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Post Session: Quick Review
Oct-17-2018

Snapping three sessions of gaining streak, Indian equity benchmarks ended Wednesday’s trade on a pessimistic note with losses of over a percent. Sharp sell-off in last leg of trade dragged the markets to low points, breaching their crucial 10,450 (Nifty) and 34,800 (Sensex) levels. The markets made a gap-up opening and traded in fine fettle, as traders took encouragement with report that India has been ranked as the 58th most competitive economy on the World Economic Forum’s global competitiveness index for 2018, which was topped by the US. The WEF said India’s rank rose by five places from 2017, the largest gain among G20 economies. Sentiments remained up-beat with the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) forecast that the share of investments in gross domestic product (GDP) will rise to 33% by FY23 from 31.4% recorded in the last fiscal. Some comfort also came with a private report stating that the extra US tariffs on its imports from China have opened a window of opportunity for India to push for higher exports in 171 items with additional outbound shipment potential of up to $8.7 billion a year.

However, markets reversed all of their strong gains and fell into negative territory in the last leg of trade, as traders turned cautious with Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu’s statement that no country can benefit from the decline in the world trade, and the slowing global economy is a concern for all nations including India. Some cautiousness also came after Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said that the country needs to work a lot on exports and gender parity so as to grow at 9-10% annually in the next three decades, ensuring that India has growth with equity. Adding to the pain, the share of foreign portfolio investments (FPI) in domestic capital markets through participatory notes (P-notes) hit a nearly nine-and-a-half year low of Rs 79,548 crore in September 2018.

On the global front, Asian markets ended mostly in green on Wednesday, as upbeat U.S. corporate earnings results and strong economic data helped offset worries about trade tensions and rising interest rates. European markets were trading mostly in green, after upbeat earnings on Wall Street helped to restore an appetite for riskier assets.

The BSE Sensex ended at 34755.26, down by 407.22 points or 1.16% after trading in a range of 34727.16 and 35605.43. There were 7 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 2.29%, while Small cap index was down by 2.17%. (Provisional)

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.17% and FMCG up by 0.04%, while Realty down by 3.13%, Auto down by 3.08%, Oil & Gas down by 2.39%, Consumer Disc down by 2.31% and Basic Materials down by 2.22% were the top losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 1.39%, Wipro up by 1.39%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.20%, ITC up by 1.19% and Coal India up by 0.76%. (Provisional)

On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 6.35%, Adani Ports &SEZ down by 5.39%, Maruti Suzuki down by 3.71%, Tata Steel down by 3.50% and SBI down by 3.42% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, the World Economic Forum (WEF) in its latest Global Competitiveness Report for 2018 has ranked India the 58th most competitive economy. As per the report, India's rank rose by five places from 2017, the largest gain among G20 economies. India recorded a score of 62.0 in the Global Competitiveness Report.  According to the report, the top performers in the upper and lower middle-income brackets, such as China and India, are catching up with or even outperforming the average among high-income economies. The report stated that China, is already more advanced when it comes to investing in research and development sub-pillar than the average high-income economy, while India is not far behind and let down only by its less-efficient bureaucracy for business creation and insolvency.

India remained the South Asia's main driving force. India leads the region in all other areas of competitiveness except for health, education and skills, where Sri Lanka boasts the highest healthy life expectancy (67.8 years) and the workforce with the highest amount of schooling (9.8 years). The WEF in report said India's greatest competitive advantages include its market size, innovation (in particular the quality of its research establishments and business dynamism (including the number of disruptive businesses). While the areas that the country needs to improve include, labour market (in particular workers rights), product market (in particular trade tariffs) and skills (in particular pupil-teacher ratio).

On the list of 140 economies, the index was topped by the US, while Singapore and Germany were at the second and the third positions respectively. Other countries in the top 10 include Switzerland (4th), Japan (5th), Netherlands (6th), Hong Kong (7th), United Kingdom (8th), Sweden (9th) and Denmark (10th). Among the BRICS economies, China topped the list at 28th place with a score of 72.6, ahead of the Russian Federation (65.6, 43rd), India (62.0, 58th), South Africa (60.8, 67th), and Brazil (59.5, 72nd).

The CNX Nifty ended at 10444.55, down by 140.20 points or 1.32% after trading in a range of 10436.45 and 10710.15. There were 10 stocks advancing against 40 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were HCL Tech up by 1.83%, Wipro up by 1.77%, Infosys up by 1.55%, ITC up by 1.20% and Power Grid up by 1.07%. (Provisional)

On the flip side, Indiabulls Housing Finance down by 13.16%, Bajaj Finance down by 7.50%, Yes Bank down by 6.33%, BPCL down by 5.66% and Adani Ports &SEZ down by 5.53% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading mostly in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 14.53 points or 0.21% to 7,073.93 and France’s CAC was up by 3.33 points or 0.06% to 5,176.38, while Germany’s DAX decreased 46.71 points or 0.4% to 11,729.84.

Asian markets ended mostly in green on Wednesday after US shares posted their biggest gain in six months overnight following strong earnings from major financial and health care companies as well as encouraging reports on the US economy. Japanese shares ended higher, continuing its recovery from last week’s sharp downturn with a turnaround by Wall Street peers lifting technology stocks. Further, Chinese shares closed higher ahead of third-quarter GDP and September activity data, due on Friday. Meanwhile, Hong Kong markets were closed for the Chung Yeung Festival.

Asian Indices

Last Trade           

Change in Points

Change in %

Shanghai Composite

2,561.61

15.28

0.60

Hang Seng

-

-

-

Jakarta Composite

5,868.62

67.80

1.16

KLSE Composite

1,740.59

3.75

0.22

Nikkei 225

22,841.12

291.88

1.28

Straits Times

3,071.10

36.79

1.20

KOSPI Composite

2,167.51

22.39

1.03

Taiwan Weighted

9,979.14

-1.96

-0.02
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