Post Session: Quick Review

Indian bourses staged a lackadaisical performance in Wednesday’s session as traders opted to stay away in buying risky assets ahead of industrial production data for April due later this week. Markets traded in very tight band throughout the session to finally settle slightly in green as market participants remained on sidelines ahead of key events this month, including the US Federal Reserve policy meeting next week and Britain's June 23 referendum on whether to leave the European Union. The tepid close was in line with markets across the globe which displayed pathetic performance after weak Chinese export data offset a brightening energy sector outlook and expected delay in interest rate hikes by Federal Reserve. The upsurge in international crude oil prices which sailed beyond $50 a barrel mark on the back of ongoing supply disruptions in Nigeria and strong Chinese oil demand data too played spoilsport for the local markets.

However, traders took some encouragement with IMD declaring the arrival of Southwest Monsoon 2016 over Kerala. Though parts of Kerala had been receiving good rains since past few days, certain criteria important for the declaration of Onset were not met. Some support also came with the government pitching for a ratings upgrade with global agency Fitch Ratings citing improvement in macroeconomic conditions and its commitment to fiscal consolidation. Fitch Ratings had in December affirmed India's 'BBB-' rating with a stable outlook. Meanwhile, another global rating agency, Moody’s Investors Service has said that with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) not altering policy rates, it will be only the transmission of monetary policy that would influence India's economic development and credit profile.

On the global front, European markets were trading mostly in red in early deals, retreating after two straight day of gains, as a drop in Austrian bank Erste knocked back financial stocks. Asian markets ended mixed as investors weighed data showing Japan’s economy grew more than initially reported and investors awaited a report on Chinese trade. Back home, traders remained concern on report that the World Bank has slashed global growth outlook for 2016 to 2.4 per cent from 2.9 per cent, citing sluggishly low commodity prices, uncertain capital flow and lukewarm demand in advanced economies.

On the sectoral front, telecom stocks rang loud on reports the Telecom Commission has lowered the annual spectrum usage fee to 3% of revenue for all bands in the upcoming spectrum auction scheduled in July. Shares of logistics companies moved higher in noon deal on hopes of clearance of the crucial Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill in the upper house of the Parliament. Stocks related to defence space edged higher after the United States recognised the country as a “major defence partner” during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ongoing US visit.

The NSE’s 50-share broadly followed index -- Nifty -- rose marginally to hold the psychological 8,250 support level, while Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index -- Sensex -- surged by over ten points to finish above the psychological 27,000 mark. However, broader markets outperformed benchmarks and ended the session with a gain of over half a percent.

The market breadth remained in the favour off advances, as there were 1,579 shares on the gaining side against 1,059 shares on the losing side while 156 shares remain unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex ended at 27020.66, up by 10.99 points or 0.04% after trading in a range of 26973.71 and 27105.41. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.52%, while Small cap index up by 0.89%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 1.77%, Capital Goods up by 1.76%, Utilities up by 1.33%, Industrials up by 1.18% and Telecom up by 0.74%, while IT down by 0.61%, TECK down by 0.47% and Healthcare down by 0.09% were the losing few indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 1.80%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.52%, ICICI Bank up by 1.48%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.32% and ONGC up by 1.27%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.50%, Asian Paints down by 1.23%, HDFC Bank down by 1.04%, Adani Ports & Special down by 0.95% and Dr. Reddys Lab down by 0.69% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, in order to make the  Make in  India' initiative a great success, Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that the government is committed to bring down logistics cost to 12 per cent from 18 per cent at present and raise the share of waterways transportation to 15 per cent in the next five years,

At present, barely 3.5 per cent of the goods transportation in India takes through this route. The minister further stated that the government is making efforts in this direction as goods transportation through water costs barely 20 paise per km in comparison to Rs 1.5 a km through road and Re 1 per km through railways

Urging logistic companies to shift from roads to water transportation and buy ships, the Minister has said that massive work is underway on a waterway which is the government's top priority where work on 10 waterways was scheduled to begin before December and tenders have already been received to develop two waterways to export iron ore from Goa and added that there are plans to develop 2,000 water ports.

The CNX Nifty ended at 8273.05, up by 6.60 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 8252.05 and 8288.90. There were 30 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Power up by 2.65%, HCL Tech up by 2.31%, Power Grid up by 1.77%, BHEL up by 1.76% and Bank of Baroda up by 1.75%. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.64%, Infosys down by 1.53%, Zee Entertainment down by 1.52%, Adani Ports &Special down by 1.50% and Asian Paints down by 1.42% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading mostly in red; Germany’s DAX decreased 60.4 points or 0.59% to 10,227.28 and France’s CAC was down by 23.94 points or 0.53% to 4,451.92, while UK’s FTSE 100 was up by 2.39 points or 0.04% to 6,286.92.

Asian equity markets ended mixed on Wednesday as the World Bank cut its global growth forecasts and Chinese trade data came in mixed, with a weaker-than-expected result for May exports and a much slower than expected drop in imports. The World Bank downgraded its 2016 global growth forecast to 2.4 percent from the 2.9 percent pace projected in January, citing sluggish growth in advanced economies, stubbornly low commodity prices, weak global trade, and diminishing capital flows. Meanwhile, oil hovered near eight-month highs and copper pared losses from the previous session on dollar weakness. Chinese shares closed a tad lower ahead of a long holiday and next week's MSCI announcement of the nation's yuan-denominated shares' inclusion into its global indexes. Investors also looked ahead to the release of inflation, industrial profits and new yuan loan data due in coming days. Mainland Chinese markets will be closed on Thursday and Friday for the Dragon Boat Festival while Hong Kong's market will only be closed on Thursday. Japanese shares ended a choppy session higher as the yen trimmed its early gains and energy shares benefited from higher oil prices.