Markets continue to hold strong on sustained value buying activity

After making a flattish start and gaining some ground thereon, local equity markets continued holding strong with gains of around four tenths of a percent which lifted both Sensex and Nifty above psychologically crucial 28,300 and 8,600 levels respectively. Sustained buying activities by market-participants after four consecutive sessions of drubbing, which made fundamentally strong stocks available at attractive valuations mainly aided the sentiment. Meanwhile, broader indices staging separate trend, continued to trade somber with losses in the range of 0.05-0.20%. Markets continued to hold into positive territory despite mixed regional cues.

On the global front, an index of Asian shares wobbled between positive and negative territory on Tuesday after a measure of Chinese factory activity unexpectedly skidded to an 11-month low, pointing up weakness in the economy. The flash HSBC/Markit Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) dipped to 49.2 in March, below the 50-point level. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a reading of 50.6, slightly weaker than February's final PMI of 50.7.

Closer home, most of the sectoral indices on BSE were trading into positive territory, nevertheless stocks from Infrastructure, Technology and Consumer Durable counters were the prominent gainers of the session. On the flip side, maximum drubbing was witnessed by stocks from Realty, Banking and Capital Goods counters, which were the top losers of the session. In stock-specific action, telecom stocks rose after the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology issued a statement of about 88% of the spectrum been provisionally allocated to bidders at a value of more than Rs 1.05 lakh crore at the end of the 17th day of bidding for spectrum, i.e. 23 March 2015. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of declines which thumped advances in the ratio of 1440:1068; while 111 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28306.06, up by 114.04 points or 0.40% after trading in a range of 28157.83 and 28366.41. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.04%, while Small cap index down by 0.21%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were INFRA up by 0.74%, TECK up by 0.58%, Consumer Durables up by 0.54%, Oil & Gas up by 0.49%, IT up by 0.41% while, Realty down by 0.27%, Metal down by 0.19%, Bankex down by 0.14%, Capital Goods down by 0.10%, Auto down by 0.05% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 2.49%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.92%, Sesa Sterlite up by 1.86%, Sun Pharma Inds. up by 1.86% and HDFC up by 1.67%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 1.84%, SBI down by 1.42%, Tata Steel down by 1.31%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.28% and Hero MotoCorp down by 1.14% were the top losers. Meanwhile, With the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2014-19 all set to expire March 31, 2014, the government is may yet again miss the deadline. The policy, which was last set to expire in March last year was extended by a year as the government did not announce a new FTP. The new policy had been expected to be put in place quickly after the Narendra Modi government came to power in May 2014. But the finance ministry’s reluctance to give sizeable funds for export sops forced the commerce ministry to delay it to the next fiscal year.

However, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman expressed hopes of coming up with the policy soon. She also dismissed claims of exports falling substantially on account of delay in putting up new FTP. Justifying this she said that exports suffered even when the FTP was explicit and was there in place between 2009 and 2014. Further, the Minister in an attempt to reason out the delay in FTP said that the new five-year FTP with a ‘Make in India’ focus needed comprehensive deliberations on various sectors and exporting destinations.

She underlined that the new policy had to be out-of-the-box and was expected to support India’s exports, which could be done by assessing various sectors and their capability and new and traditional markets of the world.

Further, Commerce Minister pointed that the FTP would not lay emphasis on subsidies and incentives to exporters and would rather make it easier for them to do business. She highlighted that her ministry has already reduced the number of mandatory documents required for import and export of goods to three in each case from close to a dozen at present.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8587.75, up by 36.85 points or 0.43% after trading in a range of 8536.45 and 8602.95. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Lupin up by 3.76%, BPCL up by 3.47%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.88%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.98% and Sesa Sterlite up by 1.94%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 2.13%, Tata Steel down by 1.45%, SBI down by 1.36%, Bank Of Baroda down by 1.36% and Hindustan Unilever down by 1.31% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Straits Times trading higher by 3.07 points or 0.09% to 3,413.20; KOSPI Index increased 4.78 points or 0.23% to 2,041.37; Jakarta Composite increased 10.5 points or 0.19% to 5,447.59 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 13.11 points or 0.73% to 1,808.96.

On the flip side, Hang Seng declined by 81.11 points or 0.33% to 24,413.40; Nikkei 225 declined by 40.91 points or 0.21% to 19,713.45; Taiwan Weighted declined by 26.43 points or 0.27% to 9,731.66 and Shanghai Composite declined by 2.78 points or 0.08% to 3,684.95.