Fresh selling in index heavyweights Reliance Industries and Bharti Airtel pulled the markets down in afternoon trade. A marginal rise in inflation also dampened the investor sentiments. The BSE 30-share Sens*x was down 17.72 points, or 0.19%, off close to 140 points from the day's high.
India's wholesale price index rose 5.64% in the 12 months to 17 January 2008 slightly above the previous week's annual rise of 5.60%.
Meanwhile in what could turn out to be a sentiment booster, India's largest institutional investor, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), said it will invest Rs 17,000 crore in the equity market during the Q4 March 2009. LIC's current investment portfolio is worth around Rs 8.06 lakh crore. As per IRDA guidelines, the institution has to invest 50% of the investible funds in government securities, 15% in infrastructure while the balance 35% can be invested in equities, corporate loans, mutual funds, fixed deposits and commercial papers.
In a populist move ahead of the general elections, the government on Wednesday, 28 January 2009, slashed petrol price by Rs 5 a litre and diesel by Rs 2 a liter, while the prices domestic LPG was also slashed by as much as Rs 25 per cylinder. The reduction was effective from 28 January midnight.
Strong global cues had triggered a buoyant start. Offsetting of open positions ahead of the expiry of January 2009 derivatives contract today, 29 January 2009 triggered high volatility on the bourses, as witnessed in the in the past few days. Rollover of open positions as on Wednesday, 28 January 2009, have been healthy during this series. As per reports, rollover of Nifty positions from January 2009 series to February 2009 series was 57%, higher from 53% during last series. Marketwide rollover of positions were also higher at 59%, from 55% earlier. Market came off the day's high later as pivotals cuts early gains.
Asian stocks advanced today, 29 January 2009, as investors took heart from the US Congress making headway on a $825 billion stimulus spending package and other efforts to stem the financial crisis. Financial markets in Hong Kong reopened after a three-day break, but markets in China and Taiwan remained closed. Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and South Korea rose by between 0.03% to 5.16%.
US stocks advanced on Wednesday, January 28, as bank stocks surged on confidence that the Obama administration was speeding a plan to remove bad assets from banks` books in an effort to revive lending.
The Dow Jones industrial average advanced 200.72 points, or 2.46%, to 8,375.45. The S&P 500 index advanced 28.38 points, or 3.36%, to 874.09. The Nasdaq Composite index gained 53.44 points, or 3.55%, to 1,558.34.
At 12:32 IST, the BSE 30-share Sens*x was down 17.72 points, or 0.19%, to 9,239.79. The Sens*x rose 122.21 points at the day's high of 9,379.68 in early trade. The Sens*x fell 20.54 points at the day's low of 9,236.98 in early afternoon trade.
The S&P CNX Nifty fell 22.20 points, or 0.78%, to 2,827.30.
Buying frenzy in index pivotals coupled with short covering of open positions ahead of January 2009 derivative contracts triggered a solid rally in key benchmark indices in the past two days. The Sens*x advanced 583.12 points or 6.72% to 9,257.47 in two-trading days to 28 January 2009.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, turned negative with 1,095 shares declining as compared with 1,021 that rose. 96 shares remained unchanged. The breadth was strong in early trade.
Among the 30-share Sens*x pack, 19 advanced while the rest fell. Hindalco Industries, Tata Steel, Jaiprakash Associates, ACC, Reliance Infrastructure rose by between 0.91% to 2.74%. While, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications fell by between 0.69% to 3.61%.
India's largest private sector company by market capitalization and oil refiner Reliance Industries (RIL) fell 1.24% to Rs 1,257.75 off the day's high of Rs 1,290.
However India's largest oil exploration firm by revenue ONGC rose 1.63% to Rs 652.30 off the day's low of Rs 629 after its net profit slipped lower-than-expected by 43.3% to Rs 2474.81 crore on a 17.8% decline in sales to Rs 12436.43 crore in Q3 December 2008 over Q3 December 2007. The profit was hit by a slump in crude oil prices and a hefty subsidy bill.
Power stocks fell. NTPC, Power Grid Corporation of India and Tata Power Company fell by between 0.29% to 2.3%. While Reliance Infrastructure and Reliance Power rose by between 1.59% to 3.41%.
Auto stocks were up after India cut fuel prices by up to 11 % late on Wednesday. Hero Honda Motors and M& M rose by between 1.15% to 2.7%.
India's largest commercial vehicle maker by sales Tata Motors rose 1.47% after recent reports the British government guaranteed up to 2.3 billion pounds of loans to help the ailing auto firms in the UK, which includes Jaguar Land Rover.
