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EQUITY
Post Session: Quick Review
Apr-15-2024

The Indian equity benchmarks saw selling pressure on first trading session of week amid weak cues from Asian counterparts. Rise in WPI inflation also dampened the investors sentiments. Since morning, indices remained in red terrain amid rising geopolitical tensions in the middle-east where Iran launched retaliatory attack on Israel. A level of pressure was seen in Banking and IT sector’s stocks. As for broader indices, the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap index ended with cut of over one percent each.

Markets made gap-down opening and added more losses despite positive macro-economic data. The government data showed that India's retail inflation eased to 4.85 per cent on an annual basis in March as against 5.09 per cent in the previous month. Also, data provided by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) showed that the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) in India rose 5.7 per cent in February as against 3.8 per cent in January. In afternoon session, markets remained lower as the provisional data released by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry showed that India’s wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation accelerated to 0.53 per cent in March on an annual basis, as against 0.20 per cent in February. WPI inflation stood at 1.34 per cent in March 2023. Traders overlooked report that India’s forex reserves jumped by $2.98 billion to a fresh peak of $648.562 billion for the week ended April 5. Indices widened their losses in late afternoon session as investors fretted about escalating tensions between Iran and Israel and its potential impact on crude oil prices, inflation and the likelihood of rate cuts.

On the global front, European markets were trading mostly in green amid hopes that the Middle East conflict could be contained. Iran told the United Nations the barrage of drone strikes fired on Saturday towards Israel was a ‘legitimate’ defensive response to the attack in Damascus on April 1, which killed seven members of Tehran's Revolutionary Guard, including two generals. Asian markets ended mostly in red as Iran's drone attack against Israel sparked worried about inflation and the outlook for interest rates. Back home, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) has said that passenger vehicle (PV) wholesales in India touched a record high of 42,18,746 units in the financial year 2023-24 (FY24), registering a year-on-year growth of 8.4 per cent, as compared to overall passenger vehicle dispatches of 38,90,114 units in fiscal year 2022-23.

The BSE Sensex ended at 73,399.78, down by 845.12 points or 1.14% after trading in a range of 73,315.16 and 73,905.80. There were 3 stocks advancing against 27 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in red; the BSE Mid cap index declined 1.50%, while Small cap index was down by 1.54%. (Provisional)

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 0.40% and Energy was up by 0.21%, while IT down by 1.58%, Bankex down by 1.55%, Capital Goods down by 1.49%, Power down by 1.44% and Industrials was down by 1.41% were the top losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Nestle up by 1.22%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.14% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.16%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 2.70%, ICICI Bank down by 2.37%, Bajaj Finserv down by 2.15%, Bajaj Finance down by 2.09% and Tata Motors down by 2.05% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, inflation based on wholesale price index (WPI) increased in the month of March 2024 to 0.53% from 0.20% in February 2024, primarily due to increase in prices of food articles, electricity, crude petroleum & natural gas, machinery & equipment and other manufacturing etc.

The Component wise, primary articles index, having weight of 22.62%, increased 0.94% to 183.1 (provisional) in March 2024 from 181.4 (provisional) for the month of February 2024, on the back of surge in prices of crude petroleum & natural gas, food articles, minerals and non-food articles.

Fuel & Power index, having weight of 13.15%, increased 0.06% to 155.2 (provisional) in March 2024 from 155.1 (provisional) for the month of February 2024, due to rise in prices of electricity and mineral oils. However, prices of coal declined in March 2024 as compared to February 2024.

Besides, Manufactured Products constituting the major portion of the index with weight of 64.23%, increased 0.21% to 140.1 (provisional) in March 2024 from 139.8 (provisional) for the month of February 2024. Meanwhile, for the month of January 2024 the final Wholesale Price Index and inflation rate for 'All Commodities' (Base: 2011- 12=100) stood at 151.2 and 0.33% respectively.

The CNX Nifty ended at 22,272.50, down by 246.90 points or 1.10% after trading in a range of 22,259.55 and 22,427.45. There were 6 stocks advancing against 44 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were ONGC up by 5.33%, Hindalco up by 2.35%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.27%, Nestle up by 0.69% and Britannia up by 0.21%. On the flip side, Shriram Finance down by 2.85%, Bajaj Finserv down by 2.46%, Wipro down by 2.42%, ICICI Bank down by 2.36% and Larsen & Toubro down by 2.13% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading mostly in green; France’s CAC rose 52.84 points or 0.66% to 8,063.67 and Germany’s DAX was up by 140.18 points or 0.78% to 18,070.50. On the flip side, UK’s FTSE 100 was down by 38.24 points or 0.48% to 7,957.34. 

Asian markets settled mostly down on Monday due to heightened geopolitical uncertainties in the Middle East following Iran's drone attack against Israel. Israel's hours-long war cabinet meeting ended Sunday night without a decision on how Israel will respond to Iran's attack. Concerns over US inflation and uncertainty over the pace of Fed rate cuts this year have also dampened market sentiments. Japanese shares declined tracking the broadly negative cues from Wall Street last Friday. However, Chinese shares gained due to renewed regulatory support from Beijing, while state-backed property developer China Vanke said it's making plans to resolve short-term liquidity pressure and operational difficulties. China's central bank on Monday left a key policy interest rate unchanged as widely expected when rolling over maturing medium-term loans.

Asian Indices

Last Trade            

Change in Points

Change in %      

Shanghai Composite

3,057.38

37.91

1.24

Hang Seng

16,600.46

-121.23

-0.73

Jakarta Composite

--

--

--

KLSE Composite

1,542.53

-8.51

-0.55

Nikkei 225

39,232.80

-290.75

-0.74

Straits Times

3,183.61

-33.30

-1.05

KOSPI Composite

2,670.43

-11.39

-0.43

Taiwan Weighted

20,449.77

-286.80

-1.40
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