 "US Fed outcome, Brexit fears spook markets")
Indian stocks declined amid volatility as participants remained wary ahead of the US Federal Reserve meet and worries regarding a UK referendum that could push Britain out of the European Union. Weakness in the global equities amid decline in crude oil prices further dented sentiments
Meanwhile, traders continue to closely watch the progress of the monsoon, which arrived in southern India on Wednesday, a day later than forecast.
The S&P BSE Sensex shed 128 points to end at 26,636 and the Nifty50 dropped 34 points to close at 8,170.
Nikhil Kamath, Co-Founder & Director, Zerodha says "Markets exhibited a burst of volatility intraday on Friday, the indices rallied to the 8,300 levels after opening flat for the day, this upmove sharply reversed to take the markets lower for the day all the way to the 8,180 levels. This volatility is bound to cause a lot of churn wiping out a lot of the weak hands from the market. Global cues were largely weak Friday with the European indices selling off sharply intraday. “
He adds “This weakness in the markets could be on the back of fatigue which the markets have been exhibiting over the last couple of days, post the rally we had witnessed hitherto. Technically the markets still look to be in a overall uptrend and weathering the short term volatility could prove prudent. We continue to hold a bullish outlook on the markets and would recommend adding allocation to equities at this juncture."
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GLOBAL MARKET
Asian equities declined as participants remain edgy on worries regarding a UK referendum that could push Britain out of the European Union. Meanwhile, decline in the crude oil prices and a weak finish on the Wall Street dampened sentiments.
Japan’s Nikkei, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and China’s Shanghai Composite dropped between 0.4%-1.6%.
Following the downslide in Asia, European markets nodedived with FTSE 100, CAC 40 and DAX losing between 1.5%-2%.
Crude oil declined from a 10-month high in New York, as a stronger dollar countered a rally driven by tightening global supplies.
STOCKS
Infosys continues to lose sheen for the second day and shed 0.5% amid worries that compensation increase and higher visa fees could impact margins in the first quarter of the current fiscal. Further, concerns that growth could remain volatile in the near term and cautious outlook for the retail sector among other verticals also dampened sentiment. The stock has also turned ex-dividend today for final dividend of Rs 14.25 per share for the year ended 31 March 2016 (FY 2016).
ITC lost 0.8%. The FMCG major has forayed into the dairy whitener market with its Sunfresh brand, its second offering in dairy business, after it opened its innings in this space last October with packaged ghee.
Shares of Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone gained 0.4% after rating agency India Ratings & Research assigned a stable outlook for its proposed non-convertible debentures (NCDs)
Lupin rebounded on account of value buying and gained 0.5%. The stock had witnessed profit taking in the previous session on talk that it is recalling over 54,000 vials of anti-bacterial injection, Ceftriaxone, at its Mandideep facility in Madhya Pradesh due to violation of current manufacturing norms.
Meanwhile, its peer Dr. Reddy's Lab shed 0.2% after the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission charged the drugmaker with having failed to comply with rules on child resistant packaging for five of its products.
RIL will be withdrawing from its ongoing arbitration with the government on pricing of natural gas, a person privy to the discussions between the company and the oil ministry disclosed. Not only will it bring to an end the face-off between the company and the government, it will also enable RIL to avail of the recently approved liberal gas pricing regime. The stock was up 0.5%.
Mahindra group is in talks with taxi aggregators Uber and Ola for a strategic alliance to offer a wide gamut of services. M&M lost 0.5%.
Vedanta rose 3% after CLSA upgraded Vedanta to buy from sell with an increased target price of Rs.150 from Rs.70 per share.
Shares of logistics companies extended gains for the fourth straight session in an otherwise weak market on hopes of clearance of the goods and services tax (GST) Bill in the upper house of the Parliament.Gati, Snowman Logistics, Sical Logistics, Allcargo Logistics, Patel Integrated Logistics and VRL Logistics gained in the range of 2%-10%.
Meanwhile, shares of public sector undertaking (PSU) banks closed lower, erasing their early morning gains on profit booking. State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Allahabad Bank, IDBI Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and Bank of India closed lower up to 2%.
Moody's Investors Service on Friday said that the government will have to infuse Rs 1.2 lakh crore into PSU banks by 2020 to bolster their balance sheets and make good the losses suffered by them. This is way higher than an additional Rs 45,000 crore capital infusion plan envisaged by the government.