India's largest car maker by sales Maruti Suzuki India rose 2.78% ahead of its Q3 December 2008 result today.
Banking stocks pared gains after marginally higher inflation data. India's second largest private sector bank by net profit HDFC Bank rose 0.75% to Rs 920 off the day's high of Rs 938 as its American depository receipt (ADR) rose 8.49% on Wednesday, 28 January 2009.
India's largest bank in terms of assets and branch network State Bank of India rose 1.22% to Rs 1,122.50 off the day's high of Rs 1,161.70 after its net profit rose 37.03% to Rs 2478.42 crore on 38.3% rise in total operating income to Rs 21,255.90 crore in Q3 December 2008 over Q3 December 2007. The bank announced the result on 24 January 2008.
India's largest private sector bank by net profit ICICI Bank rose 1.93% to Rs 416.10 off the day's high of Rs 426.90. Its ADR rose 15.02% overnight. Net profit of ICICI Bank rose 3.41% to Rs 1272.15 crore on 0.1% rise in total operating income to Rs 10,350.62 crore in Q3 December 2008 over Q3 December 2007. The unexpected rise in net profit was because earnings from fees and bond trading offset slowing credit growth and rise in bad loans. The bank announced the result on Saturday, 24 January 2008.
India's largest dedicated housing finance company by total income HDFC rose 2.36%.
IT firms were mixed. India's second largest software services exporter Infosys Technologies gained 0.68% to Rs 1,293.80 off the day's high of Rs 1,308 as its ADR rose 3.43% overnight. While, India's fifth largest IT exporter by sales HCL Technologies rose 0.4% after its net profit rose 56.82% to Rs 398.01 crore on 10.97% rise in sales to Rs 1,304.85 crore in Q2 December 2008 over Q1 September 2008.
India's third largest software services exporter, Wipro fell 3.14% even as its American depository receipt (ADR) rose 5.17% on Wednesday, 28 January 2009. The company forecasted a 7% fall in revenue for Q4 March 2009 on global economic downturn and pricing pressure from western clients, at the time of declaring results before market hours on 21 January 2009.
TCS, India's largest software services exporter by sales fell 0.06% to Rs 505.30 off the day's high of Rs 515.05 after it bagged a Rs 490-crore engagement (about $100 million) to provide managed IT services to UK-based 4U Group on 28 January 2009.
Satyam Computer Services tumbled 7.57% to Rs 51.25, off sharply day's high of Rs 60 but recovering from the day's low of Rs 44.40 on reports it is close to finalising a new head to help the government-appointed board put the fraud-hit outsourcing firm back on track. The counter clocked massive volumes of 7.45 crore shares on the BSE.
Rate sensitive real estate shares rose on hopes lower rates will spur housing demand. Indiabulls Real Estate, HDIL, Unitech, Omaxe rose by between 0.21% to 5.39%.
India's largest electric equipment maker by sales BHEL fell 2.27% ahead of its Q3 December 2008 result today.
Orissa Sponge Iron & Steel was locked at 5% upper limit at Rs 117.50 after a block deal of 19 lakh shares was executed on BSE at Rs 117.50 a share.
Kalpataru Power Transmission jumped 6.91% after the company secured a transmission order worth $250 million from Kuwait.
Escorts rose 1.25% after its net loss narrowed to Rs 3.4 crore in Q1 December 2008 over Q3 December 2007.
Asian Paints slumped 3.89% extending loses for the third consecutive day, as promoters of the company pledged almost 15% stake in the firm.
The Fed in its two-day meet which concluded yesterday, 28 January 2009, said it was still mulling the extreme move to buy Treasuries but would do so if it would help private credit markets, emphasising its focus on bringing down borrowing rates for consumers and companies through other asset purchases. The fed also held its target for short-term interest rates between 0 and 0.25% as expected, and vowed to keep looking at alternative tools at its disposal for boosting the economy. It added that the economy remains weak and did not expect any economic recovery to occur until later this year.
Meanwhile, the US House of Representatives passed an $825 billion stimulus plan in President Barack Obama's first legislative achievement since taking office last week, with the debate now shifting to the Senate.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) are in selling mode after an inflow of Rs 1319.10 crore in December 2008. Their outflow in January 2009 totaled Rs 4534 crore (till 27 January 2009).
According to provisional data on NSE, FIIs were net sellers worth Rs 217.32 crore while mutual funds bought shares worth Rs 601.88 crore on Wednesday, 28 January 2009.
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