Post Session: Quick Review

Late hour buying prevented another red close at Dalal-Street on last trading session of the week, as select group of investors went for bargain hunting of fundamentally blue chip stocks that were available after previous session’s drubbing and early day’s thrashing. In the initial part of the session, local bourses after getting a weak start went on languishing on globally risk-off sentiment which kept investors on tenterhooks. Nothing practically could change, not even multi-month low February headline inflation data, which further cemented the case for RBI not going for any more rate hikes in its upcoming Monetary Policy on April 1, 2014. Rather, investors remained worried on hardening core inflation data, which inched up to 3.02% against 3% earlier. Meanwhile, headline inflation, Wholesale Price Index (WPI) cooled off to multi month low at 4.68% for the month of February, 2014 as compared to 5.05% for the previous month and 7.28% during the corresponding month of the previous year. Recovering by the end, both Sensex and Nifty ended well above the crucial 21,800 and 6500 levels respectively, with modest gains of close to two tenth of a percent.

For the week, while both Sensex and Nifty ended with a cut of over quarter of a percent. While, CNX midcap index underperformed rest of peers with bigger margin and ended with a cut of close to a percent, BSE Small-cap index showing a degree of outperformance went home with gains of over quarter of a percent.

On the global front, Asian shares dropped to a one-month low and the yen pushed higher on Friday, as heightened tension in Ukraine ahead of a weekend referendum sent investors scurrying out of riskier assets. Russia launched new military exercises near its border with Ukraine on Thursday, even as the US cautioned that Moscow risked facing serious steps if annexation was the outcome of a referendum planned for Sunday in the Crimea. Additionally, European shares too receiving negative handover from Asian pacific shares, edged lower in early deals.

Closer home, most of the sectoral indices ended in green, barring a few, namely Banking, Consumer Durables, Information Technology and Technology. Led by the fall of Infosys, IT pivotal continued to sulk for yet another session. Any kind of global uncertainty is detrimental for IT stocks which derive lion share of their revenue from exports. On the flip side, stocks from Auto, Realty and Healthcare counters emerged as pillars of strength for markets. Meanwhile, Metal and mining stocks were mixed in trade. The market breadth on the BSE ended negative; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1209: 1554, while 140 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex gained 22.55 points or 0.10% to settle at 21797.16. The index touched a high and a low of 21853.32 and 21573.48 respectively. Among the 30-share Sensex, 15 stocks gained, while 15 stocks declined. (Provisional)

The BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices ended lower by 0.22% and 0.41% respectively. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Capital Goods up by 1.85%, Auto up by 1.06%, Realty up by 1.03%, Healthcare up by 0.66% and Power up by 0.58% were the top gainers, while Teck down by 0.74%, Bankex down by 0.62% and IT down by 0.60% were the top losers in the space. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 2.87%, L&T up by 2.51%, Tata Steel up by 1.62%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.57% and Tata Motors up by 1.55%. On the other hand, Wipro down by 3.09%, Axis Bank down by 2.23%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.69%, HDFC down by 1.41% and HDFC Bank down by 1.37% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, bolstering further case for RBI putting key policy rates on hold in upcoming monetary policy on April 1 after easing Retail inflation data, the annual rate of inflation, based on monthly WPI, cooled to multi month low at 4.68% (provisional) for the month of February, 2014 (over February, 2013) as compared to 5.05% (provisional) for the previous month and 7.28% during the corresponding month of the previous year. The figures encouragingly were lower than street expectation of sub 5% number at 4.9% for February. However, December inflation figures were revised upwards to 6.40% against 6.16% earlier.

The decline in headline inflation figure was on account of easing prices in food articles, which declined by 0.3% to 232.9 (provisional) from 233.6 (provisional) for the previous month that dragged Primary article index, which occupies 20.12% weight in the overall headline index, lower by 0.1% to 238.6 (provisional) from 238.9 (provisional) for the previous month. Meanwhile, the index for ‘Non-Food Articles’  group rose by  0.6 percent to 217.4 (provisional) from 216.0 (provisional) for the previous month.

Further, Fuel & Power, having weight of 14.91%, too declined by 0.1% to 212.6 (provisional) in month under review from 212.8 (provisional) for the previous month due to lower price of coking coal (7%), aviation turbine fuel, kerosene and electricity (agricultural) (2% each) and LPG (1%). However, petrol and high speed diesel (1% each) moved up. However, the index of Manufactured Products, which occupies 64.97% of weight in the overall index, rose by 0.1% 152.7 (provisional) from 152.6 (provisional) for the previous month.

However, in a sign of worry, Core WPI, has been hardening. The figure, which stood at 2.8% in December, edged higher to 3% in January, before finally coming at 3.2% in February. Nevertheless, the latest figure would do some help to reduce some flak towards Congress party-led ruling alliance, which faces an uphill battle in a general election due by May. Earlier in the month, Retail Inflation cooled off to 25 month low of 8.10% in Feb, while IIP posted its first growth in previous four months during January.India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation volatility lost 2.21% at 16.44 from its previous close of 17.81 on Thursday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty gained 10.50 points or 0.16% to settle at 6,503.60. The index touched high and low of 6,518.45 and 6,432.70 respectively. Out of the 50 stocks on the Nifty, 30 ended in the green, while 20 ended in the red. 

The major gainers of the Nifty were DLF up 4.16%, JP Associate up by 3.75%, BHEL up by 3.09%, Jindal Steel & Power up by 2.47% and NMDC up by 2.46%. The key losers were Ranbaxy down by 3.8%, HCL Tech down by 3.03%, Wipro down by 2.88%, Axis Bank down by 2.26% and Bharti Airtel down by 1.73%. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading in red; France’s CAC 40 was down 0.46%, UK’s FTSE 100 down by 0.17% and Germany’s DAX was down by 0.39%.

The Asian markets, barring Jakarta Composite concluded Friday’s trade in red with a sharp slowdown in China’s economy rattling Asia’s largest stock markets, with Japan and Hong Kong closing for its worst week in nearly two years. Investors are keeping an eye on a vote in Crimea this weekend when citizens will decide whether to stay with Ukraine or join Russia. Indonesia’s rupiah was set for a sixth week of gains, the longest winning streak since April 2011, as overseas investors bought more of the nation’s stocks. Fitch Ratings warned investors to remain cautious on Indonesia’s growth this year on the back of bubble-like symptoms. The credit rating agency added that Indonesia’s inflated property prices in the past three years, compared to its gross domestic product, are showing bubble-like symptoms.

Japan’s industrial production rose to a seasonally adjusted 3.8%, from 4.0% in the preceding month. Singaporean Retail Sales rose to a seasonally adjusted 0.1%, from -5.5% in the preceding month while Singaporean Unemployment Rate remained unchanged at 1.8%, from 1.8% in the preceding quarter. The value and volume of home sales in China fell in the first two months of this year as buying sentiment cooled because local governments late last year unveiled tighter property curbs. The value of new homes sold across the country fell 5% from the same period a year earlier to 598.5 billion yuan ($97.5 billion) between January and February.