Mumbai, April 18
The Indian equities markets
were dampened during the weekly trade ended April 17, proving that mere
endorsement of economic growth potential by international financial
institutions is not enough and that corporate India's earnings have to
catch-up with the high expectations.
Even though India's
economic growth potential was endorsed from the likes of the World Bank,
IMF, Asian Development Bank, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD), Moody's and Economist Intelligence Unit, this was
not enough to cheer the markets.
The equities markets' were
solely focused on the fourth quarter earnings season and the outlook
that companies had to offer for future growth.
The benchmark
30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange
(BSE) lost 457.28 points or 1.58 percent during the weekly trade session
ended April 17.
The Sensex had ended the weekly (April 17) trade
session at 28,422.10 points. For the previous weekly trade ended April
10, the BSE Sensex had closed at 28,879.38 points.
The S&P
BSE Sensex had gained 619 points or 2.19 percent during the weekly trade
ended April 10 to end at 28,879.38 points, against the (April 1) close
28,879.38 points.
"The markets were dampened mainly due to poor
quarterly results of some of the major companies. There was also no
positive triggers for the market during the last week," Devendra Nevgi,
chief executive of ZyFin Advisors told IANS.
According to Nevgi,
investors were cautious about the Greece economic crises and its
fall-out on the Eurozone economies and other international events like
the instability in Yemen.
"Investors were concerned about an
external shock that could have emerged from the Greek debt cises, Yemen
unrest and appreciating oil prices," Nevgi added.
Anindya
Banerjee, senior manager, Kotak Securities told IANS, that the Indian
markets still remained expensive to invest-in and that further reforms
and ground level execution of government's plans will add-in more
confidence.
"The markets are expected to remain choppy during
this results season. Plus there are no signs of the economy improving
due to structural issues that have dented sentiments. New economic
reforms and execution of earlier reforms will add-in more investor
confidence," Banerjee added.
Vinod Nair, head-fundamental
research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services said that the markets
would now like to understand the earnings outlook.
"Based on
that (outlook), 2015-16 earnings growth will be decided which continues
to be pegged at 18-20 percent growth," Nair said.
Nair
pointed-out that the growth in earnings will depend on the higher
allocation of expenditure by the government towards infrastructure
projects.
"Given the high expectation for 2015-16, minor
downgrade on earnings cannot be avoided. Having said that, the
short-term impact on earnings will not hamper the market deeply," Nair
added.
Other major developments last trading week that impacted
markets were the growth forecast on Indian economy by major
international financial institutions.
A week after it revised its
outlook on India to positive from stable, international credit rating
major Moody's pegged India's growth at 7.5 percent for 2015. While the
Economist Intelligence Unit said a 7.1 percent expansion will be
sustained over the next four years.
Another positive trend was that of banks lowering their lending rates, though in a small proportion of only 25 basis points.
Also
on a healthy note was the March CPI (consumer price index) inflation
which came at 5.17 percent, lower than 5.37 percent CPI for February.
The 30-scrip Sensex closed Friday's trade over 220 points down at 28,442.10 from Thursday's close at 28,666.04 points.
The
major Sensex gainers on Friday were: Sesa Sterlite, up 3.18 percent at
Rs.210.60; Tata Steel, up 2.53 percent at Rs.345.85; Hindalco
Industries, up 1.86 percent at Rs.139.80; BHEL, up 1.18 percent at
Rs.234.85; and NTPC, up 1.15 percent at Rs.158.
The losers were:
Sun Pharma, down 4.80 percent at Rs.1,037.30; Tata Consultancy Services
(TCS), down 4.22 percent at Rs.2,476.20; Axis Bank, down 3.23 percent at
Rs.534.15; Bharti Airtel, down 2.70 percent at Rs.406.05; and Wipro,
down 2.46 percent at Rs.586.55.
