Current Market View

Friday, June 10, 2011

Sensex falls for third week in four; outlook subdued

MUMBAI: Indian markets fell for the third week in four on Friday, hurt by slower April industrial output growth and weak world equities, and a lack of positive triggers kept next week's outlook subdued.

Financials led the losses on concerns slowing industrial growth could lead to a decline in demand for loans.

India's industrial output growth dipped in April, the latest sign that the rising cost of credit and inflation are slowing the economy, which may compel the central bank to pull back from its aggressive monetary policy tightening.

The 30-share BSE index fell 0.63 percent, or 116.36 points, to 18,268.54 points, taking losses for the week to 0.6 percent. Twenty four of its components declined.

"The market came off as the industrial output data came in below expectations. Also, globally things are uncertain, which adds to the woes," said Nitin Rakesh, CEO of Motilal Oswal's asset management business.

World stocks headed for their fifth weekly loss out of the past six, depressed by concerns about a slowing global economy and by Europe's ongoing struggle to control Greek debt.

MSCI's all-country world stock index was down 0.2 percent at 1014 GMT, while emerging markets equities

traded 0.6 percent lower. "With no positive triggers, at best, the market can hover in a narrow range next week, as it has been in the last few weeks," Rakesh added.

Foreign funds have bought around $260 million of shares in June, after selling $1.2 billion in the previous month.

A declining trend in volumes was also worrying, dealers said, pointing that the five-day daily average volume on the NSE stood at 460 million, lower than its 90-day average daily volume of 615 million shares.

Around 468 million shares changed hands on NSE on Friday. "Low volumes are a major concern. And that coupled with high volatility is getting to be a dangerous combination,' said Sunder Subramaniam, senior manager of sales at brokerage Sharekhan.

The 50-share NSE index dropped 0.6 percent to 5,485.80 points. In the broader market, losers were nearly twice the number of the gainers.

Top lender State Bank of India slipped 0.9 percent, while leading private lender ICICI Bank shed 1.2 percent. HDFC Bank closed barely changed.

No comments:

Post a Comment