Benchmarks trade in fine fettle in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks have made a positive start and are trading in fine fettle with frontline gauges recapturing their crucial 6,700 (Nifty) and 22,400 (Sensex) levels in early deals on Monday. Sentiments remained up-beat on report that Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs 232.46 crore on April 4, 2014, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges. However, gains on the up-side remained capped on HSBC survey report saying that private sector activity in emerging market economies fell for the fourth consecutive month in March. As per the report, while China posted a marginal decline for the second month running, India slipped back into contraction.

On the global front, the US markets slipped in last session on getting mixed monthly jobs data, while the non-farm payroll employment rose, the unemployment rate remained same at previous month’s level. Most of the Asian markets were trading lower at this point of time, with some of the indices snapping their nine-day gaining streak, led by Japanese market ahead of the Bank of Japan’s two-day policy meeting.

Back home, rally in pharma space too aided the sentiments, led by over three percent rise in Sun Pharmaceutical Industries on report that the company has entered into definitive agreements to acquire 100% of Ranbaxy in a $4 billion all-stock transaction. The merger between the two companies will create India’s largest pharmaceutical company and the world’s fifth largest generics company. On the sectoral front oil and gas, realty and capital goods witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while consumer durable and software remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were trading in-line with benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 630 shares on the gaining side against 284 shares on the losing side while 40 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 22,355.56; about 4 points lower compared to its previous closing of 22,359.50, and touched a high and a low of 22,481.62 and 22,319.73 respectively. The index is currently trading at 22,411.43, up by 51.93 points or 0.23%. There were 21 stocks advancing against 8 declines and one stock remains unchanged on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 66.04% stocks advancing against 29.77% declines. The broader indices too were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index up was by 0.33% and Small cap gained 0.68%. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Oil & Gas up by 0.3%, Realty up by 0.72%, PSU up by 0.52%, Capital Goods up by 0.50% and Auto up by 0.42%, while Consumer Durables down by 1.14% and IT down by 0.06% were the top losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 2.75%, Gail India up by 1.31%, L&T up by 1.01%, SSLT up by 0.97% and ONGC up by 0.91%. On the flip side, BHEL was down by 2.61%, Dr Reddys Lab was down by 1.27%, Hero MotoCorp was down by 0.72%, ICICI Bank was down by 0.54% and Infosys was down by 0.49% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, According to RBI’s fortnightly data, bank deposits grew by 14.64 per cent year-on-year to Rs 7,739,387 crore as on March 21, higher than credit which grew by 14.31 per cent year-on-year at Rs 6,013,085 crore in the same period against Rs 5,260,459 crore in the same period last year.

Deposits at commercial banks stood at Rs 6,750,454 crore during the same period last year. This growth is more or less in line with the RBI's estimate of the credit and deposits growth of 15% and 14% respectively for the current fiscal, 2013-14.

Meanwhile, out of the total deposits, the Time deposits grew by 15.28 percent at Rs 7,018,585 crore as against Rs 6,088,155 crore in the same period last year, while Demand deposits rose 8.83 percent to Rs 7,20,800 crore from Rs 6,62,299 crore in the year ago period.

The CNX Nifty opened at 6,694.25; higher by 0.10 points as compared to its previous closing of 6,694.35, and has touched a high and a low of 6,725.15 and 6,690.85 respectively. The index is currently trading at 6,713.95, up by 19.60 points or 0.29%. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 3.05%, Ambuja Cements up by 2.14%, UltraTech Cement up by 2.08%, NMDC up by 1.99% and BPCL up by 1.89%. On the flip side, BHEL down by 2.43%, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories down by 1.64%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.93%, ICICI Bank down by 0.69% and IDFC down by 0.68% were the top losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Hang Seng dropped 135.15 points or 0.60% to 22,374.93, KLSE Composite shed 1.18 points or 0.06% to 1,855.43, Nikkei 225 tumbled 213.65 points or 1.42% to 14,850.12, Straits Times decreased 14.35 points or 0.45% to 3,198.37, KOSPI Composite plunged 4.91 points or 0.25% to 1,983.18 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 41.06 points or 0.46% or 8,847.48.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was up by 69.92 points or 1.44% to 4,927.87.

Chinese markets remained shut for the trade today for Ching Ming Festival holiday.