Post session - Quick review

Late hour Tsunami alert to 28 countries sent tremors across Dalal Street as barometer gauges after recouping substantial lost ground in the noon deals again relinquished gains to end distressed. Benchmark equity indices after taking a breather in the previous session, again resumed the southbound journey right from the dawn of trade as concerns over the global recovery haunted investors to cash out profit from risky asset class such as equities in order to seek shelter in safe heaven instruments such as treasuries.

The pessimistic global sentiments spilled over local markets in early trades as markets participants largely remained inclined by the gloomy overnight close in US markets which registered their biggest one day fall in the year 2012 on Tuesday amid concerns about European debt crisis resurfacing after borrowing costs for Euro-zone nations rose ahead of the start of first quarter earnings season. Meanwhile, Asian pacific stocks too extending the longest steak of losses since August, added to the glumness of Indian equity markets.

Additionally, European shares too headed towards their lowest levels this year on Wednesday with investors’ anxiety about the euro zone's debt problems after a sell-off in Spanish bonds fanned fears of dwindling global growth. Spanish 10-year bonds eased back to yield 5.92% after coming close to 6% on Tuesday as investors appeared to be losing confidence in the government's ability to exercise the fiscal discipline needed to control its public finances

Back home, although some cheer came to the Indian equity markets in the early deals in the form of reports which stated the likelihood of cabinet permitting foreign airlines to buy into Indian airlines later this week, but that too proved short lived. Benefiting the most on this buzz were scrips of Spicejet, Kingfisher Airlines and jet Airways, which rallied in the range of 5-6%. However, Kingfisher Airlines also spurted on the buzz of likelihood of RIL buying out the beleaguered airline.

This was, however, counterbalanced by the collapse of power stocks which exploded on reports of exposure of these companies to Indonesia. An 8.7 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia on Wednesday, sending residents around the region dashing out of their homes and offices in fear, post to which tsunami warning was issued. The strong earthquake in Indonesia spells bad news for several Indian companies, who run factories or import coal from the island nation as India is one of the biggest importers of Indonesian coal. Post reports, Adani Power, Tata Power and Reliance Power were seen sulking the most.

However, even Cement stocks ACC (-5.3%) and Ambuja Cements (-4.5%), were the biggest losers on the Nifty index. The stocks tanked on speculation of large penalties for alleged cartelisation.  Stocks from Metal, Oil & Gas, Consumer Durable too were lost deep in the woods.  On the flip side, stocks from Health Care and Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) battled it out against the rebellious bears.

The high volume session of trade, which did trade of over 1, 37,000 crore in term of volume turn over, saw the barometer 30 share index of Bombay Stock Exchange ( BSE)-Sensex- losing over 50 points to  end  below the 17200 bastion.  The index after touching piercing through the 17300 psychological level again contracted sub 17200 bastion by the end of the trade. This volatility of the bourses could be attributed to the IIP numbers tomorrow, inflations numbers due later this week and upcoming Infosys results due on Friday. Meanwhile, the widely followed barometer index of National Stock Exchange (NSE)-Nifty-losing over 25 points settled sub 5250 bastion. The broader indices too exhibited downtrend. The market breadth on the BSE ended negative; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1236:1527 while 123 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex lost 13.25 points or 0.08% and settled at 17,230.59. The index touched a high and a low of 17,319.15 and 17,075.89 respectively. 12 stocks advanced against 18 declining ones on the index (Provisional)

The BSE Mid-cap index lost 0.54% while Small-cap index was down 0.21%. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Health Care up 0.53%, IT up 0.37%, Bankex up 0.36%, FMCG up 0.12% and PSU up 0.08% were the only gainers while Metal down 1.09%, Consumer Durables down 0.87%, Oil & Gas down 0.72%, Realty down 0.71% and Capital Goods down 0.65% were the top losers. (Provisional)

There top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up 2.09%, Sun Pharma up 1.37%, Infosys up 1.16%, HDFC up 0.67% and HDFC Bank up 0.66% while, Jindal Steel down 2.33%, Bharti Airtel down 2.16%, BHEL down 1.88%, Sterlite Industries down 1.68% and Tata Power down 1.34% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, Passenger Car sales grew by a meager 2.19% in 2011-12 as per the representative body of the auto industry, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). For the first time in history, car sales crossed two million in a financial year. SIAM has also stated that it expects growth to be around 10-12% during the current fiscal on the back of an improved economic scenario.

The low growth in car sales was on expected lines and was as per SIAM’s own projections. The industry body, in January had cautioned that car sales growth in India could be in the negative territory, but a late surge of sales in March had helped it to stay positive in FY’12. In March, car sales rose by 19.66% as compared to the same month last year. This was because people expected the prices to go up post the budget.

Passenger vehicles segment grew at 4.66% during April-March 2012 over same period last year. Similarly, the overall commercial vehicles segment registered growth of 18.20% in April-March 2012 as compared to the same period last year. Three-wheelers sales posted a decline of 2.43% in April-March 2012 over same period last year. On the other hand, total two-wheelers sales registered a growth of 14.16% during April-March 2012.

On the export front, in April-March 2012, the industry exported 2,910,055 automobiles showing a growth of 25.44%. Passenger vehicles registered growth at 14.18% in this period. Commercial vehicles, three-wheelers and two-wheelers segments recorded growth of 25.15%, 34.41% and 27.13% respectively in April-March 2012. In March 2012 compared to March 2011, overall automobile exports registered a growth of 17.81%.

The growth rate for overall domestic sales for 2011-12 was 12.24% amounting to 17,376,624 vehicles. In the month of only March 2012, domestic sales grew at a rate of 10.11% as compared to March 2011. Future prospects of growth remain positive as it is expected that the RBI may cut its interest rates and the economy itself may grow around the 7.5% mark. SIAM expects the car sales growth to be around 10-12% in 2012-13, while that of two-wheelers has been pegged at 11-13%.

India VIX, a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility gain 1.68% at 22.29 from its previous close of 21.92 on Tuesday. (Provisional)

The S&P CNX Nifty lost 8.85 points or 0.17% to settle at 5,234.75. The index touched high and low of 5,263.65 and 5,190.80 respectively. 18 stocks advanced against 31 declining ones while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were Kotak Bank up 2.37%, NTPC up 2.12%, Sun Pharma up 1.75%, Power Grid up 1.40% and Ranbaxy up 1.26%.On the other hand, ACC down 4.35%, Ambuja Cement down 4.17%, Reliance Infrastructure down 3.49%, JP Associates down 3.36% and Jindal Steel down 2.50% were the top losers. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading in green, with France's CAC 40 up 1.11%, Germany's DAX up 0.96% and Britain’s FTSE 100 up 0.25%.