Post session - Quick review

Selling in second half of the session proved nerve wracking for investors at D-street, who expected some recovery post four consecutive sessions of drubbing. In a big disappointment, Benchmark equity indices unwinding all the morning gains, registered fifth consecutive session of loss. Reversal of trend was witnessed with the opening of European market, wherein jitters over Cyprus's debt crisis re-surfaced and domestic bourses slowly relinquishing all their gains halted near day’s low. In the session marked by huge volume, Sensex, tanked over hundred and fifty points, to settle below the psychological 19k level, likewise, 50 share index Nifty, too dropping over quarter of points, concluded below the crucial 5700 level. Broader indices too, witnessing accentuated selling pressure, witnessed a nasty laceration of over a percent.

On the global front, Asian pacific shares ended mixed, as fears over a bailout plan for Cyprus were weighed against a pick-up in Chinese factory activity and a commitment by the US Federal Reserve to its aggressive stimulus. However, European shares besides dropping in response to the fears over Cyprus’ bailout plan, were also pounded after Data showed French Purchasing Managers Indexes (PMI) shrank in March at the fastest pace in four years added to investor's worries.

Back home, sentiments were also dampened after reports suggested Reserve Bank of India (RBI) initiating scrutiny of head offices and branches of ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank, key accuse for money laundering, violation of regulations like Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and know your customer (KYC). Meanwhile, fears over the government being forced to call early elections or see its reform agenda weakening after a key ally withdrew from the ruling coalition this week, also weighed over investors’ sentiment. Sectorally, Realty Capital Goods and Power counters were the weakest link, while Consumer Durable and Information Technology only held gains by the end of the trade. The market breadth on the BSE ended negative; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 959: 1910 while 118 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex lost 115.23 points or 0.61% to settle at 18768.96.The index touched a high and a low of 19082.29 and 18756.65 respectively. 11 stocks were up, while 19 stocks declined on the index. (Provisional)

The BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices ended lower by 1.11% and 1.23% respectively. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, TECK up by 0.64%, Consumer Durables up by 0.44% and IT up by 0.37% were the only gainers, while Realty down by 2.94%, Capital Goods down by 2.63%, Power down by 2.46%, Auto down by 2.02% and Oil & Gas down by 1.76% were the top losers in the space. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 5.28%, ICICI Bank up by 3.08%, HDFC up by 3.08%, Wipro up by 1.19% and  Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.05%, while, Tata Power down by 4.57%, Tata Motors down by 4.25%, Bajaj Auto down by 3.81%, HDFC Bank down by 3.59% and L&T down by 3.30% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, As per the rating agency CARE, Indian economy may grow at 6 percent in FY14 and the expansion in economic growth over the 5 percent growth expected in the current fiscal will lead to increase in bank credits by 18-19 percent from the current 16 percent. Moreover, the deposits may increase by 17-18 percent in next fiscal over the current fiscal.

CARE, a leading credit rating company headquartered in Mumbai, has said that demands for loans would mainly come from the working capital requirements of companies, while, the project finance would continue to stay impacted till the end of September due to a moderation in the investment cycle.

Regarding the net interest margins of banks, it said that banks cutting interest rates may see a 0.05 to 0.10 percent decline in the net interest margins as the cost of deposits are not expected to soften due to the high credit deposit ratios and expected credit growths.

On asset quality front, the rating agency said that the prevailing slowdown in the economy will increase the non performing assets of banks. Thereby, CARE expects that the gross non-performing assets ratio of lenders to go up by 3.8- 3.9 percent of advances, while restructured advances will go up by 5.7- 5.8 percent.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of marginally lost 0.90% at 16.51 from its previous close of 16.66 on Tuesday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty lost 37.45 points or 0.66% to settle at 5,656.95. The index touched high and low of 5,757.75 and 5,647.95 respectively. 13 stocks advanced against 37 declining ones on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 6.05%, ICICI Bank up by 3.07%, HDFC up by 2.15%, M&M up by 1.45% and UltraTech Cement was up by 1.36%. On the other hand, Reliance Infrastructure down by 6.56%, JP Associate down by 6.44%, Bank of Baroda down by 4.89%, Tata Power down by 4.37% and Tata Motors down by 4.24% were the top losers. (Provisional)

All European markets were trading in red with, Germany’s DAX down by 0.90%, the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 down by 0.81% and France’s CAC 40 down by 1.16%.

Asian markets ended mixed on Thursday as Chinese Shanghai Composite closed higher after China manufacturing PMI rose to 51.7 in March, from 50.4 in February, which also gave a brief lift to Hong Kong stocks, the Hang Seng Index ended flat in negative territory. South Korea’s Kospi went home with red mark on headlines of more tension with North Korea. Japanese stocks closed higher, supported by expectations of aggressive easing steps from the Bank of Japan under a newly installed management team.