Key benchmark indices languished in the negative terrain in early afternoon. The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market was negative. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 69.37 points or 0.32%, off close to 150 points from the day's high and up about 25 points from the day's low.
IT stocks edged higher. Realty stocks edged lower on profit booking after recent strong gains.
The market edged higher in early trade on firm Asian stocks. The Sensex fell below the psychological 22,000 mark after regaining that level in early trade. Volatility ruled the roost as key benchmark indices regained positive terrain in morning trade. The Sensex regained the psychological 22,000 mark. The 50-unit CNX Nifty scaled a record high. High intraday volatility was witnessed as key benchmark indices once again slipped into the red in mid-morning trade. The Sensex fell below the psychological 22,000 mark. Key benchmark indices languished in the negative terrain in early afternoon trade.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 1253.65 crore on Monday, 10 March 2014, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.
At 12:20 IST, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 69.37 points or 0.32% to 21,865.46. The index lost 93.25 points at the day's low of 21,841.58 in mid-morning trade. The index jumped 83.69 points at the day's high of 22,018.52 in morning trade.
The CNX Nifty was down 21.10 points or 0.32% to 6,516.15. The index hit a low of 6,510 in intraday trade. The index hit a high of 6,562.85 in intraday trade, a record high.
The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 1.31 points or 0.02% at 6,724.05. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 5.94 points or 0.09% at 6,669.04. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market was negative. On BSE, 1,374 shares dropped and 1,102 shares rose. A total of 148 shares were unchanged.
Hindalco Industries (down 4.22%), Tata Steel (down 4.19%) and Sesa Sterlite (down 2.85%) edged lower from the Sensex pack.
Realty stocks edged lower on profit booking after recent strong gains. D B Realty (down 0.43%), DLF (down 0.96%) and HDIL (down 0.91%) declined.
Unitech fell 1.93% on a media report that Life Insurance Corporation of India is close to seizing the company's 350-acre land parcel in Noida. According to a report, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has taken notional possession of a slice of Unitech's 350-acre land parcel in Noida after the company failed to repay a part of its nearly Rs 150-crore loan from LIC. In a 'Notional Possession Notice' LIC cautioned the public against dealing with the land parcels in sectors 96, 97 and 98 in Noida, which is prime property along the expressway that connects the Delhi suburb with Greater Noida, the report said.
Notional possession is a step short of taking physical control of an asset, although the property remains under the company's charge. The property can be handed back to the company once the accounts are settled, report added.
As per the report, the company has not cleared a part of the dues, prompting LIC to issue a demand notice on 26 November 2013, asking the company and its guarantors - including the promoters, Ramesh Chandra, Sanjay Chandra and Ajay Chandra, and group companies - to repay the dues within 60 days. But, with the amount remaining overdue, the insurance company took possession of the property on 7 March 2014 as part of the land had been offered to it as a collateral when the company took the loan, the report said.
IT stocks edged higher. TCS (up 0.83%), Tech Mahindra (up 0.71%), Wipro (up 1%), HCL Technologies (up 1.17%) and Infosys (up 0.27%) gained.
Petron Engineering Construction rose 3.48% after the company said it has received letter of award for a total contract value of Rs 54.70 crore plus service tax from UltraTech Cement. The announcement was made after market hours on Monday, 10 March 2014.
Petron Engineering Construction said it has received letter of award for civil contract at Nagpur Cement Works at Nagpur in Maharashtra from UltraTech Cement (Unit: Nagpur Cement Works) for a total contract value of Rs 54.70 crore plus service tax.
In the foreign exchange market, the rupee edged higher against the dollar, tracking gains in most other Asian currencies. The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 60.66, compared with its close of 60.85/86 on Monday, 10 March 2014.
On the macro front, the government will unveil industrial production data for January 2014 tomorrow, 12 March 2014. Industrial output fell 0.6% in December 2013 after contracting a revised 1.3% in November 2013.
The government also unveils data on inflation based on the combined consumer price index (CPI) for urban and rural India for February 2014 tomorrow, 12 March 2014. CPI inflation eased to 24-month low of 8.79% in January 2014.
