Markets Lose Steam

The market, which moved up in the preceding fortnight, seemed like a mirage considering its performance in the past fortnight. After quite a strong start, the markets sputtered towards the middle of the fortnight. The end result was a 137 points gain for the Sensex on the last day of the fortnight, thanks to some fresh buying buoyed by some good news on the macro front.

All eyes will now be fixed on how Corporate India has fared in the September 2013 quarter. This will decide the future course of the markets.

Over the past fortnight, the BSE Sensex opened at 20354 points and went past 20739 points, which is the highest level of the fortnight, on September 19. But then, the index somehow lost its steam and fell consecutively till September 30, touching the lowest level of 19264 points on October 1. Some fresh buying towards the end saw the markets recover to some extent and the Sensex closed at 19517 points on October 1, losing a whopping 837 points over the fortnight.

On the other hand, the NSE Nifty opened at 6044 points and went past the 6142 points level on September 19. Since then it shed the gains and touched its lowest level of 5700 points on October 1 before closing at 5780 points, losing 264 points.

On the global front, almost all the indices declined with the US Dow declining 3.10 per cent over shutdown concerns and declining dollar. This was followed by Brazil’s Bovespa, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, Singapore’s STI, China’s Shanghai Composite, UK’s FTSE and Japan’s Nikkei, which declined by 4.53, 2.93, 2.28, 2.09, 1.51 and 1.33 per cent respectively. The worst part was that there wasn’t a single index that ended in the green.

As far as FIIs are concerned, negativity seems to be setting in again. On September 30, they reported a net sale of Rs 525 crore, sending markets into a tizzy. During the fortnight they made a net purchase of a meagre Rs 152 crore. On the other hand Indian mutual funds remained net sellers, having sold equities worth Rs 157 crore during the fortnight. The combined turnover of the BSE and the NSE fluctuated between Rs 10517 crore to Rs 13998 crore, showing very less activity. Though in the majority of the cases turnover remained at the lower side only.

Individually, out of the 2258 scrips, 927 were up and 1282 depreciated during the last fortnight. 49 stocks remained unchanged. As far as the gainers are concerned, Aurobindo Pharma was the biggest gainer with a 12.46 per cent jump, followed by Pipavav Defence, Ashok Leyland, Britannia Industries and Tata Communications having gone up by 10.23, 9.27, 8.98, 8.75 and 8.66 per cent respectively. On the other hand YES Bank proved to be the biggest loser with a 23.73 per cent decline, Oriental Bank, DLF, Union Bank and Financial Technologies, which shed 22.17, 20.12, 19.62 and 18.41 per cent respectively. 

Looking at the markets and the assembly elections due in five states it seems quite unlikely that the sombre mood of the bourses would continue for some more time. The ensuing results season and expectations of a healthy festive season will keep the markets hooked at least for some time now.