Global Market Reviews

Sensex slides, down 0.5% at 15,304.01 vs earlier high of 15,463.09, as profit-taking kicks in after jump of nearly 14% in last 2 weeks; immediate support tipped at 15,225; heavyweight Reliance Industries (500325.BY)
remains weak on 1Q earnings, down 4.5% at INR1,923.20 – biggest percentage loser; profit-booking in autos, banks that rallied last week also weighs, 13 of 30 index issues down; “This weakness was expected after the recent rally but I don’t think we are going to see any sharp fall from these levels,” says Ranjit Kapadia, vice-president, institutional research, HDFC Securities. ONGC (500312.BY) down 3.4% at INR1,088, Tata Motors (500570.BY) down 3.2% at INR361.50, Maruti Suzuki (532500.BY) down 1.4% at INR1,358.

Latvia and the IMF seem to have come to agreement on lending terms to unlock EUR200M from the Fund, notes RBS. Fails still, however,
to understand Latvia’s logic defending its pegged LVL “at all cost,” instead of
taking “a much easier route” and devaluing to a competitive level. Says doing
so will require restructuring some private sector liabilities, but notes that
these liabilities are owed to foreign, mostly Swedish owned banks, which can
“surely look after themselves.” Adds with “much better credit fundamentals than Latvia,” there wouldn’t necessarily be a domino effect on pegged currencies in Estonian and Lithuania if Latvia devalues.