MARKETS CRUMBLE

Key benchmarks have made a gap-down opening, extending losing streak for the fourth straight session, as global risk assets sold off after elections in Greece and France fuelled questions on their austerity policies. Moreover, the weaker rupee and uncertainty in a day when the Finance Bill containing the controversial provisions is set to be introduced in the parliament also weighed down the sentiments. On the global front, the US markets went for sharp sell-off on Friday on getting lower than expected jobs number while, all the Asian counters were exhibiting subdued trade at this point of time. Back home, concerns about a review of the government's tax treaty with Mauritius too prevailing in the markets along with the GAAR issue. All the sectoral indices on the BSE traded lower. Banks, consumer durables, realty, capital goods and auto stocks were witnessing the selling pressure in early trade. Moreover, the broader indices too were struggling to get some traction and the market breadth on the BSE was negative; there were 375 shares on the gaining side against 1,206 shares on the losing side while 50 shares remained unchanged. 

The BSE Sensex opened at 16,620.44; about 210 points lower compared to its previous closing of 16,831.08, and has touched a low of 16,541.23 while high remain its opening.

The index is currently trading at 16,589.49 down by 241.59 points or 1.44%. There were only 4 stocks advancing against 26 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a negative start with 22.99% stocks advancing against 73.94% declines. The broader indices too were trading in the red; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices declined 1.51% and 1.31% respectively.

The major losing sectoral indices on the BSE were, Bankex down by 2.56%, CD down by 2.13%, Realty down by 2.09%, CG down by 1.82% and Auto down by 1.53%, while there were no gainers on the index.

The few gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up by 1.43%, GAIL up by 0.64%, Sun Pharma up by 0.37% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.27%.

On the flip side, SBI was down by 3.85%, ICICI Bank was down by 3.02%, L&T was down by 2.43%, HIndalco was down by 2.33% and Tata Steel was down by 2.21% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, a revival of exports in the Indian economy is long overdue, according to Nomura. Referring to the HSBC PMI index, Nomura has stated that a sustained increase in export orders suggests that a reversal is around the corner.

For the first time since late 2009, exports shrank in March by 5.7% to $28.68 billion from $30.41 in March 2011.From a peak of 82% in July; export growth had slipped to 44.25% in August, 36.36% in September, 10.8% in October and 3.8% in November 2011. However, exports grew 6.7% in December 2011, over 10% in January 2012 and 4.3% in February.

Nomura is of the opinion that the fall in exports has largely been due to the European debt crisis and slower Chinese growth. Now with the US economy showing some signs of recovery and the lagged effects of rupee depreciation, revival in exports is likely. Industrial growth is also expected to pick up in the coming months.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,017.80; about 69 points lower compared to its previous closing of 5,086.85, and has touched a high and a low of 5,021.15 and 4,995.70 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,006.95, lower by 79.90 points or 1.57%. There were only 6 stocks advancing against 44 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were BPCL up by 1.69%, Cipla up by 1.23%, GAIL up by 0.33%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.32% and ACC up by 0.21%.

On the flip side, JP Associates down by 5.13%, SBI down by 4.39%, Bank of Baroda down by 3.41%, ICICI Bank down by 3.15% and Axis Bank down by 2.97%, were the major losers on the index.

All the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite was down 6.33 points or 0.26% to 2,445.68, Hang Seng was down 512.86 points or 2.43% to 20,573.14, Jakarta Composite was down 75.32 points or 1.79% to 4,141.36, KLSE Composite was down 7.53 points or 0.47% to 1,583.51, Nikkei 225 was down 247.11 points or 2.63% to 9,133.14, Straits Times was down 53.36 points or 1.78% to 2,937.23, KOSPI Composite was down 32.04 points or 1.61% to 1,957.11 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 168.52 points or 2.19% to 7,532.43.