Marginal losses for Sensex, Nifty ahead of F&O expiry

iifl25th September, 2013 : Comments by Amar Ambani, Head of Research, India Infoline

The Indian equity market ended with marginal losses ahead of F&O expiry amid late recovery witnessed in the scrips across the board. The rebound was on the back of long rollovers seen in the telecom, metals and the capital goods stocks. Among the other major contributors to today’s recovery were the power, healthcare and elect IT stocks.

The recovery was so strong that the Nifty recouped almost 75 points while the Bank Nifty recovered nearly 175 points from day’s low.

Among the top laggards were the oil and gas, FMCG and the realty stocks. The mid-cap and the small-cap index also ended flat.

After taking a breather in the previous trading session, banking stocks were under pressure once again. Commenting on the same, Amar Ambani, Head of Research at IIFL said, “Almost all PSU banks are expected to report substantial MTM losses on their non-SLR AFS investments in the current quarter as yields across maturities have hardened materially. We estimate our PSU Banks universe to deliver a near zero earnings CAGR over FY13-15. Don’t see any relent in the multiple headwinds bogging PSU Banks. Valuation to remain under pressure; so no case to BUY. Top Sells are SBI, BOB, Allahabad Bank and Andhra Bank”. 

Finally, BSE Sensex closed at 19856 down 63 points, while NSE Nifty closed at 5,873 down 18 points over the previous close.

BPCL, Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, M&M, DLF, IDFC, Bajaj Auto and Asian Paints were among the top laggards. On the other hand BHEL, Sesa Goa, Hindalco, SBI, NTPC, Bharti Airtel, Dr Reddy’s Labs and Sun Pharma.

The advance-decline ratio favoured the bears. On the BSE, 1256 stocks declined against 1053 advancing stocks, while 149 remained unchanged.

The INDIA VIX was down 4% at 25.68. It hit a day’s high of 27.05 and low of 25.05.

Stock News

Shares of state-owned oil marketing companies – BPCL, HPCL and Indian Oil ended lower by ~4% after petroleum minister Veerappa Moily ruled out an increase in diesel and LPG prices for now.

Shares of Kingfisher Airlines was locked at 10% upper circuit on reports that the group is in talks with a foreign investor for potential stake sale.

Shares of Ashoka Buildcon rallied 3.5% after the company said that it has received orders valued at Rs4.94bn from Maharashtra State Electricity Company Ltd.