Indian markets make gap-down start on feeble global cues

Indian equity indices have made a gap down opening in Monday’s trade with both the frontline gauges tumbling below their crucial 5,850 (Nifty) and 19,300 (Sensex) levels on the back of frail global cues. All the Asian equities were trading in the negative terrain at this point of time as investors remained concerned that an unparallel levy on bank deposits in Cyprus will reignite the euro zone debt crisis. While, the US markets declined on Friday, losing their gaining streak on report of a drop in consumer confidence.

Back home, investors opted to remain on sidelines ahead of the RBI’s policy announcement tomorrow. Selling in banking stocks too was dampening the sentiments as scrips like, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and HDFC Bank edged lower as finance ministry and the RBI started  investigating allegations of money laundering practices at these top private sector lenders. Additionally, public sector oil marketing companies like BPCL, HPCL and IOC declined after Indian Oil Corporation slashed petrol price by Rs 2 per litre excluding VAT with effect from midnight of March 15, 2013, while there was no hike in diesel prices.

On the sectoral front, consumer durables witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by fast moving consumer goods and healthcare, while metal, realty and public sector undertaking remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were butchered badly in the morning deals while, the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 654 shares on the gaining side against 1,157 shares on the losing side while 95 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 19282.63; about 144 point lower compared to its previous closing of 19427.56 and has touched a high and a low of 19306.25 and 19232.23 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 19286.07, down by 141.49 points or 0.73%. There were 4 stocks advancing against 26 declines and one stock remained unchanged on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a weak start with 34.39% stocks advancing against 60.77% declines. The broader indices were trading in-line with benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices decline by 0.50% and 0.52% respectively. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Consumer Durables up by 0.46%, FMCGG up by 0.26%, Health Care up by 0.06% and Capital Goods up by 0.05%, while Metal down by 2.03%, Realty down by 1.49%, PSU down by 1.44%, Bankex down by 1.19% and Oil & Gas down by 0.82% were the top losers on the index.

The few gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 0.86%, Sun Pharma up by 0.86%, Cipla up by 0.43% and L&T up by 0.37%.

On the flip side, Coal India was down by 4.97%, ICICI Bank was down by 2.39%, Bharti Airtel was down by 2.38%, Sterlite Industries was down by 2.22% and Tata Power was down by 2.01% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in a big sign of relief for the UPA Government, global ratings agency Standard & Poor's pegged India's GDP growth for FY'14 at 6.4 percent and said it may upwardly revise outlook on the sovereign rating to stable if the Government continues to focus on policy initiatives to reduce structural fiscal deficits, improves investment climate and increase growth prospects.

The rating agency S&P, which last April put India's sovereign rating outlook to negative (BBB- which is close to junk status),  has said that declining growth in Asia's third- largest economy would start bottoming out starting next month, but there was still downside risks because of uncertain external demand, a worse-than-expected monsoon, and political paralysis. The five state polls in the second half of 2013, with general elections next year and slowing down economic environment both globally and domestically would make it difficult to rein in fiscal deficit at the targeted level of 4.8 percent for FY'14.

S&P also suggested measures like efficient use of the fuel, fertiliser and agricultural subsidies and early implementation of the goods and services tax (GST) to bring down the fiscal deficit.      

The CNX Nifty opened at 5,816.75; about 55 points lower as compared to its previous closing of 5,872.60, and has touched a high and a low of 5,838.90 and 5,814.35 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,835.45, down by 37.15 points or 0.63%. There were 11 stocks advancing against 38 declines and one stock remains unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Lupin up by 1.75%, HCL Tech up by 1.12%, Sun Pharma up by 0.77%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.72% and Siemens up by 0.64%.

On the flip side, Coal India down by 4.94%, ICICI Bank down by 2.39%, AXIS Bank down by 2.14%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.09% and BPCL down by 2.01%, were the major losers on the index.

All Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite declined 20.64 points or 0.91% to 2,257.76, Hang Seng tumbled 476.04 points or 2.11% to 22,057.07, Jakarta Composite slipped 0.46 points or 0.01% to 4,818.87, KLSE Composite dropped 7.63 points or 0.47% to 1,620.01, Nikkei 225 crumbled 247.81 points or 1.97% to 12,313.14, Straits Times conrtracted 24.01 points or 0.73% to 3,262.04, KOSPI Composite decreased 12.04 points or 0.61% to 1,974.46 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 80.45 points or 1.01% to 7,847.04.