Post Session: Quick Review

In the highly volatile session of trade, Indian equity markets kept altering between green and red terrain and by close of trade and managed a modest green close. Benchmarks after slipping below the neutral line for couple of times during the session, failed to show any kind of strength during the last hour of trade, leading to somewhat down-session of trade at Dalal Street. Thus, by close, both Sensex and Nifty settled below the crucial 22,700 and 6800 levels respectively. However, the session was yielding for broader indices, which outperforming larger peers, ended with gains of close to half a percent.

Nevertheless, benchmarks managed to showcase some traction during the session after World Bank projected a better economic growth rate of 5.7 percent in fiscal year 2015 for India on the back of a more competitive exchange rate and many large investments going forward, which was more than IMF’s forecast of 5.4% growth for Indian economy during the same fiscal.

On the global front, equities across the globe rose on Thursday, taking heart from minutes of the Federal Reserve's March meeting, which suggested US policymakers, would be more cautious about raising interest rates than some had expected. The Fed's minutes, released on Wednesday, fuelled a rally on Wall Street with all three major US stock indexes ending up more than 1 percent, and weighed on the dollar.

Closer home, in the indecisive session of trade, gains of Power, Capital Goods and Realty counters were counterbalanced by losses of Healthcare, Information Technology and Technology. While, Healthcare counter which was star performer of the last session was beaten blue in today’s trade, Information Technology pivotal extended its weakness for second consecutive session on caution ahead of the release of quarterly earnings next week. On the flip side, while power stocks witnessed maximum interest, Auto stocks too drove fast after shares in Tata Motors scaled record high after a brokerage house raised its price target on the stock citing good outlook for the Indian automaker’s luxury unit Jaguar Land Rover. The market breadth on the BSE ended positive; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1518: 1282, while 146 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex gained 12.99 points or 0.06% to settle at 22,715.33. The index touched a high and a low of 22,792.49 and 22,644.43 respectively. Among the 30-share Sensex, 15 stocks gained, while 15 stocks declined. (Provisional)

The BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices ended higher by 0.63% and 0.62% respectively. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Power up by 2.52%, Capital Goods up by 1.61%, Realty up by 1.25%, PSU up by 0.98% and Oil & Gas up by 0.74% were the only gainers, while Healthcare down by 1.47%, IT down by 0.80%, Teck down by 0.73%, FMCG down by 0.47% and Consumer Durables down by 0.38% were the top losers in the space. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up by 4.00%, NTPC up by 2.90%, SBI up by 2.12%, Tata Motors up by 1.97% and BHEL up by 1.87%, while, Dr Reddys Lab down by 2.96%, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.38%, Sun Pharma down by 2.21%, Infosys down by 1.79% and ICICI Bank down by 1.56% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, showing some signs of recovery and stabilization in Indian business environment, Indian companies raised $29.68 billion more through external commercial borrowings (ECB) during the first 11 months of financial year 2013-14 as comparison to $26.96 in the year-ago period.

Further, Indian companies mopped up $4.30 billion in the month of February which was almost 140 percent more than the amount raised in the previous month. High ECB by domestic firms indicate that global investments are confident about Indian businesses. The overseas fund-raising spree by corporates must have been triggered by expectations on the US hiking interest rates in some time and also as the Fed's tapering in the bond purchase programme would eventually run its course. The corporates, which collected large fund in February include ONGC Videsh (raised ECB for an overseas acquisition in two tranches- $1.77 billion for five-years and $725 million for a year), Indian Railway Finance Corporation ($500 million for five years), HDFC ($300 million through a five-year ECB for on-lending to low-cost housing projects) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation ($300 million for three years for working capital purpose).

An external commercial borrowing (ECB) is an instrument used in India to facilitate the access to foreign money by Indian corporations and PSUs (public sector undertakings). ECBs include commercial bank loans, buyers' credit, suppliers' credit, securitised instruments such as floating rate notes and fixed rate bonds etc among other.  India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation volatility gained 6.70% at 28.17 from its previous close of 26.91 on Wednesday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty lost 17.25 points or 0.25% to settle at 6,778.95. The index touched high and low of 6,819.05 and 6,777.90 respectively. Out of the 50 stocks on the Nifty, 23 ended in the green, while 25 ended in the red and one remain unchanged.

The major gainers of the Nifty were Tata Power up 3.93%, NTPC up by 2.86%, BPCL up by 2.60%, Cairn up by 2.39% and Tata Motors up by 2.01%.

The key losers were Dr. Reddy's Laboratories down by 3.17%, Sun Pharma down by 2.70%, HCL Tech down by 2.05%, Lupin down by 1.94% and Tech Mahindra down by 1.88%. (Provisional)

Most of the European markets were trading in red; France’s CAC 40 was down 0.41%, UK’s FTSE 100 was down 0.04% and Germany’s DAX was down by 0.38%.

The Asian markets concluded Thursday’s trade mostly in green with Indonesian stocks felling the most - sending the main index to its biggest decline in seven months - after early legislative results showed that presidential candidate Joko Widodo’s party may not have enough seats to secure its own pick and would have to form a coalition, disappointing investors who hoped for an easy nomination. Both Hong Kong and Shanghai markets were up, after China announced a plan to widen market access for overseas investors and allow direct stock trading between Hong Kong and Shanghai. Malaysian Industrial Production rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.7%, from 3.7% in the preceding month. Japan’s Core Machinery Orders fell and stood at -8.8% from 13.4% in the preceding month.

China’s exports and imports unexpectedly fell in March as Premier Li Keqiang informed that the nation will roll out more policies to support growth while avoiding stronger stimulus. Overseas shipments declined 6.6 percent from a year earlier, attributing the drop partly to distortions from inflated data in early 2013. Imports fell 11.3 percent, in part on falling commodity prices, leaving a trade surplus of $7.71 billion.