Adjournment of Parliament drags benchmarks to intra-day low

Benchmark equity indices, losing steam, have trickled down to intra-day low level, after investor’s losing interest in risky equities, squared off their position post parliament was adjourned amid uproar by Trinamool Congress members over the issue of FDI in retail and Congress members citing reports claiming that BJP had influenced the CAG report on 2G allocation.  In the last trading session of the week, 30 share barometer index, Sensex, losing close to 50 points, was trading bit above 18450 psychological level. Similarly, widely followed index, Nifty, to knocking off over quarter percent, was trading near the crucial 5600 bastion. Broader indices, meanwhile, staging degree of outperformance, were comfortably trading in the green terrain.

On the global front, Asian shares marked time on Friday but were on course for a weekly gain of nearly 2 percent, after manufacturing surveys from China and the United States fuelled hopes that the global growth outlook is improving at last. Meanwhile, European stock index futures were pointing to a slightly higher open on Friday, with investors betting on a pick up in the pace of global economic recovery and the release of the next tranche of aid for Greece on Monday.

Closer home, much of the bourses weakness crept in from Bankex, Public Sector Undertaking and Realty counters, which topping seller’s list, emerged to be the top laggards on BSE sectoral front. On the flip side, Consumer Durable Stocks and Power stocks were the only counters which showcase resilience. Additionally, even sugar stocks, viz, Shree Renuka Sugars, Bajaj Hindusthan, Balrampur Chini and EID Parry, all turned sweeter after Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) made it mandatory for oil marketing companies (OMCs) - Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum and Indian Oil Corporation to blend 5% ethanol with petrol. The committee, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has also approved market-based pricing of the biofuel, opening the market for ethanol producers - mostly sugar companies. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of Declines which have outnumbered Advances in the ratio of 1143: 1247, while 157 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18464.84, down by 52.50 points or 0.28% and has touched a high and a low of 18556.50 and 18464.19 respectively. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 declines on the index.

The broader indices continued to trade comfortably into green terrain; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices up by 0.08% and 0.19% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were CD up by 0.46% and Power up by 0.13% while, Bankex down by 0.75%, PSU down by 0.65%, Realty down by 0.54, Metal down by 0.29% and IT down by 0.23% were losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 1.33%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.30%, Sun Pharma up by 0.94%, Dr Reddys up by 0.81% and Coal India up by 0.76%.

On the flip side, Gail was down by 1.95%, Cipla was down by 1.83%, Wipro was down by 1.07%,  Sterlite Inds was down by 0.98% and ICICI Bank was down by 0.96% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, rating agency, Moody's in its latest report ‘India Outlook, Risk Receding’ expects Indian economy to register a growth in the range of 5.5-6% this year. Further for the Q2, it expects a steady acceleration from the first quarter of 2013 at 5.5%. As per Moody’s, an initial spike in investor sentiment after recent reforms has faded and the reality of India's deep-seated structural problems has also begun to set in. The country's GDP numbers for July-September quarter is scheduled to be announced next week on November 30.

Moody's outlook for Indian economy is much lower than 7.5% projected by the Finance Minister for this financial year and in line with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) projections. The RBI in its monetary policy review on Oct 30 had lowered its economic growth projection from 6.5% set early this year to around 5.8%.

Moody’s, however suggests that the growth rate should be near the bottom of its current downward cycle. Though, the economy is growing well below its long-term potential as the reforms proposed by the government may help to reduce the key risks facing the economy but cannot lift the near-term outlook. Further added that outlook is for a steady upturn in growth across the coming quarters before growth finally hits potential by the second half of 2014.  India had been growing around 8-9 percent before the global financial meltdown of 2008 but has slipped down in 2011-12 to a nine-year low of 6.5 percent.

Moreover, recent economic data have been broadly in line with expectations as the corporate sector stood at the weakest pocket of the economy with sentiment weighed down by external weakness and the Congress-led government's cack-handed management and policy making in its second term, Moody added. On the fiscal deficit front, Moody's expect it to be close to 6% as against 5.1% targeted by the government.

S&P Nifty is currently trading at 5,613.05 down by 14.70 points or 0.26% and has touched a high and a low of 5,637.75 and 5,612.70 respectively. There were 14 stocks advancing against 35 declines and 1 remains unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Asian Paints up by 2.19%, BHEL up by 1.33%, HCL Tech up by 1.23%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.16% and Dr Reddys up by 0.89%.

On the flip side, Ranbaxy down by 2.78%, Gail down by 2.07%, Cipla down by 1.67%, Reliance Infra down by 1.38% and JP associate down by 1.28%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Shanghai Composite was up by 0.74%, Hang Seng gained 0.53%, Straits Times gained 0.04%, Seoul Composite was up by 0.62% and Taiwan Weighted surged by 3.10%.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was down by 0.17%, KLSE Composite was down by 0.34% were the only losers amongst Asian pack.

The Japanese market remained closed today.