Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity benchmarks ended in red on Tuesday. Markets made cautious start, as rising petrol and diesel prices dented sentiments in markets. As per a private report, petrol and diesel prices have been hiked by 80 paise a litre each on April 05, taking the total increase in the last two weeks to Rs 9.20 per litre. Adding more pessimism, the government data showed that India’s trade deficit rose 87.5 percent to $192.41 billion in 2021-22 as against $ 102.63 billion in the previous year.

In afternoon deals, markets managed to stage some recovery and traded near their neutral lines for a small duration, after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman has said that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) staying in the country and creating jobs and prospects, and not the outflow of Foreign Institute Investors (FIIs) and Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs), should be assessed to measure robustness of the Indian economy. She added that India continues to remain the highest receiver of the FDI.

However, in the last hour of the trading session, key indices again added losses to end the day near their intraday low points. Domestic sentiments got impacted, amid a private report stating that Indian manufacturers are running out of capacity to absorb rising input costs, with an increasing number passing it along to consumers in an economy already grappling with Asia’s third-fastest inflation and an uneven recovery.

On the global front, European markets were trading mostly in red with investors digesting the potential for more sanctions against Moscow, potentially leading to higher commodity prices and fueling inflation concerns. Asian markets ended mostly higher, after the private sector in Singapore continued to expand in March, and at a faster rate, the latest survey from S&P Global revealed on Tuesday with a PMI score of 52.9. That's up from 52.5 in February, and it moves further above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.

The BSE Sensex ended at 60176.50, down by 435.24 points or 0.72% after trading in a range of 60067.18 and 60786.07. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.28%, while Small cap index up by 1.37%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 3.38%, Utilities up by 3.34%, Consumer Durables up by 2.51%, Industrials up by 1.71% and FMCG up by 1.26%, while Bankex down by 1.33%, Realty down by 0.16% and TECK down by 0.15% were the only losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 3.40%, Power Grid up by 2.48%, ITC up by 1.63%, Titan Co up by 1.38% and TCS up by 1.17%. On the flip side, HDFC Bank down by 2.98%, Bajaj Finserv down by 2.14%, HDFC down by 2.12%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 2.05% and Indusind Bank down by 1.84% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, amid a lower contribution from COVID-19 related drugs, credit rating agency, India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) in its latest report has showed that the Indian pharmaceutical market (IPM) delivered flattish year-on-year (yoy) growth in February 2022 against the strong 13.9% yoy growth reported in January 2022.

The report also highlighted flattish sales growth of the acute therapy segment compared to sub-chronic and chronic segments in February 2022. Ind-Ra noted that the acute therapy segment has been showing a robust performance since March 2021 (average growth at 22.7% yoy).

As per the report, post normalisation of the high growth months of April 2021 (51.5% growth) and May 2021 (47.8%), led by the lockdown related lower base last year and higher volume growth, the average IPM growth from June 2021 to February 2022 has been healthy (9.8% yoy). During February 2022, volumes declined by 7.3% yoy (January 2022: up 5.3% yoy), while price growth was 5.1% yoy (5.8% yoy) and new products launches were up 2.0% yoy (2.8% yoy).

The CNX Nifty ended at 17957.40, down by 96.00 points or 0.53% after trading in a range of 17921.55 and 18095.45. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Ports & SEZ up by 3.60%, NTPC up by 3.33%, Tata Motors up by 2.53%, Power Grid up by 2.48% and Tata Consumer Products up by 2.35%. On the flip side, HDFC Bank down by 2.93%, Bajaj Finserv down by 2.20%, HDFC down by 2.10%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.84% and Reliance Industries down by 1.41% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading mostly in red, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 13.42 points or 0.18% to 7,545.50, France’s CAC decreased 12.28 points or 0.18% to 6,719.09. On the flip side, Germany’s DAX was up by 53.90 points or 0.37% to 14,572.06.

Asian markets ended mostly higher on Tuesday tracking strength in Wall Street's tech sector overnight after Elon Musk disclosed that he bought a chunk of Twitter Inc. stock, while trading volumes were thin due to public holidays in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Investors are awaiting the US Federal Reserve's minutes from its March meeting, set to be released on Wednesday. Japanese shares gained marginally, supported by improved services and household spending data. However, some gains were limited by talks of more sanctions against Russia and rising crude oil prices.