The Indian markets bucking the global trend moved higher in the last session, though the recovery was not very confident and choppiness was clearly visible but major indices managed to gather some gain. Today, the start is likely to be cautious and volatility too cannot be denied as being the F&O expiry is coming close. Traders will be eyeing the rupee movement as it has touched a fresh all time low, though finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has expressed concern over the sharp fall in rupee and said it was linked to the Eurozone uncertainty and Centre was keeping a close watch on the situation. Meanwhile, the somberness may continue as Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia has said that ailing rupee and high inflation would make it difficult for India to achieve 7.5 per cent economic growth during the current financial year. The PSU oil marketing companies are likely to be buzzing as consensus seems to be building on petrol price hike, though not for diesel.
There will be lots of result announcements as well; Adani Enterprises, Akzo India, Gitanjali Gems, Kalpataru Power, National Aluminium, Pfizer, Tata Comm, Wyeth and Zee Entertianment are among the many to announce their numbers today.
The US markets continued their decline till the last trading day of the week, though there was not much on the economy front but traders remained cautious ahead of the meet of leaders of Group of Eight nations to discuss the eurozone debt crisis. The Asian markets are showing mixed trend with some of the indices trading lower by about half a percent. Though, there was some optimism as well with the comment of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao that China will focus more on bolstering economic growth.
Back home, Indian stock markets showcased a remarkable turnaround on the week’s last trading session as the frontline equity indices, after hitting the lowest point of day in late morning trades, took a turn for the better, trimming the session’s around two percent losses and eventually settling with a green tick. After the gap down opening not many had hoped that Indian bourses would stage such a bounce back especially on a day when stock markets across the Asian region got thrashed with the South Korean and Japanese benchmarks being decimated by around three percent. The cues from European markets too remained pathetic as they were grinded lower as trouble in the single currency region seemed to be aggravating every passing day as fresh worries emerged from Spain where global rating agency Moody’s downgraded 16 leading banks’ credit rating. Moreover, the Indian rupee too failed to rise above the previous closing levels and hit fresh historical lows. However, amidst all these dark clouds there emerged one silver lining - the surprisingly strong fourth quarter earnings announcement from State Bank of India, which almost singlehandedly dared to bring about a trend reversal. The banking bellwether’s upbeat result announcement spurred a fresh spell of buying wave since late morning trades and not only persuaded investors to open fresh positions in the banking sector shares but across the board. The frontline equity indices went about cutting losses and cruised skywards to even touch the important psychological 16,200 (Sensex) and 4,900 (Nifty) levels before ending a tad lower. In the meantime, the rupee too did its bit by gaining some lost ground and reversing the losses it registered earlier in the day. On the BSE sectoral space, buying was largely evident in the rate sensitive Bankex index, which surged close to two percent by SBI’s over five percent rally. The defensive FMCG pocket too gained traction and climbed over a percent thanks to heavyweight ITC’s close to two percent gains. However, the Auto counter bore the maximum brunt of selling pressure in the session. Also, the losses in Capital Goods index too exerted some pressure on the bourses and capped the market’s upside chances. Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 82.27 points or 0.51% to settle at 16,152.75, while the S&P CNX Nifty rose by 21.25 points or 0.44% to close at 4,891.45.
