Sensex, Nifty Halt 4-Day Gains As Rate Sensitives Slide Ahead Of Fed Meet; Metals Buck Trend
Caution to prevail on dalal street ahead of Fed, BOJ
Closing Bell
Indian shares snapped their four-day winning streak as investors take cover ahead of Wednesday policy decisions by the Bank of Japan and the U.S. Federal Reserve.
The S&P BSE Sensex declined 0.4 percent to 28,523; while the NSE Nifty dropped 0.4 percent as well to 8,775. The market breadth was discouraging at 922 declines, 548 advances and 262 stocks remaining unchanged.
G Chokkalingam, Founder, Equinomics Research & Advisory does not expect the any rate hike on Wednesday. “Although its economy is improving, U.S. is more concerned about the rest of the world where the deflationary trends are quite visible,” he told BloombergQuint by phone.
Despite that, he expects our market to remain range-bound for a week or so. “Investors will be closely watching India’s reply to the Uri attack and whether there is any sort of an escalation in the region,” he said.
Two-wheeler makers Hero Motocorp (-2.4 percent) and Bajaj Auto (-1.9 percent) fell for a second straight session making them the worst performing Sensex stocks.
“Increased competition from Honda, which has managed to capture around 25 percent of market share, led to profit booking in the bikemakers,” Chokkalingam said.
The S&P BSE Metal and Oil & Gas indexes managed to edge higher, while the S&P BSE Realty Index was the worst performing sectoral gauge. ONGC (+1.5 percent), the country’s largest oil and gas explorer, climbed for a third straight session.
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European Shares Fall as Investors Await Fed
European stocks retreated, after rising the most in two weeks as investors awaited the Federal Reserve’s Wenesday meeting, and energy producers slid with oil.
Government May Impose Anti-Dumping Tax on More Steel Products Imports
India is considering expanding the basket of steel products that attracts an anti-dumping tax to stem inflows of cheaper supplies into the world’s third-biggest producer. (Read full report HERE)
Castrol India Jumps After Block Deal
Shares of the engine oil maker gained as much as 9.1 percent, most since July 2014 after 8.5 percent of its equity traded in block deals. According to Bloomberg data, about 42.2 million shares changed hands on the BSE.
It was the most traded stock with volumes around 45 times its 3-month full day average.
Biocon Touches New All-Time High
Shares of the biotechnology firm touched a new all-time high of Rs 965, making it the second best performing stock on the S&P BSE MidCap index and third best performer on the S&P BSE Healthcare index in the last six-months.
The stock has gained a whopping 110 percent since September 2015.
Opening Bell
Indian shares snapped a four-day winning streak ahead of Wednesday policy decisions by the Bank of Japan and the U.S. Federal Reserve.
The S&P BSE Sensex slipped 0.1 percent to 28,591; while the NSE Nifty dropped 0.2 percent to 8,789. The market breadth was encouraging at 873 advances, 532 declines and 436 stocks remaining unchanged.
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Stocks To Watch:
- Jubilant Foodworks: CEO Ajay Kaul resigns; hunt for successor begins.
- Dr Reddy’s Laboratories: Launches the generic version of kidney disease drug -
Zemplarijection, in the U.S. market.
- Mangalam Cement: Commenced commercial production of new cement grinding unit with a capacity of 0.75 million tonnes per annum at Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh.
- Karur Vysya Bank: To split shares in the ratio of 1:5.
- Reliance Infra: Evaluating InvIT for Metro, power transmission businesses. (Business Standard)
For a complete list of stocks to watch, click HERE
Good Morning!
The Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange, an early indicator of the Nifty performance in India, are little changed at 8,805.
U.S. markets closed flat and Japan fluctuated as investors await policy decisions from the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan. The Nikkei 225 index is trading little changed after it resumed trade post a holiday yesterday. Economists remain divided over whether the BOJ will add further monetary stimulus when its two-day meeting ends on Wednesday.
The S&P 500 Index closed the Monday session exactly where it ended the Friday session, owing to a weaker dollar and falling crude prices that kept investors on the edge.
Bets for a Fed rate hike in September remained unchanged at 20 percent, according to futures rates tracked by Bloomberg.
Oil posted losses on signs that the global oversupply situation will persist. Nigeria’s output is set to rise after the government reached a cease-fire with militants, Minister of State for Petroleum Emmanuel Kachikwu said.
U.S. crude stockpiles rose 3.13 million barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg survey. Official inventory data will be released on Wednesday.