Market drifts lower on weak global cues

The market lost ground today giving up yesterday's gains tracking weakness in Asian and European stocks. Larsen & Toubro and Wipro were major losers from the Sensex pack. Bharat Heavy Electricals and Bharti Airtel were major gainers from Sensex pack. Reliance Energy recovered from lower level.

The key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan were down by between 0.65% to 1.79%. European markets were weak. France’s CAC, Germany’s DAX and UK’s FTSE 100 were down by between 0.95% to 1.3%.

The 30-share BSE Sensex provisionally ended down 194.04 points or 1.23% at 15,563.04. At the day’s low of 15,479.42, Sensex lost 277.66 points in mid-morning trade. Sensex rose 13.08 points at the day's high of 15,770.40 , at the onset of the trading session.

BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 5,127 crore compared to a turnover of Rs 4,969.92 crore on Monday, 7 April 2008.

The broader based S&P CNX Nifty was down 58.75 points or 1.23% at 4,702.45 as per the provisional figures.

Capital goods, IT, metal and oil & gas stocks declined. However BSE Mid-Cap and Small-Cap indices rose. The market breadth was positive

The market breadth was positive: on BSE 1384 shares advanced as compared to 1,217 that declined. 69 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.51% to Rs 6,377.07 and BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.48% to 7,815.43.

Capital goods stocks declined. Larsen & Toubro lost 5.29% to Rs 2,576.10 even as company said it had bagged four orders worth Rs 1687 crore. The orders are for water supply projects, sinter plant and cold roll mill and a coal handling plant.

Suzlon Energy declined 1.31% to Rs 290.40. However, India’s largest power equipment maker by sales Bharat Heavy Electricals rose 4.67% to Rs 1,712.75.

Metal stocks declined. Steel Authority of India (down 6.14% to Rs 157.55), National Aluminium Company (down 3.55% to Rs 432.45), Tata Steel (down 3.39% to Rs 656.30), Hindalco Industries (down 1.53% to Rs 170.30) edged lower.

IT stocks declined. Wipro (down 4.6% to Rs 414), Tata Consultancy Services (down 1.64% to Rs 885.30), Infosys (down 2.07% to Rs 1,461.30) and Satyam Computer Sevices (down 0.71% to Rs 429.10) edged lower.

Oil & Gas stocks declined. ONGC (down 0.65% to Rs 1,011.25), Reliance Petroleum (down 1.57% to Rs 168.75), Cairn India (down 0.35% to Rs 227.25) edged lower.

India’s largest private sector company in terms of market capitalisation and oil refiner Reliance Industries declined 1.02% to Rs 2,381.25. It recovered from its lows of Rs 2,358.60. A consortium of Reliance Industries (RIL) has reportedly discovered oil in Yemen. The discovery in Block 9 in Qarn Qaymah 2 well is considered to be significant, and RIL is in process of evaluating the viability.

Jaiprakash Associates (down 4.48% to Rs 221.55), Ranbaxy Laboratories (down 2.71% to Rs 470.75), Grasim Industries (down 2.56% to Rs 2,560.40), Hindustan Unilever (down 2.02% to Rs 247.90), Maruti Suzuki India (down 1.91% to Rs 744.20), and NTPC (down 2.12% to Rs 186.55) edged lower from the Sensex pack.

ICICI Bank (up 0.49% to Rs 813.25), DLF (up 0.68% to Rs 621.25), Bharti Airtel (up 1.25% to Rs 828.60), HDFC (up 0.13% to Rs 2,309.50), State Bank of India (up 0.09% to Rs 1,674.80), HDFC Bank (up 0.09% to s 1,304.30) edged higher from Sensex pack.

The next major trigger for the market is Q4 March 2008 results of India Inc. Analysts will be closely watching what the company managements have to say about the outlook for the year ending March 2009 (FY 2009). Analysts will also scrutinize disclosures that companies may make regarding foreign exchange derivatives products that they have bought on the advice of their bankers. A steep decline in the value of the US dollar against the Japanese Yen and the Swiss Franc hit Indian corporates which have used these two currencies (Yen and Franc) extensively to swap their rupee denominated debt.

As regards Q4 March 2008 results, Morgan Stanley expects 23% growth in net earnings of 104 out of 108 firms in its Indian coverage universe in Q4 March 2008 over Q4 March 2007.

Good results are expected from the telecom sector on the back of strong growth in new subscribers additions. Infrastructure and engineering firms, too, are seen reporting decent numbers in Q4 March 2008 on the back of healthy order book positions. The performance of auto firms is likely to be sluggish due to muted volume growth and rise in input costs.

A depreciation of the rupee against the dollar is likely to drive good results from the IT sector on a sequential basis in Q4 March 2008 over Q3 December 2007, though the focus here is on guidance for the year ending March 2009 from IT bellwether Infosys Technologies. Infosys guidance will give investors a sense of the effect of the weakening US economy on technology spending by companies there.

Sensex jumped 413.96 points or 2.7% at 15,757.08 on Monday, 7 April 2008, on positive cues from the Asian markets.