Post Session: Quick Review

It turned out to be a day of consolidation at D-street, wherein benchmark equity indices gyrating lower for almost entire session of trade, managed to negotiate only a flattish close. Volatility played its part in the F&O expiry week, with most of the traders refraining from taking any positions ahead of the holiday. Market remains closed on Wednesday on account of ‘Mahavir Jayanti’.

For the session, both benchmark 30 shares and 50 shares index, Sensex and Nifty, ended above the psychological 19100 and 5800 levels respectively. However, session turned out to be way disappointing for Midcap index, which went home with loss of close to half a percent.

Even assurance of C Rangarajan, chairman, Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC), of economy growing at 6.4% in FY14, failed to stir up any support for investors. India's worst economic slowdown in a decade has bottomed out and growth is expected to pick up to 6.4% in the current fiscal year, economic adviser to the country's prime minister said. HDFC Bank’s in line with estimates Q4FY13 figures, also failed to aid the sentiment. The stock plummeted over 1% despite reporting 30% year-on-year rise in its fourth quarter (January-March) net profit at about Rs 1,890 crore, aided by robust interest and other income. On the contrary, the fall of HDFC banks weighed further on other private sector banks stocks, which were trading lower since the start of the trade on account of profit-booking.

Meanwhile, mixed global cues were of no support. On one hand, Asian pacific shares ended lower after a preliminary reading showed manufacturing growth in China slowed in April, highlighting recent market concerns about global growth prospects. The flash HSBC Purchasing Managers' Index for April fell to 50.5 in April from 51.6 the month before as new export orders shrank in China, suggesting the country faces considerable headwinds. On the other, European shares received a boost at the open on Tuesday as the first in a raft of manufacturing data was released for the euro zone. French PMI data came in better-than-expected with a composite figure of 44.2 for April against 41.9 last month.

Closer home, sectorally, Health Care, information Technology and Oil & Gas counters led the pack of gainers on BSE sectoral front, while Consumer Durable, Capital Goods and Realty counters were the top laggards. IT stocks, which were badgered brutally in the past couple of sessions, crept higher on account of renewed buying activity. The market breadth on the BSE ended negative; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1139: 1232, while 120 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex gained 9.53 points or 0.05% to settle at 19,179.36.The index touched a high and a low of 19,210.26 and 19,042.08 respectively. 15 stocks were up, while 15 stocks declined on the index. (Provisional)

The BSE Mid cap ended lower by 0.38% and Small cap indices ended higher 0.36% respectively. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Health Care up by 0.66%, IT up by 0.64%, Oil & Gas up by 0.51%, Teck up by 0.36% and Auto up by 0.12% were the top gainers, while Capital Goods down by 1.29%, Consumer Durables down by 1.14%, Realty down by 0.67%, Bankex down by 0.33% and PSU down by 0.32% were the only losers in the space. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were  Hero MotoCorp up by 2.87%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.52%, Sun Pharma up by 2.51%,  ICICI Bank up by 1.79% and RIL up by 1.75%, while, Jindal Steel down by 3.76%,  L&T down by 2.04%, SBI down by 1.61%, HDFC Bank down by 1.53% and Tata Motors down by 1.37% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, C. Rangarajan releasing a report on Review of the Economy 2012-13 stated that improvement in performance of agriculture and manufacturing sectors could elevate the economic growth rate to 6.4% in 2013-14 from 5% in the last fiscal. Rangarajan, said that the farm sector is likely to show some improvement and is projected to grow at 3.5% in 2013-14, while the manufacturing sector is projected to grow at 4% and services at 7.7%.

The Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) report has further stated that economy bottomed out and the possibility of achieving 7% growth is also not ruled out. However, for the current financial year, PMEAC, expressed concerns that despite having high investment rate of 35.8%, economy could grow only 5% in the year, thereby refraining from tweaking the numbers that advance estimate of centeral statistic office have pegged and also the one that is the worst in a decade.

Pointing out that the CAD is still at a very high level, PMEAC, projected the Current Account Deficit to be at $100 billion or about 4.7% of GDP during 2013-14 with merchandise trade deficit projected at $213 billion or 9.9% of GDP and net invisible earnings projected to be $113 billion or 5.3% of GDP in 2013-14. Rangarajan said that imports of coal, oil and gold need to be watched out and said that the import bill on account of oil is expected to be at $125 billion this fiscal, 14% higher than the previous year.

With regards to Centre’s fiscal deficit, the PMEAC expects it to touch Rs 542,499 crore in 2013-14 as per the Budget estimates. In the revised Budget estimate of 2012-13 it was at Rs 520,924 crore. On inflation front, PMEAC estimate the headline WPI inflation to be around 6% in 2013-14 with primary food inflation around at 8%, fuel inflation at about 11% and manufactured goods at around 4%.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility lost 7.09% at 15.07 from its previous close of 16.22 on Monday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty gained 0.90 points or 0.02% to settle at 5,835.30. The index touched high and low of 5,844.30 and 5,791.55 respectively. 22 stocks advanced against 27 declining and one stock remains unchanged on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were Bajaj-Auto up by 2.93%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.66%, Sun Pharmaceuticals up by 2.58%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 2.14% and Grasim Industries was up by 1.76%. On the other hand, Jindal Steel down by 3.95%, DLF down by 1.91%, HDFC Bank down by 1.85%, SBI down by 1.72% and L&T down by 1.69% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Most of the European markets were trading in green with, Germany’s DAX up by 0.53%, the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 up by 0.76% and France’s CAC 40 up by 1.61%.

Asian markets closed in red on Tuesday on fresh data showing Chinese manufacturing activity expanded at a slower rate in April. Japan’s Nikkei ended lower on the back of profit-taking and a pick-up in the yen against dollar. Shanghai Composite closed lower, recording worst daily loss in nearly a month after a preliminary version of HSBC’s manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index slipped to a two-month low of 50.5 in April, compared with a final reading of 51.6 in March. Hong Kong market went home with red mark as commodity producers suffered selling.