Post Session: Quick Review

After witnessing consolidation in previous trading session, local equity markets staged a smart recovery on Wednesday which lifted both Sensex and Nifty above psychologically crucial 28,200 and 8,550 levels respectively, with gains of around 1%. Late-hour buying activities by funds and retail investors mainly lifted markets, which in the first part of the trading session kept dilly-dallying in what then appeared as extremely volatile session of trade. However, buying interest which returned in the second half of the session mainly lifted benchmark equity indices higher. Meanwhile, broader indices also participating into the rally went home with gains in the range of 1.50-2.50%. Sentiments were buttressed to some extent after reports suggested of Finance Minister likely achieving the challenging fiscal deficit target of 4.1% of GDP for 2014-1, helped by last minute payment of Rs 10,808 crore by telecom companies for spectrum and tax receipts in March.

On the global front, Asian stocks were mostly lower on Wednesday, taking their lead from weaker U.S. shares, among all, Tokyo shares fell quiet sharply as investors sold recent gainers to lock in profit on the first day of the Japanese financial year and after a disappointing tankan business sentiment survey from the Bank of Japan. Meanwhile, European shares rebounded from early losses on Wednesday as a monthly survey showed factory output at a 10-month high in March, helped by strong growth in new business. Asian markets were lacklustre after weak data from China and Japan.

Closer home, most of the sectoral indices on BSE ended into positive territory, nevertheless stocks from banking, realty and Infrastructure counters were the prominent gainers of the session. On the flip side, stocks from Information Technology and Technology counters were the only losers of the session. In stock-specific action, shares of two airline stocks rose after PSU OMCs cut jet fuel prices by 2.03% effective April 1, 2015. Additionally, shares of two oil marketing companies rose after further slide in global crude oil prices. Besides, fertiliser stocks rose after the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved to supply gas at uniform delivered price to all fertilizer plants for production of urea through a pooling mechanism. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of advances which thumped declines in the ratio of 2000:699; while 101 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex concluded at 28260.14, up by 302.65 points or 1.08% after trading in a range of 27889.02 and 28298.34. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.55%, while Small cap index up by 2.38%. (Provisional)

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 2.53%, Realty up by 1.82%, INFRA up by 1.59%, FMCG up by 1.27%, Auto up by 1.13% while, IT down by 1.06%, TECK down by 0.48% were the only losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 5.93%, Tata Motors up by 2.79%, SBI up by 2.73%, ICICI Bank up by 2.60% and Hindalco up by 2.09%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.96%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.53%, BHEL down by 1.32%, GAIL India down by 1.16% and Cipla down by 0.20% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, aided by last minute payment of Rs 10,808 crore by telecom companies for spectrum and tax receipts in March, the government is believed to have achieved the challenging fiscal deficit target of 4.1% of GDP for 2014-15. According to Controller General of Accounts (CGA), fiscal deficit for April-February period of the just concluded fiscal stood at Rs 6.02 lakh crore, nearly 90,000 crore over the target of Rs 5.12 lakh crore.

This development is definitely a welcome relief for Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, who was keen to meet the fiscal deficit target, set by his predecessor P Chidambaram. The minister, besides accepting the challenge of achieving difficult to achieve fiscal deficit target for the year also proposed to bring down fiscal deficit to 3.9% of GDP in 2015-16, 3.5% in 2016-17 and 3% by 2017-18.

Out of the total Rs 10,808 crore payment made by telecom companies, Bharti Airtel made part payment of Rs 4,725 crore, followed by Reliance Jio , which paid Rs 2,518 crore, Idea Cellular  of Rs 1,935 crore, Vodafone  of Rs 1,030 crore and Tata Teleservices  of Rs 600 crore.

Notably, although telecom companies were requested to make payment till April 8 to pay Rs 28,872 crore of the spectrum winning bid, however giving into the request made by telecom minister of making early payments in order for government to achieving its fiscal deficit targets, telecom made part of their payments on last trading session of the financial year.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility declined 4.53% at 13.83 from its previous close of 14.49 on Tuesday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty settled at 8586.25, up by 95.25 points or 1.12% after trading in a range of 8464.75 and 8603.40. There were 40 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 5.67%, PNB up by 5.26% and Indusind Bank up by 4.81%, Bank of Baroda up by 4.22% and Yes Bank up by 4.11%. On the flip side, HCL Tech. down by 3.77%, Infosys down by 2.00%, BHEL down by 1.98%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.60% and BPCL down by 0.81% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European Markets were trading in the green; Germany's DAX surged 1.12%, France's CAC gained 1.48% and UK's FTSE 100 was up by 1.23%.

The Asian markets closed mostly in red on Wednesday, with Chinese stocks closing higher. Companies struggled in China and much of the rest of Asia in March amid persistently weak domestic and global demand, suggesting that policymakers may have to resort to more stimulus to spur growth. Surveys of China’s manufacturing and services sectors showed persistent weakness in the world’s second-biggest economy in March, adding to bets that Beijing will have to roll out more policy support to avert a sharper slowdown. The official Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), edged up to 50.1 in March from February’s 49.9. In another sign that businesses faced lackluster demand, a separate survey of China’s services sector showed the official non-manufacturing PMI fell to 53.7 from February’s 53.9, hugging a one-year low of 53.7 struck in January. Thai CPI fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of -0.57%, from -0.52% in the preceding month. Indonesian Inflation rose to a seasonally adjusted 6.38%, from 6.29% in the preceding month. South Korea’s inflation rate dipped further in March to the lowest level in nearly 16 years as falling oil prices stoked deflationary fears. Consumer prices rose 0.4% in March from a year earlier -- compared to February’s 0.5%.