Local equity markets succumbed to selling pressure, a day after witnessing consolidation as market-participants preferred winding up their position heading towards long weekend. (Markets remains shut for trade on Monday on account of ‘Baba Saheb Ambedkar Jayanti’.) Additionally, prevailing caution ahead of release of Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data later in the day and Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) data and most importantly earning season which kicks starts with the results of IT bellwether Infosys next week, added to the pessimistic milieu. On the macro-front, while consumer inflation rate is forecasted to have edged up slightly in March due to higher food prices, factory output in February is expected to have risen at its fastest annual pace in five months.
In an extremely dismal session of trade, benchmarks for once did not break out in green and kept languishing below the neutral line, though some recovery emerged in the last hour of trade that too was sold out by the traders at Dalal Street. By close, both Sensex and Nifty ended above the crucial 22,600 and 6,750 levels respectively, with loss of close to one tenth of a percent. However, for the week both Sensex and Nifty added gains over a percent. Meanwhile, broader indices for the session showed dissimilar trend, with Midcap index ending a little above the neutral line and Smallcap index ending with gains of over half a percent. For the week, CNX midcap puffed up gains over 2%, BSE Smallcap index rallied over 3%.
On the global front, Asia pacific shares and European market slumped on Friday as a sharp selloff in biotechnology and Internet companies on Wall Street overnight triggered a retreat from global stock markets.
Closer home, losses at Dalal Street were led by stocks from Oil & Gas, Auto and Capital Goods counters, which were top losers of the session that were beaten blue in trade. The drop in Oil & Gas counter came on the back of plunge of Reliance Industries which succumbed to selling pressure after Oil ministry shunned the plan to form an inter-ministerial committee to determine gas prices every quarter based on the C Rangarajan committee formula and decided to utilize its own expertise to compute new rates. Additionally, banking stocks witnessed beating after a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) panel recommended a slew of measures, including potentially changing how lending rates are set for the sector, raising worries about overall profitability.
On the flip side, bourses’ losses were restricted on account of gains in Information Technology, Technology and Healthcare counters, which were the top gainers of the sessions. Information Technology stocks which were dumped by traders in past couple of session, witnessed significant recovery by close of trade on bargain buying. The market breadth on the BSE ended positive; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1516: 1291, while 124 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)
The BSE Sensex lost 86.37 points or 0.38% to settle at 22628.96. The index touched a high and a low of 22679.18 and 22526.89 respectively. Among the 30-share Sensex, 11 stocks gained, while 19 stocks declined. (Provisional)
The BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices ended higher by 0.10% and 0.66% respectively. (Provisional)
On the BSE Sectoral front, IT up by 1.54%, Teck up by 1.21%, Healthcare up by 0.91%, Consumer Durables up by 0.40% and Realty up by 0.29%, were the only gainers, while Oil & Gas down by 1.28%, Auto down by 1.20%, Capital Goods down by 0.98%, Bankex down by 0.78% and PSU down by 0.35% were the top losers in the space. (Provisional)
The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 1.87%, TCS up by 1.62%, Wipro up by 1.34%, Cipla up by 1.14% and Infosys up by 0.91%, while, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.08%, Gail India down by 2.06%, Hindalco down by 1.93%, SBI down by 1.83% and Hero MotoCorp down by 1.82% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)
Meanwhile, India has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Russia to source data on diamond trade between two countries. Russia is the world’s largest rough diamond producer, while, India is the largest diamond processor. Presently, most of the rough diamonds produced in Russia are cut and polished in India.
The agreement was signed between the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) and Russian Government-owned diamond mining firm Alrosa which accounts for around 25 per cent of the world total diamond output. The GJEPC Chairman Vipul Shah has asserted that India has sought long-term contracts between Russian firm Alrosa and Indian cutting and polishing industry. By adding further, he said that with this agreement, both trade bodies can look forward to exchange information and cooperation for the implementation of Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) which prevents diamond industry finance to human rights abuses or war.
Diamonds have occupied a special place among the precious gemstones. India has emerged as the leading diamond cutting and polishing hub of the world with 11 out of 12 diamonds being cut and polished in India. Indian represents around 60 percent of global polished diamond output in value terms. During 2013, India exported 36.46 million carats of polished diamonds worth $20.23 billion and imported 163.11 million carats of rough diamonds worth $16.34 billion. While, a predominant portion of rough, uncut diamonds processed in India is exported either in the form of polished diamonds or in the form of finished diamond jewellery. Indian gems and jewellery industry is a significant contributor to India’s foreign exchange earnings and represents around 14 percent of the total country’s export. Cut and polished diamonds along with rough diamonds constitutes the 50 percent share of the total industry’s export. India exported gems and jewellery worth $36.04 billion in 2013.
India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of marginally gained 1.62% at 29.18 from its previous close of 28.71 on Thursday. (Provisional)
The CNX Nifty lost 26.90 points or 0.40% to settle at 6,769.50. The index touched high and low of 6,789.35 and 6,743.15 respectively. Out of the 50 stocks on the Nifty, 19 ended in the green, while 31 ended in the red.
The major gainers of the Nifty were HCL Tech up 3.35%, Ambuja Cements up by 2.33%, Sun Pharma up by 1.92%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.68% and TCS up by 1.66%.
The key losers were IndusInd Bank down by 4.32%, SBI down by 2.06%, M&M down by 1.97%, Gail down by 1.90% and Reliance Industries down by 1.84%. (Provisional)
European markets were trading in red; France’s CAC 40 was down 1.16%, UK’s FTSE 100 was down 1.27% and Germany’s DAX was down by 1.51%.
The Asian markets concluded Friday’s trade mostly in red with stock indices dropping from an almost three-month high amid a renewed selloff of technology shares and as a gain in the yen dragged Japan’s Topix index to its worst week since June. Indonesian shares however rose amid bargain hunting in battered large caps as investors weighed political uncertainties after an unconvincing election win by the main opposition party. Chinese CPI rose to an annual rate of 2.4%, from 2.0% in the preceding month while Chinese PPI fell to an annual rate of -2.3%, from -2.0% in the preceding month.
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