Tuesday, October 18, 2011

MARKETS EXTEND LOSSES

The Indian equity markets extended its losses, remained deep down in red and currently trading near the low point of the day on sustained selling across the board and renewed worries about the economic situation in Europe. Sensex slipped more than 300 points, while Nifty holding 5,000 mark. Investor's sentiments dented on TCS and HCL Tech's worst than expected second quarter numbers. Tata Consultancy Services reported a lower-than-expected 15% year-on-year rise in second quarter net profit at Rs 2,439 crore, amid continued uncertainty in global economy. HCL Tech reported a fall of 2.5% Q-o-Q in consolidated net profit of Rs 497 crore for the quarter ended September 2011. TCS and HCL Tech were not showing any sign of recovery, both falling over 7%. On sectoral front, information technology, realty, metal, bank and capital goods stocks declined sharply with investors choosing to take some profits after recent gains. Automobile, oil and consumer durables stocks too were down in negative territory with notable losses. Pharmaceuticals and FMCG stocks were faring relatively better but in the negative territory. On the global front, Asian markets continued to trade in red tracking Mainland shares listed in Hong Kong fell more than 3% after China reported gross domestic product at 9.1% for the quarter, slightly below forecasts of 9.2%, indicating the world's second-largest economy expanded at its slowest pace since the second quarter of 2009 and Germany's finance minister cautioned against hopes for a quick fix to Europe's debt problem. Back home, the market breadth favoring the negative trend; there were 693 shares on the gaining side against 1,557 shares on the losing side while 90 shares remained unchanged.
The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 16,717.87, down by 307.22 points or 1.80%. The index has touched a high and low of 16,824.76 and 16,714.14 respectively.  There were just 5 stocks advancing against 25 declines on the index.
The broader indices too added on their losses; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were down by 1.25% and 1.06% respectively.
Although selling was witnessed across the board there was no gainer on the BSE sectoral space, however, IT down by 3.56%, TECk down by 2.93%, Realty down by 2.78%, Metal down by 2.37% and Bankex down by 2.16% featured in the list of the worst performers.
The top gainers on the Sensex were Coal India up by 1.66%, Hero Motocorp up by 0.45%, Tata Power up by 0.35%, Sun Pharmaceuticals up by 0.17% and NTPC up by 0.15%.
On the flip side, TCS down by 7.48%, Tata Motors down by 4.65%, Hindalco down by 4.07%, Sterlite Industries down by 4.01% and DLF down by 3.41% were the top losers on the index.
Meanwhile, Union Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee stated that India remains firmly on a growth trajectory of 8.5 percent to 9 percent in the medium to long-run, at a function to celebrate 25 years of India-Asian Development Bank (ADB) partnership. He further opined that the nation needs investment in quality infrastructure to enhance productivity and sustain the growth momentum.
The finance minister's statement comes at a time when Asia's third largest economy is showing signs of slow down while inflation on the other hand continues to remain at elevated levels of around 10 percent. Mukherjee was also concerned about the emerging challenges and cautioned that 'we, however, need to be alert and respond to the emerging challenges and concerns, in a timely manner as we make efforts to achieve our potential as a young and fast growing nation.'
The minister said that food security and volatility in commodity prices has been a matter of concern for India and remarked that increased agricultural production on a sustainable basis is the only long term solution to the problems of availability as well as high and fluctuating food and commodity prices. Mukherjee said that ADB needs to focus on issues that help in linking farms to markets and promote research activities and efforts in improving productivity of dry-land farming, efficient use of water, rain-fed irrigation, development of drought-resistant varieties of seeds and other similar concerns.
The minister also called upon Asian Development Bank (ADB) to cover new ground through study and research on how Asian countries can help harness skills and innovations for sustaining growth. ADB should analyze developments not only in ADB member nations but in West Asia and the Gulf nations as well and incorporate them into comparative studies with the rest of Asia, to enable a holistic understanding of trends and development patterns in the Asian region, the minister added.
The Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012-2017) has an ambitious target of infrastructure investment estimated at $1 trillion or nearly 10 per cent of India's GDP. Citing that ADB's investment support in India's infrastructure sector has been noteworthy, the finance minister said that the momentum of collaboration between ADB and India needs to be further stepped-up in this important area, considering the huge investment it needs for the sector.
The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,025.95, down by 92.30 points or 1.80%. The index has touched a high and low of 5,057.50 and 5,023.75 respectively.  There were 8 stocks advancing against 41 declining ones on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged.
The major gainers of the Nifty were Coal India up by 1.62%, GAIL up by 0.55%, BPCL up by 0.47%, Hero MotoCorp up by 0.41% and NTPC up by 0.24%. HCL Tech down by 7.79%, TCS down by 7.54%, Tata Motors down by 4.76%, Sterlite Industries down by 4.22% and Hindalco down by 4.11% were the major losers on the index.
All the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite down by 1.60%, Hang Seng down by 3.64%, Jakarta Composite down by 2.96%, KLSE Composite down by 1.89%, Nikkei 225 down by 1.55%, Straits Times down by 1.83%, Seoul Composite down by 1.47% and Taiwan Weighted  down by 1.36%.

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