Post session - Quick review

Below expectation FY13 guidance by technology major -Infosys-led selloff at Dalal Street as barometer gauges in the highly volatile session got knocked down by over a percentage point each.  Winding up of positions by speculators ahead of the outcome of big event-RBI’s annual monetary policy review- on April 17, 2012, largely lifted the spirits of berserk bears. Overlooking the positive regional counterparts, benchmark equity indices took a nasty turn to snap the week with colossal losses of over two percentage points each for the Bombay Stock Exchange‘s Sensex and National Stock Exchange’s NSE.

The Cautious start of the earning season with weak outlook of Infosys also demoralized the investor’s morale. The stocks besides tanking over a massive 12% also spilled glum for peer stocks, dragging the Information Technology index alone by over massive 8%. Following suit were the stocks from TECK, Realty and Bankex counters, which too were hit hard.

IT bellwether, despite beating expectations with a 27% rise in its fourth-quarter consolidated net profit, pounded the sentiment by pinning down a weak dollar revenue forecast for the current fiscal year, as the uncertain global economic environment continued to weigh on the outsourcing major. Infosys guided a shocking 8-10% growth in dollar revenue terms which was much lower than expectations of 10-14%. Moreover the company’s FY13 EPS guidance at Rs 158.76-161.4 also haunted investors.

Even the vigilance ahead of the release of March’s month inflation data on Monday, kept trader’s on the bay. The median consensus pinned expectations for India's headline inflation at 6.70 per cent for March from a year ago, under the higher-than-expected 6.95 per cent recorded in February.

Collapse of European markets also triggered malevolence for Indian equity markets. European shares declined as renewed concerns about the rising cost of borrowing in some highly indebted euro zone countries dampening sentiment and hurting cyclical sectors such as banks. World shares held steady on Friday after China's first-quarter growth failed to meet expectations, clouding the outlook for the world's second largest economy but raising the prospect of more policy stimulus from Beijing. However, despite this, Asian pacific shares went home with moderate gains.

Back home, barometer 30 share index of BSE, Sensex, after opening above the 17200 level and piercing through the 17300 level, took a nasty laceration of over 200 points to conclude sub 17100 crucial bastion. The 50 share index of National Stock Exchange (NSE)-Nifty-too offloaded over 75 points to shut shop sub 5200 level. The widely followed index  after opening above the 5250 bastion, touched an intra-day high  above the 5300 level, only to witness a sharp cut of close to percentage and half points. The broader indices too enticed profit booking but not in the magnitude of the frontline indices, both midcap and small cap indices went home with loss of over half a percent. The session, which was high in terms of turnover, recorded trade of over 116,000 crore. The market breadth on the BSE ended negative; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1262:1527 while 147 scrip’s remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex lost 256.38 points or 1.48% and settled at 17,076.24. The index touched a high and a low of 17,398.22 and 17,027.30 respectively. 14 stocks advanced against 16 declining ones on the index (Provisional)

The BSE Mid-cap index lost 0.78% while Small-cap index was down 0.61%. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Health Care up 0.86%, FMCG up 0.67%, Oil & Gas up 0.36% and Auto up 0.34% were the only gainers while IT down 9.06%, TECk down 7.13%, Realty down 1.28%, Bankex down 0.93% and Capital Goods down 0.75% were the top losers.

There top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up 2.64%, Coal India up 1.59%, Tata Motors up 1.30%, HUL up 1.19% and Hero MotoCorp up 1.12% while, Infosys down 12.73%, TCS down 5.78%, Wipro down 4.27%, Jindal Steel down 3.14% and Hindalco Industries down 2.70% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, power generation has expanded by 6% in the month of March. The increase has come despite 25 thermal power stations are operating with coal stock of less than four days.

As per Central Electricity Authority data, power generation in March increased by 6.39% to 2,550 million units as against the programmed 2,397 million units. Thermal power generation alone witnessed a rise of 6.7% at 2,211 million units against the programmed 2,072 million units. On the other hand, the fuel stock position at the thermal power stations remained strained with less than four days of reserves at 25 plants and less than seven days stock at 30 power stations.

As per the government officials coal stock is not the only reason effecting power supply. There are many more factors contributing to the increase in power, coal supply being one of them. Moreover it isn’t that power companies do not have coal. The lesser supply is affecting the utilization capacity of the plant however is not shutting it down.

The Power Ministry has set a target of generating 9,20,000 million units of electricity this year, of which over 1,50,000 million units is expected to come from the private sector alone. It has plans to add over 7,60,000 million units of coal-based power during 2012-13. The government would add over 1,22,000 million units of hydel power during 2012-13, of which nearly 60,000 million units would come from the northern part of the country. It would also import over 5,000 million units of hydro power from Bhutan to bridge the shortfall.

India VIX, a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility gain 4.45% at 22.75 from its previous close of 21.78 on Thursday. (Provisional)

The S&P CNX Nifty lost 69.90 points or 1.32% to settle at 5,206.95. The index touched high and low of 5,306.75 and 5,185.40 respectively. 21 stocks advanced against 29 declining ones on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were Dr. Reddy’s Lab up 2.71%, Sun Pharma up 2.65%, Kotak Bank up 2.45%, Grasim Industries up 2.23% and Coal India up 1.88%.On the other hand, Infosys down 12.92%, TCS down 5.63%, Wipro down 4.24%, HCL Tech down 3.52% and Axis Bank down 3.09% were the top losers. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading in red, with France's CAC 40 down 1.18%, Germany's DAX down 1.03% and Britain’s FTSE 100 down 0.62%.

Stocks across the Asia-pacific region rallied on last trading day of the week following overnight firm trend in US market on optimism from the Euro zone as Lower Italian bond yields eased some concerns about the region. Moreover, the investors’ sentiment also got boost from the news that North Korea confirmed the failure of its controversial rocket launch. However, the gains remained capped by weaker than expected Chinese economic data. The annual rate of China's gross domestic product expansion eased to 8.1 percent in the first quarter from 8.9 percent in the previous quarter, data showed, below 8.3 percent forecast and the weakest pace in nearly three years.

Meanwhile, South Korea shares snapped a three-day losing streak and the benchmark index regained the psychologically important 2,000-point level as investors brushed off weaker-than-expected Chinese growth figures as concerns about North Korea’s rocket launch got eased after the failure of rocket launch. Moreover, Taiwan stocks ended up 1.64 percent at a near two-week high after the government revealed its plan to levy a capital gains tax on shares and futures trading, removing uncertainty that had spooked investors’ sentiment.