Key benchmark indices edged higher in choppy trade after provisional data released by the stock exchanges after trading hours on Tuesday, 11 March 2014, showed that foreign funds made substantial purchases of Indian stocks on Tuesday, 11 March 2014. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was provisionally up 39.85 points or 0.18%, off close to 100 points from the day's high and up almost equal points from the day's low. The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative.
Index heavyweight and cigarette maker ITC rose. Pharma stocks were mixed. IT stocks edged higher.
Key benchmark indices edged lower amid initial volatility on weak Asian stocks. Key benchmark indices languished in the negative terrain in morning trade. A bout of volatility was witnessed as key benchmark indices moved into positive zone from negative zone in mid-morning trade. Key benchmark indices moved in a narrow range in positive zone in early afternoon trade. Key benchmark indices trimmed gains in afternoon trade. Key benchmark indices moved in a narrow range in positive zone in mid-afternoon trade.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 1,471.23 crore on Tuesday, 11 March 2014, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.
As per provisional figures, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 39.85 points or 0.18% to 21,866.27. The index jumped 139.53 points at the day's high of 21,965.95 in mid-morning trade. The index shed 58.28 points at the day's low of 21,768.14 in early trade, its lowest level since 7 March 2014.
The CNX Nifty was up 8.20 points or 0.13% to 6,520.10, as per provisional figures. The index hit a high of 6,546.15 in intraday trade. The index hit a low of 6,487.30 in intraday trade, its lowest level since 7 March 2014.
The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 5.38 points or 0.08% at 6,708.79. The BSE Small-Cap index was down 4.69 points or 0.07% at 6,660. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.
The total turnover on BSE amounted to Rs 2432 crore, lower than Rs 2696.52 crore on Tuesday, 11 March 2014.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market was negative. On BSE, 1,437 shares dropped and 1,318 shares rose. A total of 165 shares were unchanged.
Coal India (up 1.62%), Hero MotoCorp (up 2.16%), and ICICI Bank (up 1.3%) edged higher from the Sensex pack.
ONGC dropped 1.71% to Rs 317, with the stock sliding on profit booking after recent rally. Shares of ONGC had rallied 11.26% in six trading sessions to settle at Rs 322.50 on Tuesday, 11 March 2014, from a recent low of Rs 289.85 on 3 March 2014.
Index heavyweight and cigarette maker ITC rose 2.29% to Rs 341.40. The stock hit high of Rs 342.90 and low of Rs 333.70.
IT stocks were in demand. HCL Technologies (up 0.64%), TCS (up 1.35%), and Wipro (up 1.28%) gained.
Tech Mahindra rose 0.93%. The company today, 12 March 2014, announced the launch of its Global Development Center with Alstom Transport, a world leading manufacturer of Rail Technology, on the occasion of signing of a 3-year partnership with Alstom. The relationship comes on the context of growing need for mature regional partners capable of providing efficient vertical integration capabilities from Engineering to Manufacturing on Rolling Stock interior field, Tech Mahindra said in a statement.
Tech Mahindra said that the partnership is a result of months of progressive demonstration from the company on the ability and motivation to engage in high value added engineering activities. The development center will cover primarily engineering activities focused on concept to prototype build, the company said. Mahindra group brings in the necessary ecosystem to provide the sourcing and manufacturing support so as to integrate various life cycle functions as a one stop solution, Tech Mahindra said in a statement.
Karthikeyan Natarajan, Global Head, Integrated Engineering Solutions, Tech Mahindra said: "We are delighted to collaborate with Alstom to offer end-to-end Engineering Services from design to manufacturing. The global development center enables us to accelerate joint development of integrated engineering solutions that deliver unique value to our customers".
Pierre Gosset, Engineering Vice President, Rolling Stock and Components, at Alstom Transport said: "Tech Mahindra is primarily partnering with our newly created Interiors Centre of Excellence to provide us with innovative, end-to-end integrated engineering solutions on Interiors commodity. This partnership shall further increase our flexibility and competitiveness on this key area. This is also a further step of our Engineering ramp-up in India".
Infosys edged lower in choppy trade. The stock lost 0.13% at Rs 3,668. The scrip hit high of Rs 3,698.40 and low of Rs 3,651.90. The company said during market hours that Mauritius Post and Cooperative Bank has successfully upgraded its core banking solution to Finacle 10. The enhanced technology framework delivered by Fiancle 10 is geared to support the bank's ambitious growth plans. It also allows MPCB to develop and launch products faster, to meet rapidly changing customer needs. The new version of the core banking solution was deployed in 10 months, five weeks ahead of schedule, with no budget overruns, Infosys said in a statement.
Pharma stocks were mixed. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (up 4.52%), Dr. Reddy's Laboratories (up 0.5%) and Cipla (up 0.61%), gained. Lupin (down 0.26%) and Ranbaxy Laboratories (down 0.7%) declined.
Venky's (India) rose 1.81% after the company said its board has approved a proposal to acquire poultry and packaging business operations of Venkateshwara Hatcheries, its holding company, on going concern basis. The announcement was made during trading hours today, 12 March 2014.
Venky's (India)'s board of directors at its meeting held today, 12 March 2014, has approved a proposal to acquire poultry and packaging business operations, on going concern basis, of Venkateshwara Hatcheries (VHPL), its holding company, situated in Northern India in Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
The acquisition is a part of inorganic expansion plan of the company which will consolidate Poultry operations in Northern India thereby increasing operational efficiency due to synergy and strengthen the geographical presence for the company in Northern India, Venky's (India) said. This will increase long-term value for all stakeholders, it added. The acquisition is estimated to cost around Rs 75 crore, the company said.
