Market manages to hold gains; Nifty reclaims 8250 level

Markets despite a choppy trade were managing to hold their gains; though there was intermittent profit taking that was keeping the markets in a range. Nifty reclaimed the 8250 level and was trading slightly above it, while the Sensex too was trying to regain the 27300 mark. Broader markets however were showing consistent trade, outperforming the benchmarks. Markets in early deals got lead from the positive global cues and some good earnings announcements late last session, Jubilant FoodWorks reported robust Q4 FY15 earnings. For the quarter ended March 2015, the company registered net profit of Rs 31.53 crore, up 26.37 per cent, against Rs 24.95 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago. Revenue of the company also grew 25 per cent year-on-year to Rs 542.11 for the quarter under review. The stocks were up by around 10%.

The major gains however were induced by an UN report that Indian economy is likely to clock 8.1 percent growth in the current financial year, spurred by strong consumer spending amid low inflation, infrastructure projects and government's reform measures.  Traders were also getting some support with the strength in rupee, which rose for the third straight day, on continued selling of the American currency by banks and exporters. Back on street, most of the sectoral indices were trading in green, led by consumer durables, auto and banking.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27297.23, up by 91.17 points or 0.34% after trading in a range of 27159.76 and 27379.57. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.50%, while Small cap index gained 0.89%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.41%, Auto up by 0.70%, Bankex up by 0.64%, Capital Goods up by 0.62%, FMCG up by 0.61%, while Metal down by 1.26% and Oil & Gas down by 0.10% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 2.19%, SBI up by 1.84%, HDFC up by 1.56%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.46% and Axis Bank up by 1.42%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 1.56%, Tata Steel down by 1.52%, Vedanta down by 1.07%, Coal India down by 1.07% and Cipla down by 0.89% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan has once again raised concerns over rising Non Performing Assets (NPA) of some banks and has said that there was no danger of any financial crisis but it may be early to declare that the worst was over on the non-performing asset front.

Rajan talking about the size of the non-performing loans (NPL) in the banking sector said that some banks have managed to bring down their bad loan positions, for others it is still increasing, though he also said that it was a matter of concern, but ruled out the possibility of the issue leading to a financial crisis.

The RBI governor while replying to a press conference after a meeting of the RBI's central board, said that he was concerned about the losses that it implies and the effects on bank functioning. He further said  on the losses to the tax payer that he was concerned about the size of the NPLs.

Rajan also said that the RBI was in touch with the banks to identify the problems and trying to bring down the NPL at the earliest. He added that the history of NPLs in the past in the banking sector has been a combination of actions by the banks as well as growth tends to restore bank's health... A slow recovery is underway, so I think that will help, but we are doing everything we can on the regulatory side to make sure that these bad assets are recognised, problems are dealt with and we move forward.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8252.55, up by 28.35 points or 0.34% after trading in a range of 8212.20 and 8279.20. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Lupin up by 2.79%, Indusind Bank up by 2.61%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.05%, Yes Bank up by 2.01% and SBI up by 1.76%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 1.75%, PNB down by 1.73%, Tata Steel down by 1.69%, NMDC down by 1.65% and Vedanta down by 1.37% were the top losers.

Most of the Asian markets barring the Hong Kong and Japanese benchmarks were trading in red, Nikkei 225 gained 162.68 points or 0.83% to 19,732.92, while the Hang Seng surged by 448.94 points or 1.65% to 27,735.49.

On the other hand, Shanghai Composite declined by 46.87 points or 1.07% to 4,331.45, Taiwan Weighted lost 31.35 points or 0.33% to 9,579.48, Jakarta Composite was down by 28.27 points or 0.54% to 5,217.86, KOSPI Index lost 13.83 points or 0.65% to 2,106.50, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was lower by 2.55 points or 0.14% to 1,805.00 and Straits Times was tad lower by 0.46 points or 0.01% to 3,455.32.