. Post the changes, petrol will be priced at Rs 65.60 per litre, while a litre of diesel will cost Rs 53.93 per litre in Delhi, including state taxes.

According to IOC the country's largest fuel retailer, the hike in prices is due to the movement in the international oil market and INR-USD exchange rate. It further said that the current level of international product prices of Petrol and Diesel and the Rupee-Dollar exchange rate warrant increase in price of Petrol and Diesel, the impact of which is being passed on to the consumers with this price revision.

The three PSU OMCs, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) revise rates of the fuel on 1st and 16th of every month based on the average oil price and the foreign exchange rate in the preceding fortnight.

The CNX Nifty ended at 8179.95, up by 19.85 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 8171.05 and 8215.35. There were 26 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Ports & Special up by 5.28%, Asian Paints up by 3.74%, Bharti Airtel up by 3.37%, ITC up by 2.95% and Bharti Infratel up by 2.78%. On the flip side, SBI down by 3.27%, Bank of Baroda down by 2.84%, Tata Motors down by 2.27%, Hindalco down by 2.04% and ICICI Bank down by 1.88% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading in red; Germany’s DAX decreased 59.22 points or 0.58% to 10,203.52, UK’s FTSE 100 dropped 34.78 points or 0.56% to 6,196.01 and France’s CAC was down by 29.65 points or 0.66% to 4,475.97.

Asian equity markets ended mostly lower on Wednesday as oil extended overnight losses, the yen strengthened and a slew of data painted a mixed picture of regional economies. Lingering uncertainty over Brexit and caution ahead of Thursday's OPEC and the ECB meetings, as well as Friday's US jobs report also kept investors cautious. Chinese shares slipped as a slew of data reinforced investor concerns about a decelerating economy. While China's official manufacturing PMI came in at 50.1 for May, marking a third straight month of expansion, the Caixin manufacturing PMI contracted for the 15th straight month with a reading of 49.2, down from 49.4 in April. The official non-manufacturing PMI, a gauge of activity outside factory floors, slipped to 53.1 in May from 53.5 in April. Japanese shares snapped a five-day winning streak as the yen strengthened and the latest survey from Nikkei showed manufacturing conditions in Japan weakened for a third consecutive month in May on weak demand from overseas consumers.