Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Indian Stock Market : Nifty ends below 5,250 as weak rupee hurts sentiment

The Nifty snapped a three-day upmove and closed in the negative terrain as a weak rupee and lack of conviction among investors hurt sentiment.

The rupee closed near the 53-per-dollar mark on demand for the greenback from importers. Widening current account deficit, slowing domestic economic growth and exit of foreign institutional investors on concerns of tax policies have been putting pressure on the rupee.

India's exports in March fell for the first time since the 2009 global financial crisis. They fell 5.7 percent to $28.7 billion in March 2012 while imports rose 24.3 percent to $42.6 billion.

The partially convertible rupee ended at 52.95 per dollar, down 22 paise, against a previous close of 52.73. It slipped to a low of Rs 53.02 per dollar earlier in the day.

The market had opened on a positive note taking cues from Asian peers, but failed to hold above intermediate resistance levels and gave away gains as the session progressed. The Nifty has been moving in the range of 5,200-5,300 for the past few sessions. It has been lacking strength to break out on the either side.

Once the issues on GAAR and tax policies are clarified by the government, the market may break out on the upside, analysts said.

The GAAR issue would probably be resolved before the finance bill is implemented. A clarification should help people stay back in India and not withdraw money which would ultimately bring down the pressure on rupee as well.

The Sensex ended at 17,301.91, down 16.90 points, or 0.10 percent. It touched an intraday high of 17,432.33 and a low of 17,265.48.

The Nifty closed at 5,239.15, down 9 points, or 0.17 percent. It touched an intraday high of 5,279.60 and a low of 5,226.45.

The BSE Midcap Index was down 0.27 percent while the BSE Smallcap Index edged 0.20 percent higher.

Among sectoral indices, the BSE Auto Index was down 1.72 percent, the BSE Power Index slipped 1.25 percent and the BSE Capital Goods Index declined 0.94 percent. The BSE IT Index was up 0.73 percent, the BSE Bankex moved 0.27 percent higher and the BSE FMCG Index advanced 0.21 percent.

Tata Motors (3.65%), Maruti Suzuki (3.20%), ACC (2.59%), Coal India (2.58%) and Tata Power (2.41%) led the Nifty losers.

Foreign institutional investors seem to be selling Tata Motors. Analysts expect JLR figures to slow down going forward.

DLF (2.78%), Bharti Airtel (2.42%), SAIL (1.95%), Punjab National Bank (1.95%) and Cipla (1.92%) were among the top Nifty gainers.

Bharti Airtel reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 1,006 crore for the quarter ended March 2012 against Rs 1,400 crore a year ago. The company recommended a dividend of Re 1 per equity share of a face value of Rs 5 each for the financial year 2011-12.
The market breadth was negative on the NSE with 662 gainers against 793 losers.

The European markets were mixed. The CAC 40 gained 1.04 percent and the DAX moved 0.83 percent higher. The FTSE 100 was down 0.18 percent.

No comments:

Post a Comment