Benchmarks trade in fine fettle in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks have made a positive start and are trading in fine fettle in early deals on Tuesday as investors opted to buy beaten down but fundamentally strong stocks after four sessions of drubbing. Sentiments got some support with the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB’s) latest Outlook report, saying that developing Asia, which groups 45 countries in Asia-Pacific, is set to grow 6.3 per cent this year and the next, the same pace as in 2014. India and most Southeast Asian economies will lead the way, offsetting slowing growth in China.

On the global front, the US markets ended marginally in red in last session, as traders seemed reluctant to make any significant moves amid lingering uncertainty about the monetary policy outlook, although there was a report of rebound in existing home sales. The Asian markets were trading mostly in the red at this point of time due to a flash report showing Chinese manufacturing gauge fell to an 11-month low in March.

Back home, on the sectoral front, consumer durables, healthcare and capital goods witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while software, technology and metal remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were trading in-line with benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1021 shares on the gaining side against 820 shares on the losing side while 90 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28283.46, up by 91.44 points or 0.32% after trading in a range of 28157.83 and 28312.46. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.39%, while Small cap index up by 0.26%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.20%, Healthcare up by 1.00%, Capital Goods up by 0.62%, Power up by 0.58% and Infrastructure up by 0.57% while, IT down by 0.22%, TECK down by 0.05% and Metal down by 0.02% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HDFC up by 1.69%, BHEL up by 1.50%, Sesa Sterlite up by 1.28%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.06% and Sun Pharma Inds. up by 1.03%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 1.18%, Infosys down by 0.84%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.71%, ONGC down by 0.65% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.63% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, on the last day of the first leg of Budget session, the government in a commendable act succeeded in the passage of two key reform bills the Mines and Minerals Bill and the Coal Mines Bill in Rajya Sabha. However, the celebrations would have been louder if it could succeed with the passage of another key legislation land acquisition bill, the fate of which now hangs in balance.

Nevertheless, paving the way for auction of blocks, the government managed to pass the mining and mineral bills even as opposition parties, notably the Congress, wanted it to be referred again to the relevant select committee. The bill was pressed for voting -117 members were in favour and 69 against it.

Meanwhile, the crucial bill that provides legal framework for auction of coal blocks was passed by Parliament, replacing an ordinance that was to expire on April 5. The Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Bill, 2015 was passed with 107 members voting in favour and 62 against in the upper 245-member House where the ruling BJP-led coalition is in a minority.

The Coal Bill opens the sector for commercial mining and seeks to facilitate the auction of over 200 cancelled coal blocks. The legislation replaces an ordinance issued by the government on October 21 last year and then re-promulgated on December 26 after the Supreme Court cancelled allocation of 204 coal blocks terming the allocations as fatally flawed. Passage of the bill provides legal framework for the auction of the coal blocks.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8576.05, up by 25.15 points or 0.29% after trading in a range of 8536.45 and 8582.35. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BPCL up by 1.94%, Lupin up by 1.67%, HDFC up by 1.66%, BHEL up by 1.65% and Jindal Steel & Power up by 1.65%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 1.21%, NMDC down by 1.21%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.98%, Bank Of Baroda down by 0.94% and Infosys down by 0.93% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in the red; Hang Seng decreased 150.52 points or 0.61% to 24,343.99, Shanghai Composite declined 49.66 points or 1.35% to 3,638.07, Taiwan Weighted shed 27.88 points or 0.29% to 9,730.21, Nikkei 225 slipped 19.97 points or 0.1% to 19,734.39 and KOSPI Index was down by 1.82 points or 0.09% to 2,034.77. On the flip side, Straits Times increased 2.13 points or 0.06% to 3,412.26, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI rose 10.05 points or 0.56% to 1,805.90 and Jakarta Composite was up by 11.63 points or 0.21% to 5,448.73.