Markets trade flat with positive bias in range-bound session of trade

In the extremely range-bound session of trade, Indian equity benchmarks alternating between positive and negative territory, were now trading flat with bit of positive bias on back of buying by funds and retail investors. Meanwhile, the broader markets outperformed equity benchmarks with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gaining over half a percent each. Sentiments got a boost on a report that India expects higher rainfall from the monsoon this year after patchy rains affected farm output last season. Good rains this year could cause the RBI to continue to take the axe to rates. Meanwhile, the government has stated that the Gross Domestic Product will remain a comprehensive measure to capture changes in the economic activity and it will not be replaced by Gross Value Addition (GVA). Some support also came in from reports that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 2786 crore on March 04, 2015. However, traders remained cautious with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) statement that the uncertainty surrounding global oil prices can have an adverse bearing on the inflation outlook though it will endeavour to bring it down to the target of 4% by 2016-17.

On global front, Asian stocks slipped on Thursday after Wall Street continued to pull back from record highs ahead of Friday's closely-watched US jobs data, while the nervous euro languished at an 11-year low prior to the European Central Bank's policy meeting.  Back home, Indian rupee recovered by 5 paise to 62.20 against the Greenback in early trade, snapping its four-day falling streak, on back of selling of the US dollar by exporters.

Back on street, stocks from Consumer Durables, FMCG and Oil & Gas counters were supporting the markets’ uptrend, while those from Realty, Metal and PSU counters were adding to the underlying cautious undertone. In scrip specific development, shares of commercial vehicles maker SML Isuzu have rallied after reporting a more than 100% year on year growth in vehicles sales for the month of February 2015. On the other hand, shares of Cairn India have declined after the company has halved its capital expenditure (capex) in 2015-16 because of drop in oil price.

The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2218 stocks traded, 1169 stocks advanced, while 967 stocks declined on the BSE. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 29426.13, up by 45.40 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 29318.03 and 29496.60. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.66%, while Small cap index up by 0.60%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.06%, FMCG up by 1.05%, Oil & Gas up by 0.21%, Auto up by 0.19% and Power up by 0.17% while, Realty down by 0.43%, Metal down by 0.32%, PSU down by 0.16%, Capital Goods down by 0.12% and TECK down by 0.07% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up by 2.26%, Sun Pharma Inds. up by 1.98%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.94%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.45% and Wipro up by 1.17%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 1.47%, GAIL India down by 1.44%, ICICI Bank down by 1.22%, NTPC down by 0.98% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.98% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government has stated that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will remain a comprehensive measure to capture changes in the economic activity and it will not be replaced by Gross Value Addition (GVA). The GDP includes GVA plus taxes on products, including import duty and excluding subsides on the products.

The Statistics Minister V K Singh has said that GDP is a comprehensive measure of production activity in the economy, and therefore cannot be replaced by GVA. He further stated that GVA of an enterprise is measured as the value of the output minus the value of goods and services used to produce output. On the other hand, GDP combines in a single figure all the production carried out by enterprises, government and households in the country. GDP can thus be said to be equal to the sum of GVA of all enterprises, government and households.

As per the international practice the government began giving growth rate figures in terms of GVA after it recently introduced a new series of national accounts with 2011-12 as the new base year. As per Central Statistical Office (CSO) latest data India’s GDP growth was 6.9 percent in the fiscal 2013-14, whereas the GVA growth stood at 6.6 percent.

The CSO, in its note to the new statistical series, has identified three major changes in the way it computes national income and output. The first relates to how national GDP as a measure of what in economic parlance is referred to as incomes accruing to various “factors” of production-land, labour and capital and rewards to entrepreneurs -is calculated. The second pertains to the usage of market prices to compute GDP; while the third major change has been the introduction of a new concept of “basic prices” in order to compute the extent of gross value added (GVA) in the new methodology.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8925.80, up by 3.15 points or 0.04% after trading in a range of 8891.15 and 8949.05. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Lupin up by 2.49%, Cipla up by 2.06%, Hindustan Unilever up by 2.00%, Sun Pharma up by 1.61% and Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.37%. On the flip side, Cairn India down by 3.05%, Ultratech Cement down by 2.27%, ACC down by 1.73%, Tata Steel down by 1.61% and ICICI Bank down by 1.46% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in the red; Hang Seng decreased 0.57%, Shanghai Composite declined 1%, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI shed 0.89%, Taiwan Weighted slipped 0.15% and Straits Times was down by 0.16%. On the flip side, KOSPI Index rose 0.09%, Nikkei 225 increased 0.18% and Jakarta Composite was up by 0.48%.