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Small Caps Remain Out of Favour
Thu, 14 Jan Closing

Indian stock markets pared initial losses but still managed to finish the trading session below the dotted line owing to weak global cues. The

BSE-Sensex today closed lower by 81 points, while the

NSE-Nifty closed lower by 26 points. Midcaps and small caps too finished on a negative note. While the

S&P BSE Mid Cap index closed lower by 1%, the

S&P BSE Small Cap index closed the day with losses of 1.3%. Losses were largely seen in capital goods, banking and realty stocks.

Chinese shares bounced back from steep losses to modest gains as slowdown in the economy continued to keep investors apprehensive. The Shanghai Composite gained 1.97%, while the Nikkei 225 and Hang Seng fell 2.68% and 0.59% respectively. European shares fell on Thursday after Wall Street ended sharply lower and continued weakness in oil prices. The CAC 40 is trading down 2.50% while Germany's DAX is off 2.39% and London's FTSE 100 is trading lower by 1.75%. The rupee was trading at 67.01 against the US$ at the time of writing.

According to a leading financial daily, State Bank of India (SBI) has received US$500 million loan from Korean EXIM Bank in a bid to help fund companies from the East Asian nation setting up units in India. This Line of Credit will help SBI arrange long term foreign currency funds to finance Korean Companies setting up manufacturing unit.

Reportedly, it will also be utilized by Indian companies sourcing goods from collaborations or subsidiaries of Korean companies having manufacturing set up in India which will be a push to the government's 'Make in India' mission . This line of credit can also be utilized to finance clients of SBI having business relationships either by way of equity participation or regular trade with Korean companies globally, as well as joint ventures or subsidiaries of Korean companies.

In other news, SBI also reportedly announced its foray into the wealth management space and launched a dedicated branch for the start-ups in Bengaluru.

SBI was down by 2.6% at the closing bell.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently released the Financial Stability Report. One of the key highlights of the report was corporates are essentially responsible for the rising bad loans of banks. As of September 30, 2015, loans to large borrowers made up 64.5% of total loans. Further, the bad loans held by these large borrowers amounted to 87.4% of total bad loans. Five sectors have been responsible for a major part of the trouble. These are mining, iron & steel, textiles, infrastructure and aviation.

Shares of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) finished the trading day on an optimistic note (up 1.6%) after it was reported that the company has entered into a binding Gas Sale and Purchase Agreement (GSPA) with Petronet LNG (PLL) for supply of an additional quantity of 0.1 MMTPA of RLNG with effect from January, 2016. This is in addition to the existing long term GSPA of 0.75 MMTPA, which was executed in September, 2003. The terms of existing agreement have also been amended to adjust some aspects, which will protect and preserve the overall value of the contract.

BPCL is into exploration, production and retailing of petroleum and petrol related products. The retail business unit of BPCL is into marketing of petrol, diesel and kerosene. closed just below the dotted line with Gujarat Gas Ltd and Oil India Ltd faring the worst.

Brent crude dipped below US$30 a barrel on Wednesday for the first time in more than 10 years, a day after the U.S. benchmark took a similar fall. Brent traded as low as US$29.96 a barrel before settling down 55 cents, the lowest settlement since April 2004. Brent has fallen for eight straight trading sessions, the longest losing streak since July 2014. This has affected the merchandise exports in the country. During the first six months of the year the total exports fell by 16.4% in comparison to the same period in 2014. Between July and November 2015, exports have fallen by 19.7%, in comparison to July and November 2014.

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