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Markets snap 5-day winning streak on profit booking
Apr-26-2024

Indian equity benchmarks ended lower on Friday after five sessions of gains, primarily dragged down by Banking, TECK and Auto stocks. Market made a slightly positive start as traders took some support with the department of economic affairs in its monthly economic review for March stating that further easing of food prices is on the anvil as IMD has predicted above-normal rainfall during the monsoon season, which is likely to lead to higher production, assuming good spatial and temporal distribution of the rainfall. The report added that India's economic performance has remained robust despite global challenges and geopolitical concerns. However, markets failed to sustain early gains and soon slipped into red as traders turned cautious with provisional data from the NSE showing that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net sold Rs 2,823.33 crore shares on April 25, 2024.  Traders overlooked United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) report stating that India's services exports jumped 11.4 per cent to $345 billion in 2023 despite global economic uncertainties.  

Markets extended fall in late afternoon deals, as sentiments were downbeat with the World Bank’s statement that interest rates could remain higher than expected in 2024 and 2025 as global commodity prices level off. Some anxiety also came amid reports that India's central bank plans to soon change guidelines to permit banks to temporarily freeze accounts suspected of being used to commit cyber-crimes, as it battles a rising wave of online crime. Selling further crept in as rating agency Crisil said prices of vegetables, a key component of food inflation, may be elevated for the next few months due to ‘above-normal’ temperatures till June as predicted by the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The rates are likely to decline after the onset of monsoon in June.

On the global front, European markets were trading higher after U.S. tech giants Microsoft and Alphabet posted strong quarterly earnings and an ECB survey showed Euro zone consumers lowered their expectation for inflation over the next 12 months in March. Asian markets ended mostly in green on Friday as Microsoft and Google's parent company Alphabet both beat Wall Street's Q1 expectations, offsetting Meta Platforms' disappointing forward guidance.  However, traders remained cautious and were reluctant to take up long positions ahead of key data from the U.S. 

Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 609.28 points or 0.82% to 73,730.16 and the CNX Nifty was down by 150.40 points or 0.67% points to 22,419.95.

The BSE Sensex touched high and low of 74,515.91 and 73,616.65 respectively. There were 6 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.83%, while Small cap index was up by 0.27%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.52%, Realty up by 0.53%, Healthcare up by 0.45%, PSU up by 0.40% and Oil & Gas up by 0.29%, while Bankex down by 0.70%, TECK down by 0.26%, Auto down by 0.25%, Capital Goods down by 0.21% and Telecom down by 0.15% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tech Mahindra up by 7.34%, Wipro up by 0.79%, ITC up by 0.56%, Ultratech Cement up by 0.53% and Titan Company up by 0.41%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 7.73%, Bajaj Finserv down by 3.55%, Indusind Bank down by 3.35%, Nestle down by 3.08% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 2.11% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Additional Secretary in the Department of Commerce Anant Swarup has said that the commerce ministry has initiated an exercise to identify required infrastructure needs, potential sectors, and clusters which would help the country achieve the $1 trillion merchandise exports target by 2030. He said that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has been requested to conduct a study in this regard.

Swarup said ‘if the country is targeting $1 trillion of exports by 2030, there is a likelihood of about $1.5 trillion of imports, so do we have enough capacity to cater to $2.5 trillion of EXIM (export and import) trade. So that is the target on which the department is working’.  He also said ‘the ADB is doing a study for us because what is more important is from where the $1 trillion of exports is going to come from; which are those sectors and clusters from where this $1 trillion of exports is going to come from. That is very critical for us. Because unless we know about the clusters, and ports or airports from where this $1 trillion of exports and $1.5 trillion of imports is going to happen, we would not be able to do a baseline study to identify the gaps which exist and then enhance our infrastructure capabilities’.

He further said that the government is also focusing on ways to push India’s integration into the global supply chains (GVCs) as at present about 70 per cent of the global trade is happening through these chains. For this, there is a need to increase manufacturing. He added that generally exports and imports move in tandem. India’s merchandise exports dipped by 3.11 per cent to $437 billion in 2023-24. Imports too dipped to $677.24 billion in the last fiscal.

The CNX Nifty traded in a range of 22,620.40 and 22,385.55. There were 17 stocks advancing against 33 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tech Mahindra up by 7.55%, Divi's Lab up by 4.97%, LTIMindtree up by 3.42%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.49% and BPCL up by 1.09%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 7.73%, Bajaj Finserv down by 3.66%, Indusind Bank down by 3.08%, Nestle down by 2.64% and SBI Life Insurance Company down by 2.11% were the top losers.

European markets were trading higher; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 31.11 points or 0.39% to 8,109.97, France’s CAC rose 22.16 points or 0.28% to 8,038.81 and Germany’s DAX gained 132.85 points or 0.74% to 18,050.13.

Asian markets ended mostly in green on Friday after the Bank of Japan left its key interest rate unchanged near zero and the bank's latest projections showed the underlying inflation staying around 2 percent that further damped expectations for aggressive tightening in future. The BoJ policy board, headed by Governor Kazuo Ueda, unanimously decided to hold the overnight interest rate at around 0 to 0.1 percent. The board also voted to conduct its bond purchase programme in line with the decision made at the March meeting. Besides, traders were getting encouragement as Microsoft and Google's parent company Alphabet both beat Wall Street's Q1 expectations, offsetting Meta Platforms' disappointing forward guidance.

Asian Indices

Last Trade            

Change in Points

Change in %      

Shanghai Composite

3,088.64

35.74

1.16

Hang Seng

17,651.15

366.61

2.08

Jakarta Composite

7,036.08

- 119.21

- 1.69

KLSE Composite

1,575.16

5.91

0.38

Nikkei 225

37,934.76

306.28

0.81

Straits Times

3,280.10

-7.65

-0.23

KOSPI Composite

2,656.33

27.71

1.04

Taiwan Weighted

20,120.51

263.09

1.31
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