Post session - Quick review

After flip-flopping for the entire trading session, Indian equity markets negotiated a flattish yet negative close, which in turn protracted the losing momentum of the bourses to fifth trading session. Dovish comments from Reserve Bank of India’s governor, Duvvuri Subbarao, that inflation numbers remain 'way above' comfort levels and that hike in the policy rates alone could not justify investment slowdown, which mainly thwarted hopes of a rate cut at the July 31 policy review. 30 share index, Sensex of BSE, losing over 15 points, settled sub 17100 level for second consecutive session, while the 50 share index, Nifty, on NSE, too concluded below the 5200 crucial level. The losses were colossal for broader indices, which went home with cuts of over 0.75%.

Bourses after getting off to a positive start, merely consolidated against previous closing levels as adding to the woes of looming global economic slowdown, International Monetary Fund (IMF) pegged India’s economic growth projection lower by 0.7% at 6.1% for 2012. The reluctance of investor’s to pile up position ahead of the government's policy action post Presidential elections on July 19, also kept Indian equity markets at periphery. The session, which ended on huge volumes, saw trade of over 1.4 lac crore in terms of volume turnover.

Meanwhile, sanguine global leads, also failed to underpin the sentiment at Dalal Street. European shares were trading in green, as investors speculated that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will hint at more monetary stimulus to bolster the sagging economic growth, after Weak US retail sales data and a cut in the International Monetary Fund's global growth forecast on Monday. Additionally, Asian pacific shares shut shop in green as investors covered short positions and hunted for bargains while waiting for US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's testimony.

Closer home, India's third largest private sector lender  Axis Bank’s Q1 numbers led to disappointment among investors, who sent the stocks tumbling over 2% on asset quality concern. However, India's third largest private sector lender’s net profit rose more than 22% year-on-year to Rs 1,150 crore. Sector wise, Aviation stocks such as Spicejet, Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines, ended in red after oil firms hiked the ATF or jet fuel prices by 1.7%. The development comes as blow to the already beleaguered aviation sector, as jet fuel constitutes more than 40% of the airline’s operating cost. The market breadth on the BSE ended negative; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1044:1752 while 128 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex lost 16.92 points or 0.10% and settled at 17,086.39. The index touched a high and a low of 17,236.08 and 17,074.63 respectively. 11 stocks were seen advancing against 19 declining ones on the index (Provisional)

The BSE Mid-cap index lost 0.89% while Small-cap index was down 0.90%. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, FMCG up 1.00%, Health Care up 0.83% and Consumer Durable up 0.05% were the only gainers while, Realty down 1.47%, Auto down 1.41%, Power down 1.34%, Capital Goods down 0.88% and Oil & Gas down 0.54% were the top losers.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Wipro up 2.10%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up 1.70%, ITC up 1.55%, Sun Pharma up 1.29% and Coal India up 0.87% while, Bajaj Auto down 2.51%, TCS down 1.96%, BHEL down 1.85%, M&M down 1.66% and Tata Motors down 1.50% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, adding to the woes of looming global economic slowdown, International Monetary Fund (IMF) has pegged India’s economic growth projection lower by 0.7% at 6.1% for 2012, while global growth forecast for the same year has been reduced to 3.5% from 3.6%.It also warned that the outlook could dim further if policymakers in Europe do not act with enough force and speed to quell their region's debt crisis.

The global lender has also shaved 2013 growth projection of India to 6.5%, while global growth projection were lowered to 3.9% from 4.1%. It also estimates that the advanced economies would grow only by 1.4% this year and 1.9% in 2013, while that of developing economies would be by 5.6% in this year and 5.9% by 2013.

India's economic growth has fallen to a nine-year low of 6.5% in 2011-12 fiscal, the World Bank projected Indian economy to grow at 6.9% in the current fiscal, from the earlier 7%. The IMF expects the US economy to expand by 2 percent and 2.3 percent in 2012 and 2013, respectively.India VIX, a gauge for market’s short term expectation of volatility lost 5.27% at 17.78 from its previous close of 18.77 on Monday. (Provisional)

The S&P CNX Nifty lost 8.80 points or 0.17% to settle at 5,188.45. The index touched high and low of 5,236.70 and 5,181.70 respectively. 17 stocks advanced against 33 declining ones on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were Wipro up 2.04%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up 1.78%, ITC up 1.49%, Sun Pharma up 1.20% and Coal India up 1.10%. On the other hand, Reliance Infrastructure down 3.49%, BPCL down 3.10%, Bajaj Auto down 2.72%, Axis Bank down 2.38% and BHEL down 2.00% were the top losers. (Provisional)

The European markets traded mixed, with France's CAC 40 up 0.32%, Germany's DAX up 0.27% and Britain’s FTSE 100 down 0.40%.

Asian markets ended in green for the third consecutive day on the back of investor’s hope that relentlessly bad data from China to the US will prompt policy makers to take some serious efforts to boost their economies. However,Gains in Japan were limited as exporters came under pressure after the yen rose to a one-month high against the US dollar and hovered close to an 11-year high against the euro. Meanwhile Hang Seng rallied on expectations that the People’s Bank of China will cut its reserve requirement ratio for the nation’s banks in the near-term. Shares in Australia were higher after minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s most recent policy-setting meeting reflected a more positive tone on the Australian economy.