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Jittery investors shun risk; Policy meet in focus

Foreign institutional investors sold Rs 4.42 billion worth of local shares on Thursday, exchange data shows. This is the second consecutive day of selling by overseas investors.

Aastha Agnihotri Mumbai
Last Updated : Jul 26 2013 | 4:16 PM IST
Markets ended on a negative note this Friday on looming fear over slowdown in China coupled with caution ahead of Reserve Bank of India and US Federal Reserve’s policy meeting next week.

Foreign institutional investors sold Rs 4.42 billion worth of local shares on Thursday, exchange data shows. This is the second consecutive day of selling by overseas investors.

The 30-share Sensex ended lower 56.57 points at 19748.19 and the 50-share Nifty declined 21.30 points at 5,886.20  levels.

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BSE-Metal index lead decline among sectors, booking a loss of over 3 per cent  after China ordered companies in 19 industries to cut excess production capacity, raising fear that the demand is set to slow in the biggest consumer of the metal.

The Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy on Tuesday will be a key trigger for markets in terms of any cue on liquidity measures to support rupee.

Meanwhile US Federal Reserve will unveil its policy decision on Wednesday with investors awaiting clarity on tapering of the stimulus.

The broader markets ended lower with mid-caps and small-caps falling nearly 1 per cent on the BSE.

The market breadth was negative. Out of 2,426     stocks traded, 1,410 stocks declined while 856 stocks advanced on the BSE.


GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian stocks ended lower ahead of the Fed and the European Central Bank meeting next week. Japan’s Nikkei declined 3% to 14,129, Singapore Straits Times rose 0.01% to 3,236, China’s Shanghai Composite index was down 0.5%  at 2,010 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 0.3% to 21,968 today.

European stocks pared earlier gains and traded negatively. France’s CAC gained 0.5% to 3,975, Germany’s DAX declined 0.5% to 8,261 while UK’s FTSE was down 0.1% to 6,581.


RUPEE

The rupee rose to a five-week high intra-day as the RBI's aggressive defence of the currency showed some signs of success, but investors were again set to demand the government pay them handsomely to buy its bonds at an auction on Friday.

The partially convertible currency was trading at 59.03 per US dollar compared to yesterday’s close of 59.13.


GAINERS/LOSERS

Among the key sectoral indices , realty, bankex, auto ,power, capital goods, metals indices dropped while consumer durables and FMCG sector gained on the BSE.

The gainers included counters such as ITC gaining 2.7%, Sun Pharma rose 2.2%, Hero MotoCorp and M&M added 2% each, Wipro gained 1.7% on the BSE.

The laggards were Hindalco and Sterlite Industries dropped 4.6% and 7.6% respectively, Coal India fell 4.1%, HUL declined 3.3% while Jindal Steel shed 3.4% on the BSE.


STOCK MOVERS

Tata Coffee moved higher by 5% to Rs 1,072 after reporting a robust 43% year-on-year (yoy) jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 40 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2013, due to lower raw material and finance cost. The company had profit of Rs 28 crore in year ago quarter.

Coal India dipped 4% to Rs 282, its lowest level since listing in November 2010 on BSE, on concerns that the company may miss its production and offtake target for third month in a row.

Punjab National Bank tanked 5% to Rs 595.95, its lowest level since June 2009, after the state-owned bank said that its gross non-performing assets (NPA), as a percentage of advances, rose to 4.84% in June 2013 quarter against 3.34% in year ago quarter. In March quarter, gross NPA stood at 4.27%.

Wockhardt slumped 10% at Rs 574.50, extending its past six days fall, after the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) on July 18, issued a warning letter to the company for its manufacturing facility in Maharashtra.

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First Published: Jul 26 2013 | 4:13 PM IST

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