A bout of volatility was witnessed as key benchmark indices pared losses after hitting fresh intraday low in morning trade. At 10:22 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 48.35 points or 0.13% at 35,985.38. The Nifty 50 index was down 5.55 points or 0.05% at 11,044.10. The Sensex was trading a tad below the psychological 36,000 mark.
The Sensex rose 13.94 points, or 0.04% at the day's high of 36,047.67 in early trade. The index fell 124.28 points, or 0.34% at the day's low of 35,909.45 in morning trade, its lowest level since 25 January 2018. The Nifty rose 8.85 points, or 0.08% at the day's high of 11,058.50 in early trade. The index fell 38.95 points, or 0.35% at the day's low of 11,010.70 in morning trade, its lowest level since 25 January 2018.
Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.30%, underperforming the Sensex. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.22%, outperforming the Sensex.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, turned positive from negative. On BSE, 1,253 shares rose and 1,016 shares fell. A total of 113 shares were unchanged.
Metal shares were mixed. Bhushan Steel (up 5.32%), National Aluminium Company (up 1.26%), Hindustan Copper (up 1.06%), Hindalco Industries (up 0.85%), Jindal Steel & Power (up 0.84%) and Vedanta (up 0.54%), edged higher. Hindustan Zinc (down 0.18%), NMDC (down 0.31%), JSW Steel (down 0.69%), Steel Authority of India (down 0.93%) and Tata Steel (down 1.09%), edged lower.
Power generation stocks were mixed. GMR Infrastructure (up 1.13%), JSW Energy (up 1.03%), Reliance Infrastructure (up 0.59%), Adani Power (up 0.54%), Jaiprakash Power Ventures (up 0.14%) and Reliance Power (up 0.11%), edged higher. Tata Power (down 0.11%), NHPC (down 0.17%), Torrent Power (down 0.32%), NTPC (down 0.38%) and CESC (down 0.43%), edged lower.
State-run Power Grid Corporation of India was down 0.92%. State-run Coal India was down 1.91%.
The next major trigger for the market is Union Budget 2018-2019, which will be presented by the finance minister Arun Jaitley in the parliament on Thursday, 1 February 2018.
The Budget Session of the parliament began on 29 January 2018. The first phase of the budget session of the parliament is being held from 29 January 2018 to 9 February 2018. After a recess, Parliament will meet again from 5 March 2018 to 6 April 2018, as per reports.
The Economic Survey 2017-18 was tabled in Parliament on 29 January 2018. The survey estimated that India's economy should grow between 7% and 7.5% in the 2018/19 (April-March) with exports and private investment set to rebound. The survey estimated that gross domestic product will have grown 6.75% in the current fiscal year ending in March 2018.
Overseas, Asian shares bounced back and were trading higher as traders studied US President Donald Trump's call for infrastructure investment in his State of the Union address.
Meanwhile, a monthly index showed that Chinese manufacturing started the year off at a slower pace as factory activity eased on softer demand, especially for exports. The official purchasing managers' index for January, released on Wednesday, slipped to 51.3, down from December's 51.6 and the weakest reading in eight months. The index is based on a 100-point scale where the 50 mark separates expansion from contraction.
US stocks declined on Tuesday, as heavy losses in health-care and energy shares weighed on the main indexes. Climbing US bond yields, which imply a rise in borrowing costs, also put pressure on stocks.
US Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) commenced its two-day meeting on monetary policy yesterday, 30 January 2018, with a policy decision due later in the global day today, 31 January 2018. The Fed, in a widely expected move, had raised interest rates by 25 basis points (bps) to a range of 1.25-1.5% in its December monetary policy meeting.
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