Benchmarks witness consolidation after seven sessions of drubbing

Indian equity benchmarks witnessed consolidation with the key gauges ending mixed on Friday. Markets traded choppy throughout the session as investors opted to remain on sidelines in absence for fresh triggers. However, recovery in last leg of trade helped markets to end flat. Some support came in with reports that domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 687.09 crore on Thursday. Meanwhile, the government has lowered the price of domestically produced natural gas by over 10% to $5.02 per mmBtu from $5.6 per unit, the first ever reduction in the rates of the fuel. The new price will be effective from April 1.

However, traders remained cautious with the Yemen related tensions in the Middle East, which has led to spike in oil prices amid inflation worries after some unseasonal rains in different parts of the country which could dampen the further rate cut hopes from RBI. Sentiments also weighed down on report that, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 521.23 crore yesterday, as per provisional data.

On the global front, European markets were trading higher in early deals as a renewed fall in the euro currency helped boost the shares of exporting companies. However, Asian markets ended mostly lower on Friday as concerns about the US economy and uncertainty ahead of expected comments from Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen inhibited some caution in the market.

Back home, appreciation in Indian rupee provided some support to the markets. The partially convertible rupee was trading at 62.58 per dollar at the time of equity market closing against the Thursday’s close of 62.67 on the Interbank Foreign Exchange. Buying in software counter too aided sentiments. Stocks like Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) edged higher after global consulting major Accenture Plc raised its full-year revenue growth forecast for the current year.

Moreover, gas utility stocks, like Gujarat Gas Company, Gujarat State Petronet and Indraprastha Gas gained after Prime Minister Narendra Modi underscored that government aims to extend piped natural gas to one crore houses over the next five years. On the flip side, shares of telecom companies edged lower on profit-booking after DoT released details of bidders at the recently concluded airwave auction. Additionally, public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) edged lower as crude oil prices surged on March 26, 2015.

The NSE’s 50-share broadly followed index Nifty declined marginally to end below the psychological 8,350 support level, while Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index - Sensex rose marginally to hold its psychological 27,450 mark. Broader markets too traded with volatility and ended the session mixed. The market breadth remained in favour of decliners, as there were 1067 shares on the gaining side against 1,788 shares on the losing side while 120 shares remain unchanged.

Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 1.06 points to 27458.64, while the CNX Nifty lost 0.75 points or 0.01% to 8,341.40.

The BSE Sensex touched a high and a low of 27694.41 and 27248.45, respectively. The BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.05%, while Small cap index was down by 0.32%.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindalco up by 2.97%, Infosys up by 2.68%, SBI up by 2.59%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.50% and ICICI Bank up by 2.23%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 5.64%, Wipro down by 3.45%, Reliance Industries down by 2.27%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.93% and ITC down by 1.72% were the top losers.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 1.32%, Bankex up by 1.07%, IT up by 0.52%, Auto up by 0.43% and Consumer Durables up by 0.43% while, Oil & Gas down by 1.54%, Infrastructure down by 1.13%, FMCG down by 1.04%, Healthcare down by 0.77% and Realty down by 0.70% were the losing indices on BSE.

 Meanwhile the government is likely to finalise the new civil aviation policy soon. The Minister of State for civil aviation Mahesh Sharma has said that the ministry was waiting for certain inputs from stakeholders which are expected within a week. The new Draft Civil Aviation policy was announced last November and was circulated to all stakeholders for consultations before putting it in place. The policy has already been delayed couple of times, first the ministry had given a target date of end-January for notification. That was later changed to mid-February and again to mid-March.

In January last this year all airline representatives had met civil aviation secretary V Somasundaran for discussion on the 5/20 rule and RDGs. The Minister responding to the issue said that the decision on removal of 5/20 rule would not depend on individual carriers' interests and further added that the government never said 5/20 rule will be removed and the issue was still being discussed and nothing has been finalised as yet. Under the 5/20 rule, Indian carriers have to complete five years of domestic operations and have a fleet of 20 aircraft before they are allowed to fly international.

The new civil aviation policy will however need Cabinet approval on issues such as the proposed listing on stock exchanges of the Airports Authority of India and making Air Navigation Services a new corporate entity, before any official declaration. The second half of the Parliament's Budget session is between April 20 and May 8 and after getting inputs of the stakeholder it can be put in there.

The CNX Nifty touched a high and low of 8,413.20 and 8,269.15 respectively.

The top gainers on Nifty were IDFC up by 4.33%, Hindalco Industries up by 3.40%, State Bank of India up by 2.94%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.91% and IndusInd Bank up by 2.77%. On the flip side, Idea Cellular down by 5.12%, Bharti Airtel down by 4.85%, Cairn India down by 3.25%, Wipro down by 3.18% and HCL Technologies down by 2.37% were the top losers.

Most of European Markets were trading in the green; Germany's DAX was up by 0.20% and France's CAC was up by 0.27% while UK's FTSE 100 was down by 0.40%.

The Asian markets closed mostly in red on Friday, as rising tensions in the Middle East obscured the investment outlook. The World Bank stated that Indonesia must improve logistics and business licensing in its underdeveloped manufacturing sector in order to truly reap the benefits of a stronger US dollar in its export activities. Japan’s retail sales rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of -1.8%, from -2.0% in the preceding month. Japan’s National Core CPI fell to a seasonally adjusted 2.0%, from 2.2% in the preceding month. Japanese Household Spending rose to a seasonally adjusted -2.9%, from -5.1% in the preceding month while Tokyo’s core CPI, which excludes fresh food costs remained unchanged at an annualized rate of 2.2%. Japan’s unemployment rate fell last month, the percentage of the total work force that is unemployed and actively seeking employment during the previous month fell to a seasonally adjusted 3.5%, from 3.6% in the preceding month.