Benchmarks continue to trade in green

Indian equity benchmarks continued their firm trade in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters and taking cues from global counterparts. The sentiments were on optimistic note from early trade after the Federal Reserve kept its key interest rates unchanged and downgraded its forecast for the number of rate increases to two in 2016 from an earlier projection of four. Additional support also came after the Indian rupee strengthened past the 67 mark against the US dollar. Traders were seen piling up position in Oil & Gas, PSU and Capital Goods sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Videocon Industries was trading firm after its telecom arm Videocon Telecommunications (VTL) inked agreement with Bharti Airtel whereby the latter will acquire VTL’s spectrum in six circles in the 1800 MHz Band for a consideration of Rs 4,428 crore. Mphasis is trading in green on reports that the world’s largest private equity investor Blackstone Group is close to acquiring IT firm in an over $1-billion deal, outbidding two other strong contenders -- Apollo Global Management and Tech Mahindra. Blackstone will buy out Hewlett-Packard’s (HP's) 60.5% stake in the Bengaluru-based IT firm.

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 7,550 and 24,800 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1534:927 while 152 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 24850.92, up by 168.44 points or 0.68% after trading in a range of 24802.44 and 24948.30. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.99%, while Small cap index up by 0.78%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 2.97%, PSU up by 2.00%, Capital Goods up by 1.36%, TECK up by 1.35%, IT up by 1.26%.

The top gainers on the Sensex were GAIL India up by 4.40%, Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone up by 4.32%, ONGC up by 3.95%, BHEL up by 2.54% and Bharti Airtel up by 2.44%.

On the flip side, Lupin down by 2.72%, HDFC down by 0.94%, Sun Pharma down by 0.88%, Cipla down by 0.35% and Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 0.28% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, aviation minister P Ashok Gajapathi Raju has said that the much-awaited new civil aviation policy will be announced in April and added that the draft policy, which is already in the public domain for suggestions, is at the advanced stage. The policy is yet to firm up its position on critical issues, including changing or scrapping the existing 5/20 rule, which requires airlines to have at least five years of domestic flying experience and minimum 20 aircraft to be able to fly international routes. As many as 15 variations are being looked at with respect to the 5/20 rule.

While the new policy is currently awaiting Cabinet approval, the Minister indicated that it would have several measures that would be helpful in boosting the aircraft Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) business and also increase the regional air travel connectivity. The government proposes to simplify the process and procedures to improve the turnaround time in MROs. To make MRO cheaper, the government has proposed to exempt such activities from service tax net and not levy any VAT.

The proposed policy seeks to boost the Indian aviation sector, which has high growth potential, and strengthen regional connectivity. Unveiled last October, the draft civil aviation policy was to be finalised by March and operationalised from April 1, 2016. Scrapping the 5/20 rule was one of the three options suggested in the draft policy, while the other two options were to retain the existing norm or relaxing it by introducing a new criteria of domestic flying credits .

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7562.25, up by 63.50 points or 0.85% after trading in a range of 7541.95 and 7585.30. There were 42 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Ambuja Cement up by 6.28%, BPCL up by 5.91%, Tech Mahindra up by 4.89%, GAIL India up by 4.43% and Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone up by 4.20%.

On the flip side, Lupin down by 3.07%, HDFC down by 1.05%, Sun Pharma down by 0.89%, Tata Power down by 0.59% and Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 0.25% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Jakarta Composite increased 9.99 points or 0.21% to 4,871.43, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 10.62 points or 0.63% to 1,704.05, KOSPI Index increased 13.09 points or 0.66% to 1,987.99, Shanghai Composite increased 34.4 points or 1.2% to 2,904.83, Taiwan Weighted increased 35.4 points or 0.41% to 8,734.54 and Hang Seng increased 246.11 points or 1.21% to 20,503.81.

On the other hand, Nikkei 225 decreased 38.07 points or 0.22% to 16,936.38.

The European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 30.99 points or 0.5% to 6,206.48, Germany’s DAX increased 25.98 points or 0.26% to 10,009.39 and France’s CAC increased 26.92 points or 0.6% to 4,489.92.