Indian stock-index futures swung between gains and losses after benchmark gauges fell for the first time in three days yesterday.
SGX CNX Nifty Index futures for June delivery lost 0.1 percent to 7,406.5 at 9:23 a.m. in Singapore. The underlying CNX Nifty Index fell 0.2 percent to 7,402.25 yesterday, retreating from a record. The S&P BSE Sensex (SENSEX) also dropped 0.2 percent. The Bank of New York Mellon India ADR Index of U.S.-traded shares declined 0.8 percent.
The Sensex has advanced 17 percent this year amid optimism the Bharatiya Janata Party alliance led by Narendra Modi would spur growth in Asia’s third-largest economy, culminating in a victory at the polls last month that handed Modi the country’s strongest electoral mandate in 30 years. The new government announces its first budget in July.
“Over the next month or so until the budget we expect the market to remain range-bound,” Manishi Raychaudhuri, head of Indian equity research at BNP Paribas Securities (Asia) Ltd., said in interview with Bloomberg TV India yesterday.
State-run miner NMDC Ltd. (NMDC) may be active today. The company has raised iron-ore prices by between 250 rupees and 300 rupees a ton for June, the Press Trust of India reported, without saying where it got the information.
The Sensex is valued at 15.3 times projected 12-month earnings, near the most expensive level since April 2011. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index is trading at a multiple of 10.8.
Overseas investors bought a net $ 49.2 million of Indian shares on June 2, taking this year’s inflows to $ 8.1 billion, the most among eight Asian markets tracked by Bloomberg.
To contact the reporter on this story: Rajhkumar K Shaaw in Mumbai at rshaaw@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael Patterson at mpatterson10@bloomberg.net Matthew Oakley, Phani Varahabhotla