Peace of mind is that mental condition in which you have accepted the worst. -Lin Yutang.
Quarterly numbers, global events and of course the RBI’s annual policy will keep the Indian market on tenterhooks. Can the market find some peace of mind? The spotlight will be on banks as the RBI is all set to raise rates (and perhaps even CRR) to tame inflation. The central bank’s commentary will have a bearing on sentiment. But, the fact that the markets have already discounted rate hikes and the key indices have come off the two-year highs could lead to a bounce back.
The Goldman Sachs shock appears to have eased a bit for the time being. The focus will be on the Wall Street titan’s results later today. Citigroup shares rallied after posting strong earnings. But IBM shares are down despite stellar set of numbers.
The IT space will be in focus back home after TCS came out with better-than-expected Q4 results. Liquidity is a key variable and one needs to keep a close watch on fund flows.
We expect a flat to slightly positive start. Overall, things will be volatile with a possibility of a higher finish if the RBI doesn't spring a nasty surprise and there is no fresh external shock.
Hero Honda and Sesa Goa may hog some limelight after announcing their results post market on Monday.
Results Today: Axis Bank, BILT, BOC India, Great Offshore, GTL, HCL Tech, Jindal Saw and Zee Entertainment.
Zee Entertainment could remain in focus on market buzz of a bonus.
FIIs were net sellers of Rs7.55bn on Monday on a provisional basis. Local funds were net buyers at Rs5.7bn, according to figures published on the NSE's web site. In the F&O segment, the foreign funds were net sellers of Rs1.48bn. On Friday, FIIs were net buyers of Rs3.64bn in the cash segment, as per the SEBI web site.
India stocks extended their losing streak to a fifth straight trading session on Monday as global markets sold off in the wake of the Goldman Sachs fraud. Sentiment was also hit after sharp losses in the Chinese market where property shares took a big hit in the wake of last week’s government clampdown.
US stocks snapped a six-day wining streak on Friday after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) slapped a civil law suit on Goldman Sachs for duping investors to the tune of US$1bn. The mood remained cautious ahead of the RBI annual policy meet tomorrow. Consensus forecast is for a 25bps hike in key policy rates and a 50bps increase in the CRR.
Few weeks ago we were heading towards the 5400 and 5500 levels on the NSE Nifty. However, all of a sudden the tide seems to have turned against the bulls. The BSE Sensex has lost over 500 points and the Nifty 150 points in the last five sessions. Today, the Nifty managed to end above the 5200 mark, thanks to a late recovery in index heavyweights like Hindalco, HDFC and Bharti Airtel.
The BSE Sensex fell 191 points to end at 17,400 and NSE Nifty lost 59 points to close at 5,204. Among the 30 components of Sensex, 24 ended in the negative terrain and 6 were in the green.
Markets in Asia ended in the red; the Nikkei in Japan was down 1.8%, Australia's S&P/ASX fell by 1.5%. Shanghai SE Composite lost 4.8% and Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was down 2.1%.
On the other hand, European indices were also trading with negative bias, the DAX in Germany was down 0.5%, the CAC 40 index in France was down 0.7% and the FTSE in the UK was down 0.5%.
Coming back to India, among the BSE sectoral indices, the BSE Realty index was top loser, the index lost 2.5%, followed by BSE Metal index down 2.1% and Oil & Gas index down 2%.
Even the Mid-Cap and the Small-cap index ended in the red, both the indices lost 1% and 1.5% respectively.
Outside the frontline indices, the big losers in the broader market were Jet Airways, GMR Infra, Renuka Sugar and Jai Corp. On the other hand, gainers included Jain Irrigation, Allahabad Bank, Godrej Consumers and Sterling Bio.
Shares of Godrej Consumer gained by 3% to end at Rs320 after reports stated that company is in talks to acquire Issue Group Co., an Argentine company that makes hair coloring. The scrip opened at Rs311 it touched an intra-day high of Rs331 and a low of Rs307 and recorded volumes of over 0.16mn shares on BSE.
Shares of Jet Airways declined by over 6.5% to end at Rs502 after the airliner canceled flights between London and India over the weekend after volcanic eruptions in Iceland created an ash cloud across large areas of Europe disrupting the route. The airliner used different routes to North America.
M&M reportedly agreed to take over partner Renault SA’s 49% stake in a venture as the Renualt separately seeks to expand operations. Mahindra Renault Pvt. will now be 100% owned by M&M. The stock ended flat at Rs503. The scrip opened at Rs498 it touched an intra-day high of Rs509 and a low of Rs491 and recorded volumes of over 0.28mn shares on BSE.
Shares of Amtek Auto slumped by over 5% to end at Rs183 after ~1.6% of equity changed hands in single block. The scrip opened at Rs190 it touched an intra-day high of Rs193 and a low of Rs179 and recorded volumes of over 6.1mn shares on BSE.