Mumbai: After being down in the dumps for the better part of day, Indian equities staged a smart late trade recovery on hopes of a RBI rate cut to revive the sagging economy. Also, gains in European shares aided the recovery.
The country's economic growth slumped in the January-March quarter to a nine-year low of 5.3 per cent as the manufacturing sector contracted and a fall in the rupee to a record low suggests the economy remains under pressure in the current quarter.
The old wisdom "Sell in May and Go Away" strategy certainly held this year with benchmark index Nifty shedding close to 6 per cent in the current series.
The Sensex closed at 16218.53 down 93.62 points or 0.57 per cent and the Nifty shuts shop at 4924.25 down 26.50 points or 0.54 per cent. The breadth of the market was negative. About 1199 shares advanced, 1393 shares declined, and 832 shares remain unchanged.
Interest rate sensitive realty stocks reversed intraday losses on hopes of rate cuts. Cement stocks ended with gains ahead of announcement of May 2012 shipment figures by cement companies starting tomorrow, 1 June 2012.
Asian Paints, IDFC, SAIL, Jaiprakash Associates and PNB were top gainers on the Nifty.
Movers & Shakers
Tata Motors lost 4.1 per cent, posting a second session of steep falls after disappointing investors with its earnings results on Tuesday.
Maruti Suzuki shares fall 3.5 per cent. The drop in the rupee is expected to raise the cost of imports, such as engines, and increase the cost of royalty payments. ICICI Bank declined over 3 per cent as the stock turned ex-dividend.
Hindalco surged 2 per cent and Reliance Power gained 3 per cent as government has given a go ahead for developing the Essar-Hindalco Mahan coal mines and also Reliance Power's Chhatrasal coal mines. The government has also decided to do away with controversial go-no-go classification of coal blocks.
Oil Marketing Companies ended in red today. BPCL told CNBC-TV18, "We see possibility of petrol price being rolled back by Rs 1.50-2 per litre likely by day end today.
Educomp hits new 52 week low post weakness in earnings. The management says corporate governance issues are unfounded and they will redeem all their FCCBs due in July 2012.
Spicejet , Kingfisher lost 5-8 per cent after posting extremely dissapointing earnings. Net losses have widened for both aviation companies with Spicejet reporting a net loss of Rs 249 crore while Kingfisher's losses have mounted three-fold to Rs 1151 crore.
Dhanlakshmi Bank and Aban Offshore shed 2-4 per cent post numbers. Dhanlakshmi's losses have doubled since last quarter. Asset quality has deteriorated to 1.18 per cent vs 0.74 per cent while Aban reported dip of 47 per cent in net profit to Rs 80 crore.
Speciality Restaurants sees more green after yesterdays 4 per cent debut. The share closed at Rs 167 versus issue price of Rs 150.
Euro recovers
The euro fell as low as $1.2358, a level last seen in mid-2010, before recovering to trade up 0.3 per cent at $1.2410. Meanwhile the major beneficiary of safe-haven demand, the greenback, stood at 82.79 as measured against a basket of major currencies, after hitting a 20-month high of 83.11.
Crude @ USD 104/bbl
Brent crude reversed early losses and climbed towards $104 per barrel, but a bleak demand outlook linked to the impact of the euro zone debt crisis kept gains in check.
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