Sensex, Nifty remains under pressure

Hurt by falling rupee, Indian equity markets pared some early losses but still remained under pressure due to negative global cues and consistence selling across the board. The BSE Sensex down by 0.39%, while NSE Nifty fell by 13 points. In currency markets, Indian rupee depreciated against dollar paring all yesterday’s gains seeing that local markets failing to attract capital inflows as global appetite to invest in risky assets remains low. On sectoral front Oil, information technology and PSU stocks were mostly trading lower. Metal, capital goods and realty stocks were faring relatively better. Auto stocks remained in losers list as auto companies started offering discounts on petrol models after oil marketing companies hiked petrol price by Rs 6.28 a liter (excluding taxes) on Wednesday. On the global front, most of the Asian markets were trading in red. Back home, the market breadth favoring positive trend; there were 1,218 shares on the gaining side against 1,045 shares on the losing side while 104 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 16,159.49, down by 62.81 points or 0.39%. The index has touched a high and low of 16,213.24 and 16,118.35 respectively. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 declines on the index.

The broader indices continued to trade in fine fettle; the BSE Mid cap and small cap index rose 0.35% and 0.43% respectively.

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 0.91%, Capital Goods (CG) up by 0.22%, Power up by 0.09% and Metal up by 0.07%. On the flip side, Oil & Gas down by 0.83%, Auto down by 0.74%, Consumer Durables (CD) down by 0.61%, PSU down by 0.26% and FMCG down by 0.24%.

The top gainers on the Sensex were DLF up by 1.65%, Tata Steel up by 1.48%, Sterlite Industries up by 1.31%, Sun Pharma up by 1.03% and Hero MotoCorp up by 0.86%.

On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.03%, M&M down by 1.64%, Jindal Steel down by 1.46%, HDFC down by 1.27% and Tata Motors down by 1.25%, were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the rise in inflation in the month of April has been unexpected and the RBI will take into consideration the evolving price scenario before announcing its mid quarter monetary policy on 18 June. The apex bank is also of the opinion that for inflation to come under control it is imperative that the fiscal deficit be reined in by the government.

The wholesale price index (WPI) rose to 7.23% in the month of April as compared to 6.89% in the month of March. Further retail inflation as measured by the consumer price Index (CPI) also increased and touched 10.36% in April as compared to 9.38% in the month of March. The inflation has been high primarily due to a rise in prices of food products. However core inflation (non-food manufacturing) has been below 5%. These facts will be taken into account while making decisions in the forthcoming monetary policy, says Subbarao. 

Governor has also reiterated the RBI stance on the fiscal deficit and said that for inflation to come down it is important that the government curb its expenditure and deliver on the budgeted fiscal deficit target. The fiscal deficit of the government stood at 5.9% of GDP in the year 2011-12. It has set a target of curbing it to 5.1% in the current fiscal. The government is also faced with a high current account deficit of 4% of GDP largely due to the rise in the global prices of crude oil.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 4,907.60, lower by 13.80 points or 0.28%. The index has touched a high and low of 4,915.25 and 4,889.35 respectively. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were JP Associates up by 2.85%, Sterlite Industries up by 1.73%, DLF up by 1.68%, Ranbaxy up by 1.56% and Sesa Goa up by 1.53%.

On the flip side, Bank of Baroda down by 2.27%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.88%, M&M down by 1.81%, Grasim down by 1.56% and Jindal Steel down by 1.41% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red, Shanghai Composite declined 0.66%, Hang Seng Index fell 0.20%, Jakarta Composite plummeted 2.31%, Straits Times Index shed 0.41% and Taiwan Weighted sank 0.75%.

On the flip side, KLSE Composite gained 0.09%, Nikkei 225 added 0.20% and KOSPI Composite was up by 0.53%.