Post Session: Quick Review

Monday turned out to be a fabulous day of trade for Indian equity benchmarks, where frontline gauges garner over half a percent gain in volatile session of trade. Sensex ended just shy of its crucial 25,400 mark, while Nifty regained its psychological level of 7,750. Earlier, markets failed to hold on to their initial gains and entered into red terrain in noon deals as investors remained on sidelines ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) monetary policy review due tomorrow. The selling proved short lived and markets once again gained momentum in last leg of trade to end the session near intraday highs.

Sentiments remained up-beat with the Nikkei purchasing managers’ index (PMI) survey showing that India’s manufacturing at an eight month high of 52.4 after the 51.1 points reading in February. This is a third consecutive monthly improvement in business conditions across the sector. Some support also came with the Climate Forecast System (CFS) of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) predicting mostly a normal and sometimes heavy rainfall across the country barring some parts. Traders also got some encouragement with the report that after having revised upwards its target for indirect tax collections by 8.6 per cent for 2015-16, the government has crossed the revised estimate to collect Rs 7.09 lakh crore as per provisional estimates.

Recovery in European markets too aided sentiments. CAC, DAX and FTSE after a negative start have made a smart recovery and were trading in green terrain with around a percent gain. Asian markets ended mostly in green after solid US payroll data underpinned investor risk sentiment while dovish comments from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen the previous week kept the US dollar in check.

Back home, as per United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), India has now been ranked sixth among the world's 10 largest manufacturing countries. Meanwhile, overseas investors have pumped in over Rs 21,000 crore (over $3 billion) into Indian equity markets in March, after pulling out massive funds in the preceding four months. However, Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) have pulled out Rs. 1,476 crore from the debt markets during the period under review.

Telecom stocks remained on buyers’ radar on report, which claimed that the government has cut spectrum usage charges from 5 per cent to 3 per cent. Telecom companies have to pay two types of charges - a one-time price for bagging the spectrum rights and a recurrent spectrum usage charge, which was fixed at 5 per cent of adjusted gross revenues of telecom companies. Aviation stocks also remained focus on the back of lower crude oil prices.

The NSE’s 50-share broadly followed index Nifty gained around fifty points to end above the psychological 7,750 support level, while Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index -- Sensex surged by over one hundred and thirty points to finish near its psychological 25,400 mark. Broader markets too traded with traction and ended with a gain of around half a percent.

The market breadth remained in the favour off decliners, as there were 649 shares on the gaining side against 2,155 shares on the losing side while 167 shares remain unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex is ended at 25399.65, up by 130.01 points or 0.51% after trading in a range of 25223.49 and 25424.15. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.24%, while Small cap index up by 0.52%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 2.77% TECK up by 2.06%, IT up by 1.95%, Auto up by 1.16 and Power up by 0.81%, while Realty down by 0.61%, FMCG down by 0.38% and Finance down by 0.08% were the only losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 4.22%, Bharti Airtel up by 4.04%, Infosys up by 3.41%, Tata Motors up by 1.98% and Asian Paints up by 1.84%. On the flip side, ITC down by 1.49%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.22%, HDFC down by 1.04%, Coal India down by 0.97% and Axis Bank down by 0.97% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be launching the 'Stand up India' and a web portal for the scheme on April 5 under which banks will give loans worth Rs. 10 lakh to Rs. 1 crore to Scheduled Caste/Schedule Tribe and women entrepreneurs. The scheme is intended to facilitate at least two such projects per bank branch on an average one for each category of entrepreneur. It is aimed at creating jobs and promoting entrepreneurs among SC, ST and women by extending loans at cheaper rates.

Under the scheme, SC/ST and women entrepreneurs who avail loan would be given a RuPay Debit Card for withdrawal, besides comprehensive support like pre-loan training, facilitating loan, factoring and marketing. Moreover, the government will create a web portal for online registration and support services and also prepare a credit history of borrowers.

Furthermore, there would be a Rs 10,000 crore refinance window through Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Ltd (NCGTC) will create a corpus of Rs 5,000 crore. SIDBI would engage with the Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and various institutions. The offices of SIDBI and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) shall be designated Stand Up Connect Centres.

The CNX Nifty ended at 7758.80, up by 45.75 points or 0.59% after trading in a range of 7704.40 and 7764.45. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Idea Cellular up by 5.93%, Tata Power up by 4.75%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 4.24%, Bharti Airtel up by 3.89% and Aurobindo Pharma up by 3.29%. On the flip side, Ambuja Cement down by 1.76%, ITC down by 1.59%, Axis Bank down by 1.14%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.07% and Ultratech Cement down by 1.03% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 38.67 points or 0.63% to 6,184.72, France’s CAC surged 48.02 points or 1.11% to 4,370.26 and Germany’s DAX was up by 96.62 points or 0.99% to 9,891.26.

Asian equity markets ended mostly higher on Monday as better-than-expected U.S. jobs and factory data underscored the resilience of the world's largest economy and movements in the dollar failed to change investor views on the outlook for U.S. interest rates. Data showed that US employers added 215,000 jobs in March, which was largely in line with expectations, with growth in nearly every domestically-oriented sector. The unemployment rate edged up to 5%, though that was largely due to more people joining the labor force. However, Japanese shares hit a fresh one-month low as the yen strengthened and March sales proved a mixed bag for the country's three big automakers. Markets in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan were closed for public holidays.