Benchmarks trade slightly in the green in early deals

Buoyed by firm global cues, Indian equity benchmarks have made a positive start and are trading slightly in the green in early deals on Monday. The US markets ended higher in last session with Nasdaq making a fifteen year closing high on weak dollar. The Asian markets were rallying at this point of time, with some of the indices extending a six-month high. The Chinese market too was trading with gains despite China’s securities regulator urging investors to consider risks from the nation’s surging stock market.

Back home, sentiments remained up-beat on report that international credit rating agency Fitch’s latest report on Global Economic Outlook saying that India is the only BRIC nation, where growth will accelerate, to 8 per cent in FY16 and 8.3 per cent in FY17, based on revised data series. Some support also came in with reports that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 354.59 crore on March 20, 2015, as per provisional data.

On the sectoral front, oil and gas, power and infrastructure witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while realty, metal and consumer durables remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were out performing benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was negative; there were 739 shares on the gaining side against 1173 shares on the losing side while 65 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28289.41, up by 28.33 points or 0.10% after trading in a range of 28248.55 and 28385.14. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.40%, while Small cap index down by 0.61%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 0.44%, Power up by 0.32%, Infrastructure up by 0.30% and Capital Goods up by 0.07% while, Realty down by 0.99%, Metal down by 0.86%, Consumer Durables down by 0.85%, IT down by 0.26% and Bankex down by 0.23% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 1.88%, Hindalco up by 1.21%, NTPC up by 1.17%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.98% and Sun Pharma up by 0.87%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 1.29%, BHEL down by 0.79%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.68%, SBI down by 0.52% and ICICI Bank down by 0.41% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, The possibility of the current leg of the Parliament session being extended has diminished with the two sides in the Rajya Sabha reaching an understanding to fast-track the disposal of both contentious mines and minerals and the coal mines bills. Opposition on Thursday forced deferment of consideration of the contentious Mines and Minerals Bill in Rajya Sabha till Friday, arguing that mineral-bearing states had not been consulted.

It was after hour of wrangling, the government and the Opposition both resolved to dispose of the two bills. While, opposition felt that it needed time to study the select committee reports on these bills, the government offered a choice between considering (and voting on) the bills on Thursday-Friday and sitting for one week more. However, opposition contesting the second option decided to fast-track the disposal of the two bills.

If amended by the Rajya Sabha, the two bills will have to go back to the Lok Sabha. However, parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu has to complete the whole exercise before the Lok Sabha concludes its sitting. The parliament session, which began on Feb 23 and would continue uptill May 8 is scheduled to a month’s recess after Friday’s business. The government wants to rush the two bills because these are designed to replace ordinance.

Government appears to have achieved breakthrough on this on account of the support it received from regional parties like BJD, TMC and AIADMK which have come around to support the twin bills because of the lure of additional resources they can generate for their states and after government accepted some of the changes they proposed.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8571.45, up by 0.55 points or 0.01% after trading in a range of 8559.70 and 8608.35. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 1.87%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.22%, Hindalco up by 1.21%, NTPC up by 1.20% and Power Grid up by 1.08%. On the flip side, Jindal Steel & Power down by 8.63%, NMDC down by 2.85%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.70%, DLF down by 1.88% and Coal India down by 1.33% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in the green; KOSPI Index rose 1.34 points or 0.07% to 2,038.58, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 2.18 points or 0.12% to 1,805.83, Jakarta Composite added 5.1 points or 0.09% to 5,448.16, Straits Times advanced 7.06 points or 0.21% to 3,419.50, Taiwan Weighted jumped 17.46 points or 0.18% to 9,767.15, Shanghai Composite soared 58.88 points or 1.63% to 3,676.20, Hang Seng surged 140.04 points or 0.57% to 24,515.28 and Nikkei 225 was up by 179.38 points or 0.92% to 19,739.60.