Post session - Quick review

Indian markets corrected slightly after gaining in past two sessions of the holiday truncated week. The mood of the markets remained subdued since morning on weak global setup as the Fed in US downplayed chances of further easing measures, saying that it can be considered only if the economy weakens further. The local bourses followed the pessimism in the regional peers and went for a weak start. There was some mild recovery attempt but they too could not last long and the markets kept gyrating in a tight band before plunging to their lowest in the early noon session on report that India's services sector slowed down notably in the month of March. The seasonally adjusted HSBC Services Business Activity Index came at 52.3 in March, significantly down from 56.5 in February, the lowest in 5 months

It was the last trading day before the long weekend so the traders mostly adopted wait and watch policy before initiating any move. While, the power sector remained in jubilant mood after Centre issued a Presidential directive to Coal India to sign fuel supply agreements (FSAs) with power producers, assuring them of at least 80 per cent of the committed coal delivery after it failed to meet the March 31 deadline fixed by the Prime Minister’s Office on entering agreements with power producers facing fuel crunch. Power majors surged in the early trade but lost their momentum after the Tamil Nadu government rolled back some of the tariff hike.

The rate sensitives suffered the most for the day and realty index was the top laggard with weak Services PMI reviving worries about the economy and the traders opted to book profit in banking and commodity stocks after the recent rally in the gauges.

Individual stocks remained in limelight and Kingfisher Airlines surged by over 11% on reports that cabinet will shortly decide on the move to allow foreign airlines to hold up to 49% stake in domestic carriers to bail out the cash-strapped sector. On the same time IVRCL added around 3 odd percent as Essel group raised stake in the company to 12.27%.

The market breadth on the BSE ended positive; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1469:1314 while 133 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex lost 93.66 points or 0.53% and settled at 17,503.76. The index touched a high and a low of 17,553.26 and 17,436.60 respectively. 7 stocks advanced against 23 declining ones on the index (Provisional)

The BSE Mid-cap index gain 0.06% while Small-cap index was up 0.50%. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Power up 0.49%, Consumer Durables up 0.16%, Capital Goods up 0.12% were the top gainers while Realty down 1.19%, Metal down 0.98%, Bankex down 0.58%, Oil & Gas down 0.55% and TECk down 0.47% were the top losers.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up 3.71%, Hindalco Industries up 1.02%,SBI up 0.60%, Maruti Suzuki up 0.50% and Hero MotoCorp up 0.25% while, Jindal Steel down 3.40%, Gail India down 2.89%, Bharti Airtel down 1.87%, Cipla down 1.80% and Sterlite Industries down 1.68% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, Indian economy is still rated high on the business confidence index preceded only by Brazil. The two developing economies topping the index only confirms the fact that the current global economy is being driven by emerging economies. The US economy has also gained a few points on the index whereas Japan continues to score low.

The global index called the Regus Business Confidence Index is a bi-annual index based on a survey of views on revenue, profit trends and expected growth. According to the latest report, which tracks the opinions of over 16,000 business managers and owners from 86 countries, business confidence in Brazil has reached 148 points in March followed by India 143 points. The benchmark average is set at 100 to indicate a neutral outlook.

India’s position has, however, dipped by 2 index points as compared to the earlier figures of September 2011. Brazil on the other hand has notched up 2 points. Japan is on the other end of the index scoring only 82 points.

As per the report, Indian companies reporting a growth in revenue has gone upto 69% as compared to 52% six months ago. However companies reporting profit growth has come down a tad bit by 1% and is at 58%. The report has also observed that in order to grasp the growth opportunities in a sustainable way, businesses globally are still looking to cut overheads without damaging their growth prospects.

Among other countries, Germany confirmed its place as the third most confident nation at 132 in spite of a negative variation on September 2011. Mexico and South Africa were up seven points and two points respectively at 109 and 117 while UK was down one point to 113. The United States rose 15 points to score a 105. The report said revenue growth at global level remains the same at 51 per cent in March 2012 compared to six months ago. However 75% of respondents expect revenue growth in the next six months.

India VIX, a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility gain 3.09% at 20.63 from its previous close of 20.01 on Tuesday. (Provisional)

The S&P CNX Nifty lost 32.65 points or 0.61% to settle at 5,325.85. The index touched high and low of 5,338.40 and 5,305.30 respectively. 17 stocks advanced against 33 declining ones on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were BHEL up 3.65%, Ranabxy up 2.70%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up 1.35%, Hindalco Industries up 0.87% and IDFC up 0.80%.On the other hand, Jindal Steel down 3.25%, Gail India down 3.20%, JP Associates down 2.37%, Cipla down 2.02% and Sterlite Industries down 1.95% were the top losers. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading in red, with France's CAC 40 down 1.20%, Germany's DAX down 1.68% and Britain’s FTSE 100 down 1.14%.

All Asian equity indices ended day’s trade in the negative terrain on Wednesday after the minutes from US Federal Reserve’s March meeting reduced expectations of further stimulus measures to spur growth, leaving investors looking for more clues to the global economic outlook. Japanese Nikkei share average shed 2.3 percent on Wednesday in its worst performance in five months, after stop-losses were triggered on index futures, raising concern that Tokyo’s sharp equities rally so far this year could be grinding to a halt. While, Seoul shares dropped 1.5 percent after posting an eight-month closing high in the previous session, tracking declines in global peers.

Meanwhile, markets in mainland China and Hong Kong remained closed on Wednesday on account of Qingming Festival while the Taiwanese markets were shut owing to Tomb Sweeping Day holiday.