Daily stock market review and outlook

Unhappy with the Union Budget announced by finance minister P. Chidambaram, Indian stock market indices slumped to a three- month low. Slapping more taxes on super-rich, offering little concessions to large investors, lack of any definite expenditure control measures and concerns over rising current account deficit were some of the major factors to which the market reacted negatively. Even positive global markets and reduction in Securities Transaction Tax on mutual fund and equity futures transactions by the Finance minister in the budget couldn’t stop the market to have its worst Budget day show since 2009. Profit-booking on the last day of the expiry of February derivative contracts also weighed on the market. Moreover the news that India's economy grew at a worse-than-expected, 4.5 per cent in the quarter ending December 31, even below what it did in the quarter ending in September, affected the market sentiment negatively.

The 30-share BSE Sensex lost 290.87 points to end the day’s trading at 18861.54. The Sensex hit to a day's high of 19322.28 and a fell to a day's low of 18793.97. It opened at 19264.80. The broader indices, NSE Nifty lost 103.85 points, to end the day’s trading at 5693.05. The 50-share Nifty touched a day's high of 5849.90 and fell to a day's low of 5671.90. It opened at 5834.35.

Of the 50-share Nifty pack 8 stocks ended with gains while the rest 42 stocks closed with loses. The top 5 gainers among NSE stocks are: TCS surging by 2.28 %, followed by Kotak Mahindra Bank (0.93 %), HCL Tech (0.50 %), Tata Motors (0.45 %) and Bajaj Auto (0.45 %). The top 5 losers among NSE socks are: Reliance Infra (9.28 %), State Bank (5.99 %), PNB (5.53 %), Bank of Baroda (5.51 %) and Ranbaxy (5.25 %).

Of the 30 shares of BSE index components, only 7 stocks ended in positive terrain, while the rest 23 stocks closed in negative zone. The top 5 gainer in BSE Sensex stocks are: TCS surging by 2.14 %, followed by Bharti Airtel (0.62 %), Tata Motors (0.49 %), Sun Pharma (0.40 %) and Bajaj Auto (0.35 %). The top 5 losers of the Sensex pack were: State Bank (5.80 %), Tata Steel (4.04 %), ICICI Bank (3.86 %), Maruti (3.74 %) and L&T (3.17 %).

Both BSE Mid Cap and Small Cap index closed with losses of about 2 % in today’s trade. Among the 13 sectoral indices in BSE, only 3 sectors ended with gains while 10 sectors closed with losses.  Top and only three gainers of the BSE sectoral indices are: BSE CD up by 0.85%, BSE IT up by 0.47%, BSE TECk up 0.11%. Top 3 loosing sectors were: BSE Power down by 4.29%, BSE Bankex down by 3.59% and BSE CG declining by 3.39%.

The advance decline ratio was in favor of the bears. Of the 2931 stocks traded on the BSE, 857 (29.24%) rose, 1973 (67.31%) fell and 101 (3.45%) stocks remained unchanged.

Market outlook for tomorrow

All the Asian markets ended with heavy gains today. Japan’s Nikkei gained 2.71 % in today’s trade. Jakarta Composite gained 1.68 %, Hang Sang index in Hong Kong gained 1.96 %, China’s Shanghai Composite ended higher by 2.26 %, and KOSPI Index was up by 1.12 %. Markets in Taiwan were closed today and Straits Times gained 0.27 %.

All the European markets are also trading with gains. FTSE index in UK is at present trading up by 0.55 %, the CAC index in France is up by 0.85 %, DAX index in Germany is up by 0.86 % and AEX Amsterdam Index is up by 0.94 %. US stock markets are also trading with marginal gains. Dow Jones Industrial Average is trading higher by 0.05 %, while Nasdaq Composite Index is also up by 0.27 %.

Thus the broad outlook for tomorrow’s market seems to be positive. The market is all set to come up from today’s low. From the analysis of the budget, most seasoned market analysts are now saying that the budget may have missed the market expectations but has not been a populist one and in many is FDI friendly. This will definitely help the market to tide over 19,000 mark in tomorrow’s trade which also happens to be the first day of derivative trading for March