Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity benchmarks ended the last trading day of the week in deep red, as bears held a tight grip over the Dalal Street. After a cautious start of the day, key indices remained lower during the trading session, amid weak global cues coupled with uncertainty surrounding the Omicron variant. India reported 14 fresh Omicron cases on Thursday, taking the tally of patients contracting the highly infections coronavirus variant in the country to 87.

Traders remained concerned with the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy’s statement that the consumer sentiment index in November is far below the pre-pandemic levels though better than November last year, suggesting the economic recovery is excruciatingly slow and uninspiring. Continued foreign fund outflow dented sentiments in the markets. As per provisional data available on the NSE, Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net sold shares worth Rs 1,468.71 crore.

In the last hour of the trade, markets added more losses to end lower, amid reports that India's growth recovery has been led by capital expenditure push by the government so far, but fiscal constraints might prove to be a challenge going forward in terms of driving investments. Besides, IT industry body Nasscom said a parliamentary panel's recommendations to expand the scope of the data protection bill to cover non-personal data needs careful analysis and deeper debate.

On the global front, European markets were trading mostly in green, after UK retail sales growth accelerated in November. The retail sales volume grew 1.4 percent month-on-month in November, faster than the 1.1 percent increase seen in October and also street forecast of +0.8 percent. Asian markets finished mixed on Friday, after the Bank of Japan decided to scale back its pandemic related funding measures as the economy is set to recover amid waning supply-side constraints. The board, governed by Haruhiko Kuroda, decided to end the additional purchases of CP and corporate bonds at the end of March 2022 as scheduled.

The BSE Sensex ended at 57011.74, down by 889.40 points or 1.54% after trading in a range of 56950.98 and 58062.28. There were 6 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 2.42%, while Small cap index down by 2.07%. (Provisional)

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.32% and TECK up by 0.85%, while Realty down by 3.78%, Bankex down by 2.62%, Energy down by 2.59%, Auto down by 2.53% and Oil & Gas down by 2.36% were the top losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Wipro up by 4.10%, Infosys up by 2.91%, HCL Tech. up by 0.96%, Power Grid up by 0.82% and Sun Pharma up by 0.61%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 4.89%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 3.55%, Hindustan Unilever down by 3.43%, Titan Co down by 3.26% and Bajaj Finserv down by 3.06% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, highlighting various steps taken by the government to boost domestic and foreign investments in India, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in its latest report has said that India registered the highest ever annual FDI Inflow of $ 81.97 billion (provisional) in the financial year 2020-21.

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry noted that FDI inflow in the last 7 financial years (2014-21) is $ 440.27 billion, which is nearly 58% of the total FDI inflow in last 21 financial years (2000-21: $ 763.83 billion).  According to the report, top five countries from where FDI Equity Inflows were received during April, 2014 and August, 2021 are Singapore (28%), Mauritius (22%), USA (10%), Netherlands (8%) and Japan (6%).

The report further said that Computer Software & Hardware sector attracted the largest share of FDI inflows at 19%, followed by Service (15%), Trading (8%) and Telecommunications & Construction (Infrastructure) (7% each) during the same period in the last more than seven years.

The CNX Nifty ended at 16985.20, down by 263.20 points or 1.53% after trading in a range of 16966.45 and 17298.15. There were 6 stocks advancing against 44 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Wipro up by 4.11%, Infosys up by 2.78%, HCL Tech. up by 1.00%, Power Grid up by 0.84% and Sun Pharma up by 0.59%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 4.88%, Tata Motors down by 4.42%, ONGC down by 4.09%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 3.60% and Hindustan Unilever down by 3.43% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading mostly in green, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 22.52 points or 0.31% to 7,283.13 and France’s CAC was up by 3.19 points or 0.05% to 7,008.26. On the flip side, Germany’s DAX was down by 32.55 points or 0.21% to 15,603.85.

Asian markets finished mixed on Friday as the tapering pandemic-era stimulus by the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England dampened the risk appetite in the market. Technological sector witnessed huge sell off in the session amidst woes on the impact of interest rate hikes. Market got pressured with the implications of continued spike in Omicron variant, spike in inflation, and Sino-US tensions. Shanghai posted sharp loss in the session with its blue-chips in three month low rate due to hefty selling by Foreign Institutional Investors. While, Japan’s Nikkei dipped the most among the Asian stocks.