Post Session: Quick Review

Local equity markets concluded the choppy session of trade on a flat note but with negative bias, weighed down by some recent outperformers on profit-booking activities that dragged both Sensex and Nifty below psychologically crucial 28,900 and 8,800 levels respectively. However, much of the recovery which crept in the last hour of trade prevented sharper losses and made it look more like a session of consolidation after five straight sessions of gains. Markets largely remained unaffected from a report from Fitch, wherein it retained India's credit outlook at 'stable' saying although 'dynamism' is back in the economy translation of reforms into higher growth would depend upon actual implementation. However, the session turned out to be yielding for broader indices, which outperforming larger counterparts, went home with gains in the range of 0.30-1.05%.

On the global front, Asian stocks closed mostly higher on Friday after Greece repaid a 450 million euro loan it owed the International Monetary Fund on Thursday. A set of strong economic reports from the euro-currency bloc and continued hopes that China's central bank could ease its monetary policy further also underpinned investor sentiment heading into the weekend. Meanwhile, European stocks are on course to close the week at near 15-year highs following another positive session for Asian bourses as investors continue to snap up equities in a low bond-yield world.

Closer home, most of the sectoral indices on BSE concluded into positive territory, nevertheless stocks from Infrastructure, Metal and Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) counters were the prominent gainers of the session. On the flip side, much of drubbing was witnessed by stocks from Banking, Capital Goods and Healthcare counters which were the top losers of the session. In stock-specific action, telecom stocks mixed after TRAI slashed ceiling tariffs for national roaming. Through this amendment order, the Authority has removed the existing mandate to the TSPs for providing Roaming Tariff Plan (RTP) and Roaming Tariff Plan Free (RTP FR) and has mandated the TSPs to offer a Special Roaming Tariff Plan to its pre-paid and post-paid subscribers. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of advances which thumped declines in the ratio of 1636: 1184; while 118 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex concluded at 28879.38, down by 5.83 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 28756.75 and 28907.81. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.31%, while Small cap index up by 1.02%. (Provisional)

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Infrastructure up by 0.99%, Metal up by 0.66%, PSU up by 0.65%, Realty up by 0.60% and Power up by 0.50% while, Bankex down by 0.44%, Capital Goods down by 0.38% and Healthcare down by 0.33% were the few losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sesa Sterlite up by 3.44%, SBI up by 1.80%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.08%, Reliance Industries up by 1.03% and Infosys up by 0.93%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 2.80%, Hindalco down by 1.68%, HDFC Bank down by 1.41%, HDFC down by 1.21% and Hero MotoCorp down by 1.12% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, Encouraged by the outlook upgrade of the Indian economy by the global credit rating agency Moody’s, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that though upgrade in outlook is significant but the government will have to do more.

Moody’s changed its rating outlook for India to ‘positive’ from ‘stable’, with possibility of rating upgrade in the next 12-18 months. The agency said favourable demographics, economic diversity as well as high savings and investment rates would act as a structural advantage for India. Besides, relatively benign global commodity prices and liquidity conditions will keep India’s growth higher. India’s sovereign rating currently stands at ‘Baa3’, the lowest investment grade - just a notch above ‘junk’ status.

Earlier, Minister for State for Finance Jayant Sinha had said that the decision of Moody’s Investors Service to change India’s outlook to ‘positive’ merely reaffirmed the faith that domestic and international investors have put in India’s growth outlook and financial strength. ”The Moody’s decision continues to reaffirm the faith that rating agencies, global investors and our own domestic businesses have in India’s growth outlook and financial strength as a sovereign as well. The macro-economic situation over the past 10 months or so, while we have been in office has improved dramatically due to the actions that we have taken, as far as fiscal policy and reforms are concerned.

Finance Minister in the 2015-16 Budget had rolled out a new fiscal consolidation road map, which seeks to narrow the fiscal deficit to 3.9 per cent of GDP in 2015-16, and then gradually reduce it to 3 per cent in 2017-18 and had said that the growth will be over 8 per cent next fiscal and a double-digit rate is feasible soon.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility declined 1.19% at 14.24 from its previous close of 14.41 on Thursday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty settled at 8780.35, up by 2.05 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 8733.60 and 8787.40. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Idea Cellular up by 4.34%, Sesa Sterlite up by 3.54%, NMDC up by 2.12%, IDFC up by 2.06% and SBI up by 1.78%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 2.70%, Zee Entertainment down by 2.49%, Lupin down by 2.07%, Hindalco down by 1.57% and Tech Mahindra down by 1.48% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European Markets were trading in the green; France's CAC gained 0.31%, UK's FTSE 100 surged 0.33% and Germany's DAX was up by 1.05%.

The Asian markets closed mostly in green on Friday, with Chinese indices closing up, as gains in the Life Insurance, Technology Hardware & Equipment and Media sectors led shares higher. China’s auto sales rose 3.3% year-on-year to 2.24 million vehicles in March rebounding from a holiday slowdown. Vehicle sales had slipped 0.2% from 2014 in February, which included a week-long holiday for the Chinese New Year. For the first three months, auto sales gained 3.9% on the same period last year to 6.15 million vehicles, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM). China’s inflation data for March produced small positive surprises, but remained tepid, with little sign that Beijing’s easing measures till date have significantly cut worrisome deflationary pressure. That has led many to predict more easing measures in the pipeline, including more cuts to reserve requirement ratios for banks, although there is debate over how effective those might be at juicing inflation. In March, China’s annual consumer inflation rate (CPI) stayed flat at 1.4%. Producer prices (PPI) fell slightly less than projected, contracting 4.6% rather than the forecasted repeat of February’s 4.8% pace. Malaysian Industrial Production fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.2%, from 7.0% in the preceding month.