Markets trade higher, benchmarks gain about half a percent each

Markets overcoming the initials hiccups have gradually picked up pace and were trading with good gains, both the benchmarks were eyeing their crucial psychological levels of 28000 (Sensex) and 8500 (Nifty) in the early noon trade on Monday. Traders apart from the strengthening hopes of rate cut in RBI’s monetary policy review tomorrow were getting encouragement from the good economic data announced during the weekend. India’s economy grew by 7.3 per cent during 2014-15, the first financial year of the new government on the same time fiscal deficit, stood at 3.99 per cent of GDP, lower than the downwardly revised estimate of 4.1 per cent in Budget of FY15-16. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that the country has the potential of taking the economic growth to double-digit and the government will take appropriate action in the regard. Sectorally, realty, capital goods, oil & gas were surging and supporting the markets, while healthcare, auto and consumer durables were suffering some weakness. The healthcare pack has suffered sharp plunge due to decline in sector heavyweight Sun Pharmaceuticals, the pharma major posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 888.05 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, down 44 per cent YoY, mainly due to Ranbaxy merger impact and price erosion in some products in the US.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27919.18, up by 90.74 points or 0.33% after trading in a range of 27737.58 and 27959.43. 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 0.14%, while Small cap index was up by 0.26%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.41%, Capital Goods up by 1.37%, Oil & Gas up by 1.08%, FMCG up by 0.83%, PSU up by 0.58%, while INFRA down by 0.66%, Auto down by 0.32%, Consumer Durables down by 0.26%, TECK down by 0.10% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up by 2.89%, Reliance Industries up by 2.78%, ITC up by 1.76%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.67% and Hindustan Unilever up by 1.61%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma Inds down by 8.02%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.41%, Tata Motors down by 1.36%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.70% and ONGC down by 0.65% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government has beaten their own target of containing Fiscal deficit, gap between government's expenditure and revenue, at 3.99 per cent of GDP, lower than the downwardly revised estimate of 4.1 per cent provided in the government's first full Budget of FY15-16.

The Finance Ministry has stated that 'As a result of prudent policies and commitment to fiscal consolidation, the fiscal deficit at the end of 2014-15, stands at Rs 5,01,880 crore which is 98 per cent of the projected figure in Revised Estimate for 2014-15.'

The government has set the fiscal deficit target for the current fiscal at 3.9 per cent of the GDP or Rs 5,55,649 lakh crore with the assumption that the size of the economy at current prices would be Rs 141.08 lakh crore in 2015-16. As per the fiscal consolidation road map outlined in the Budget 2015-16, fiscal deficit is to be brought down to 3.9 per cent of GDP in the current fiscal, then to 3.5 per cent in 2016-17 and further to 3 per cent by 2017-18.

The fiscal deficit in the first month of 2015-16 was Rs 1.27 lakh crore or 23 percent of Budget Estimates for the whole financial year, compared to 21.4 percent of Budget Estimates in April last fiscal. The fiscal deficit for the whole fiscal has been pegged at Rs 5.55 lakh crore.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8461.65, up by 28.00 points or 0.33% after trading in a range of 8405.40 and 8467.15. There were 37 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Reliance Industries up by 2.85%, Cipla up by 2.65%, BPCL up by 2.22%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.15% and Hindustan Unilever up by 1.75%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma Inds. down by 8.41%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.47%, HCL Tech. down by 2.31%, Lupin down by 1.60% and Tata Motors down by 1.39% were the top losers.

Asian markets were showing mixed trend, Taiwan Weighted declined by 75.38 points or 0.78% to 9,625.69, Jakarta Composite was lower by 28.53 points or 0.55% to 5,187.85 and KOSPI Index was down by 12.43 points or 0.59% to 2,102.37.

On the other hand, Nikkei 225 gained 6.72 points or 0.03% to 20,569.87, Shanghai Composite surged by 192.25 points or 4.17% to 4,804.00 and Hang Seng added 267.05 points or 0.97% to 27,691.24.