Market View by Karthik Lakshmanan, Senior Fund Manager – Equities, BNP Paribas Mutual Fund

Indian markets started the week on a negative note as key benchmark indices opened in the red and edged lower in trade today, despite marginally positive macro-economic news. Investors worried that the recent demonetization of INR 500 and INR 1000 notes by the government of India is likely to have short term negative impact on the Indian economy. Both the benchmark Sensex and the Nifty traded near recent lows in intra-day trade and closed the day with losses of approximately 2%. On the macro front, inflation based on wholesale price index (WPI) eased slightly to 3.39% yoy (provisional) in October 2016 as compared to 3.57% (provisional) in September 2016 and -3.7% in October 2015. Additionally, the industrial production (IIP) rose 0.7% in September 2016 over September 2015. The IIP contracted 0.7% in August, and shrank 2.5% in July. Despite heavy selling pressure, the PSU bank index and the IT index on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed the day with gains of ~2% and ~0.2%, respectively. The metals and auto indices on the other hand lost over 5%, for the day.