Sensex Ends Flat; Realty and Banking Stocks Witness Selling

Fri, 15 May Closing

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Share markets in India witnessed volatile trading activity throughout the day and ended on a flat note.

Benchmark indices fluctuated between gains and losses, tracking weakness in global peers.

After slipping over 1% in the afternoon session, Indian share markets recovered during closing hours to end on a flat note.

Investor sentiment turned positive after the World Bank approved US$ 1 billion 'Accelerating India's COVID-19 Social Protection Response Program' to support the country's efforts for providing social assistance to the poor and vulnerable households.

This takes the total commitment from the World Bank towards emergency COVID-19 response in India to US$ 2 billion.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is scheduled to announce the third tranche of government's economic package today.

While the first tranche included measures for MSMEs, the second aimed at helping migrant workers.

Sectoral indices ended on a mixed note with stocks in the realty sector and banking sector witnessing selling pressure, while metal stocks and telecom stocks witnessed buying interest.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 25 points while the NSE Nifty ended down by 6 points.

The BSE Mid Cap index ended the day down by 0.3%, while the BSE Small Cap index ended down by 0.2%.

Asian stock markets finished on a mixed note. As of the most recent closing prices, the Hang Seng was down 0.1% and the Shanghai Composite ended on a flat note. The Nikkei was up 0.6%.

European markets advanced today as investors pinned their hopes on economic reopening efforts and a host of key first-quarter data.

The rupee was trading at 75.70 against the US$.

Note that the coronavirus impact has shaken markets worldwide. For the BSE Sensex, FY20 was the second worst year post FY08, the year of the global financial crisis.

Good Time to Start Investing Now?

Naturally, there is an atmosphere of fear all round.

Is it time to sell stocks now? Will the correction get worse?

History has shown that after years like the one we had just now, the next 3 years are good for the markets. In fact, these corrections are the rare times when you find businesses with solid fundamentals at reasonable valuations.

If you can find good businesses that can survive the current crisis, you will do well in the long run.

Meanwhile, in the video below, Richa Agarwal, editor of our premium smallcap service Hidden Treasure, talks about robust smallcap businesses that are not just resilient but likely to emerge stronger from the coronavirus crisis.

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Moving on, market participants were tracking Aarti Drugs share price, Cipla share price and Tata Chemicals share price as these companies announced their March quarter results (Q4FY20) today.

You can read our recently released Q4FY20 results of other companies here: Reliance Industries, Marico, Kansai Nerolac, NIIT Technologies, Persistent Systems, SKF India, Siemens, Mphasis, Maruti Suzuki, Godrej Consumer Products.

In news from the commodity space, the National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), India's largest Agri-centric commodity futures trading platform, is planning to launch first of its kind tradable composite Agri index "Agridex" by the end of May.

The cash settled Agri index comprises 10 leading liquid contracts on NCDEX platform which includes soybean, chana, coriander, cottonseed oilcake, guargum, guar seed, mustard seed, refined soy oil, castor seed and jeera.

Reportedly, the exchange is also working on commodity specific indices to make them available for trading.

The value of Agridex will be generated by NSE Indices, the indices arm of the National Stock Exchange (NSE). NSE holds 15% stake in NCDEX.

In other news, domestic gold prices moved higher for the third day in a row today, edging closer to record highs.

On Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX), June gold futures rose 0.7% to about Rs 46,948 per 10 grams.

In the previous session, gold had surged about 1.4%, tracking strong global cues.

Last month, gold prices had hit record high of Rs 47,327 per 10 grams.

Tracking gold, silver futures on MCX surged Rs 615 to 44,750 per kg, extending their Rs 1,090 gain of the previous session.

In global markets, gold prices edged higher amid expectations of more stimulus from governments and central banks.

US-China tensions also boosted the safe-haven appeal of gold.

US President Donald Trump signalled a further deterioration of his relationship with China over the virus, saying he has no interest in speaking to President Xi Jinping right now and going so far as to suggest he could even cut ties with Beijing.

The holdings of SPDR Gold Trust holdings, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, rose 1.2% to 1,104.72 tonnes on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the second tranche of sovereign gold bond scheme 2020-21, which opened for subscription on Monday, will close today.

The issue price of the same has been fixed at 4,590 per gram and those applying online and making payment through digital mode will get a discount of Rs 50 per gram.

Moving on to news from the automobile sector, shares of Escorts surged 5% today after the company delivered strong operating performance in January-March quarter (Q4FY20) amid a tough environment.

The farm equipment and engineering products maker on Thursday reported a 9.7% increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 1,277.3 million in Q4FY20.

The company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) grew 2.5% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 1.9 billion, while EBITDA margin expanded 50bps YoY to 12.1%.

The company's revenue fell 15% YoY to Rs 13.8 billion in Q4YF20, due to poor performance by construction equipment segment.

For the full 2019-20 fiscal, the company posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 4.7 billion as compared with Rs 4.8 billion in 2018-19.

The company's board recommended a final dividend of Rs 2.5 per share for 2019-20.

Escorts share price ended the day up by 3.8%.

And to know what's moving the Indian stock markets today, check out the most recent share market updates here.

For information on how to pick stocks that have the potential to deliver big returns, download our special report now!

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