Markets manage to remain in green despite a choppy trade

The first day of the new series is not going very smooth for the markets and the major benchmarks despite managing to hold in green were witnessing intermittent profit booking. There is not much support from the domestic developments, while the regional markets too were giving mixed cues. The sentiments remain 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. Back on street, the broader markets too were in somber mood and most of the sectoral gauges on the BSE were trading in red, however the IT stocks were outperforming after the global consulting and outsourcing company Accenture Plc raised its full year revenue growth forecast for the second time in a year. Telecom stocks too were buzzing, reacting to spectrum allocation results, Idea cellular was down by over 3%, while Bharti Airtel and RCom were down by over 2%. On the other hand Reliance Industries was marginally in green after company's subsidiary, Reliance Jio Infocomm successfully acquired the right to use spectrum in 13 key circles across India.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27481.44, up by 23.86 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 27458.09 and 27694.41. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were underperforming the benchmarks and were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.39%, while Small cap index lost 0.12%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.92%, TECK up by 1.09%, Capital Goods up by 0.76%, Metal up by 0.36%, while Realty down by 1.52%, Oil & Gas down by 1.39%, FMCG down by 1.13%, INFRA down by 0.67% and PSU down by 0.58% were the major losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 3.48%, Hindalco up by 2.04%, TCS up by 1.66%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.59% and NTPC up by 1.46%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 2.86%, Reliance Industries down by 2.16%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 1.95%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.65% and Hero MotoCorp down by 1.51% were the top losers.

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 is currently trading at 8341.10, down by 1.05 points or 0.01% after trading in a range of 8334.65 and 8413.20. There were 19 stocks advancing against 31 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Infosys up by 3.39%, Hindalco up by 2.28%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.74%, TCS up by 1.66% and NTPC up by 1.35%. On the flip side, Idea Cellular down by 3.60%, PNB down by 3.07%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.98%, Bank Of Baroda down by 2.80% and Zee Entertainment down by 2.18% were the top losers.

Most of the Asian markets were trading in red barring Shanghai Composite which was up by 8.2 points or 0.22% to 3,690.30, Straits Times gaining 12.26 points or 0.36% to 3,443.85 and Jakarta Composite up by 18.4 points or 0.34% to 5,387.20.

On the other hand, Nikkei 225 slumped by 185.49 points or 0.95% to 19,285.63, Taiwan Weighted lost 115.4 points or 1.2% to 9,503.72, Hang Seng declined by 44.39 points or 0.18% to 24,452.69, KOSPI Index was down by 2.76 points or 0.14% to 2,019.80 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia was tad lower by 0.96 points or 0.05% to 1,817.46.