Current State of Indian Stock Market

Indian equity benchmarks during last week were highly volatile on the back of ongoing crisis in the Euro area. Nifty witnessed profit booking in the first half of the week after gaining more then 6% during previous week. Nifty during second half of the week bounced back taking support at the 5200 levels as euro-zone debt worries eased after Greece shelved plans for a financial-bailout referendum coupled with an surprising monetary loosing (interest-rate cut) from the European Central Bank (ECB).   

• The Sensex was down by 242 points or -1.4% for the week to settle at  17,562.61 whereas the Nifty closed at 5284.20, down by 76.5 points or -1.4%
• Hindustan Unilever, Reliance Communication, Reliance Power, State Bank of India and BHEL were the major gainers where as Tata Motors, Steel Authority of India, Reliance industries, Mahindra & Mahindra and Coal India were the major draggers in the index during last week.

    India's exports rose by 36.4% YoY to USD 24.8 billion in September. 
   

• However, on a MoM basis, exports remained flat, below the USD 25 billion mark for the second consecutive month, after climbing beyond USD 29 billion in the months of June and July. Meanwhile, imports rose by 17.2% YoY to USD 34.6 billion
• On the earnings front, HUL reported earnings which were ahead of street estimates. Banking majors Bank of Baroda and Punjab National Bank reported in line set of financial results. However PNB disappointed the street with fresh restructured loans raising     concerns on asset quality. SAIL numbers were below street expectations.
• Consumer Price Index (CPI) came in 10.06% for the month of September compared with 8.99% annual rise in the previous month. Core sector growth for the month of September 2011 came in at 2.3%, a 31 month low.
• Nymex crude declined by 2% on a weekly basis to close at $91.87 /barrel (on Thursday)
• Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the U.S. central bank was closely monitoring developments in Europe and left open the possibility that the Fed could expand its holdings of mortgage debt if U.S. economic conditions worsened. On the economy front, data showed U.S. private employers added more jobs than expected last month, continuing a recent pattern of better-than-expected economic data.
• On Thursday, ECB, unexpectedly cut the rates by 25 bps from 1.5% to 1.25%