Post Session: Quick Review

Friday turned out to be a disappointing session of trade for the Indian equity indices which got pounded by around a percentage point, as traders remained on sidelines ahead of US employment data. After a flat start, the domestic bourses entered into red terrain and never showed any recovery to end near intraday lows, breaching their crucial support levels of 30,000 (Sensex) and 9,300 (Nifty). Selling was both brutal and wide-based as none of sectoral indices on BSE could manage a green close. Counters which featured in the list of worst performers included metal, energy and oil & gas.

Traders failed to get any sense of relief with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) President Shobana Kamineni’s statement that India can achieve a gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 10 percent by fiscal year 2019-20 on the back of tremendous opportunities available in the economy. She added that the drivers for this step up in growth would include the benefits from implementation of GST and greater participation of women in the labour force. Also, traders maintained a cautious approach ahead of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council meeting, scheduled on May 18-19, to finalise the rates of different commodities and services. It will also approve rates of remaining items.

Weak opening in European counters too dampened sentiments, as investors took a cautious approach ahead of the French election and the latest U.S. jobs data. Asian markets ended mixed, as a retreat in crude oil and other commodities prices knocked global sentiment.

Back home, depreciation in Indian rupee dampened the sentiments. The rupee was at 64.31 per dollar at the time of equity markets closing as compared to 64.17 per dollar level on Thursday. On the sectoral front, banking stocks edged lower as President Pranab Mukherjee signed NPA ordinance to amend the Banking Regulations Act to give more power to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to intervene on behalf of banks. However, the gold and jewellery stocks remained on buyers’ radar on report from the World Gold Council, which has said that the uptake for gold in India for January-March this year was 124 tonnes, up 15% compared with the overall demand for the same period in 2016.

The NSE’s 50-share broadly followed index Nifty lost over seventy points to end below the psychological 9,300 support level, while Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index -- Sensex tumbled by around two hundred and seventy points to finish below its psychological 30,000 mark. Broader markets too witnessed selling pressure and ended the session with a cut of around half a percent.

The market breadth remained in favor of decliners, as there were 835 shares on the gaining side against 2,005 shares on the losing side while 140 shares remain unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex ended at 29858.80, down by 267.41 points or 0.89% after trading in a range of 29823.60 and 30176.55. There were 4 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.09%, while Small cap index was lower by 0.84%. (Provisional)

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal down by 2.47%, Energy down by 1.71%, Oil & Gas down by 1.61%, PSU down by 1.39% and Basic Materials down by 1.31%, while there were no gainers on the BSE sectoral front. (Provisional)

The few gainers on the Sensex were Adani Ports up by 1.37%, Asian Paints up by 1.03%, Wipro up by 0.08% and Maruti Suzuki up by 0.06%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 3.77%, Axis Bank down by 2.68%, ONGC down by 2.68%, Tata Steel down by 2.60% and GAIL India down by 2.49% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, the Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that revenue receipts in India are likely to touch Rs 28-30 lakh crore in the next two years, on the back of demonetization and GST regime coupled with steps to strengthen infrastructure. He pointed out that when the NDA government took over in 2014, the revenue receipts read Rs 13 lakh crore, which could scale up to Rs 20 lakh crore during the three years of the present regime. He also said that two digit GDP growth is attainable on creating world-class infrastructure.

For achieving double digit growth and wipe out poverty, the minister has said that they will have to augment their infrastructure in an integrated manner. He also said that they are focusing on developing a network of waterways, railways and highways. Adding further, he said that his ministry was taking the length of National Highways to 2 lakh km soon and is committed to achieve a target of building 40 km of roads a day from the present 23 km. He noted that thirteen expressways are on the anvil and work has been initiated on five of them with a target of completing the Rs 12,000 crore Eastern Peripheral Expressway by August 15, 2017.

The minister further said that the government is planning to bring down logistics costs drastically to boost exports and create huge employment. In addition, he said that the government is also working to formulate a uniform policy for the development of MMLP. He said that the government has identified sites for the proposed 35 logistics parks to be set up on railways, highways, inland waterways and airports transportation grid.

The CNX Nifty ended at 9285.30, down by 74.60 points or 0.80% after trading in a range of 9272.00 and 9377.10. There were 14 stocks advancing against 36 stocks declining on the index, while one stock remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Indiabulls Housing up by 2.80%, ACC up by 2.15%, Adani Ports up by 1.40%, HCL Tech up by 1.22% and Asian Paints up by 1.18%. On the flip side, Bank of Baroda down by 4.21%, Tata Motors down by 3.78%, Hindalco down by 3.46%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 3.07% and Zee Entertainment down by 3.02% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets ended mostly in red; Germany’s DAX declined 46.83 points or 0.37% to 12,600.95 and France’s CAC was down by 5.84 points or 0.11% to 5,366.58, while UK’s FTSE 100 increased 4.68 points or 0.06% to 7,252.78.

Asian equity benchmarks exhibited mixed trend in Friday’s trade, as traders remained on sidelines ahead of ahead of Friday’s U.S. government payrolls report. U.S employment is expected to increase by 180,000 jobs in April after an increase of 98,000 jobs in March. The unemployment rate is expected to tick up to 4.6 percent from 4.5 percent. Investors also remained focus on this weekend’s presidential runoff vote in France. Moreover, retreat in crude oil and other commodities prices knocked global sentiment. Commodity prices across the board tumbled, led by oil, which fell by 5 per cent in overnight trading on concerns of a supply glut with analysts forecasting further losses. Japan and South Korea market are closed for a holiday.