Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity benchmarks ended the volatile day of trade slightly in red on Tuesday with Nifty breaching its crucial 7,600 level as investors remained on sidelines ahead of the March series futures and options contracts expiry due on Thursday. Further, market participants were patiently waiting for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) monetary policy review due on April 5 amid hopes of a 25 basis points cut in interest rates. Sentiments remained downbeat with private report that state governments are likely to run wider fiscal deficit in financial year 2016-17 because of higher interest bill and wage hike pressures. According to the report, despite higher transfers from the centre, an analysis of 18 state budget documents suggests that the state governments on aggregate clocked slightly wider deficits than budgeted at the start of the year.

However, losses remained capped on report that foreign institutional investors’ (FII) inflow in the Indian market so far this month is the highest single-month investment since May 2013. FIIs have put in Rs 18,437 crore thus far in the Indian market during the current month till March 23, 2016. Some support also came with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that India will live up to the global expectation of being a bright spot for growth with requisite policy as also administrative reforms on a sustained basis.

On the global front, European markets were trading in green in early deals. Asian markets ended mixed as investors remained on sidelines awaiting Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s speech at 1620 GMT for fresh signals on the outlook for US interest rate hikes, after a chorus of hawkish comments from other Fed officials.

Back home, market failed to get any sense of relief with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that the Indian government has resolved various legacy issues with regard to taxation and is gradually working to bring down the corporate tax rates to the global level at 25 per cent from 30 per cent currently. Pharma stocks remained under pressure for yet another day amid observations from the US FDA and the recent ban on over 300 combination drugs by the government.

Select Gold and Jewellery stocks remained under pressure on a report that demand is expected to record a sharp fall of 71 per cent to 40-50 tonnes in the March quarter against the 173 tonnes logged in the December quarter due to the strike. However, select steel stocks edged higher, as the government has asked Washington to comply with the dispute settlement body’s ruling against countervailing duties (CVD) imposed on imports, in order to help the debt-ridden steel industry regain its foothold in the US market for hot-rolled carbon steel products.

The NSE’s 50-share broadly followed index Nifty dipped by around twenty points to end below the psychological 7,600 support level, while Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index -- Sensex dropped by seventy points but managed to hold its psychological 24,900 mark. Broader markets too struggled to get any traction and ended the session with a cut of around quarter a percent.

The market breadth remained in favor of decliners, as there were 948 shares on the gaining side against 1,690 shares on the losing side while 171 shares remain unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex ended at 24900.46, down by 65.94 points or 0.26% after trading in a range of 24835.56 and 25079.35. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.21%, while Small cap index down by 0.27%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 0.89%, Energy up by 0.86%, Metal up by 0.40%, Bankex up by 0.39% and Consumer Discretionary Goods & Services up by 0.32%, while Healthcare down by 2.59%, Capital Goods down by 0.99%, Power down by 0.83%, IT down by 0.41% and FMCG down by 0.39% were the top losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 2.52%, Tata Motors up by 2.13%, Axis Bank up by 1.68%, Reliance Industries up by 1.41% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.36%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 6.13%, Cipla down by 3.96%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 2.98%, GAIL India down by 2.92% and BHEL down by 2.25% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, amid rising concern over the default by large borrowers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the government along with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is taking tough actions in order to recover loans from the corporate defaulters. He said that the only segment showing an increase in downgrades is highly leveraged large firms. Even Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in a stern warning to wilful defaulters has said that they should settle dues honourably with the banks or else be ready to face 'coercive action' by lenders and investigative agencies.

Gross Non Performing Assets (NPAs) of public sector banks (PSBs) has increased to Rs 3, 61,731 lakh crore in December from Rs 2, 67,065 lakh crore in March last year. There was an increase of Rs 94,666 crore over the nine months of the current fiscal.  The gross NPAs of PSBs increased from 5.43 per cent as on March last year to 7.30 per cent in December.

Modi further stated that there has been a smart pickup in credit growth after September as the credit off-take between February 2015 and February 2016 increased by 11.5 per cent. The overall fund flow to corporate sector through equity and borrowings of various kinds, domestic and foreign, has increased in first three quarters of 2015-16 by over 30 per cent.

The CNX Nifty ended at 7597.00, down by 18.10 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 7582.25 and 7652.90. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 2.52%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.50%, Idea Cellular up by 1.90%, Tata Steel up by 1.57% and Reliance Industries up by 1.55%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 6.26%, Cipla down by 3.95%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 3.11%, GAIL India down by 2.78% and BHEL down by 1.94% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 rose 4.48 points or 0.07% to 6,110.96, Germany’s DAX increased 17.46 points or 0.18% to 9,868.81 and France’s CAC was up by 22.22 points or 0.51% to 4,351.90.

Asian markets made a mixed closing on Tuesday and while many of the indices managed to recover their early losses, the Chinese market ended with cut of over a percent. There was initially concern over the decline in crude prices that weighed on the sentiments, while the dollar rebounded from its first slide in seven days. Also, the traders waited to hear from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen on US interest rate outlook. Japan’s market declined around a quarter percent even though the yen extended its decline for the eighth day, as more than 1,500 members traded ex-dividend on Tuesday. Australian shares hit one-month lows as trading resumed after the Easter break. However, Seoul shares finished modestly higher, aided by foreign investor flow into equities. Hong Kong market coming after the Easter break moved higher, as trade deficit narrowed during January to February period from last year as the pace of decline in imports outpaced the fall in exports.