Sunday, November 17, 2013

Weekly Market Commentary - Nov 11 - Nov 15, 2013

Global markets continue to anchor on central governors’ announcements for directions. This anchoring is making many market participants nervous. As results season nears its end in India, market is struggling to find any catalyst to move up. And as we know, when indices are not moving up, they are moving down. Can’t stay confused/range bound/flat or in inaction for long.

Sensex lost 1.3%, Nifty lost 1.4% and CNX Midcap was down by 1.1% this week.

Monday – Sensex down by 0.8%, Nifty down by 1.0%, Midcap down by 0.9%
Continuing weakness in rupee had its effect on investors. Investors continue to stay cautious as September IIP and October retail inflation numbers are due for release tomorrow.

Tuesday - Sensex down by 1.0%, Nifty down by 1.0%, Midcap down by 1.0%
Although market consensus indicates a recovery in IIP at 3.6% in September vs. 0.6% in August, it is the retail inflation, which is causing nervousness among the participants. Street expects CPI for October to be at 10% vs. 9.84% previous month. Also, car sales, considered by investors as a signal of consumer sentiment, provided little cheer with domestic sales declining 3.9% in October.

Wednesday – Sensex down by 0.4%, Nifty down by 0.5%, Midcap down by 0.7%
Street was little disappointed as IIP numbers came in lower at 2% for September vs 3.6% consensus while CPI was on higher side with rise of 10.09% in October. Investors have again started speculating a rate hike in coming December 18 meeting of the RBI.

Thursday – Sensex up by 1.0%, Nifty up by 1.1%, Midcap up by 1.5%
Markets cheered the Janet Yellen’s statement that US economy is still underperforming and Fed will continue its liquidity support for some more time. Janet Yellen is set to replace Ben Bernanke as Federal Reserve Governor soon.

On domestic front, Raghuram Rajan again sprung back to action and soothes the nerves of the investors with announcement of 8,000 crores of bond buying program to infuse liquidity in the system.

Friday – Markets closed on occasion of Muharram

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Weekly Market Commentary - Nov 4 - Nov 8, 2013

Markets struggled to find ground as Diwali euphoria dies out. In addition, returning of oil companies to source their dollar requirements from market got the rupee falling again, which worried the investors.

Global investors remained nervous over what continues to be their single most important concern: Will there be talks of Fed tapering or not in the next meeting.

Markets lost all the gains they made previous week. Sensex lost 2.5%, Nifty lost 2.6% and CNX Midcap was down by 0.3% this week.

Monday – Markets closed on occasion of Balipratipada

Tuesday - Sensex down by 1.2%, Nifty down by 1.0%, Midcap up by 0.6%
Markets closed down as India’s service sector activity, as measured by HSBC / Markit purchasing managers index, contracted for fourth successive month as economic uncertainty continues. The index improved to 47.1 in October from 44.6 in September but continued to stay below 50, which indicates contraction.

Wednesday – Sensex down by 0.4%, Nifty down by 0.6%, Midcap down by 0.1%
Investors are treading cautiously as S&P warned that it might downgrade India’s credit rating if next government fails to chart out a path to bring back the country to high growth. S&P currently has 'BBB-/A-3' sovereign credit rating on India with negative outlook. The rating major will conduct its next review after the general elections, which are due by May 2014; unless the country's fiscal or external standing deteriorates.

Thursday – Sensex down by 0.3%, Nifty down by 0.4%, Midcap down by 1.4%
Markets continued to stay range bound as oil companies return to market for their dollar requirements, which had got investors worried over depreciation in rupee. Any further depreciation in rupee may affect FIIs inflow in the domestic markets.

Friday – Sensex down by 0.8%, Nifty down by 0.8%, Midcap down by 0.1%
Markets continued to stay under pressure, as recent depreciation in rupee value brings back the inflation worries. Rise in inflation or inflation expectations may prompt RBI governor to hike rates again raising the cost of doing business in already reeling economy.

Investors were also cautious ahead of Fed meeting as improving US economic conditions fuelled the talks of tapering by US Federal Reserve.