Unabated FII selling due to premium valuation, lacklustre earnings season and geopolitical headwinds remained the sticking points for the market. Worries on the North Korea front persisted, too. However, the good part was inflows by domestic institutional investors (DIIs) and strength in the rupee, which offset the downside.
The week registered the first fall in four for both the benchmarks. The session was marked by strong fluctuations. The 30- share index, after opening on a firm footing, faltered and closed with a meagre gain of 24.78 points, or 0.08%, at 31,687.52. It had edged up 0.77 point on Thursday. Similarly, the NSE Nifty resumed higher, but surrendered gains before ending at 9,934.80, up 4.90 points, or 0.05%. It moved between 9,963.60 and 9,913.30. The Sensex recorded its first weekly drop in four, losing 204.71 points, or 0.64%, while the Nifty lost 39.60 points, or 0.39%.
“Lack of clarity on the impact of GST on the medium term corporate earnings is adding to cautiousness... For the week ahead, the market would keenly watch for any development in global markets. The key data points to be watchful are IIP, CPI and WPI,” said Vinod Nair, head of research, Geojit Financial Services.
DIIs net purchased shares worth Rs245.32 crore, but foreign funds remained net sellers, dumping equities worth Rs564 crore yesterday, according to provisional figures. On its part, the European Central Bank (ECB) has held interest rates steady and said its net asset purchases of 60bn euro a month would continue.
In the Sensex box, engineering giant L&T was a runaway winner, jumping 4.07% to Rs1,172.30 on strong buying, driven by its strong fundamentals. Bharti Airtel rose 1.65% to Rs404. Kotak Bank, HDFC Bank, ITC, Maruti Suzuki, TCS, Wipro and Asian Paints climbed by up to 1.22%. Metal and mining stocks continued to remain on the buying list, largely on the back of rising commodity prices globally. Vedanta surged 0.92%. Tata Metaliks soared to an all-time high of Rs819.50 during the day.
Broader markets such as mid and small cap indices ended lower as investors took profit. Biocon rallied 2.16% after the company said its Malaysian arm Biocon received EU GMP compliance certificate for its insulin manufacturing facility. The BSE capital goods hit the top, surging 1.88%, followed by FMCG and banking. Asian shares traded mixed. Europe turned lower in early session.
Meanwhile the rupee yesterday closed over one-month high tracking gains in its Asian peers after dollar weakened to fresh two and half year low.
Dollar fell on the worries over the US economic fallout from Hurricane Irma and after European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi failed to jawbone the euro lower at Thursday’s policy meeting, Bloomberg reported.
Gains in the local currency was also due to continued buying of Indian debt by the foreign institutional investors. Year to date, FII’s bought nearly $20bn in debt.
The rupee closed at 63.79 a dollar — a level last seen on August 8, up 0.41% from its Thursday’s close of 64.05. The rupee opened at 63.84 a dollar.
Among the Asian currencies, Indonesian rupiah was up 0.93%, Japanese yen 0.92%, China renminbi 0.4%, Malaysian ringgit 0.36%, China Offshore 0.21%, South Korean won 0.20%, Singapore dollar 0.19%, Philippines peso 0.09%.
Bond yield gained for the fifth consecutive sessions and closed near two week high on the worries of tensions between US and North Korea.
The 10-year bond yield closed at 6.543% — a level last seen on 28 August, compared to its previous close of 6.515%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
So far this year, the rupee has gained 6.5%, while foreign institutional investors bought $6.68bn in equity.