Benchmarks make gap-up opening

Indian equity benchmarks have made a gap-up opening and are trading with traction in early deals on Monday, ahead of monetary policy review of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) tomorrow. Recovery in Indian Rupee too supported the sentiments. The rupee was trading at 60.90/91 versus Friday’s close of 61.18/19, tracking losses in the dollar compared with most other Asian currencies. Meanwhile, the Auto pack, barring M&M and Hero Mottocorp, gained on the back of positive Auto sales numbers.

On the global front, the US markets extended their losses in last session mainly on geopolitical worries and some weak economic data. Asian markets were trading mostly in the green terrain at this point of time. The Chinese market was trading higher despite People’s Bank of China's warning that the country’s credit and money supply have increased rapidly.

Back home, there was broad based buying witnessed in the markets and apart from the blue chips, the broader markets too equally participated in the rally. None of the sectoral indices were trading in the red, while consumer durables and realty witnessed the maximum gains in trade. Banking, capital goods, infrastructure, auto, FMCG and oil and gas too were trading significantly. The broader indices too were trading in-line with benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1311 shares on the gaining side against 490 shares on the losing side while 72 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 25631.68; around 150 point higher compared to its previous closing of 25480.84, and has touched a high and a low of 25645.43 and 25531.38 respectively. The index is currently trading at 25569.02, up by 88.18 points or 0.35%. There were 25 stocks advancing against 5 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a positive start with 69.99% stocks advancing against 26.16% declines. The broader indices too were trading in the red; the BSE Mid cap index was up 0.60%, while Small cap index was up by 1.19%. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.66%, Realty up by 1.23%, Bankex up by 0.95%, Capital Goods up by 0.94% and Infrastructure up by 0.88%, while there were no losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 1.91%, Axis Bank up by 1.63%, Hindalco up by 1.49%, ICICI Bank up by 1.24% and Tata Steel up by 0.99%. On the flip side, HDFC was down by 1.91%, TCS was down by 0.88%, Sun Pharma was down by 0.81%, Bharti Airtel was down by 0.47% and Coal India was down by 0.24% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in a cause of concern for the Finance Ministry, India’s fiscal deficit crossed half the budget estimate (BE) for 2014-15 in the first three months of the financial year. Fiscal deficit at the end Q1 FY15 was pegged at 56.1% of the budget estimate of Rs 5.31 lakh crore for the full fiscal year as growth in revenue receipts slowed and interest payments rose.

Total expenditure of the government during April-June was Rs 4.13 lakh crore or 23 percent of the entire year estimates. Of the total expenditure, plan spending was Rs 1,11,806 crore and non plan spending was Rs 3,01,797 crore. Conversely, revenue collection during the reported period was Rs 1,14,427 crore or 9.6 percent of the estimate, lowered than 11.1 percent of the estimates during  2013-14. Furthermore, total receipts (revenue and non-debt capital) of the government during the three months was Rs 1,15,744 crore. Revenue deficit in the three months was recorded at Rs 2,49,358 crore which was 65.9 percent of the estimates.

The government during budget 2014-15 has set fiscal deficit target at 4.1 percent of GDP this year and decided to lower it to 3 percent of GDP by 2016-17. In FY14, India’s fiscal deficit narrowed to Rs 5,08,149 crore or 4.5 percent of GDP as compared to 4.89% of GDP in the FY13. High fiscal deficit has adverse impact on country’s economy as it leads to three macro economic problems such as a balance of payments crisis, high interest rates because of crowding out and high inflation owing to the currency depreciation.

The CNX Nifty opened at 7,639.55; about 37 point higher as compared to its previous closing of 7,602.60, and has touched a high and a low of 7,654.15 and 7,622.05 respectively. The index is currently trading at 7,634.00, up by 31.40 points or 0.41%. There were 39 stocks advancing against 11 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were MCDOWELL-N up by 1.83%, HCL Tech up by 1.74%, Axis Bank up by 1.71%, IDFC up by 1.64% and Hindalco up by 1.60%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 1.92%, TCS down by 1.08%, Sun Pharma down by 0.92%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.58% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.55% were the major losers on the index.

Asian markets were trading mostly in the green; Hang Seng gained 83.18 points or 0.34% to 24,615.61, KOSPI Index increased by 0.91 points or 0.04% to 2,074.01, Jakarta Composite added 1.25 points or 0.02% to 5,090.06, Shanghai Composite improved by 24.96 points or 1.14% to 2,210.27, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI spurted by 6.92 points or 0.37% to 1,870.26 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 42.03 points or 0.45% to 9,308.54.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 tumbled by 19.32 points or 0.12% to 15,503.79 and Straits Times was down by 20.04 points or 0.60% to 3,324.38.