New Delhi, July 6 (IANS) After opening in the negative domain on Monday, Indian equities rallied through the trading session, appearing to ignore the “no” vote in Greece to the bailout proposal with conditions and focusing instead on a likely delay in the US interest rate cuts.
The sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) gained more than 115 points or 0.40 percent in the day’s trade.
The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) made marginal gains on Monday, closing 37 points or 0.44 percent up at 8,522.15 points.
The 30-scrip S&P BSE Sensex, which opened at 27,857.20 points, closed at 28,208.76 points, up 115.97 points or 0.41 percent from its previous day’s close at 28,092.79 points.
The Sensex touched a high of 28,235.31 points and a low of 27,774.80 points in the intra-day trade.
The mood was somewhat lifted by a dip in global crude oil prices, ample signs of recovery in the monsoon rains and some disappointing jobs data which suggested that a rate cut by the US Federal Reserve may be pushed further.
“Indian currency, equity and bond markets have shown very good resilience towards the whole crisis. India is very much insulated from the crisis due to its strong economic fundamentals,” Devendra Nevgi, chief executive of ZyFin Advisors, told IANS.
“The other major factor is the expectation that the crisis and the lower job creation in the US will help delay the US rate hike. This will be a major gain for India.”
According to Dipen Shah, head of private client group research with Kotak Securities, the markets are still hopeful that a solution would be found to keep Greece in the eurozone.
“The complete clarity on the issue is still not out yet. The markets are hopeful that a final solution would be found to resolve the crisis,” Shah elaborated to IANS.
Dinesh Thakkar, chairman and managing director of Angel Broking, told IANS that the Indian markets had factored in the Greece default.
“The focus would shift back to domestic factors such as the revival of the investment cycle and quarterly earnings,” Thakkar said.
Anand James, co-head, technical research desk, Geojit BNP Paribas, predicted volatility in the stocks of Greece-exposure specific companies and sectors in the coming days as the situation becomes clearer.
James pointed out that the Chinese markets’ downturn and the upcoming first quarter results were the other major factors at play in the market on Monday.
“There is a hope that the first quarter (Q1) numbers due to be released soon will be better than the Q4 of 2014-15. Factors like lower inflation, easing of monetary policy and stable rupee are expected to be translated into better Q1 numbers,” James added.
The first major result to come out will be of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on July 9.
During Monday’s intra-day trade, healthy buying took place in healthcare, oil and gas, bank, capital goods and automobile sectors.
However, consumer durables, metal and technology, entertainment and media (TECK) stocks came under intense selling pressure.
The S&P BSE healthcare index augmented by 275.96 points, oil and gas index rose by 109.76 points, bank index gained by 106.87 point, capital goods index was edged-higher by 89.67 points and automobile index increased by 52.55 points.
The S&P BSE consumer durables index plunged by 100.17 points, followed by metal index which receded by 56.83 points and TECK index declined by 1.22 points.
The major Sensex gainers in Monday’s trade were: Dr. Reddy’s Lab, up 3.64 percent at Rs.3,711.75; Cipla, up 3.35 points at Rs.652.55; Hero MotoCorp, up 1.34 percent at Rs.2,612.40; Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), up 1.07 percent at Rs.2,632.80; and Lupin, up 1.05 percent at Rs.1,920.40.
The major Sensex losers were: Vedanta, down 4.45 percent at Rs.163.05; Hindalco Inds, down 1.36 percent at Rs.109.05; Tata Steel, down 0.73 percent at Rs.298.75; Infosys, down 0.65 percent at Rs.983.50; and NTPC, down 0.65 percent at Rs.137.95.
Among the Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei fell by 2.08 percent, however, China’s Shanghai Composite Index went up by 3.74 percent, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng receded by 3.18 percent.
In Europe, the London FTSE 100 index was down by 0.64 percent, the French CAC 40 was lower by 1.68 percent and Germany’s DAX Index receded by 1.37 percent at the closing bell here.