Post session - Quick review

Barometer gauges clocked their biggest intra-day fall in almost two weeks as continued selling by funds and retail investors pounded bourses below neutral line at the start of fresh week. No respite came to the ailing equity markets, which for second consecutive session, were showing signs of exhaustion, as correction continued to remain an overhaul for Indian equity markets. A rise in global risk aversion mainly pushed the bears on rampage, after the weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs data on Friday flagged concerns about the outlook for the world's largest economy. Friday's data which showed U.S. payrolls growing by 120,000 in March, far below the expected gain of 203,000 jobs for the smallest rise since October; rekindled bets the Federal Reserve would embark on another round of bond purchases to stimulate the economy.

Reacting to this, regional counterparts were showing downbeat trend right from the inception of the trade, however, China's Consumer Price Index for March, mainly added to the Monday’s blues. China's consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation, hit 3.6 per cent in March, higher than the median forecast of 3.3 per cent. Meanwhile, Japan's February's current account that swung back to surplus from a record deficit in the previous month - took a toll on Japanese exporters' shares. However, markets in Hong Kong along with European markets remained closed on Monday on account of Easter holiday.

Back home, trader’s after returning from a long weekend, preferred to embark upon cautious approach ahead of key events this week, including industrial output data on Thursday and Infosys' earnings on Friday. Bears, which were active across the space, sent the bulls for a siesta, as no pivotal gauge on BSE sectoral chart urged to end in green. However, worst hit among 13 sectoral space, were stocks from Metal, Capital Goods (CG) and Power counters. However, Public Sectoral Undertaking stocks along with interest rate sensitives took the beating. Banking stocks tanked on the fears about slowing deposit growth. Meanwhile, GAAR issue also continued to play on investor’s mind.

The 30-share barometer, which lost 111.40 points in the previous session on Wednesday, moved down further by 200 points, to finish near 17200 level. Slender recovery which emerged in the dying hours of trade, mainly aided the benchmark in reclaiming its 17200 bastion. Meanwhile, the widely followed index of National Stock Exchange (NSE)-Nifty- after tanking 32.65 points or 0.61% on Wednesday lost over 75 points to finish sub 5250 crucial level on Monday. The broader indices too concluded the trade with cuts of over 0.50% each. The market breadth on the BSE ended negative; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1210:1601 while 121 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)
The BSE Sensex lost 264.88 points or 1.51% and settled at 17,221.14. The index touched a high and a low of 17,407.66 and 17,199.63 respectively. 5 stocks advanced against 25 declining ones on the index (Provisional)

The BSE Mid-cap index lost 1.37% while Small-cap index was down 0.65%. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Health Care up 0.15% was the sole gainer while Metal down 3.61%, Capital Goods down 3.24%, Power down 2.56%, PSU down 2.17% and Bankex down 1.80% were the top losers.

There top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up 1.32%, HUL up 1.11%, DLF up 0.64%, Bajaj Auto up 0.44% and Bharti Airtel up 0.30% while, Hindalco Industries down 5.37%, Sterlite Industries down 4.52%, Tata Steel down 3.78%, Jindal Steel down 3.73% and BHEL down 3.67% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, the Indian manufacturing sector is expected to grow moderately in the last quarter of FY’12 as per a survey undertaken by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). The sector, which had almost bottomed out in the 3rd quarter, expects a moderate revival based on higher orders on the books and a somewhat better export outlook.

The survey saw participation from 336 manufacturing units and associations and included 12 sectors. 36% of these expected the sector to show modest revival on the back of improved demand, in the last quarter of FY’12. About 44% of the participants said their capacity utilisation was higher in the last quarter as compared to the same period last year. 38% of the respondents planned to add capacity in the next six months, against 32% in the previous quarter.

However on the negative side, only 30% reported that they were planning to increase their workforce in the next three months. About 58% of the respondents said that rising cost of raw materials was the most important growth constraint. Surprisingly, only 34% felt rising cost of interest, given the RBI’s tight monetary policy is capping the growth. Seven, out of twelve sectors that were surveyed, were likely to witness low (less than 5%) growth and four sectors were expected to see strong growth (greater than 10%) in Q4. The sectors which are expected to do well are automotive, leather and tyres. The sectors that are likely to witness low growth are chemicals, cement, steel, textiles, paper and electronics.

Output of the manufacturing sector constitutes over 75% of the index of industrial production (IIP). The IIP rose by 6.8% in January, compared to 8.1% in the same month last year. The growth figures came in as a surprise as most were expecting a number close to 2.1%. The recent HSBC purchasing managers’ index (PMI) showed that while the demand is robust, power cuts and input shortages are coming in the way of manufacturing growth in March 2011-12. The PMI stood at 54.7 points in March, versus 56.6 points in February. The January PMI stood at 57.5. Reading above 50 denotes growth, while below it is contraction.

India VIX, a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility gain 8.24% at 22.33 from its previous close of 20.63 on Wednesday. (Provisional)

The S&P CNX Nifty lost 90.15 points or 1.69% to settle at 5,232.75. The index touched high and low of 5,287.90 and 5,228.00 respectively. 7 stocks advanced against 43 declining ones on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were Ranbaxy up 4.10%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up 2.11%, Cipla up 1.67%, HUL up 1.52% and Bajaj Auto up 1.26%.On the other hand, Hindalco Industries down 5.48%, Cairn India down 5.25%, IDFC down 5.01%, Sterlite Industries down 4.57% and BHEL down 4.42% were the top losers. (Provisional)

The European markets remained closed today on Monday on account of Easter holiday.

All the Asian equity indices snapped the day’s trade in the negative terrain on Monday as steep slowdown in US jobs growth raised concerns about the strength of the world's largest economy, prompting investors to curb risk exposure ahead of more US data and earnings as well as figures from China this week. Friday’s data showed that US payrolls grew by 120,000 in March, far below the expected gain of 203,000 jobs for the smallest rise since October.

Meanwhile, China Shanghai Composite ended down 0.9 percent, led by property shares after inflation came in higher than expected, prompting speculation that Beijing may delay further easing of monetary policy. Moreover, Japanese and Singapore’s benchmarks ended with a cut of about 1.50 percent and 0.90 percent respectively after weaker-than-expected US jobs data hit market sentiment.

Markets in Hong Kong remained closed on Monday on account Easter holiday.