Boisterous benchmarks display spirited performance; Sensex rallies over 250 pts

Indian equity benchmark indices staged a blockbuster performance on the last day of the week by vehemently rallying over a percentage points in the session, as overseas investors continued pumping money into the emerging markets following the dovish stance by global central banks. Foreign investors have bought a net $1.77 billion of shares so far in March, versus this year's outflows of $1.1 billion. Sentiments got some support with the report that Finance minister Arun Jaitley has proposed fresh amendments to the Companies Act to do away with the restriction of routing funds through only two layers of investment companies as well as seeking government approval for managerial remuneration. Besides, a strengthening rupee which surged to trade at over two-month high of 66.55 against the dollar in early trade, too buoyed the sentiments. Meanwhile, Shares of Sugar companies like Balrampur Chini Mills, Eid Parry and Shree Renuka Sugars rallied after sugar prices jumped to their highest levels in more than a year on Thursday, while Telecom companies like Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular gained after Supreme Court asked TRAI to consider partial rollback of call drop penalty. Financial stocks gained on hopes that the Reserve Bank of India may soon ease key policy rates. On the other hand, Pharma shares continued to witness selling pressure after the recent ban on over 300 combination drugs by the government.

On the global front, Asian markets ended mostly in green on Friday after the Federal Reserve's cautious stance on further rate increases prompted investors to rebuild their bets on riskier assets. However, Japanese shares bucked the trend as the dollar's fall against the yen is seen hurting the country's exporters, with the Nikkei dipping 1.25 percent. Further, European shares opened slightly lower on Friday with banking stocks leading the decline and Italian insurer Generali down after net profit fell short of expectations.

Back home, the benchmark got off to a positive start in the morning trade as investors were largely influenced by the supportive leads from Asian markets. The frontline indices soon gathered momentum and traded with around half a percent gains through the morning session of trade. Second half of the session saw the key gauges capitalize on the momentum further and spurt to session’s highest levels in dying moments. Eventually the NSE’s 50-share broadly followed index Nifty, got buttressed by over a percent to settle above the crucial 7,600 support level, while Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index-Sensex accumulated over two hundred and fifty points and closed above the psychological 24,950 mark. Moreover, the broader markets too participated in the rally and closed with gains of over half a percent. On the BSE sectoral space, buying was evident across the board and investors piled up hefty positions in the IT counter which rocketed by over two percent, while the Metal, Realty and Banking pockets too gained from strength to strength and climbed by over one and half percent each.

The market breadth though remained on a bit lower side as there were 1293 shares on the gaining side against 1310 shares on the losing side, while 185 shares remained unchanged.

Finally, the BSE Sensex surged by 275.37 points or 1.12% to 24952.74, while the CNX Nifty rose 91.80 points or 1.22% to 7,604.35. 

The BSE Sensex touched a high and a low 24986.94 and 24681.64, respectively. The broader indices made a positive closing; the BSE Mid cap index ended up by 0.66%, while Small cap index gained 0.61%

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 2.31%, TECK up by 2.17%, Metal up by 2.14%, Realty up by 1.57% and Bankex up by 1.47%, while there were no losers remained on BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 3.21%, GAIL India up by 3.13%, Adani Ports &Special up by 2.66%, SBI up by 2.63% and Infosys up by 2.59%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 6.90%, Sun Pharma down by 1.49%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.39% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.10% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to further deepen economic ties and connectivity, India and Bangladesh have entered into a new era of petroleum trade with a special goodwill train loaded with High Speed Diesel rolling down from India to Bangladesh. A goodwill rail rake consignment carrying diesel from Siliguri marketing terminal of Numaligarh Refineries (NRL) was flagged off on March 17. Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan has said that this consignment is a symbolic gesture of friendship and cooperation that exists between India and Bangladesh.

The goodwill rail rake consignment for supply of 2200 tons (2700 kilolitre) diesel of BS III (of Euro-III) Grade with 350 PPM sulphur content' will travel by rail from Siliguri to Parbatipur storage depot of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) in Bangladesh. From Siliguri, the 42 wagons (each with a capacity of 64 kl) rail consignment will travel over 516 km (253 km in India and 263 km in Bangladesh) on the existing railway line via Rangapani, Singabad, Rohanpur to reach Parbatipur on March 19.

Last year in June, during the visit of Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi to Bangladesh, both India and Bangladesh welcomed the Sale-Purchase Agreement signed between NRL and Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC). The agreement also includes joint initiative for construction of a 135 km long pipeline, with a capacity of 1 million Metric Ton per annum(MMTPA), from Siliguri to Parbatipur.

The CNX Nifty touched a high and low 7,613.60 and 7,517.90 respectively. 

The top gainers on Nifty were Vedanta up by 7.01%, Hindalco up by 5.19%, ACC up by 4.99%, TCS up by 3.14% and GAIL India up by 3.13%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 7.16%, Sun Pharma down by 1.36%, BPCL down by 0.92%, Power Grid down by 0.83% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.39% were the top losers.

European markets were trading in green; Germany’s DAX increased 9.97 points or 0.1% to 9,902.17, France’s CAC rose 12.34 points or 0.28% to 4,455.23 and UK’s FTSE 100 was up by 16.55 points or 0.27% to 6,217.67.

Asian equity markets ended mostly in green on Friday, after US indexes ended higher and oil prices hit their highest levels for this year. Sentiments were also upbeat as investors turned more positive on riskier assets after the Federal Reserve's cautious stance on further interest rate increases. Hong Kong shares rose, buoyed by gains in mainland China shares which were boosted by easing fears of capital outflows as the dollar weakened. Meanwhile, Japanese shares bucked the regional uptrend to end lower after the dollar plunged to a near 17-month low against the yen overnight, pressuring exporters and dented overall sentiment.