Benchmarks slip to intra-day’s low; Nifty dips sub 6,050 bastion

Benchmark equity indices, losing some more ground, have now dipped to intra-day’s low level on account of sustained selling pressure by funds and retail investors amidst negative global set-up. Shrugging off the single digit CPI figures for April, market-participants remained more concerned about the Reserve Bank of India’s investigations report, which reportedly pointed out anomalies in banks related to the Cobrapost expose. Web portal, Cobrapost, in its string of exposures has alleged money laundering and other wrong doings by several public sector banks and financial institutions ranging from the country's largest bank SBI to the youngest lender Yes Bank. Trading at day’s low, Sensex, was oscillating sub 19,950 level and Nifty below the 6,050 bastion, with a cut of close to a percent. However, broader indices doing less worse were trading with cut of over 0.30%

On the global front, most of the Asian markets were trading weak on Monday with investors awaiting some crucial economic data from the region, however, a plan by the US Federal Reserve to wind down its massive bond-buying program, which pushed the US dollar higher, drove up the Japanese stock market. Meanwhile, European shares got off to a cautious start.

Closer home, amidst across the board selling pressure, only Oil & Gas counter, showed resilience, while stocks from Fast Moving Consumer Goods, Capital Goods and Information Technology counters were the weakest spells of trade. The overall market breadth on BSE is in favour of declines, which thumped advances in the ratio of 1235:814; while 129 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,937.07, down by 185.25 points or 0.92% after trading in a range of 20,109.08 and 19,918.67. There were 4 stocks advancing against 26 declines on the index.

The broader indices too added some losses; the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap index were trading lower by 0.50% and 0.35% respectively.

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE was Oil & Gas, which stood up by 0.06%, while FMCG down by 2.55%, Capital Goods down by 1.44%, IT down by 1.21%, TECk down by 1.16% and Metal down by 0.78% were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Dr Reddys Lab up by 1.43%, NTPC up by 0.78%, Reliance up by 0.50% and HDFC Bank up by 0.46%.

On the flip side, ITC down by 4.41%, BHEL down by 2.27%, Tata Steel down by 1.88%, L&T down by 1.73% and TCS down by 1.71% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in a big relief to policy-makers, annual rate of inflation, based on the consumer prices index (CPI), declining for second straight month, finally came in single digit at 9.39% in April as against 10.39% seen in the previous month. The decline was despite the double digit growth of food inflation for consumers, which rose an annual 10.61% in April, nevertheless, slower than an annual rise of 12.42% in March.

As per the data, provisional annual inflation rate based on all India general CPI (Combined) for April 2013 on point to point basis stood at 9.39% as compared to 10.39% final inflation number for March 2013.

Further, CPI numbers for rural, urban and combined were at 128.7, 127.4 and 128.1 respectively. The corresponding inflation rates for rural and urban areas too came in single digit for the first time in 2013-14 at 9.16% and 9.73% respectively for April.  While final inflation rates for rural and urban for the month of March stood at 10.41% and 10.38% respectively.

Among all the constituents that make the CPI, cereals recorded the highest inflation of 16.65% in April. At the second spot stood the inflation in Eggs, Fish and meat at 13.60%, while inflation in Pulses and products stood at 10.91% on an annual basis.

India, so far, has the highest retail inflation among the BRICS group of emerging economies - Brazil, Russia, China, and South Africa. However, unlike most central banks, the Reserve Bank of India mainly uses the wholesale price index (WPI) for setting up its monetary policy. Meanwhile, after the single digit retail inflation figures, the expectation is that Inflation as measured by India's benchmark wholesale price index would ease the lowest level since November 2009, at 5.50% in April.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,049.50, down by 57.75 points or 0.95% after trading in a range of 6,104.95 and 6,048.75. There were 5 stocks advancing against 45 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Dr. Reddy's Laboratories up by 1.31%, Asian Paints up by 1.04%, NTPC up by 0.55%, HDFC Bank up by 0.42% and Reliance up by 0.36%.

On the flip side, ITC down by 4.28%, IndusInd Bank down by 2.75%, Ranbaxy down by 2.46%, BHEL down by 2.42% and Bank of Baroda down by 2.10% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite declined 0.46%, Hang Seng tumbled 1.17%, Jakarta Composite dropped 0.88%, Straits Times slipped 0.18% and Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.39%.

On the flip side, KLSE Composite rose 0.86%, Nikkei 225 was up by 1.20% and KOSPI Composite surged by 0.20%. 

European markets got off a negative start; with CAC 40 sliding by 0.19%, FTSE 100 declining by 0.04% and DAX rising by mere 0.02%.