Post Session: Quick Review

After taking a breather in last trading session from their record breaking run, local equity markets resumed their gaining streak, however the gains remained quite slender ahead of release of key macro-economic data, i.e. January IIP and February CPI data, which is due to release later in the evening. On the macro-front, while retail inflation is expected to ease further to a 25-month low of 8.35 percent in February from 8.79 percent in January on moderating vegetable prices, industrial output is expected to post a fourth straight fall in January, in a longest phase of contraction that Indian factories have suffered in more than five years.

Thus, rallying for fifth out of six trading session, both Sensex and Nifty settled above the crucial 21,850 and 6500 levels respectively, not far away from record high levels, with gains of over one-tenth of a percent. Meanwhile, indecisive broader indices ended on mixed note, with Smallcap pivotal underperforming rest of the larger counterparts and ending in negative terrain, albeit with slender losses.

On the global front, Asian markets fell on Wednesday, with Japan and Hong Kong leading the region lower, as concerns over China’s economy continued to weigh heavily. The state of the world’s second largest economy remained in focus as the effects of a much weaker-than-expected decline in exports that rocked markets at the beginning of the week continued to be felt. Additionally, European shares too fell in early trading on Wednesday, with poor earnings outlook from some companies and concerns about the Chinese credit market hurting sentiment.

Closer home, today’s trading sessions gains were led by defensive play, which was also the reason behind the up-move of Fast Moving Consumer Goods and Healthcare counters. Additionally, gains of IT and Technology counters also aided the sentiment. On the flip side, major brunt of selling pressure was witnessed by stocks belonging to Capital Goods, Oil & Gas and Public Sector Undertaking counters, which served as major pocket of weakness.

In stock-specific action, shares of SpiceJet flew higher as it announced another sale, slashing airfare, while Maruti Suzuki India reversed intraday fall in choppy trade to end in positive terrain. A group of investors of Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) has ratcheted up pressure on India's top carmaker to abandon a plan for its Japanese parent to build a new plant to make cars for the Indian firm, saying it would hurt shareholders. Additionally, tyre stocks, viz Ceat and JK tyre Inds were upbeat for third consecutive session on multi-year low rubber prices .The market breadth on the BSE ended negative; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1314: 1440, while 166 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex gained 39.85 points or 0.18% to settle at 21866.27. The index touched a high and a low of 21,965.95 and 21,768.14 respectively. Among the 30-share Sensex, 14 stocks gained, while 16 stocks declined. (Provisional)

The BSE Mid cap index ended higher by 0.08% and Small cap index ended lower by 0.07%. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, FMCG up by 1.36%, Healthcare up by 1.33%, Consumer Durables up by 0.93%, IT up by 0.66% and Teck up by 0.55% were the top gainers, while Capital Goods down by 0.91%, Oil & Gas down by 0.89%, PSU down by 0.85%, Power down by 0.61% and Auto down by 0.24% were the top losers in the space. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 4.51%, ITC up by 2.29%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.16%, Coal India up by 1.62% and TCS up by 1.35%, while, BHEL down by 3.02%, Hindalco down by 2.26%, Tata Motors down by 2.19%, SBI down by 1.87% and ONGC down by 1.71% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, India has to cut its oil imports from Iran by nearly two-thirds from the first quarter of 2014 after the United States (US) asked the country to hold the shipments at end-2013 levels. The US told that it currently examines Tehran's resolve to cooperate with world powers on its controversial nuclear programme and India has to cut its purchases of the crude to about 110,000 barrels per day (bpd) from its intake average to 195,000 barrel for the six months to July 20. Further, the US insisting on keeping the 11 million tonnes (MT) quota for the 2014 calendar would mean that India could buy a total oil of not more than 5.5-6 MT during January-June ’2014 period.  

In November, the US and six other world powers attained a historic accord with Iran, allowing easing of some sanctions against the Islamic regime in exchange for halting its programme to attain nuclear weapon capability. According to the agreement, the world powers allowed Iran to maintain its oil exports at 1 million barrels a day to key buyers India, China, Japan and South Korea.

India is the world’s fourth-largest oil importer and a major customer of Iran’s 1.7 million barrels per day of oil exports. During April-December’2013, India had imported 6.74 MT of oil from Iran and planned to buy over 4.2 MT in the last quarter of current financial year. Earlier, six years ago, the international authorities had initiated a programme to halt Iran’s most sensitive nuclear work and targeted Iran’s financial and oil sectors, a main source of revenue for the country. Afterwards, the European Union (EU) had banned oil imports from Iran. In order to comply with international sanctions, Indian government had drastically cut its energy imports from Iran, which has been replaced by Iraq as the second-largest supplier of fuel to India, after Saudi Arabia.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility lost 1.64% at 17.04 from its previous close of 17.32 on Tuesday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty gained 10.45 points or 0.16% to settle at 6,522.35. The index touched high and low of 6,546.15 and 6,487.30 respectively. Out of the 50 stocks on the Nifty, 22 ended in the green, while 28 ended in the red.

The major gainers of the Nifty were Sun Pharma up 4.53%, Asian Paint up by 2.84%, ITC up by 2.40%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.06% and Coal India up by 1.86%. The key losers were BHEL down by 3.04%, Tata Motors down by 2.37%, PNB down by 2.29%, Hindalco down by 2.21% and ONGC down by 1.89%. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading in red; France’s CAC 40 was down 1.22%, Germany’s DAX was down 1.09% and UK’s FTSE 100 down 0.83%.

The Asian markets concluded Wednesday’s trade in red taking their lead from another sell-off on Wall Street, while Tokyo took a hit as the yen climbed against the dollar with profit-takers moving in following last week’s greenback rally. Indonesia’s central bank is widely expected to hold its key interest rate steady at a meeting scheduled on Thursday, in spite of a recent trade deficit, as the country’s inflation pace has declined and the rupiah has strengthened significantly this year. It is expected that Bank Indonesia may keep its reference rate steady at 7.50% for a fourth consecutive month.

Japanese Household Confidence rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 38.3, from 40.5 in the preceding month while Japanese tertiary industry activity index rose to a seasonally adjusted 0.9%, from -0.5% in the preceding month whose figure was revised down from -0.4%. Japan’s Corporate Goods Price Index fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.8%, from 2.4% in the preceding month. Japan’s BSI large manufacturing conditions rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 12.5, from 9.7 in the preceding quarter. South Korean Unemployment Rate rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.9%, from 3.2% in the preceding month.