India : Nifty near 4-month closing low, ends below 8500 on US poll woes
Equity benchmarks ended at nearly four-month closing lows on Thursday on continued concerns over the US presidential elections that scheduled for November 8. Investors also maintained cautious stance ahead of rate decision in GST Council meet that started today and Bank of England’s meeting tonight.Overall it was rangebound session for the market but late sell-off drove the Nifty below crucial support level of 8500. Benchmark indices closed lower for the fourth consecutive session.
The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 96.94 points at 27430.28 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 29.05 points to 8484.95, the lowest level since July 11, 2016.
“Little respite is expected until at least next week, but surprises from US jobs data or Bank of England, could allow markets let go off election worries, while consensus on GST rates, could also give a distraction for domestic markets,” Anand James of Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services says.
If Donald Trump wins and the market takes a dive, it will be a perfect opportunity to buy, says Ajay Srivastava, CEO of Dimensions Consulting while advising investors to keep cash on the sides now.
European markets were mixed on concerns over US elections and ahead of Bank of England’s meeting tonight. Asian markets ended mixed after a short-lived recovery, even as oil prices gained 1 percent.
Meanwhile, the government has imposed anti-dumping duty on select steel bars, rods and hot rolled coils from China.
The broader markets continued to underperform benchmarks with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices losing over a percent, in addition to 1.84 percent correction in previous session. About 1783 shares declined against 1169 advancing shares on the exchange.
Heavy selling pressure continued in ONGC and Adani Ports, which plunged 3.5-4 percent on top of 4 percent fall in previous session. Infosys, Asian Paints, SBI, Lupin, Tata Steel, Wipro and NTPC were down 1.5-2 percent.
ITC gained 1.3 percent after a media report suggested that GST rate on tobacco may be fixed at 40 percent plus additional duty.
Hero Motocorp was up 1.66 percent after October sales data. The two-wheeler maker despatched 6.63 lakh units in the month gone by, maintaining six-lakh plus sales for third consecutive month after August (6.16 lakh units) and September (6.7 lakh units), a growth of 3.6 percent over a year-ago period and a 1.7 percent fall on sequential basis.
BHEL gained 0.33 percent on Deutsche Bank’s optimism that utilities and industrials sector is poised for an upgrade. The brokerage firm feels that the state-run power equipment maker is the biggest beneficiary as the state power sector plans to retire an unprecedented 36GW of old, inefficient and polluting capacity over the next six years.
Hindalco Industries surged nearly 4 percent as JP Morgan has revised its price target on the stock to Rs 190. The brokerage house likes the US downstream exposure which generates free cash flow, combined with low cost India upstream.
Bharti Airtel closed flat. Kuwait’s biggest telecom operator Zain will pay USD 129 million to Bharti Airtel over a settlement related to the sale of Zain’s Africa operations to the Indian firm in 2010.
In the broader space, Indo Amines surged 20 percent on getting US Environmental Protection Agency approval for selling 10 products in the US. Strides Shasun gained 7 percent after the company and Mylan settled all regulatory claims related to Agila transaction completed in December 2015.
Ambuja Cements was up 1 percent after reporting 79 percent jump in profit on account of dividend income from ACC. Dr Lal PathLabs gained 2.5 percent after the company reported more than 8-fold increase in profit and margin expansion of 1,360 points.
