Markets recover from day’s low; Sensex above 28, 850 mark

Local equity markets, recovering from day’s low point, were trading in positive territory, albeit with slender gains on lower level buying activity by market-participants amidst weak global cues. Sentiment continued to remain somber from start of trade after strong than expected US jobs data that fanned hopes of US fed hiking interest rates earlier than expected sapped the risk appetite for yet another session. Off day’s low, both Sensex and Nifty were trading above psychologically crucial 28,850 and 8,750 levels respectively. However, broader indices outperforming larger counterparts were trading with gains of around half a percent.

On the global front, Key bourses in Asia fell on Tuesday as markets overlooked better-than-expected Chinese inflation data and a positive lead from Wall Street. Meanwhile, the Japanese and South Korean currencies hit new lows against the U.S. dollar on the back of the underlying theme of monetary policy divergence.

Closer home, most of the sectoral indices on BSE were trading in positive territory and stocks from Auto, Infra and Consumer Durables counters were the prominent gainers of the session. Additionally, Pharma stocks gained on weak rupee. On the flip side, heavy drubbing was witnessed by stocks from Realty, Oil & Gas and power counters were the prominent losers of the session. Realty stocks were trading lower after Parliamentary Affairs M.Venkaiah Naidu said in the Lok Sabha yesterday, 9 March 2015, that the government is willing to consider some further amendments to ensure minimum land acquisition based on the views and suggestion of the opposition parties.  The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of advances which thumped declines in the ratio of 1341:1140; while 141 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28882.65, up by 37.87 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 28748.29 and 28949.11. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.45%, while Small cap index up by 0.61%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 1.16%, INFRA up by 1.02%, Consumer Durables up by 0.90%, Metal up by 0.83%, TECK up by 0.71% while, Realty down by 1.17%, Oil & Gas down by 0.47%, Power down by 0.19% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 5.33%, Coal India up by 3.05%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.73%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.65% and ICICI Bank up by 1.34%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 3.01%, GAIL India down by 1.72%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.67%, ONGC down by 1.50% and Wipro down by 1.08% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, it is raining bonanza for the government, which has gained over Rs 3 lakh crore from sale of coal mines and telecom, way higher than all the estimates, including CAG for value of such resources that have been major reason of two major scams in the recent years.

While the government has fetched Rs 2.07 lakh crore from the e-auction of the coal block, it has garnered rest of the amount from the sale of 2G and 3G airwaves where government is selling spectrum in four bands: 2,100 megahertz (Mhz), 1,800 MHz, 900 MHz and 800 Mhz.

Ironically, these two scams, i.e. ‘Coal-gate’ and ‘Telecom’ scam had become matters of big political debates including run-up to the Lok Sabha polls last year. In total, 204 coal blocks were cancelled, while auction of just 32 of them has already fetched the government Rs 2.07 lakh crore. Besides, the total proceeds from the spectrum auction is expected to cross Rs 1 lakh crore mark, while the minimum amount earlier targeted by the government was Rs 82,000 crore.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier this month raised some doubts after he underscored CAG's astronomical Rs 1.86 lakh crore loss figure in coal block allocation, but with auction of less than 10% of those mines (19 mines in first tranche) alone  that has garnered Rs 1.10 lakh crore has proved these claims to be right.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8759.80, up by 3.05 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 8724.10 and 8778.00. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 5.65%, Coal India up by 2.99%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.30%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.76% and Lupin up by 1.64%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 3.20%, DLF down by 2.95%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.85%, GAIL India down by 1.78% and ONGC down by 1.49% were the top losers.Asian markets were trading mostly lower; with Hang Seng trading lower by 191.69 points or 0.79% to 23,931.36; Nikkei 225 trading lower by 125.44 points or 0.67% to 18,665.11;  Taiwan Weighted trading lower by 26.45 points or 0.28% to 9,536.53;  Shanghai Composite trading lower by 15.29 points or 0.46% to 3,287.12 and  KOSPI Index trading lower by 8.05 points or 0.4% to 1,984.77.

On the flip side, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI trading higher by 1.02 points or 0.06% to 1,792.76;  Straits Times trading higher by 3.68 points or 0.11% to 3,408.25 and  Jakarta Composite trading higher by 12.44 points or 0.23% to 5,457.07.