Investors turned cautious after India's trade deficit widened to a more than three-and-a-half-year high of $16.6 billion due to costlier crude oil imports
The RBI's financial stability report has on Wednesday highlighted the disconnect between the real economy and equity market yet again. The central bank observed that Indian equities were trading at rich valuations, with several metrics such as price to earnings multiples, price to book ratio, market cap to GDP and the cyclically adjusted P/E ratio, or Shiller P/E, at above historical averages. For instance, as on December 13, the one-year forward P/E ratio for India was 35.1 per cent, above its 10-year average, and one of the highest in the world.
On a weekly basis, the Sensex scored a moderate gain of 76.57 points, or 0.22 per cent while the Nifty rose 8.75 points, or 0.08 per cent.
Better-than-expected quarterly earnings by select index heavyweights, easing of US-EU trade tensions and firm foreign capital inflows boosted investor sentiment, brokers said.
Top gainers in the Sensex pack included Maruti, Bajaj Finance, Vedanta, HDFC twins, HUL, Kotak Bank and ICICI bank, which surged up to 3.36 per cent.
The broader 50-issue NSE Nifty slipped from its record closing, shedding 2.30 points or 0.02 per cent to end at 11,132.00.
Investments through participatory notes (P-notes) in the Indian capital market surged to a 27-month high of Rs 83,114 crore at November-end driven by continued liquidity and improvement in second quarter corporate earnings. P-notes are issued by registered foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) to overseas investors who wish to be part of the Indian stock market without registering themselves directly. They, however, need to go through a due diligence process. According to Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) data, the value of P-note investments in Indian markets -- equity, debt and hybrid securities -- increased to Rs 83,114 crore at November-end from Rs 78,686 crore at October-end.
The investment limit for foreign entities in Indian stock exchanges will be enhanced from 5 per cent to 15 per cent on par with domestic institutions.
The NSE 50-share index finally concluded at 10,417.15, up 14.90 points
The sharp rally in the midcap stocks has made valuations expensive, and there is room for a correction, wrote Christopher Wood, global head of equity strategy at Jefferies in his latest note to investors, GREED & fear. The midcap index, Wood said, now trades at 24.1x 12-month forward earnings compared with 18.7x for the Nifty. Rising crude oil prices, he believes, are another worry for India, which imports nearly 80 per cent of its annual crude oil requirement.
After a technology upgrade, the Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) appears poised for an improvement in volumes. The premier commodity and forex exchange reported a loss of Rs 19.1 crore in the July-September quarter (second quarter, or Q2) of 2023-24 (FY24). This was attributed to higher software charges payable under an extended service agreement with 63 moons technologies and a one-off cost towards core guaranteed funds (CGF).
Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das on Friday said 67 per cent of the decline in the foreign exchange reserves since April was due to valuation changes arising from strengthening US dollar and higher American bond yields. The forex reserves, which stood at $606.475 billion as on April 2, have declined to $537.5 billion as on September 23. It was also the eighth straight week when the reserves declined.
The benchmark Sensex is 2.4 per cent shy of a new lifetime high but the market capitalisation (m-cap) of all companies listed on the BSE is already in the record books. At Thursday's (August 18) closing price, the total m-cap of 4,776 firms on the BSE stood at Rs 280.5 trillion, surpassing the previous high of Rs 280 trillion on January 17. This, even if the Nifty Midcap 100 is currently 5.4 per cent below its lifetime high, while the Nifty Smallcap 100 index is down over 20 per cent.
Domestic financial institutions and mutual funds on Wendesday pitched for rationalisation of tax provisions to improve ease of doing business in the country.
Trading volumes for the equities cash segment remained soft, even as the benchmark indices rallied nearly 9 per cent in July. Meanwhile, volumes in the futures and options (F&O) market dipped marginally, but continued to hover at record levels. In July, the average daily turnover (ADTV) for the cash segment was Rs 46,602 crore, up 4.5 per cent month-on-month (MoM), but 26 per cent lower than the preceding 12-month average.
However, a net amount of Rs 11,119 crore was withdrawn from the debt segment during the same period. This translated into a net investment of Rs 1,003 crore.
The broader Nifty finished at 10,421.40, up 194.55 points, or 1.90 per cent.
ONGC was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, jumping over 5 per cent, followed by Bajaj Auto, ITC, Sun Pharma, Nestle India, L&T, Maruti, UltraTech Cement and HUL. On the other hand, Infosys, Axis Bank, Bharti Airtel, TCS and Titan were among the laggards.
A key trigger for the increased retail participation in equities has been the lockdown triggered by Covid-19 that saw investors channelising their savings to capital markets in search of better return on their investments and the need to increase their disposable income.
