Post Session: Quick Review

Momentum which gathered pace in late hours of trade led to splendid close of Dalal Street on Tuesday that took Sensex past psychologically crucial 29,600 level and Nifty just shy of the life time 9,000 mark, with gains of around half a percent. The surge, which led benchmarks scale record high levels in intra-day trade was mainly led by index heavyweights; especially Reliance Industries after CLSA said the conglomerate could report a record profit for the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, the session was also productive for broader indices, which outperforming larger counterparts, went home with gains of over 1.20%.

Notably, the markets overlooking dismal macro-economic data, initiated fresh bets tailing positive local equities. In the volatile session of trade though bourses slipped below neutral line several times, but each time recovery followed and further the buying which picked up pace in the later hour of trade took markets to record high levels. On the macro-economic front, while fiscal deficit, overshooting the budget estimate by 107% and calling for harder measures by the government, rose to Rs 5.68 lakh crore in April-January period as against the annual budget estimate of Rs 5.31 lakh crore, growth in eight core industries, contributing 38% to the overall industrial production slowed down to 1.8% in January, compared to by 3.7% in January 2014 and 2.4% in December 2014.

On the global front, Asian stocks concluded near a five-month high after U.S. equities climbed to records on rising consumer spending. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied to all-time highs as data showed U.S. consumer purchases rose 0.3 percent in January, adjusted for inflation, adding to signs the recovery is on strong footing as the Federal Reserve assesses economic data to gauge the timeline for raising interest rates. Meanwhile, European shares rose close to seven-year highs on Tuesday as better than expected German retail sales further buoyed investors days before the European Central Bank kicks off a trillion-euro bond buying programme.

Closer home, amidst across the board buying activities, stocks from Oil& Gas, Information Technology and Consumer Durable counters outperformed. On the flip side, stocks from Realty, Auto and Metal counters were the top losers of the session. In stock-specific action, shares of insurance companies, like Reliance Capital, Religare Enterprises, Bajaj Finserv, HDFC, Max India and Aditya Birla Nuvo edged higher on reports of government introducing Insurance Bill in Lok Sabha today. The Insurance Bill, which intends to raise foreign investment in the insurance sector to 49% from 26%, will replace the Ordinance issued last year. Also, auto stocks declined on reporting their monthly sales figures.  Additionally, banking stocks also lost steam on uncertainty over when Reserve Bank of India would ease rates after it formally adopted inflation targeting and the government pushed its fiscal deficit target by year to focus on infrastructure spending. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of advances which thumped declines in the ratio of 1666:1184; while 147 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex concluded at 29593.73, up by 134.59 points or 0.46% after trading in a range of 29364.87 and 29636.86. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.18%, while Small cap index up by 1.39%. (Provisional)

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 2.21%, IT up by 1.45%, TECK up by 1.27%, Consumer Durables up by 0.59%, INFRA up by 0.39% while, Realty down by 1.19%, Auto down by 0.86%, Metal down by 0.65%, Bankex down by 0.27%, PSU down by 0.16% were the losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 4.34%, Reliance Industries up by 4.32%, Cipla up by 2.66%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.18% and HDFC up by 2.14%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 3.98%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 3.48%, Axis Bank down by 2.16%, Tata Motors down by 1.74% and NTPC down by 0.97% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, country's fiscal deficit continues to ring alarm bells and exceed the budget estimates in the first 10 months of the current fiscal. The deficit, overshooting the budget estimate by 107% and calling for harder measures by the government has risen to Rs 5.68 lakh crore in April-January period as against the annual budget estimate of Rs 5.31 lakh crore. The deficit was 98.2% during the same period a year ago. The overshooting of fiscal deficit could be mainly attributed to subdued revenue realization.

Notably, while presenting the annual Budget 2015-16, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley underscored that the government would meet the budgeted fiscal deficit target of 4.1% of GDP for the year ending March 31 through spending cuts and higher tax collection. The fiscal deficit target for current fiscal would be the lowest in seven years. However, government has increased the 2015-16 target to 3.9% of the GDP as against 3.6% set earlier, as part of the fiscal consolidation roadmap. Also the government stated that it would be reducing deficit to 3% of GDP by 2017/18 fiscal year, which is a year later than expected.

The fiscal deficit data came on the day when the government also published details of its historic monetary policy framework agreement with the Reserve Bank of India, whereby the central bank will aim to bring retail inflation below 6% by January 2016 - and to around 4% by fiscal 2016-17.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility declined 2.44% at 15.46 from its previous close of 15.85 on Monday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty settled at 8996.25, up by 39.50 points or 0.44% after trading in a range of 8925.55 and 9008.40. There were 34 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Reliance Industries up by 4.23%, TCS up by 3.99%, Bank of Baroda up by 2.63%, Jindal Steel & Power up by 2.49% and PNB up by 2.11%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 3.83%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 3.64%, Axis Bank down by 2.49%, DLF down by 2.10% and Tata Motors down by 1.86% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European Markets were trading in green; Germany's DAX rose 0.14%, UK's FTSE 100 gained by 0.20% and France's CAC was up by 0.17%.

The Asian markets ended mixed on Tuesday, while, Chinese markets tumbled as investor excitement over a weekend interest rate cut waned, with a flood of new initial public offerings (IPO) fanning concerns about tighter liquidity. The era of ultra-easy money is drawing to an end for Singapore mortgage holders, with domestic interest rates rising at their fastest pace in a decade in a country that already ranks among the world’s most expensive places to live. South Korea’s annual inflation in February slowest to a 16-year low as the recent collapse in global oil pressured consumer prices, backing expectations for another rate cut to ward off deflation in Asia’s fourth-largest economy. The consumer price index rose 0.5% in February year-on-year, cooling from 0.8% in January. Japan’s Average Cash Earnings remained unchanged at a seasonally adjusted 1.3%, compared to the preceding quarter whose figure was revised down from 1.6% while Japan’s Monetary Base fell to 36.7%, from 37.4% in the preceding month.