The BSE Sensex closed down 0.5% at 17,319 while the Nifty closed down 0.9% at 5,248 for the month of April 2012. Small-caps did better than large and mid-caps, reflecting that the market move down was not part of a broad based trend. Sectorally Auto, Banks, Consumer Durables, FMCG and Health-Care outperformed the Sensex, while sectors like Capital Goods, Software, Metal, Oil & Gas, Power, Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) and Realty underperformed. FII were net sellers of USD 205.5 mn (net buyers of USD 1.68 bn in March 2012), while mutual funds sold a net amount of USD 104.4mn (net sellers of USD 309.7 mn in March 2012). Read More
The Bond market opened the month on a weak note on concerns of huge supply lined ahead. The sentiment was so poor that, the first auction of the FY13 got partially devolved on the primary dealers, forcing RBI to conduct Open Market Operations (OMO) operations in the secondary market to soothe the frayed nerves. Up to 3rd week of April, RBI bought bonds worth Rs.120 Bn in the secondary market, which stabilized the bond yields to a certain extent. In its credit policy, RBI surprised the market by cutting repo rates by 50 basis points (bps) against the consensus market expectation of 25 bps. Further it also increased the borrowing limit under MSF (Marginal Standing Facility) from 1% of Net Demand and Time Liabilities (NDTL) to 2% of NDTL to provide liquidity support to the system. Read More
