Post Session: Quick Review

RBI’s status-quo stance in its first bi-monthly monetary policy 2015-16 failed to cast any impact of local equity markets, which managed to clock a positive close for yet another session on Tuesday, albeit with slender gains which kept Sensex and Nifty above psychologically crucial 28,500 and 8,650 levels respectively. Although, markets to knee jerk reaction of status quo stance hit the bottom at the afternoon deals, but the recovery which emerged in the last hour of trade mainly lifted markets from the doldrums. Meanwhile, the session also remained positive for broader indices, which outperforming larger counterparts, went home with gains in the range of 0.70-1.20%.

Sentiment in the afternoon deals took a hit after India’s central bank, delivering on much expected lines kept the policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) unchanged at 7.5% and underscored that monetary policy actions going further will be conditioned by incoming data and that cautioned that adverse impact of unseasonal rains and hailstorms in March could be “still unfolding”.  However, positive global set-up also aided the sentiment.

On the global front, Asian shares ended mostly higher Tuesday following a rise on Wall Street overnight, with many investors shrugging off Friday’s disappointing U.S. jobs data as they returned from holiday. Meanwhile, European shares rose in early trading on Tuesday as the Fedex’s 4.4 billion euro for dutch package delivery firm TNT express sparked a rally in the shares of other courier companies.

Closer home, most of the sectoral indices were trading into positive territory, however stocks from Realty, banking and healthcare counters were the top losers of the session. On the flip side, massive buying was witnessed by stocks from Metal, Power and Consumer Durable counters were the prominent losers of the session. Rate sensitive stocks witnessed heavy profit-booking after RBI kept the key policy rates unchanged. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of advances which thumped declines in the ratio of 1652: 1094; while 109 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex concluded at 28516.59, up by 12.13 points or 0.04% after trading in a range of 28274.36 and 28641.08. There were 15 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.74%, while Small cap index up by 1.17%. (Provisional)

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.20%, Power up by 0.93%, Consumer Durables up by 0.66%, FMCG up by 0.64% and Capital Goods up by 0.45% while, Realty down by 1.62%, Bankex down by 0.71% and Healthcare was down by 0.19% were the few losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 4.90%, Bajaj Auto up by 3.38%, Sesa Sterlite up by 3.32%, NTPC up by 3.10% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.73%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 1.67%, Sun Pharma down by 1.58%, Tata Motors down by 1.29%, ICICI Bank down by 1.07% and SBI down by 1.04% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, Government's revised target of direct tax collection is likely to be missed with the Income Tax Department so far collecting Rs 6,85,972 crore during the year gone by against the projected target of Rs 7,05,000 crore for fiscal 2015, creating a shortfall of Rs 19,028 crore as per the data internally released by the Department on April 4.

The department revised the direct tax collection to Rs 7,05,000 crore for the fiscal 2014-15 against the initial projection of Rs 7,36,000 crore in view of the sluggish economic growth. While, new gross domestic product or GDP series has projected that the economy would grow 7.4 per cent in 2014-15, up from 6.9 per cent from a year ago it does not quite match up with other high frequency indicators.

Mumbai, which accounts for one-third of the nation's total tax collections, is likely to report a lower collection than its target of Rs 2.30 lakh crore for FY15. Though, Delhi and Bangalore zones have been able to meet the targets. New Delhi alone has collected Rs. 1,02,083 crore in tax, up from Rs. 86,619 crore in the previous fiscal. Many large corporations paid higher advance tax this fiscal, especially in the fourth quarter.

Though, the Income Tax Department is hopeful of meeting the target once figures from across the country come, but even if tax collection indeed falls short of the revised target, it won't be a new trend. For several years now, the revenue department has often been over optimistic on tax collections.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility declined 2.77% at 14.16 from its previous close of 14.56 on Monday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty settled at 8660.30, up by 0.40 points after trading in a range of 8586.85 and 8693.60. There were 27 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 4.84%, Sesa Sterlite up by 3.26%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.86%, NTPC up by 2.76% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.11%. On the flip side, IDFC down by 2.22%, Axis Bank down by 1.97%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.51%, Sun Pharma down by 1.48% and Tata Motors down by 1.37% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European Markets were trading in the green; Germany's DAX surged 1.02%, France's CAC gained 1.26% and UK's FTSE 100 was up by 1.32%.