Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity markets remained on a downtrend for the second consecutive session, though benchmarks crept higher, above the neutral lines for few occasions but failed to negotiate a positive close. The ferocious selling pressure which was witnessed in the last hour of the trade mainly dragged the benchmark equity indices at day’s low by the close of trade. Relentless selling was witnessed, tracing the global risk off sentiment on looming uncertainties about whether liquidity situation will continue in the way it has been, with all eyes now being on Ben Bernanke testimony (on Federal policy) on Wednesday.

Thus, in the downbeat session of trade, benchmark 30 share index, Sensex losing over century of points, settled a little above its 20,100 mark, while widely followed index, Nifty shedding close to 50 points, concluded below the crucial 6150 level. Broader indices, too witnessing bout of selling pressure, ended with cut of close to half a percent.

Amidst the boarder selling, only stocks from Information Technology (IT) and Consumer Durables (CD) counters showed resilience, while stocks from Realty, Auto and Power Counters emerged as the major pockets of weakness.

On the global front, Asian pacific shares ended mixed; with Japan's Nikkei ending in green, buoyed by the dollar's rebound against the yen ahead of a Bank of Japan meeting. Meanwhile, European shares fell from multi-year highs on Tuesday, with the UK market having hit a near 13-year peak this week, as concerns over a possible end to central bank stimulus measures halted the region's equity rally.

Closer home, Information Technology, bucking the trend, managed to show a degree of out performance on account of weak rupee, since most of software firm derive their income in foreign currency. Meanwhile, up move of Titan Industries spared a positive close for Consumer Durable counter. However, oil and gas companies which moved higher in early trade, reacted to the Oil Ministry’s Cabinet note to raise the price of natural gas produced by state-owned as well as private firms to $6.7, i.e., less than $8-8.5 hike previously expected and edged mostly lower by the end of the trade.The market breadth on the BSE ended negative; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 940: 1429, while 143 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex lost 126.80 points or 0.63% to settle at 20097.18.The index touched a high and a low of 20308.04 and 20072.68 respectively. Among the 30-share Sensex pack, 9 stocks gained, while rest of 21 declined (Provisional)

The BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices ended lower by 0.62% and 0.41% respectively. (Provisional) On the BSE Sectoral front, IT up by 0.94%, Teck up by 0.51% and Consumer Durables up by 0.01% were the only gainers, while Realty down by 2.53%, Auto down by 1.77%, Power down by 1.16%, PSU down by 1.05% and Bankex down by 1.04%, were the only losers in the space. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Coal India up by 2.11%, BHEL up by 1.83%, TCS up by 1.03%, Infosys up by 0.92% and Sun Pharma up by 0.78%, while, NTPC down by 4.21%, Tata Motors down by 3.06%, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.49%, SBI down by 2.16% and Tata Steel down by 2.11% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, in order to kick-start much-delayed plan of building a series of national expressways, the government is planning to introduce alternate financial models involving low-cost foreign loans and leveraging adjoining land. However, the government has scraped the earlier deadline of 2015 for rolling out 1,000 km national expressway.

The road ministry plans to start with the Delhi-Jaipur expressway and is expected to cost over Rs 16,000 crore. The Cabinet had cleared Rs 16,680 crore for the entire 1,000 km in 2006. Though, the government's plan of building expressways continue to be stuck because of red tape and funds crunch, which has also escalated the project costs by several times.

Normally, expressways cost between five to eight times more than highways, which cost about 10 crore per km. In India, 93-km Ahmedabad-Vadodara is the only national expressway. Earlier the government was hoping for Rs 9,000 crore investments from private sector, but given the prevailing economic slowdown, it is not sure funds will come in.

Therefore, the road ministry is planning to build the expressways through the Engineering Procurement & Construction (EPC) route by using cheap foreign loans. The ministry is also working on a proposal to charge toll rates that are 1.25 times more than that on highways.India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility gained 0.95% at 17.88 from its previous close of 17.71 on Monday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty lost 46.25 points or 0.75% to settle at 6,110.65. The index touched high and low of 6,180.25 and 6,102.35 respectively. 14 stocks advanced against 36 declining and one stock remains unchanged on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were Coal India up by 2.36%, BHEL up by 1.61%, TCS up by 1.40%, HCL Tech up by 1.34% and Infoysy was up by 1.06%. On the other hand, UltraTech Cement down by 4.87%, NTPC down by 4.42%, JP Associate down by 3.94%, Grasim Industries down by 3.17% and DLF down by 3.04% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Most of the European markets were trading in red with, France’s CAC 40 down by 0.36% and Germany’s DAX down by 0.47% while the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 up by 0.04%.

Asian stock markets ended mixed on Tuesday, as investor remained cautious ahead of Fed chairman Ben Bernanke's Congressional testimony to Congress and the release of the Fed's May minutes due this Wednesday for cues on the outlook for interest rates. Japan's Nikkei went home with green mark, buoyed by the dollar's rebound against the yen ahead of a Bank of Japan meeting. China's Shanghai Composite closed higher, with property developers leading the gainers amid expectations that a high-level meeting in Beijing to support the urbanization process in the coming weeks will support housing prices. Hong Kong's Hang Seng market closed shutter in negative territory on profit taking after previous day’s rally, while Seoul shares ended almost flat amid lack of fresh triggers.