Benchmarks add gains; Bankex, FMCG lead

Indian equity markets added gains and continued their firm trade in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters. The trade was on optimistic note after reports suggested that 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. Traders were seen piling positions in Bankex, FMCG and Infra stocks while selling was witnessed in IT, TECK and Oil & Gas sector stocks. In scrip specific development, hectic buying activity was witnessed in fertiliser stocks 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. HCL Technologies was trading weak after the company stated that its dollar revenue for the March quarter will see an adverse impact of 2.8% on strengthening of the greenback against global rivals. The stock market will remain close tomorrow i.e. April 02, 2015, on account of Mahavir Jayanti. It will also remain closed again on Friday i.e. April 03, 2015 on account of Good Friday holiday.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mostly in red while the European markets were trading on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above the psychological 8,500 and 28,100 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1805:714 while 95 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28121.97, up by 164.48 points or 0.59% after trading in a range of 27889.02 and 28137.57. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.17%, while Small cap index up by 1.78%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 1.45%, FMCG up by 1.22%, INFRA up by 1.08%, Consumer Durables up by 0.86%, Capital Goods up by 0.60% while, IT down by 1.28%, TECK down by 0.66%, Oil & Gas down by 0.19% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 4.00%, Hindalco up by 2.40%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.27%, ICICI Bank up by 1.81% and ITC up by 1.77%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 2.33%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.82%, BHEL down by 1.45%, GAIL India down by 1.38% and TCS down by 0.22% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Ministry has initiated the exercise to facilitate ease of doing business for special economic zones (SEZs) to revive the interest of investors after Finance Ministry in the budget turned down request for removal of minimum alternate tax (MAT) and dividend distribution tax (DDT). Among several measures being contemplated, the Ministry plans to empower the Development Commissioners (DCs) of such zones to reduce paper work. The Ministry for this is also mulling to empower the unit approval committees (UACs) so that a developer or unit would not have to approach the Board of Approval (BoA) for permissions and approvals every time.

Currently, unit in SEZs have to approach the BoA, chaired by the Commerce Secretary, for small things like constructing additional gates or bringing a new co-developer. Nevertheless, these efforts by the ministry would definitely help in further strengthening the single window clearance mechanism of UACs headed by DCs.

Further, the ministry for deliberating upon the slew of measures would be convening a meeting of senior officials of the states including Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. So far, 491 proposals for SEZs have been formally approved by the government. Presently, 199 zones are operational. The maximum of 36 SEZs are operational in Tamil Nadu, followed by 25 each in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Telangana, 19 in Andhra Pradesh and 18 in Gujarat.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8540.10, up by 49.10 points or 0.58% after trading in a range of 8464.75 and 8542.40. There were 37 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 3.87%, Indusind Bank up by 3.85%, PNB up by 3.67%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.76% and Hindalco up by 2.60%. On the flip side, HCL Tech. down by 3.98%, Infosys down by 2.41%, BHEL down by 1.81%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.66% and GAIL India down by 1.28% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 172.15 points or 0.9% to 19,034.84, Taiwan Weighted decreased 78.78 points or 0.82% to 9,507.66, Jakarta Composite decreased 60.99 points or 1.11% to 5,457.69, KOSPI Index decreased 12.58 points or 0.62% to 2,028.45 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 4.77 points or 0.26% to 1,826.01.

On the other hand, Straits Times increased 0.42 points or 0.01% to 3,447.43, Shanghai Composite increased 62.4 points or 1.66% to 3,810.29 and Hang Seng increased 181.86 points or 0.73% to 25,082.75.

The European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC increased 29.44 points or 0.58% to 5,063.08, Germany’s DAX increased 35.89 points or 0.3% to 12,002.06 and UK’s FTSE 100 increased 36.62 points or 0.54% to 6,809.66.