Benchmarks continue firm trade in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets continued their firm trade in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters taking cues from global counterparts. Investors however maintained cautious approach after Fitch lowered India’s economic growth projections to 7.8% for the current fiscal from 8% on pickup in demand and said that the country’s business environment is relatively weak compared with peers and will take time to turn around. Traders were seen piling position in Oil & Gas, Auto and FMCG stocks while selling was witnessed in Metal, IT and Consumer Durables sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Religare Enterprises was trading in green amid reports of possible takeover of the company. According to reports, private equity groups Apollo Global Management and Baring Asia have emerged as the two frontrunners to take over Religare Enterprises. Finolex Industries, Jain Irrigation Systems and Shakti Pumps were trading in green after the government approved the Prime Minister Irrigation Scheme which aims to provide irrigation facility to all agricultural lands.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mostly in green, while the European markets were trading on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above the psychological 8,450 and 28,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1484:1062 while 122 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28038.53, up by 17.66 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 27961.08 and 28115.96. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.86%, while Small cap index up by 0.85%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.07%, Auto up by 0.74%, FMCG up by 0.57%, Power up by 0.40% and TECK up by 0.38% while, Metal down by 0.63%, IT down by 0.26% and Consumer Durables down by 0.11% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.42%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.32%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.93%, Wipro up by 1.29% and Sun Pharma up by 1.04%.

On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.53%, Hindalco down by 1.24%, HDFC Bank down by 1.09%, Vedanta down by 1.05% and Coal India down by 0.99% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India’s external debt increased by 6.6% during the FY ending March 2015 to $475.8 billion, this rise took place  mainly  due to higher NRI deposits and commercial borrowing and also because  the appreciation of US dollar against Indian rupee and other major currencies. The ratio of GDP against the external debt increased up to 23.8% by the end of March 2015 from the level of 23.6 % the last year (March 2014).

The short term debt by the original maturity at $ 84.7 billion accounted 17.8% of the overall external debt at March end 2015 to that of 20.5 % at March 2014.Simultaneously, the country’s ratio of  short term debt on residual maturity accounted for  38.9%, as compared to the previous year of 39.6 %.

Similarly, the ratio for short term residual debt to foreign exchange reserves worked out to be 54.2% at end March 2015, from 57.4% last year. There was an increase in the outstanding debt of Government and non government sectors, their shares in the external debt were 18.9% and 81.1%, respectively at end-March 2015. The debt payments during 2014-15 were higher relative to the preceding year due to the higher repayments of External Commercial Borrowings (ECBs) during the year.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8465.90, up by 12.85 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 8437.20 and 8479.25. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bosch up by 3.27%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.55%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.32%, Idea Cellular up by 2.32% and Bajaj Auto up by 1.81%.

On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.53%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.47%, Hindalco down by 1.33%, Vedanta down by 1.25% and HDFC Bank down by 1.13% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Straits Times increased 1.04 points or 0.03% to 3,332.18, Taiwan Weighted increased 4.01 points or 0.04% to 9,379.24, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 9.23 points or 0.53% to 1,737.19, KOSPI Index increased 9.44 points or 0.45% to 2,107.33, Hang Seng increased 32.29 points or 0.12% to 26,282.32, Jakarta Composite increased 56.34 points or 1.15% to 4,960.40 and Nikkei 225 increased 193.18 points or 0.95% to 20,522.50.

On the other hand, Shanghai Composite decreased 140.93 points or 3.48% to 3,912.77.

The European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 2.85 points or 0.04% to 6,611.44, France’s CAC increased 5.61 points or 0.11% to 4,888.80 and Germany’s DAX increased 11.33 points or 0.1% to 11,191.83.