Choppy Day Ends Flat, Negative

After opening positive, the Indian markets remained choppy for whole day. They finally lost all their gains and closed on a flat, negative note. The Sensex and Nifty closed down by 0.21% and 0.27% respectively. In the absence of any major triggers, the markets seemed to be directionless ahead of the announcement of inflation data on Monday.

Following a range-bound session, the Asian markets finally closed in the green. Better-than-expected Chinese GDP data took the markets higher. However, the GDP growth was at a slow pace for the sixth consecutive quarter, which raised hopes that the Chinese officials may announce stimulus measures to boost economic growth.

On the global front, the European markets continued to remain positive over China's GDP numbers. Further, Italy successfully sold bonds worth Euro 3.5 billion, which lifted investor sentiment. The French index CAC rose 0.5%, while Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE were up by 0.7% each.

Dow Jones Futures is currently trading 36 points or 0.29% up at 12538, indicating a positive sentiment in the US markets.

Back home, among the BSE sectoral indices, CD, Realty and Metals saw a major fall and closed lower by 1.63%, 1.37% and 1.15% respectively. Barring FMCG and Oil & Gas, all the others closed down in the range of 0.03%-0.68%.

Post the results announcement, Infosys extended its losses and closed with losses of 1.65% to Rs 2227.80. On the other hand, TCS which reported strong numbers, closed with 1.10% gains. Hindalco, Jindal Steel, SBI, Sterlite and Tata Power were all down nearly by 2%.

In individual stocks, HDFC rose by 1.21% at Rs 586 after the results announcement. The net profit of the company grew by 30.60% on a YoY basis to Rs 1417.39 crore and the total income grew by 34.36%  to Rs 9536.91 crore as compared to the same period last year.

The market breadth, which indicates the overall health of the market, was negative. Out of the 3245 stocks traded on the BSE, 1711 declined, 1392 advanced and 142 remained unchanged.

Ahead, we expect the markets to continue with the negative sentiment on slowing growth.