Post Session: Quick Review

Wednesday turned out to be a lacklustre day of consolidation where Indian equity benchmarks managed to keep their head above water. Markets got some support with NITI Aayog member Bibek Debroy’s statement that India's growth could be around 7.8 percent in 2015-16, higher than the Finance Ministry's projection of 7.5 percent. Market participants got some encouragement with private sector manufacturing and services activities surging to 37-month high in March on new business orders although job growth remained sluggish. The Nikkei India Composite PMI Output Index, which maps both manufacturing and services sectors, climbed from 51.2 in February to 54.3 last month.

However, gains remained capped with investors opting to stay away from risky assets ahead of fourth quarter corporate earnings. A weak quarter could hit sentiment further after the Reserve Bank of India failed to impress markets on Tuesday by cutting interest rates by 25 basis points, as some had hoped the central bank would act more boldly. Sentiments also weighed down with report that foreign institutional investors turned net sellers in equities with sales of Rs 801 crore on Tuesday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

On the global front, European equities edged higher in early trading on Wednesday after steep declines in the previous session, with energy shares gaining following a bounce back in crude oil prices. Asian markets exhibited mixed trend as concerns about the underlying strength of the Chinese economy dogged investors, while oil prices jumped by nearly two per cent on growing hopes a global output freeze may materalise soon.

Back home, fertilizers stocks remained on buyers’ radar, as the government has notified the subsidy rates for phosphatic and potassic (P&K) fertilisers for the current fiscal, which are lower than the last year. The subsidy on nitrogen (N) is fixed at Rs 15.85 per kg, Rs 13.24 per kg for phosphorous (P), Rs 15.47 per kg potash (K) and Rs 2.04 per kg for sulphur (S). Steel stocks viz Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Kalyani Steel etc. too edged higher, despite India’s steel imports rose 18 per cent in March, snapping four straight months of falls, on the back of deals struck before the government imposed a floor price in February to curb cheap imports.

Shares of cement manufacturers remained in focus on expectation of strong show in the current quarter and volume recovery led by higher government spends on infra and revival in housing demand. Aviation stocks too flied high on report that the Civil Aviation Ministry is likely to abolish the ‘5/20 rule’.

The NSE’s 50-share broadly followed index Nifty rose by over just over ten points to end above the psychological 7,600 support level, while Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index -- Sensex gained around twenty points to recapture above its psychological 24,900 mark. Broader markets outperformed benchmarks and ended the session with a gin of over half a percent.

The market breadth remained in favor of advances, as there were 1661 shares on the gaining side against 883 shares on the losing side while 144 shares remain unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex ended at 24900.63, up by 17.04 points or 0.07% after trading in a range of 24834.16 and 25000.65. 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 0.60%, while Small cap index up by 0.91%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Basic Materials up by 2.57%, Metal up by 2.33%, Capital Goods up by 1.11%, Industrials up by 1.02% and Telecom up by 0.96%, while IT down by 0.51%, Bankex down by 0.44%, TECK down by 0.29%, Finance down by 0.15% and Consumer Durables down by 0.03% were the top losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 5.14%, Tata Motors up by 1.92%, BHEL up by 1.51%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.51% and Lupin up by 1.50%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.36%, Adani Ports &Special down by 1.23%, Axis Bank down by 1.17%, ICICI Bank down by 1.00% and NTPC down by 0.94% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, emphasizing that government is committed to reforms, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that the bankruptcy Bill is expected to be taken up in the upcoming Parliament session. He added that the bankruptcy Bill is in the final stages and is before the Parliamentary Committee and is hopeful that in the coming session, it should come up for positive consideration.  Jaitley said the country needs investments, and efforts are being made to ease the business environment so that people feel attracted to do business in this country.

Last year in December the government had introduced Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2015 in Parliament that will make it easier for sick companies to either wind up their businesses or engineer a turnaround. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2015, will replace the existing bankruptcy laws to make it easy for investors to exit within a fixed time frame, in an effort to improve the ease of doing business in India.

As far as Goods and Services Tax (GST) is concerned, Jaitley said things appear to be in the final round. He said the government wants to reform the country’s taxation system with respect to direct and indirect taxes and added that ‘the government will look to bring down the direct taxes to the global levels and on indirect taxes.’

The CNX Nifty ended at 7614.35, up by 11.15 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 7591.75 and 7638.65. There were 32 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 5.20% and Hindalco up by 4.77% and Ultratech Cement up by 2.84% and ACC up by 2.66% and Eicher Motors up by 2.37%. On the flip side, Bosch down by 2.91%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.00%, Axis Bank down by 1.84%, Infosys down by 1.57% and ICICI Bank down by 1.35% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading in green; Germany’s DAX rose 8.84 points or 0.09% to 9,572.20, France’s CAC increased 25.15 points or 0.59% to 4,275.43 and UK’s FTSE 100 was up by 35.13 points or 0.58% to 6,126.36.

Asian equity markets ended mixed on Wednesday, as a firmer yen and steep overnight losses in the US and European markets following the latest IMF warning on global growth prospects and weak Eurozone data offset support from a rebound in oil prices. Chinese shares edged lower even as a private survey showed business activity in China's service sector rose slightly in March amid stronger demand on the back of supportive measures. The Caixin China services purchasing managers' index rose to 52.2 from 51.2 in February, but the employment sub-component pointed to contraction for the first time in over 2.5 years. Japanese shares ended slightly lower, marking its longest losing streak since the start of ‘Abenomics’, as the yen hovered near a 17-month high versus the dollar. However, Hong Kong stocks ended slightly higher, with energy firms boosted by a bounce in the price of oil.