Venky's (India) said that the proposed acquisition will become effective once definitive agreements are signed in this regard, subject to all requisite regulatory and statutory approvals. Barring unforeseen circumstances the company proposes to complete acquisition by end of financial year 2013-14, it added.
In the foreign exchange market, the rupee edged lower against the dollar on global risk-off sentiment. The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 61.19, compared with its close of 60.94/95 on Tuesday, 11 March 2014.
Government bond prices rose after the Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday, 11 March 2014, said it will conduct a 21-day term repo variable rate auction for a notified amount of Rs 50000 crore on Friday, 14 March 2014, so as to address the anticipated tightening in liquidity conditions in the banking system on account of advance tax payments by corporates commencing mid-March 2014 and with a view to providing flexibility to the banking system in its liquidity management towards March-end 2014. The reversal will be on 4 April 2014, the central bank said. The auction will be conducted as per the revised guidelines issued on 13 February 2014, the RBI said. There will be no term repo auction on 18 March 2014 when the existing 28-day term repo of Rs 30004 crore matures, the RBI said.
The yield on 10-year benchmark federal paper, 8.83% GS 2023, was hovering at 8.7173%, lower than its close of 8.7335% on Tuesday, 11 March 2014. Bond yield and bond prices move in opposite direction.
Industrial production is expected to remain in contraction mode in January 2014. Industrial production is seen contracting 0.5% in January 2014, as per the median estimate of a poll of economists carried out by Capital Market. Industrial output fell 0.6% in December 2013, after contracting a revised 1.3% in November 2013. The government will unveil industrial production data for January 2014 after market hours today, 12 March 2014.
Inflation based on the combined consumer price index (CPI) of urban and rural India is projected at 8.2% in February 2014, further easing from 8.79% in January 2014, as per the median estimate of a poll of economists carried out by Capital Market. The government will unveil data on inflation based on the combined consumer price index (CPI) for urban and rural India for February 2014 after market hours today, 12 March 2014.
Inflation based on the wholesale price index (WPI) is seen easing at 4.9% in February 2014, from 5.05% in January 2014, as per the median estimate of a poll of economists carried out by Capital Market. The data on inflation based on the wholesale price index (WPI) for February 2014 is due at 12:00 IST on Friday, 14 March 2014.
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.
European stocks dropped on Wednesday, 12 March 2014, as companies from Tod's SpA to G4S Plc reported worse-than-forecast results. Key benchmark indices in France, Germany and UK shed 0.83% to 1.25%.
Asian stocks fell on Wednesday, 12 March 2014, on concerns that China's economy may be faltering. Key benchmark indices in China, Indonesia, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Japan were off 0.17% to 2.59%.
A local Chinese-newspaper report overnight indicated China's central bank may respond to slowing loan demand by pumping more money into its banking system. Aggregate financing in China dropped to 938.7 billion yuan ($153 billion) last month amid a crackdown on shadow lending, a government report this week showed. That compares with January's record 2.58 trillion yuan.
Chinese exports slid the most since 2009 last month, a separate report over the weekend showed.
China's central bank governor said on Tuesday that the country's deposit rates are likely to liberalised in one to two years - the most explicit timeframe to date for what would be the final step in freeing up banks to set their own interest rates. The move will let financial markets decide the price of loans, which economists say will go a long way to prevent the wasteful investment funded by artificially cheap credit that has led to a massive buildup in debt. "Deposit rate liberalisation is on our agenda. Personally I think it's very likely to be realised within one to two years," said Zhou Xiaochuan, the head of the People's Bank of China.
Trading in US index futures indicated that the Dow could drop 12 points at the opening bell on Wednesday, 12 March 2014. US stocks edged lower for the second day in a row on Tuesday without any big economic news or blowout company earnings to respond to. The Labor Department said Tuesday that employers posted 3.9 million job openings in January, up 1.5% from December, a sign that hiring should remain steady in coming months. However, the increase fell short of what the market was expecting.
US wholesale inventories rose in January while wholesale sales fell, the Commerce Department reported on Tuesday.
Small-business sentiment, released before the market open, slumped in February. According to the National Federation of Independent Business, its small-business index dropped by more than expected, on concerns over sales, the economy and employment driving the downturn.
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.
The recovery in developed economies is on track although slowing activity in big emerging markets means global growth will be only moderate at best in the near term, the OECD said on Tuesday. Exceptionally bad winter weather in North America and a sales tax hike in Japan are also disrupting the pace of recovery, the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said. Against that backdrop, the OECD urged the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan to keep up their monetary stimulus, if not increase it, while it said the US Federal Reserve was right to begin winding down its bond-buying programme.
The stand off between the West and Russia over the Ukraine crisis continues. Germany told Russia it must switch course in Crimea by next week or risk more sanctions as Ukraine's deposed president warned of a possible civil war. The European Union will discuss harsher penalties on March 17 barring "obvious changes in Russia's actions," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in Estonia. A planned March 16 referendum in Crimea on whether to join Russia should be halted, he said. Toppled President Viktor Yanukovych told reporters in Russia that lawlessness is spreading in Ukraine, fomented by the "fascists and ultranationalists" who are in charge in Kiev.
Russia stood by deposed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and called possible US aid to the new government in Kiev illegal. Ukraine's interim prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk meets US President Barack Obama in Washington today, 12 March 2014, as the US House of Representatives passed a resolution seeking sanctions against Russia. Yatsenyuk addresses the United Nations Security Council in New York tomorrow, 13 March 2014.
Ukraine says Russia has as many as 19,000 Russian troops in the Crimea region.
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