Weekly Market Commentary - Jul 22 - Jul 26, 2013

Not a very good week for the markets, as weak earnings announcement from key companies disappointed the investors. L&T is facing declining margins, ITC missed sales estimates and HUL posted fall in profits. On top of that, RBI made money more expensive continuing its tight monetary stance. Sensex was down 2%, Nifty was down 2.4% and CNX Midcap 3.9% this week.

Monday - Sensex up by 0.05%, Nifty up by 0.04%, Midcap down by 0.24%
Markets pared the gains it made in its early trades post L&T results announcement. L&T, along with BHEL results, are widely seen as barometer of new investment activity by the broader market. Company’s disappointing 1Q results pushed down the investor sentiment as it reported 12.5% decline in standalone net profit, largely due to margin pressures. The stock fell 7% during the day and had a ripple effect across the broader market. Company is facing tough competition from South Korean and European firms in its stronghold West Asian markets, which is leading to squeeze in margins.

Tuesday - Sensex up by 0.7%, Nifty up by 0.8%, Midcap up by 0.2%
Indian stocks went up with their global peers as China reassured the markets that they are committed to restructuring their economy to continue their growth momentum. ITC and HUL led the surge in Sensex. There was also some buying seen in banking after PC came out and assuage the fears of monetary tightening, calling the phase temporary. RBI’s move to tighten rules on gold import to ease the pressure on rupee and widening CAD further boosted the investor sentiment.

Wednesday - Sensex down by 1.0%, Nifty down by 1.4%, Midcap down by 1.9%
RBI delivered another blow to the markets as it moved the short-term interest rates further up. RBI, in its ongoing battle against the rupee volatility, struck again, reducing the Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF) from 1.0% to 0.5% and thus cutting down on the amount of money banks can borrow from the central bank. RBI also increased the limit of daily CRR balance banks need to maintain with RBI from 75% to 99% sucking out few extra thousand crores from banks.

I have already highlighted that this RBI adventure, in hope of replicating 98’ Jalan experiment, is totally not required. I have only one explanation for this. After the POSCO and Arcelor-Mittal debacle and not getting single foreign retailers move here after their big bang FDI in retail announcement, maybe the policymakers have realized that none of this is going to have any benefit in the near term. Therefore, they have decided to move their focus to falling currency. PC should have something to show for, for all his efforts to reverse the damage done to the economy by his govt.

Have to win atleast one fight!

Thursday - Sensex down by 1.4%, Nifty down by 1.4%, Midcap down by 1.0%
Markets continued to lose ground as investor fear that the current bout of monetary tightening will continue in the near term. Renowned economist Raghuram Rajan, in an interview with Moneycontrol.com, indicated that RBI focus is on getting the rupee to stabilize as too much volatility is hurting the investment climate in the country.

Friday - Sensex down by 0.3%, Nifty down by 0.4%, Midcap down by 1.1%
Markets continued to remain under pressure as investors turned cautious ahead of RBI meeting coming Tuesday. Street is expecting RBI to maintain its monetary tightening stance and maintain status quo on rates front.