India’s Sensex Falls to a One-Week Low as Risk Appetite Wanes
India’s Sensex Falls Most in a Week on Low Appetite for Risk
(Bloomberg) -- India stocks fell, tracking peers across Asia, as appetite for risk remained subdued in the region.
The S&P BSE Sensex declined 0.4% to 40,979.62 in Mumbai, its lowest level since Feb. 4, while the NSE Nifty 50 Index slipped 0.6%. Markets across Asia traded in the red as investors weighed the impact from coronavirus on economic activity.
Of the 44 Nifty companies that have announced results so far, 19 have either met or exceeded expectations. Twenty one have missed estimates, while results for four companies are uncomparable.
Strategist View
- “With budget behind us, the focus for the market will be on global events, and the pace of recovery in India,” analysts led by Suhas Harinarayanan of JM Financial wrote in a note. “The market is trading at 18x next 12 months earnings, and the yield spread between the 10 year G-sec and Nifty earnings yield is about 90 basis points, indicating that we are at a neutral trading zone.”
- “We are seeing in India that there has been a big growth slump and the budget disappointed expectations in that context,” Gautam Chhaochharia, head of research at UBS Securities India Pvt Ltd, told BloombergQuint. “We are also seeing some green shoots of things stabilizing. In the near-term, things should stabilize, but what happens to risk appetite globally will affect the market.”
The Numbers
- All 19 sector indexes compiled by BSE Ltd. fell led by a gauge of metal companies
- Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd contributed the most to the index decline and had its biggest drop in more than a decade on disappointing earnings
- Tata Steel declined 5.8% after reporting a sharp loss on slowing demand
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To contact the reporter on this story: Nupur Acharya in Mumbai at nacharya7@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lianting Tu at ltu4@bloomberg.net, Anto Antony, Naoto Hosoda
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