Markets mark time as FOMC, RBI policy looms

Markets dropped late-Monday after rising to over 1 per cent intra-day on back of selling pressure witnessed in realty and software makers amid caution ahead of key global and local events this week.

Risk appetite was fragile after country’s Wholesale Price Index (WPI) Inflation surged to over 6-month high raising fears that the central bank may keep interest rates high at the monetary policy meet this Friday.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve Open Market Commitee (FOMC) meet on September 17-18 will be key in terms of any tapering of $85 billion in monthly bond purchases that led to significant inflows in the emerging markets especially India so far.

At 2PM, the 30-share Sensex fell 14 points at 19,722 and the 50-share Nifty fell 15 points at 5,834 levels.

The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation rose to a six-month high of 6.1%  in August against 5.79 in July, according to the data released by Ministry of Commerce and Industry today.

The broader markets were negative with mid-caps and small-caps shedding 0.6 per cent on the BSE.

The market breadth was negative. Out of 2,292 stocks traded, 1,216 stocks declined while 971 stocks advanced on the BSE.


RUPEE

The rupee rallied to a near one-month high on Monday, with stocks and bonds joining in, as hopes for a prolonged easy monetary policy in the US boosted emerging markets.

At 2PM, the partially convertible rupee was trading at 62.72 per dollar against the Friday’s close of 63.48 on the Interbank Foreign Exchange.


GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian stocks rose after Lawrence Summers withdrew from consideration as Federal Reserve chairman, paving the way for Janet Yellen, who investors say will favor a slower reduction of stimulus.

Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.1% at 14,404, Singapore’s Straits Times gained 2% at 3,178, China’s Shanghai Composite index fell 0.2% at 2,231 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 1.4% to 23,252 today.

European also opened positive. CAC gained 1% to 4,158, Germany’s DAX gained 1.3% to 8,618 while UK’s FTSE was up 1% to 6,643.

STOCK MOVERS

Domestically, the key sectoral indices gainers were FMCG, auto, bankex while IT, realty, healthcare, oil & gas and metal indices dropped on the BSE.

The gainers included counters such as ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank gaining 3% and 2% respectively, Maruti Suzuki and Hero MotoCorp gained 2.5% each while Bharti Airtel was up 1.5% on the BSE.

The laggards were Sesa Goa fell 4%, Coal India dropped 2.6%, BHEL declined 2.3%, Cipla was down 2% on the BSE.