Markets end lower after a volatile day

Wed, 8 Oct Closing

   Previous Close   

   Pre-Open   

   09:30 am   

   11:30 am   

   01:30 pm   

After having witnessed a fairly volatile day with the index crossing the dotted line a multiple times, the Indian markets ended the day marginally in the red. The BSE-Sensex closed lower by about 25 points or 0.1%, while the NSE-Nifty ended lower by about 0.1% or 10 points. Stocks from the information technology and pharmaceuticals spaces fell sharply today, while those from the engineering and oil & gas spaces were favoured. Further, while the BSE Mid Cap index ended the day in the red, smallcap stocks ended higher with the BSE Small Cap Index closing higher by about 0.06%.

Stock markets in other parts of Asia ended the day on a weak note with Hong Kong and Japan ending lower by about 0.7% and 1.2% respectively. European stocks were trading weak at the time of writing. The rupee was trading at Rs 61.47 to the dollar at the time of writing.

Stocks of automobile companies ended the day on a firm note with Ashok Leyland and Tata Motors leading the pack of gainers. Total domestic passenger vehicle sale volumes for the month of September 2014 rose by about 5% YoY. Total volumes stood at about 218,000 units for the month. As per SIAM, this is the third straight month of increase that the segment has witnessed. With 46% share, Maruti Suzuki reported a volume growth of about 10%. However, the fastest growing companies were Honda and Nissan which grew by about 45% and 33% respectively. As per Maruti, high diesel prices have been a drag on the sale of its diesel variants. As per the company, sales of diesel variants dropped to half as compared to 58% in the previous year. Nevertheless, the new products launches helped the company report good growth in sales volumes in recent times. The stock of Maruti Suzuki closed higher by about 0.4% today.

Banking stocks ended the day on a firm note with IndusInd Bank, Union Bank and Canara Bank leading the pack of gainers. As per a leading business daily, the Finance Ministry and RBI are planning to draw up a new framework for the fixing of interest rates by the end of this year. Under this new framework, powers will be given to the government and Parliament to fix the inflation target. Further, a monetary policy committee will then decide the interest rates based on this target. Effectively this will take away RBI's hereto exclusive and autonomous control over India's monetary policy. One may note that a similar structure as is being proposed is already in place in many countries across the globe, where it is a monetary policy panel that fixes interest rates.