Daily stock market review and outlook

Indian stock market witnessed its biggest sell-off since May last year. Weak global cues triggered by the minutes of last Fed meeting which raised concerns that US Fed may withdraw the monetary stimulus dragged the Indian indices down sharply by the end of day’s trade. Equities across the globe witnessed heavy sell-off pressure as the investors moved towards less riskier assets due to worries that US Federal Reserve could wind down its bond-buying programme prematurely. Depreciation in rupee and gold hitting seven month low worsen the sentiment further.

The 30-share BSE Sensex lost 317.39 points to close at 19325.36. The Sensex surged to a day's high of 19554.65 and a fell to a day's low of 19289.70. It opened at 19549.05. The broader indices, NSE Nifty lost 90.80 points, to end the day’s trading at 5852.25. The 50-share Nifty touched a day's high of 5921.15 and a day's low of 5,844.40. It opened at 5909.65.

Of the 50-share Nifty pack only 3 stocks ended with gains while the rest 47 stocks closed with loses. The only 3 gainers among NSE stocks are: Cipla (0.05 %), GAIL (0.04 %) and Bajaj Auto (0.04 %). The top 5 losers among NSE socks are: Jindal Steel (4.08 %), Tata Steel (4.05 %), J P associate (3.75 %), ICICI Bank (3.74 %) and Sesa Goa (3.65 %).

Of the 30 shares of BSE index components, only 1 stock ended in positive terrain, while the rest 29 stocks closed in negative zone. The only gainer in BSE Sensex stocks is GAIL surging by 0.09 %. The top 5 losers of the Sensex pack were: Jindal Steel (4.19 %), Tata Steel (4.18 %), Sterlite Industries (3.77 %), ICICI Bank (3.77 %) and Hindalco (3.54 %).

Both BSE Mid Cap and Small Cap index closed with losses. Mid Cap index lost 1.6 % while, the Small Cap Index gained 1.7 %. Among the 13 sectoral indices in BSE, all but 1 sector closed with losses. The only gaining sector has been BSE CD, which is marginally up by 0.04 %. The top five loosing sectors were: BSE Metal slipping by 3.23%, BSE Bankex down by 2.52% and BSE Realty down by 2.33%.

The advance decline ratio was heavily in favor of the bears. Of the 2961 stocks traded on the BSE, 904 (30.53 %) rose, 1929 (65.15 %) fell and 128 (04.32%) stocks remained unchanged.

Market outlook for tomorrow

All the Asian markets ended the day’s trading with heavy losses as China ordered increased property curbs amid talks of a hedge fund liquidating big positions in commodities. Japan’s Nikkei was down by 1.39 %, Jakarta Composite was down by 0.04 %, Hang Seng index in Hong Kong lost 1.72 % and China’s Shanghai Composite ended lower by 2.97 %, KOSPI Index lost 0.47 %, markets in Taiwan ended lower by 0.89 % and Straits Times lost 0.64 %.

European markets are also trading with heavy losses due to the fact that U.S. Federal Reserve minutes suggested that the central bank may stop printing the money that has helped to drive the recent rally in equities sooner than expected. FTSE index in UK is trading lower by 1.62 %, the CAC index in France is down by 2.29 %, DAX index in Germany is down by 1.88 % and AEX Amsterdam Index is lower by 2.10 %. US stock markets are trading lower at this moment. Dow Jones Industrial Average is up down by 0.52 %, while Nasdaq Composite Index is also down by 1.15 %

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued to remain bullish on India. Continuing their buying spree, FIIs bought net shares Rs 433.59 crore yesterday as per provisional data from bourses.

Thus the sentiment for Indian market will most likely remain negative tomorrow. However the union budget is all set to contain the much needed booster dose to lift the market sentiment.