Benchmarks manage to end slightly in green on first day of 2015

Buying activity which took place during last leg of trade mainly drove the markets higher and key domestic benchmarks managed to keep their head above water on first day of 2015. Markets traded choppy throughout the session as investors remained cautious on mixed set of economic indicators, while the Central Government’s fiscal deficit for the April-November period touched 99 per cent of the Budget estimate for 2014-15, on the other, Core sector output grew at its fastest in five months in November, backed by the robust performance of coal, electricity and cement sectors. Core Sector grew by 6.7% from a year ago and faster than October’s 6.3%.

Buying in last leg of trade helped benchmarks to end in green terrain as investors went for beaten down but fundamentally strong stocks. Sentiments got some boost from report that foreign institutional investors were net buyers in Indian equities to the tune of $16.07 billion in calendar year 2014 till December 30, 2014. However, the absence of foreign investors restricted up-side, while the domestic institutions too remained in holiday mood.

Asian markets remained closed for the day, while the weakness in the US markets overnight weighed on the sentiments and kept the indices in check. Back home, sentiments remained dampened on the back of depreciation in Indian rupee. The rupee was trading at 63.37 at the time of equity markets closing versus previous close of 63.03.

However, rally in metal counter aided the sentiments. Stocks like, Sesa Sterlite, Hindalco and Tata Steel edged higher after growth in China's services sector picked up slightly in December. Telecom shares too remained on buyers’ radar after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Wednesday recommended a base price of Rs 2,720 crore a megahertz (MHz) for 2,100-MHz spectrum across the country (22 telecom zones). The price is about 22 per cent lower than the reserve price of the same spectrum in the previous auction, conducted in 2010. Additionally, stocks related to aviation sector edged higher after oil marketing companies (OMCs) reduced aviation turbine fuel (ATF) price for sixth succeeding month in January 2015 by sharp 12.5%. ATF price were reduced for sixth straight month to a cumulative 34% till date.

The NSE’s 50-share broadly followed index Nifty rose marginally to end comfortably above the psychological 8,250 support level, while Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index -- Sensex rose by around ten points to regain the psychological 27,500 mark. Broader markets, however, outperformed benchmarks and ended the session with a gain of around a percentage point. The market breadth remained in the favour of advances, as there were 1,831 shares on the gaining side against 975 shares on the losing side while 116 shares remain unchanged.

Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 8.12 points or 0.03%, to 27507.54, while the CNX Nifty added 1.30 points or 0.02% to 8,284.00.

The BSE Sensex touched a high and a low of 27545.61 and 27395.34, respectively. The BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.65%, while the Small cap index was up by 1.25%.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 2.86%, Sesa Sterlite up by 2.34%, Tata Steel up by 1.30%, BHEL up by 1.17% and ONGC up by 0.84%. On the flip side, NTPC down by 1.18%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 1.03%, HDFC down by 1.02%, Coal India down by 0.90% and ITC down by 0.37% were the top losers.

On the BSE Sectoral front Metal up by 1.07%, INFRA up by 0.73%, PSU up by 0.48%, TECK up by 0.48% and Auto up by 0.39% were the top gainers, while FMCG down by 0.27%, HEALTHCARE down by 0.13% and Power down by 0.06% were the only losers in the space. 

Meanwhile, India's external debt stood at $455.9 billion during the first six months of this fiscal, which was higher by 3.1 percent from March-end level. The rise in external debt during the period was due to long-term external debt particularly commercial borrowings and NRI deposits. The external debt consist of long-term debt of $369.5 billion up 4.7 percent from March 2014 and short-term debt $86.4 billion which was down 3.2 percent from March end level.

As per the Finance Ministry notification, share of commercial borrowings was highest at 35.4 percent of total external debt, followed by NRI deposits at 23.8 percent and multilateral debt at 11.7 percent. Sovereign external debt stood at $88.4 billion in September, up from $81.5 billion in March 2014.

Currency wise, the share of US dollar denominated debt continued to be the highest in external debt stock at 60.1 percent at end-September 2014, followed by the Indian rupee 24.2 percent, Special Drawing Rights (SDR) 6.5 percent, Japanese yen 4.5 percent and euro 3 percent.

The CNX Nifty touched a high and low of 8,294.70 and 8,248.75 respectively.

The top gainers on Nifty were Jindal Steel & Power up by 3.98%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.92%, NMDC up by 2.38%, SSLT up by 2.19% and BHEL up by 1.62%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 1.26%, NTPC down by 1.25%, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories down by 1.12%, HDFC down by 0.88% and UltraTech Cement down by 0.68% were the top losers.

All the major Asian and European markets remained closed on account of New Year holiday.