NEW DELHI: Benchmark indices took a beating on Monday as hopes of a US-China trade deal were dashed by US President Donald Trump’s fresh threat to China on likely tariff hikes. The comments, at this crucial stage, is all set delay progress, as China is unlikely to send its delegates to Washington scheduled for later this week. This along will a host of other domestic concerns are a key drag on domestic indices today.
The BSE
Sensex dropped 453.47 points, or 1.16 per cent, to hit a low of 38,509.79. Nifty50 had tested sub-11,600 level by the time of writing this report.
Here are key factors which led to a sharp plunge in domestic benchmarks on Monday:
Trump comments sinks Asia, China down 5%
Domestic investors can take heart from the fact that domestic indices were among least hurt indices among Asian peers, which dropped up to 5 per cent in Monday’s trade on fears that extended US-China trade talks could derail recovery in the world economy, especially for export-oriented economies of Asia.
China’s Shaghai Composite slumped over 5.4 per cent, followed by Hong kong’s Hang Seng 3.84 per cent, Singapore’s STI 3.52 per cent, Taiwan’s TWSE 1.83 per cent and Korea’s Kospi 0.9 per cent.
Trump on Sunday announced that he would hike US tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods this week and target hundreds of billions more soon. Reports suggests China was considering canceling this week’s trade talks in Washington.
5th phase of elections
Adding to the nervousness was the kick start of the fifth phase of the general elections. Voting on Monday began on 51
Lok Sabha constituencies from 7 different states. In this phase, nearly nine crore voters will decide the fate of 674 candidates, including political bigwigs Rajnath Singh, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and
Smriti Irani. After four phases of elections, the voting percentage is 67 per cent, comparable to 67.6 per cent in 2014.
Concerns over Q4 earnings
There have been concerns over mixed set of numbers by largecap majors. After five consecutive quarters of double-digit volume growth, FMCG behemoth
Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) on Friday reported just 7 per cent volume growth for March quarter.
Bharti Airtel, which is scheduled to announce its quarterly numbers today, is projected to report losses to the tune of Rs 1,200-1,300 crore on a 3-5 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth in sales. A total of 216 companies will report March quarter earnings in this trading week, BSE data suggests.
Foreign flows may take a hit
US-China trade tensions is likely to take a toll on foreign flows into India and other emerging markets, which have been pretty strong so far. Foreign inflows to India stood at Rs 72,394 in the last three months. That said, inflows in April at Rs 21,193 crore were down 37 per cent from March’s record flows of Rs 33,980 crore. In May so far, FPIs have pulled out Rs 367.30 crore worth of equities.
Nifty nears lower end of a key range
Nifty has been stuck in the 11,550-11,850 range for last 22 sessions. Dips were being bought into, but follow-up buying was missing at higher levels, analysts said. But Monday's sharp fall means the index has been trading near its lower end of the range, a break below which could bring further downside. By 9.45 am, the index has already breached its support of 11,666.
Market Update:
In the sensex pack of stocks, 28 were in the red while only two were in the green at around 9.30 am. Power Grid was the biggest gainer rising 0.89 per cent, followed by Asian Paints which rose 0.70 per cent.
Meanwhile shares of Tata Motors shed the most, falling over 4 per cent, on reports that that auto major may phase out small diesel cars from its portfolio as demand is expected to slow down due to upcoming BS-VI emission norms that would make such vehicles expensive, according to a senior company official.
Other losers were Tata Steel, YES Bank, Vedanta, HDFC and IndusInd Bank.
BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap too slipped into the red zone, shedding 0.47 per cent and 0.36 per cent, each.
On the BSE sectoral front, all sectors declined with the BSE Metal falling the maximum, down, 2.15 per cent led by Tata Steel.