Benchmarks trade in green in late afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued its firm trade in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline blue chip stocks taking cues from global counterparts. The sentiments were on firm note from the early trade after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) termed India’s fiscal stance as appropriate and sensible, giving a pat to government’s plan of sticking with the roadmap to narrow the fiscal deficit to 3.5% of gross domestic product (GPD) in the next financial year while raising public investment and focusing on distressed farm economy and infrastructure. Traders were seen piling up position in Bankex, Auto and FMCG stocks while selling was witnessed in Metal, PSU and Realty sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Sasken Communication Technologies was trading firm after it reached a settlement with Spreadtrum Communications, Inc. and Beijing UniSpreadtrum Technology (Spreadtrum) in connection with the unauthorized use of Sasken’s Protocol Stack IP, by the said companies. Spreadtrum will pay Sasken $45 million as damages / compensation before March 31, 2016 towards this settlement.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading in green, while the European markets were trading on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above the psychological 7,500 and 24,800 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1271:1221, while 164 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 24833.06, up by 115.07 points or 0.47% after trading in a range of 24766.36 and 24960.51. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.38%, while Small cap index up by 0.56%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 0.88%, Auto up by 0.80%, FMCG up by 0.70%, Capital Goods up by 0.57%, Oil & Gas up by 0.44% while, Metal down by 1.88%, PSU down by 0.53%, Realty down by 0.39%, Consumer Durables down by 0.23% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 3.74%, ICICI Bank up by 3.72%, BHEL up by 2.85%, ONGC up by 1.32% and GAIL India up by 1.22%.

On the flip side, Coal India down by 6.91%, Sun Pharma down by 0.61%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.46%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.45% and Wipro down by 0.22% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that the government is looking to harness the country's 50,000 km of sea and river fronts as waterways. Further, he said that the government is also mulling innovative ways of financing to raise around Rs 70,000 crore to develop these river stretches into navigable transport ways. Parliament has passed the crucial bill to declare 111 rivers across the country into National Waterways. This has paved way for development of these stretches as transport carriers. So far, only five of the river stretches were declared as National Waterways.

Gadkari said that India has its unique advantage as 14 of its states are bestowed with 7,500 km of coastline with 14,500-km of potentially navigable waterways. In addition, 116 rivers across the country provide 35,000 km of navigable stretches. In total the country has about 50,000 km of waterways which on development will change the face of India. He said that the government is committed to aggressively work to develop these as the environment-friendly mode of transport which is bound to decrease significantly the huge 18 per cent logistics cost in India.

Highlighting the funds required, he said that there will be no dearth of funds as in this year's budgetary allocation, Rs 800 crore have been provided for development of waterways and another Rs 800 crore can be raised  through issuing tax free bonds. The ports will have profit to the tune of Rs 6,000 crore this fiscal which will gradually increase. Besides, they have fixed deposits worth Rs 8,000 crore. He further said that the bank is ready to provide Rs 50,000 crore loan in dollar terms at a very low rate of interest of 2 per cent. Besides budgetary support, multilateral funds, public-private-partnership and market borrowing would be explored. Access to funds like National Clean Energy Fund (NCEF) and Central Road Fund (CRF) will also be required because of environment benefit of IWT. The minister said 'With all these measures, we will generate enough funds to revolutionise India's waterways'.

Parliament on March 9 gave nod to a bill to convert 111 rivers across the country into National Waterways. The bill provides for enacting a central legislation to declare 106 additional inland waterways as the national waterways in addition to five existing national waterways.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7535.30, up by 25.10 points or 0.33% after trading in a range of 7524.35 and 7583.70. There were 37 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ICICI Bank up by 3.62%, Tata Motors up by 3.56%, BHEL up by 2.65%, Cairn India up by 2.38% and Tech Mahindra up by 1.99%.

On the flip side, Coal India down by 6.71%, Sun Pharma down by 0.84%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.82%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.53% and Idea Cellular down by 0.49% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading in green; KOSPI Index increased 0.86 points or 0.04% to 1,972.27, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 2.99 points or 0.18% to 1,699.53, Taiwan Weighted increased 41.76 points or 0.48% to 8,747.90, Shanghai Composite increased 49.19 points or 1.75% to 2,859.50, Jakarta Composite increased 58.19 points or 1.21% to 4,871.97, Hang Seng increased 235.74 points or 1.17% to 20,435.34 and Nikkei 225 increased 294.88 points or 1.74% to 17,233.75.

The European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 52.82 points or 0.86% to 6,192.61, France’s CAC increased 30.41 points or 0.68% to 4,523.20 and Germany’s DAX increased 187.77 points or 1.91% to 10,018.90.