Post Session: Quick Review

Markets extended gains for fifth straight session and ended with solid gains of over half a percent on sustained buying activities by funds and retail investors which lifted both Sensex and Nifty above psychologically crucial 28,850 and 8,750 levels respectively. Markets took a heart from a report from Moody’s investors Service in which it raised India's rating outlook from stable to “positive”, while expressing optimism in the efforts of the new government and the Reserve Bank of India. Although, markets did slip into negative territory couple of times during the session, recovery followed suite as market-participants continued to go gung-ho on equities despite not so positive global set-up. The session also turned out to be yielding for broader indices, which went home with gains in the range of 0.20-0.75%.

On the global front, Asian stocks rose on Thursday, extending the previous session’s gains as minutes of the US Federal Reserve’s last meeting showed the US central bank was still on course to hike interest rates this year. Outperformance was witnessed by Japanese shares after data from Japanese finance ministry showed foreign investors bought a net Yen 1.036-trillion of Japanese shares last week, their biggest net buying since early April 2013. Meanwhile, European shares rose as Investors breathed a sigh of relief as Greece confirmed it will pay a Euro 450 million loan tranche to the International Monetary Fund on Thursday, meeting a deadline and taking the immediate heat off the cash-strapped country.

Closer home, most of the sectoral indices on BSE concluded into positive territory, nevertheless stocks from Banking, Metal and public Sector undertaking counters were the outperformers of the session. On the flip side, stocks from Healthcare, Realty and Capital Goods counters were the prominent losers of the session. Healthcare industry stocks concluded lower on profit-booking activities a day after the government has allowed pharmaceutical companies for hiking prices of 509 essential medicines used for treating various diseases like diabetes, hepatitis and cancer by 3.84% with effect from April 1. Meanwhile, banking stocks made a comeback in today’s trading session after witnessing drubbing in last two post India’s central bank left the key rates unchanged in first bi-monthly monetary policy 2015-16. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of advances which thumped declines in the ratio of 1583: 1256; while 85 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex concluded at 28885.21, up by 177.46 points or 0.62% after trading in a range of 28622.44 and 28906.71. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.27%, while Small cap index up by 0.74%. (Provisional)

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 2.57%, Metal up by 1.28%, PSU up by 0.80%, IT up by 0.43% and Power up by 0.36% while, Healthcare down by 2.23%, Realty down by 0.97%, Capital Goods down by 0.53%, Consumer Durables down by 0.32% and Auto down by 0.05% were the losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries up by 3.65%, Axis Bank up by 2.80%, SBI up by 2.69%, Tata Steel up by 2.33% and HDFC Bank up by 1.91%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 3.60%, Sun Pharma down by 3.40%, GAIL India down by 2.95%, Cipla down by 2.63% and BHEL down by 1.42% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, quashing several hopes, Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian underscored that big- bang reforms were frankly not applicable to a democratic country like India, where there were multiple veto centres, multiple decision making centres. He said that such big-bang dramatic reforms were possible only during time of crisis and that the country was not in crisis.

He highlighted that there had been dramatic improvement in the economy, from where it was in July 2013, when it was just about coming out from macro-economic crisis. He pointed that since then there has been a healthy turnaround in the state of the economy, with the inflation coming down, current account deficit improving and stock markets doing well.

Additionally, he also took a note of a growth figure of 7.4% for the economy for this year and forecast of 8-8.5% for the coming year. He validated this forecast and believed the acceleration of growth to be possible on account of easing prices of oil, growing profitability of corporate and monetary easing which had just started. 

He, while comparing the fiscal indicators from the government and states, took a heart from the capital expenditure figures which though higher by Rs 150,000 crore, was just about 0.5% higher than those of states since the states get more consolidation from the centre.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility rose 0.22% at 14.38 from its previous close of 14.35 on Wednesday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty settled at 8778.30, up by 63.90 points or 0.73% after trading in a range of 8682.45 and 8785.50. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were PNB up by 6.68%, Indusind Bank up by 4.88%, Zee Entertainment up by 4.48%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 4.26% and Reliance Industries up by 3.59%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 3.50%, GAIL India down by 3.27%, Lupin down by 3.27%, Bharti Airtel down by 3.26% and Idea Cellular down by 2.71% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European Markets were trading mostly in the green; France's CAC gained 0.79%, UK's FTSE 100 surged 0.72% and Germany's DAX was up by 0.37%.

The Asian markets closed mostly in red on Thursday, while Japan’s Nikkei rose to a fresh 15-year high, after US shares had modest gains and hopes rose that foreigners will continue to buying Japanese stocks. China’s Ministry of Finance stated that it would reopen a March 25 issue of three-year bonds, auctioning an additional 30 billion yuan ($4.8 billion) on April 17. The bonds will be issued until April 22 and begin secondary market trading on April 24. Singapore’s central bank could loosen monetary policy for a second time this year, but analysts are divided over the magnitude of any easing as authorities contend with slowing growth, a pickup in core inflation and risks of fund outflows. Indonesian car sales in the first quarter fell 14 percent last year as slowing economic growth took its toll on consumers’ purchasing power. Car manufacturers shipped 282,569 units to dealers in the January-March period, down from 338,500 units in the same period last year. Taiwan’s trade balance fell unexpectedly last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.07B from 4.56B in the preceding month.