Local equity markets hold steady; Nifty continues to trade past 7500 mark

Local equity markets, holding steady continued trading with gains of over half a percent, above psychologically crucial 25,100 (Sensex) and 7,500 (Nifty) levels respectively. Sustained buying activities by funds and retail investors have kept markets near life time high levels. Meanwhile, reports suggesting of monsoon rains reaching the coast of Kerala on Friday, marking the start of the wet season which is crucial for their summer crops also were bolstering sentiment. Meanwhile, broader indices yet again were shining stars of the session and were trading with gains of over a percent.

Sentiments also got buttressed on the back of positive start of European markets, which continued to see uplift after the European Central Bank eased policy further, though trade was cautious ahead of U.S. jobs data. Euro zone shares also rose on Thursday, led by banks in peripheral countries, as the European Central Bank unveiled a string of measures to fight low inflation and boost the currency bloc's economy.

Closer home, most of the sectoral indices were participating into the uptrend of the markets, stocks from Realty, Oil & Gas and Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) counters were outperforming peers. On the flip side, stocks from Information Technology, Metal and Technology counters were beaten blue in the trade. In non-sectoral guage activity, Sugar stocks were buzzing in trade after as Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan underscored govt will examine raising import tax on sugar to support local prices and help sugar mills clear dues to cane growers. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of advances which thumped declines in the ratio of 1860:977; while 116 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25174.35, up by 154.84 points or 0.62% after trading in a range of 25258.98 and 25129.76. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading up; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.23%, while Small cap index up by 1.16%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 3.71%, Oil & Gas up by 3.53%, PSU up by 2.12%, Banking up by 1.27% and Healthcare up by 1.02%. While, IT down by 1.11%, Metal down by 0.86%, Teck down by 0.81% and Power down by 0.26% were the losing indices on BSE.   

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 6.89%, Gail India up by 3.64%, RIL up by 2.62%, ICICI Bank up by 2.00% and Hero Motocorp up by 1.73%. On the flip side, SSLT down by 2.94%, Infosys down by 2.11%, Hindalco Inds down by 1.80%, TCS down by 1.45% and Tata Motors down by 0.97% were the top losers on the BSE.

Meanwhile, in order to remove practical difficulties, ambiguities and anomalies arising out of the partial and hurried implementation of the new Companies Act of 2013, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) urged the new government to review the new Companies Act and the norms issued under it. CII President Ajay Shriram has said that the rush to notify the new company law has introduced disruptive features, making it harder for corporates to ensure compliance.

CII President said that many new concepts have introduced in the legislation for the first time which could be implemented over the period of time. Meanwhile, final set of company act norms, which was released in the last week of March, required implementation from April 1. By adding further, he said that India already ranks very low in terms of ease of doing business and the new company law will further add to the cost and complications of doing business. An unclear and cumbersome Companies Act would further impede business sentiment in the country, which is looking to improve its image after a series of setbacks like retrospective changes to tax laws, poor economic conditions.

Further, Ajay Shriram has asserted that owing to the absence of any unambiguous clarifications on norms from government front, companies are resorting to different interpretations of the provisions. Furthermore, there is no uniform interpretation of even items of ordinary business such as appointment of Independent Directors.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7,513.25, up by 39.15 points or 0.52% after trading in a range of 7,535.10 and 7,497.65. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 declining on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were ONGC up by 7.00%, DLF up by 4.51%, GAIL up by 3.77%, Bank of Baroda up by 2.51% and Kotak Bank up by 2.39%. On the flip side, SSLT down by 2.94%, Infosys down by 2.34%, Hindalco Inds down by 2.03%, TCS down by 1.41% and NMDC down by 1.34% were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were trading mixed; Taiwan Weighted down by 0.07%, Shanghai Composite down by 0.52% and Hang Seng down by 0.04%. While, Jakarta Stock Index up by 0.34% and Straits Times up by 0.61%.

European shares got off to a positive start; with Germany’s DAX rising by 0.21% and France’s CAC 40 gaining 1.06%, while FTSE 100 declining by 0.08%