Sensex, Nifty kickstart 2015 in red; M&M, Bharti gainers

Moneycontrol Bureau

9:50 am Global markets performance in 2014: China and the United States headed the list of 2014 top-performing equity markets among larger economies while markets elsewhere ended the year on a wary note as another sharp drop in oil and worries about Greece's future drove profit-taking.

European stocks wrapped up the year 4 percent higher overall, though there were some striking exceptions, such as near-30 percent losses for debt-strained Greece and Portugal.

The stand-out equity performer among top economies this year was China, where the CSI300 index ended 2014 with gains of 52 percent. The index added more than 25 percent in December alone, its best month since April 2007, in part as foreigners won wider access to Chinese stocks.

9:30 am Market outlook : With the key benchmark indexes notching up a near 30 percent gain in 2014, share prices increases, at least for the frontline stocks, may be rather difficult to come by this year, believes market analyst Ambareesh Baliga.

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Baliga, however, said that while the overall market may consolidate, there will be opportunities in the “India-building” core sectors such as cement, steel, power or even the banking space.

The Nifty, meanwhile, is expected to oscillate between 7,600 on the downside and 9,500 on the upside, according to Amit Gupta of ICICI Direct.

Gupta told CNBC-TV18 that any panic during the year should be bought into, pointing out that the Indian economy is expected to remain resilient even in the face of global troubles, as can be seen from the rupee’s relative strength in 2014.

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The market kickstarts 2015 in red. The Sensex is down 47.25 points at 27452.17 and the Nifty is down 9.90 points at 8272.80. About 295 shares have advanced, 210 shares declined, and 3302 shares are unchanged.

M&M, Bharti, Airtel, BHEL and ICICI Bank are gainers while GAIL, Tata Motors, Sesa and Reliance are laggards.

The Indian rupee opened lower by 14 paise at 63.17 per dollar against 63.03 Wednesday.

Indian rupee on Wednesday appreciated by 35 paise to end at two-week high of 63.03 against the greenback tracking firm equities and sustained dollar selling by exporters, but lost ground on an annual basis for the fourth year in a row.

The rupee depreciated by 123 paise or 1.99 percent, in calendar year 2014. It had closed at 61.80 against dollar in 2013.

US stocks fell on Wednesday as crude oil prices continued their descent, but the S&P closed out a third straight year of double-digit gains.

For the year, the Dow ended up 7.5 percent, notching its sixth straight annual gain, and the Nasdaq rose 13.4 percent. The best-performing S&P component in 2014 was Southwest Airlines Co up 124.6 percent, while Transocean Ltd, down 62.9 percent, was the worst.

Equities lost steam heading into the New Year after rallying nearly 6 percent over eight sessions, sparked by the US Federal Reserve's commitment to be "patient" about raising interest rates and positive economic data.