Saturday, March 1, 2008
Weekly market Update as on 1st March 2008

 

Equity Market Update

 

Equity markets witnessed dull activity during the week, which is contrary to what is generally witnessed in a derivatives expiry week. It was characterized by both lower volume and volatility as compared to the previous expiries. Markets did not get the much needed direction to trade, either from the policy statements or global cues. Key economic announcements by way of Railway budget, the economic survey and the Finance budget for 2008-09 were presented to the parliament during this week which did not enthuse the market participants as the benchmark indices lost over a 1.5% on budget day.
Key Equity Indices

 

Week at
Glance

2/25/2008

2/26/2008

2/27/2008

2/28/2008

2/29/2008

Last week

Week on Week
% change

Sensex

17650.57

17806.19

17825.99

17824.48

17578.72

17349.07

1.32%

S&P CNX Nifty

5200.70

5270.05

5268.40

5285.10

5223.50

5110.75

2.21%

BSE IT

3992.54

4062.67

3973.12

3967.40

3862.45

3918.28

-1.42%

BSE PSU

8308.37

8438.08

8471.05

8499.34

8484.16

8209.24

3.35%

BANKEX

10113.14

10189.48

10156.52

10073.91

10113.73

10150.22

-0.36%

            Source :  BSE  & NSE
Facts & Figures (Rs in Millions)

 

Date

FII Flows in cash mkt

MF Flows in cash mkt

Date

FII

MF

22-Feb-08

-4538

-1636

25-Feb-08

7385

-1405

26-Feb-08

854

5259

27-Feb-08

3964

1925

28-Feb-08

-5293

6007

 

Source : SEBI, provisional data
Outlook
Global factors, led by the U.S, will continue to cause more volatility in the global markets as well as Indian markets. There is bound to be collateral damage.  India, though, has the potential to ‘decouple’ from the rest of the world eventually. Remember, decoupling based on relatively strong fundamentals, takes time. It is not something which happens, necessarily, in the short term.  We continue to argue, as we have in the past, that two factors will drive Indian markets (a) continued economic and corporate profit growth and (b) a P/E re-rating due to qualitative changes in the Indian economy, companies and markets.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Debt Market Update

 

       International

         Central Bank actions

Bank

Action

Benchmark interest rate

 

 

Previous

Current

   Central Bank of Malaysia

 Rate unchanged

3.50%

3.50%

  Central Bank of Hungary

 Rate unchanged

7.50%

7.50%

           Central Bank of Israel

Rate decreased

4.25%

3.75%

  Central Bank of Thailand

 Rate unchanged

3.25%

3.25%

           Central Bank of Poland      Rate increased

5.25%

5.50%

        Source: Bloomberg

          

  

         Economic Indicators

 

Previous Week

Current Week

US 10 year benchmark treasury

3.74%

3.59%

Crude oil WTI ($/barrel)

99.15

102.43

 

 

Source: Bloomberg

Currency

 

Previous Week

Current Week

INR

40.05

40.02

EUR

1.48

1.52

JPY

107.07

104.20

Source: Bloomberg

Domestic

Liquidity

Call rates range

Previous Week

Current Week

MIBOR range

7.65-7.98

8.25-7.26

LAF amount  average (Rs crore)

-16728

- 8975

Source: Bloomberg

Domestic interest rates

Previous Week

Current Week

3 month CP

9.95%

10.00%

91 day T-bill

7.35%

7.43%

5 year OIS

6.98%

6.87%

10 year benchmark gilt

7.70%

7.57%

Source: Bloomberg

Outlook of the Week

Lower than expected government borrowing program in the Union budget resulted in gilt as well as corporate bond yields declining by 5-7 bps. Going forward, the market is likely to trade in a range as it awaits further information on provisioning for Rs 60,000 crore for debt relief to distressed farmers. Also, the fact that impact of the 6th pay commission’s recommendations have not been provided for in the budget would impact market sentiment.

We expect systemic liquidity to improve before the advance tax outflow in mid-march on government expenditure and Forex intervention by RBI. Market participants have created higher cash provisioning anticipating tighter overnight rates in March and are awaiting cues from RBI as to the measures being adopted to contain excessive money market volatility that is traditionally the bane of money markets in the month of March.