Sensex, Nifty falls sharply as S&P cuts India's outlook to negative

Indian equity markets continued trading flat and currently witnessing marginal gains ahead of April expiry session on Thursday. The Nifty capped in a very narrow band of about 5,160 to 5,320, while Sensex up by 9 points. Wipro tanked nearly 8% post company's muted guidance for Q1FY13. However, shares of top telecom operator Bharti Airtel topped the buying list, rising over 2% after falling sharply in previous two sessions on TRAI recommendations. On sectoral front auto, banking, health care, FMCG stocks were trading in green. Stocks from IT, realty, consumer durables and power sector were trading in red. On the global front, most of the Asian stocks were trading higher. Back home, the market breadth favoring the positive trend; there were 1,192 shares on the gaining side against 1,106 shares on the losing side while 121 shares remained unchanged.

Meanwhile S&P reportedly revised India’s outlook to negative; affirmed BBB- rating. Reasons given by S&P for this downgrade are slowdown in investment and economic growth and widening of CAD. The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty fell sharply after the rating agency’s negative outlook for India.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17,216.68, up by 9.39 points or 0.05%. The index has touched a high and low of 17,249.61 and 17,174.73 respectively. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 declines on the index.

The broader indices recovering from their last session’s decline were showing some smart moves outperforming the benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were up by 0.09% and 0.34% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Auto up by 0.48%, HC up by 0.28%, Bankex up by 0.25%, FMCG up by 0.17% and Metal up by 0.13%. While, IT down by 0.92%, Realty down by 0.71%, TECk down by 0.43%, CD down by 0.39% and Power down by 0.30% were the losers.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 2.42%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.49%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.43%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.42% and Tata Power up by 1.38%.

On the flip side, Wipro down by 7.26%, Gail India down by 2.44%, TCS down by 0.96%, BHEL down by 0.80% and NTPC down by 0.69% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in a bid to meet domestic demand, the country has imported 2.66 million tonnes of pulses during April-January period of last fiscal. However, the comparative figures for 2010-11 were not available.

India, the world’s largest pulses producer and consumer, had imported 2.69 million tonnes in the entire 2010-11 fiscal. The domestic demand of pulses was pegged at 18.84 million tonnes for last fiscal.

The pulses production has decreased to 17.02 million tonnes in the 2011-12 crop year (July-June) against a record 18.24 million tonnes in the previous year, according to the third advance estimates released by the Agriculture Ministry on April 24, 2012. Further the wholesale prices of pulses, except gram, were lower in 2011-12 fiscal compared to previous year.

On steps taken by the government to check high prices, the import duty has been removed and exports of pulses, except kabuli chana and organic pulses are banned. Besides, the government has imposed stock limits on pulses and has also suspended futures trading in urad and tur. 

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,224.35, up by 1.70 points or 0.03%. The index has touched a high and low of 5,236.10 and 5,211.45 respectively. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 2.10%, Ambuja Cement up by 1.96%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.55%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.55% and Cairn up by 1.43%.

On the flip side, Wipro down by 7.32%, RPower down by 2.48%, GAIL down by 2.20%, Siemens down by 1.31% and TCS down by 0.90% were the major losers on the index.

At this point of time most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Shanghai Composite was up by 0.58%, Nikkei 225 surged by 0.96%, and Taiwan Weighted added 0.86%.

On the flip side, Straits Times was down by 0.06%, Hang Seng declined marginally by 0.14%, Jakarta Composite slipped by 0.14%, KLSE Composite was down by 0.05% and Seoul Composite down by 0.04%.