Pre Session- Bears may tighten grip on Dalal Street amid global gloom

Indian equity benchmarks are set to witness a bearish opening on Monday as an Asian stock rout deepened amid jitters over the health of the global economy and an ongoing slump in oil prices as a removal of sanctions against Iran threatened to worsen a supply glut, sinking investor sentiment and souring risk taking appetite. The CNX Nifty Index futures for January delivery fell by 0.10 per cent or 7.5 points at 7,443.5 at 10:27 am Singapore time, a sign that Dalal Street may open lower today. The focus today will be on the Q3 earnings numbers of Wipro, the country’s third biggest software services provider which may report a 2 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 2,240 crore in the October-December 2015 quarter. Other companies to report earnings this week include Kotak Mahindra Bank, RIL, Axis Bank, HCL Technologies, Ultra Tech Cement, Idea Cellular, Cairn India and ITC. Aside from Q3 earnings, global stock market movement amidst China’s Q4 GDP data, FII trend, movement of the rupee against the dollar and oil prices will continue to weigh on the Sensex this week. Foreign investors have shunned Indian equities, with this year’s net outflow at USD 686.2 million. Volatility may remain high at the bourses amidst worries over a China slowdown and an ongoing oil collapse. Marking a second straight session in the red, the 30-share Sensex on Friday tanked 317.93 points or 1.28 per cent to end at a 19-month low of 24,455.04 as earnings from blue-chips disappointed and a China rout worsened. The Sensex lost almost 2 per cent for the week, marking its second straight decline.

Markets across Asia continued to bleed heavily on Monday as fears over the health of the world economy and tumbling oil prices fueled worries over disinflation, hitting investor mood. Investors awaited China’s fourth quarter GDP data due on Tuesday which could show a further slowdown in the world’s second biggest economy with growth pegged at 6.8 per cent, year on year by analysts, down from 6.9 per cent in Q3. Oil slid below the USD 30 per barrel mark to a fresh 12-year low with Iran rattling markets by getting ready to increase its shipments by 500,000 barrels per day after the lift-off of West-imposed sanctions against the Islamic Republic over the weekend, threatening to deepen a global supply surplus. China’s Shanghai Composite fell over 0.40 per cent, Hang Seng tumbled over 1.5 per cent and Japan’s Nikkei 225 slid nearly 2 per cent amid caution ahead of industrial output data. Wall Street tumbled on Friday with benchmark S&P 500 sinking to the lowest level since August amidst an ongoing commodity rout and contractions in retail sales & factory output which signaled renewed concerns over the health of the world’s biggest economy. Capping off the weakest year since 2009, US retail sales dipped 0.1 per cent in December while factory output fell for a second month on the trot, down 0.1 per cent last month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 2.39 per cent; the Nasdaq Composite fell 2.74 per cent while S&P 500 declined 2.16 per cent.

Top traded Volumes on NSE Nifty – State Bank of India 29090426.00, ICICI Bank Ltd. 20303548.00, Vedanta Ltd. 15685103.00, Axis Bank Ltd. 13178892.00 and Punjab National Bank 7222691.00.

On BSE, total number of shares traded was 32.03 Crore and total turnover stood at Rs. 2920.07 Crore.

On NSE Future and Options, total number of contracts traded in index futures was 316738 with a total turnover of Rs. 16698.03 Crore. Along with this total number of contracts traded in stock futures were 594002 with a total turnover of Rs. 28562.58 Crore. Total numbers of contracts for index options were 3554962 with a total turnover of Rs. 198395.93 Crore and total numbers of contracts for stock options were 393946 with a total turnover of Rs. 20171.41 Crore.

The FIIs on 15/01/2016 stood as net seller in equity and debt. Gross equity purchased stood at Rs. 3096.66 Crore and gross debt purchased stood at Rs. 1774.79 Crore, while the gross equity sold stood at Rs. 4248.81 Crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs. 2668.45 Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity and debt reported were Rs. -1152.15 Crore and Rs. -893.66 Crore.