Post session - Quick review

It was double whammy for Indian equity markets, which prolonging their southbound journey slid for fifth straight session, as global uncertainties coupled with domestic headwinds, underpinned investor’s to slash their bets in risky asset class such as equities. After fresh week on muted note, bourses did trade into green in early hours, before succumbing selling pressure. However, after drowning in the sea of red, cuts just intensified for barometer gauges. The 30 scrip sensitive index, Sensex, on BSE, after starting the session above the 16300 psychological levels got knocked off over century of points, to end below that level. Similarly, the widely followed index, Nifty, on NSE too settled near the 4900 bastion, with nick of over half a percentage points. However, the laceration was greater for broader indices, which went home with loss of over a percentage points.

Earlier in trade, it was qualms over Greece political uncertainties that kept the markets in check, after failed weekend talks to form a new Greece government, raised the specter of fresh elections that could threaten the crisis-stricken country's international bailout and its membership of the euro, thereby leading to the weak opening of European shares. However, Asian shares also abated into trade after China's latest move to loosen monetary policy highlighted concerns its economy is faltering, prompting investors to further trim their exposure.

Back on the home turf, jitters were evident across Dalal Street after Wholesale Price Index (WPI) accelerating to unexpected levels of 7.23% in the month of April, underscoring RBI's stance that it had little room for further rate cuts, implying no rate cuts in its upcoming monetary policy review, in the next month. The surge of inflation numbers, was a big blow for BSE Bankex counters, which staggering over percentage and half points, was among the prominent losers. However, they suffered a double blow after Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the standalone bank financial strength rating (BFSR) of three Indian banks-Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank to D+ from C-.

Besides this, mostly gloomy results also added to the glut. Stocks of Essar Oil were seen in hitch after the company reported a loss of Rs 515 crore for the three months ended March, 2012, due to reversal in sales tax benefits and provisioning related to corporate debt restructuring. However, JSW Steel too tanked after the company reported lower net profit of Rs 752 crore for the quarter ended March 2012 as compared to Rs 832 crore in the year-ago period.

On the flip side, L&T managed to sneak gains of close to two percent after biggest Indian engineering company reported growth of 13.89% in its standalone net profit of Rs 1920.41 crore for the quarter ended March 31,2012, largely on  the back of improved order inflows. The market breadth on the BSE ended negative; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of1059:1641 while 121 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex lost 77.14 points or 0.47% and settled at 16,215.84. The index touched a high and a low of 16,390.33 and 16,124.82 respectively. 14 stocks advanced against 16 declining ones while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index (Provisional)

The BSE Mid-cap index lost 1.00% while Small-cap index was down 1.26%. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, HC up 0.78%, IT up 0.41%, CD up 0.36% ,CG up 0.34% and FMCG up 0.28%  were the gainers while  OIL & GAS  down 1.69%, BANKEX  down 1.61%,  Reality down 1.27%,  PSU down  0.91%, Power down 0.79% were the top losers. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were L&T up 1.84%,  Bajaj Auto  up 1.80%, Tata Power  up 1.51%, Sun Pharma  up 1.26% and Infosys  up 1.13% while, DLF down 2.64%, Tata motors  down 2.42%, RIL 2.32% down,  HDFC Bank  down 2.02% and BHEL down 1.99% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, Indian Government is initiating various steps to boost Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and one of the significant measures was declaring the Food Processing Sector under 100% FDI through automatic route. The FDI inflow into the food processing sector in 2011-12 up to February 2012 has been $141.62 (Rs 682.30).

FDI complements and supplements the domestic investments. Apart from capital, it brings in state-of-art technology and best managerial practices, thereby providing better access to the domestic industry to foreign technology and integration into the global market. The existing guidelines allowed FDI under the automatic route, inter alia, Food Processing Industries.

Foreign Direct Investment also brings new products, new technology and improved quality in the Food Processing Sector resulting in reduction in wastage of agri products, safe and hygienic foods, higher employment and also enhancing export potential of processed foods.

India VIX, a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility gained 3.46% at 23.26 from its previous close of 22.48 on Friday. (Provisional)

The S&P CNX Nifty lost 28.25 points or 0.57% to settle at 4900.65. The index touched high and low of 4,957.20 and 4,874.50 respectively. 22stocks advanced against28 declining ones on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were Asian Paint up 3.06%, Ranbaxy up 2.29%, BPCL up 1.87%, Sesa Goa up by 1.87% and Bajaj Auto up 1.80%.(Provisional)

On the other hand, Cairn India  down 4.82%,Bank of Baroda  down 4.59%, SAIL down 3.42%,  Reliance Infra  down by 3.20%  and  Punjab National Bank down 3.07% were the top losers. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading in red, with France's CAC 40 down 2.35%, Germany's DAX down 1.95% and Britain’s FTSE 100 down 1.73%.

Stock markets in the Asian region continued their southward journey and all the equity indices barring Nikkei 225 ended the day’s trade in the negative terrain on Monday amid fears over political uncertainty in Europe while, China’s move to boost liquidity in the slowing economy was unable to provide a lift. Chinese central bank cut the amount of cash that banks must hold as reserves on Saturday, freeing an estimated 400 billion yuan ($63.5 billion) for lending to head-off the risk of a sudden economic slowdown.

Meanwhile, Taiwan stocks closed down 0.33 percent at a four-month closing low, underperforming regional peers as tourism counters and car makers weighed, down 2.12 percent and 2.02 percent respectively. In addition, Chinese bank stocks in Hong Kong failed to rally after the reduction in the reserve ratio, as loan growth data for April released after the market closed on Friday, came in much lower than expected. However, Japan’s Nikkei share average inched higher on Monday to end a three-day losing streak as China's monetary easing countered unease ahead of Greece's last-ditch attempt to form a coalition government later in the day.