Markets continue southbound journey on weak global cues

Turmoil over Indian markets continued for yet another day as the domestic equity indices hit their 4 week’s low on weak global cues. The US markets made a flat closing on Tuesday while Asian markets were trading on subdued note as uncertainties looming over the European region. BSE’s Sensex and NSE’s Nifty lost their crucial 16,800 and 5,050 level respectively on sustained selling triggered by poor second quarter corporate earnings and depreciating rupee to near 51 a dollar. In a similar fashion, broader market too witnessed blood bath in early trade. Stocks of capital goods, oil and gas, banking, metal and auto companies remained under selling pressure in the absence of positive cues while, consumer durables and technology space remained the only gainers on the BSE sectoral space. Meanwhile, PSU oil marketing companies like BPCL, HPCL and IOC were trading with a huge cut as the state oil refiners cut petrol prices by 1.85 rupees/litre from Wednesday, while the international crude prices surged to a four-month high overnight. The market breadth on the BSE was negative; there were 649 shares on the gaining side against 1,137 shares on the losing side while 88 shares remained unchanged. 

The BSE Sensex opened at 16,872.30; about 10 points lower compared to its previous closing of 16,882.67, and has touched a low of 16,716.53 while high remain its opening.

The index is currently trading at 16,733.73 down by 148.94 points or 0.88%. There were 6 stocks advancing against 24 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a negative start with 35.01% stocks advancing against 61.33% declines. The broader indices too were bleeding badly; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices declined by 0.90% and 0.62% respectively.

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, CD up by 0.12% and TECk was up by 0.02%. While, CG down by 2.66%, Oil and Gas down by 1.36%, Metal down by 1.34%, Bankex down by 1.22% and Power down by 1.10% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 1.43%, M&M up by 0.85%, Tata Motors up by 0.74%, SBI up by 0.68% and Jindal Steel was up by 0.21%.

On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp was down by 3.29%, L&T was down by 3.24%, Jaiprakash Associates was down by 3.21%, BHEL was down by 2.13% and Coal India was down by 2.11% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Indian companies’ foreign direct investments (FDI) outflow declined by 40% in the month of October to $2.06 billion compared to the $3.46 billion outflow in September, as per the data released by Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The RBI release also showed that as many as 330 overseas investment transactions were carried out by various companies in October and Cox and Kings and Tata Communications emerged as the major overseas investors.

Cox and Kings India, which committed $280.56 million in its UK-based wholly owned subsidiary (WoS) -- Prometheon Holdings (UK), also made five other investments worth a total of over $8.05 million in its WoSs, based in Honk Kong, Singapore, the UK and Japan. Also, Tata Consultancy Services has committed $48.92 million in its UK-based joint venture Diligenta while another Tata Group firm, Tata Communications committed $162.5 million in its Singapore-based WoS, VSNL International Pte.

In the period between April and October, the outward FDI stood at $21.07 billion. While Indian companies are spreading their overseas footprints, the FDI inflows in the April-September (latest data available), too, went up by a huge 74% to $19.13 billion from $11 billion in the corresponding period last year.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,059.10; about 11 points lower compared to its previous closing of 5,068.50, and has touched a low of 5,013.60 while high remain its opening.

The index is currently trading at 5,020.45, lower by 48.05 points or 0.95%. There were 9 stocks advancing against 41 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 1.39%, M&M up by 0.88%, SBI up by 0.68%, RCom up by 0.58% and Tata Motors up by 0.58%.

On the flip side, SAIL down by 5.25%, L&T down by 3.32%, Hero MotoCorp down by 3.22%, JP Associates down by 3.14% and HCL Tech down by 3.02%, were the major losers on the index.

All the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite was down 43.64 points or 1.73% to 2,486.12, Hang Seng was down 375.37 points or 1.94% to 18,973.07, Jakarta Composite was down 33.27 points or 0.87% to 3,780.57, KLSE Composite was down 0.10 points or 0.01% to 1,477.12, Nikkei 225 was down 66.79 points or 0.78% to 8,475.14, Straits Times was down 15.42 points or 0.55% to 2,796.16, Seoul Composite was down 12.51 points or 0.66% to 1,873.61 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 76.53 points or 1.02% to 7,414.53.