To further tighten its control of practising accountants, the Centre has brought within the ambit of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) their "financial transactions" such as operating and managing their client firms and trusts, and buying and selling business entities. The Union finance ministry issued a gazette notification on this on Wednesday. Under the new rule, chartered accountants, company secretaries, and cost and works accountants carrying out such transactions (on behalf of their clients) will now be required to go through the Know Your Company (KYC) process before commencing work.
Foreign investors have pulled over Rs 6,400 crore from the Indian equity market in the first four trading sessions of the ongoing month when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and US Federal Reserve raised interest rates. Given the headwinds in terms of elevated crude prices, inflation, tight monetary policy among others, FPIs' flows in India are expected to remain volatile in the near term, Shrikant Chouhan, Head - Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities, said. Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) remained net sellers for seven months to April 2022, withdrawing a massive amount of over Rs 1.65 lakh crore from equities. This was largely on the back of anticipation of a rate hike by the US Federal Reserve and due to the deteriorating geopolitical environment following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Equity benchmark Sensex rallied 487 points on Monday to close at a fresh lifetime peak, tracking gains in Infosys, HDFC twins and HCL Tech amid massive foreign fund inflows.
Heavy offloading by foreign portfolio investors also weighed on the rupee
From the Sensex pack, State Bank of India, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Steel and Tata Motors were the major gainers. Power Grid and HDFC Bank were the laggards from the pack.
Given the concerns around trade wars that threaten to jeopardise global capital flows as well, attracting foreign capital needs to be a policy priority, says Neelkanth Mishra.
Barring oil and gas, all BSE sectoral indices finished in the green.
The broader NSE Nifty reclaimed the key 10,100-mark and touched a high of 10,155.65, before finally settling at 10,124.35
Hundreds of millions of dollars were invested in publicly traded Adani group stocks through Mauritius-based 'opaque' investment funds by partners of promoter family, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) alleged on Thursday. The fresh allegations by an organisation funded by likes of George Soros and Rockefeller Brothers Fund come months after a US short seller wiped away close to $150 billion in value of Adani group stocks with allegations of accounting fraud, stock price manipulation and improper use of tax havens by the ports-to-energy conglomerate run by billionaire Gautam Adani. Adani group has denied all allegations. Citing review of files from multiple tax havens and internal Adani Group emails, OCCRP said its investigation found at least two cases where the "mysterious" investors bought and sold Adani stock through such offshore structures.
Gains in key IT, capital goods, healthcare and metal stocks, after consistent buying by domestic and foreign investors, helped both the key indices to scale new peaks.
HDFC was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising around 3 per cent, followed by Bajaj Finance, HDFC Bank, IndusInd Bank, PowerGrid, UltraTech Cement, TCS, Tech Mahindra and L&T. On the other hand, ONGC, Maruti, Tata Steel, HUL, Bajaj Auto and Sun Pharma were among the laggards.
The NSE Nifty too lost 41.20 points, or 0.36 per cent, to finish at 11,429.50.
'The news about the new virus strain in the UK provided them with an opportunity to take money off the table.'
Over 87 per cent of active large-cap schemes failed to outperform the benchmark S&P BSE 100 (total return) in the 2022 calendar year (CY), significantly higher than the 2021 figure of 50 per cent, shows a report by S&P Dow Jones Indices. During the three-year period (CY 2020, '21, '22), the percentage of schemes underperforming the index was even higher at 97 per cent. While active large-cap schemes generally find it tough to outperform due to a rising efficiency in the market, 2022 proved to be even more challenging as mid-cap and small-cap stocks (where they have some allocation) performed poorly vis-a-vis the large-caps.
On the Sensex chart, SBI was the top gainer, rallying around 4 per cent, followed by Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, ITC, Axis Bank and NTPC. NSE Nifty advanced 78.70 points to a fresh closing peak of 14,563.45.
Indices across Indian equity markets have edged towards new record highs before undergoing a small correction in the past few sessions. The National Stock Exchange Nifty has gained 20 per cent in the past year; mid-caps (up 33 per cent), small-caps (up 31 per cent), and micro-caps (up 44 per cent) have done better. Several factors have precipitated this rally.
The benchmarks logged the first weekly loss in three weeks.
The finance ministry said the sharp inflows last fiscal were due to the government's policy initiatives and economic recovery.
In the near term, two key factors are the outcome of the monsoon season in respect to cropping yields; and the correction in the crude oil price.
Tech Mahindra was the top laggard in the Sensex pack, followed by Tata Steel, Mahindra and Mahindra, HCL Tech, Infosys, SBI and Bajaj Finance.
Mutual funds focused on investing in fixed-income securities witnessed a heavy outflow of Rs 92,248 crore in June on uncertain macro environment, driven by expectations around an increasing rate cycle, higher commodity prices and slowdown in growth. This comes following a net outflow of Rs 32,722 crore in May and an inflow of Rs 54,756 crore in April, data available with Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) showed. Out of the 16 fixed-income or debt fund categories, 14 witnessed net outflows during the month under review.
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