The data on inflation based on the wholesale price index (WPI) for February 2014 is due on Friday, 14 March 2014. WPI inflation stood at 5.05% (provisional) in January 2014 as compared to 6.16% (provisional) for December 2013.
The Reserve Bank of India next undertakes monetary policy review on 1 April 2014. Citing price pressures, the Reserve Bank of India raised its key lending rates by 25 basis points after Third Quarter Review of Monetary Policy for 2013-14 on 28 January 2014.
The next major trigger for the stock market is the outcome of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Lok Sabha elections will be held between 7 April 2014 and 12 May 2014 in nine phases. The counting of votes will be take place on 16 May 2014. The term of the current Lok Sabha expires on June 1 and the new House has to be constituted by May 31. Along with the Lok Sabha election, Andhra Pradesh (AP), including the regions comprising Telangana, Odisha and Sikkim will go to polls to elect new assemblies. AP, Odisha and Sikkim assemblies come to end on June 2, June 7 and May 7 respectively.
With the election code of conduct coming into force, government authorities will not be able to announce any major policy initiatives. However, they can announce routine or unavoidable policy measures after taking the approval of the election commission.
The Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (DMK) in its Lok Sabha election manifesto released in Chennai today, 11 March 2014, said that the party is opposed to foreign direction investment (FDI) in retail and education. The manifesto also talks about the Tamils in Sri Lanka. Abolition of death sentence, statehood to Puducherry, implementation of Sethusamudhram project and making Tamil the local official language are some of the other promises made by the DMK in its Lok Sabha election manifesto. The M Karunanidhi-led DMK has been opposed to the death sentence to the killers of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The DMK has also been backing the demand for the killers to be released from jail.
Asian stocks edged higher on Tuesday, 11 March 2014, after the Bank of Japan kept monetary policy unchanged. Key benchmark indices in Indonesia, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Japan were up 0.01% to 0.69%. China's Shanghai Composite fell 0.6%.
The Bank of Japan (BoJ) maintained record easing, keeping ammunition as an April sales-tax bump threatens to trigger the deepest one-quarter contraction since the March 2011 earthquake. The BoJ kept a pledge to expand the monetary base at a pace of 60 trillion to 70 trillion yen ($677 billion) per year, the central bank said in a statement in Tokyo today, 11 March 2014, after a monetary policy review.
A report yesterday, 10 March 2014, showed aggregate financing in China dropped to 938.7 billion yuan ($153 billion) last month amid a crackdown on shadow lending, down from January's record 2.58 trillion yuan. Central Bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said today, 11 March 2014, that China's deposit rates will be liberalized in one to two years. Zhou commented at a press briefing in Beijing as part of sessions of the annual meeting of the National People's Congress. He also said that interest rates will initially rise as controls are removed.
Trading in US index futures indicated that the Dow could drop 4 points at the opening bell on Tuesday, 11 March 2014. US stocks slid on Monday, pulling the Standard & Poor's 500 Index down from a record, as a slowdown in Chinese exports fueled concern about global economic growth.
The Federal Reserve will continue to trim its monthly asset purchases at a $10 billion pace, Charles Evans, president of the Chicago Fed and among the most dovish US policymakers said on Monday as he also detailed how the US central bank might rewrite its plan for keeping interest rates low. "We're at a point now where we're, moving away from purchasing assets, we're tapering, and our balance sheet continues to be very large but we're not going to add to it as much," Evans told a gathering at Columbus State University. "The last two meetings we reduced the purchase flow rate by $10 billion and we're going to continue to do that," he said flatly.
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) next undertakes monetary policy review on 18-19 March 2014. After a monetary policy review, the FOMC on 29 January 2014 announced it will reduce monthly bond purchases by another $10 billion to $65 billion.
Ukraine began military drills as Russian forces tightened their hold on the Crimean peninsula and the Foreign Ministry in Moscow warned of "lawlessness" in the former Soviet republic's eastern provinces.
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