A fresh downturn may have started

The market was down on concerns over the tough austerity measures taken by eurozone nations, which may slow down the global economy. The Sensex ended at 16,994, lower by 271 points (1.5%) while the Nifty shut at 5,093, lower by 85 points (1.6%). The bourses started the day with an initial gain. However, they pared their gains around noon with weak European equities dragging the indices lower. Bank, realty and metal stocks were down.

Asian stocks recovered from an initial fall triggered by an overnight decline on Wall Street. Key benchmark indices in Indonesia, South Korea and Taiwan were up by 0.02% to 0.24%. On the other hand, benchmark indices in Singapore, China, Hong Kong and Japan fell by 0.39% to 1.49%.

US stocks were down on Thursday as downbeat comments on the economy from Cisco Systems and retail chain Kohl’s Corp shadowed concerns over the economic recovery. The Dow dropped 114 points (1.05%) to end at 10,783.

The S&P 500 fell 14.23 points (1.2%) to 1,157. The Nasdaq lost 30.66 points (1.26%) to close at 2,394. US central bankers said that the promise to hold the interest rate lower for an extended period depends on the economic conditions. 

Back home, India's foreign exchange reserves fell to $276.23 billion as of 7th May, from $279.63 billion a week earlier, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its weekly statistical supplement.

India has secured a contract for buying 4.7 million tonnes of soil nutrient at $370 per tonne for FY2011 with an option to buy more, nearly 20% cheaper than the previous year’s price. India also imports most of its di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) requirement and has tied up for 7 million tonnes DAP at $500 a tonne.

The chief economic adviser suggested that the RBI may intervene to counter the rupee’s appreciation against the dollar. The rupee’s rise against the greenback has put huge pressure on exporters. In 2009-10, the rupee had strengthened 12.6% against the dollar and 8.3% against the euro year-on-year.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net sellers, offloading stocks worth Rs15 crore. On the other hand, Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) were net buyers, purchasing stocks worth Rs222 crore. The rupee was down on the weak equity market and the greenback’s strength against the euro.

HDFC (down 1%) has extended its concessional home loan scheme till 30 June 2010. As per the scheme, the housing finance major would offer a fixed interest rate of 8.25% up to March 2011; 9% for the next one year and a floating rate thereafter. Reliance Industries (RIL) (down 2.6%) will join the ONGC-led consortium that may get rights to oil fields located in the Orinoco belt of Venezuela. RIL did not take part in an earlier consortium led by Indian State-owned oil companies, which won the $20-billion Carabobo 1 oil block in Venezuela as it was busy trying to tie up the LyondellBasell acquisition. 

Infosys (down 1.6%), Mahindra Satyam and unlisted company Cognizant have been shortlisted by UK's National Grid, which manages the country's natural gas and electricity networks, for an outsourcing contract. Seven offices of Parsvnath Developers (down 2.6%) in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) have been searched by the Income-Tax Department. Oil PSU stocks were in demand as crude prices are on the lower side. Light, sweet crude oil dropped $1.25 or 1.65%, to $74.40 a barrel on Thursday. Zensar Technologies (down 0.5%) has received a contract worth over Rs100 crore from a leading South African insurance company for a period of five years.