Markets manage a modestly positive close after a choppy day of trade

There was hardly any relief for the Indian markets after being butchered in the last session, as the benchmarks after a strong start on supportive Asian market cues lost their direction and showed a volatile trade throughout the session, moving in and out of the red zone. Markets lacked conviction from the very beginning and faced intermittent profit taking at the higher levels. Traders even overlooked report of private sector activity in the country, which registered a significant uptrend and surged to a 37-month high in March. The Nikkei Services Business Activity index rose to 54.3 in March from 51.4 in February and its joint-highest level since June 2014. Meanwhile, the Nikkei India Composite PMI Output Index, which maps both manufacturing and services sectors, climbed from 51.2 in February to a 37-month high of 54.3 last month. Going forward, Indian services companies remain optimistic that activity will increase further over the coming 12 months. There was some strength in rate sensitive stocks after RBI Deputy Governor S S Mundra, a day after the central bank cut policy rate by 0.25 per cent, expressed hope that transmission of lower interest rate through banks will be more effective this time.

On the global front, while the US markets ended lower, the Asian markets made a mixed closing, with some of the indices making a modestly weaker close for the day. The Chinese market after its unexpected rally of last session consolidated and ended modestly lower despite its private sector activity expanding the most in eleven months in March on stronger services activity and a renewed expansion of manufacturing output. The Caixin composite output index climbed to 51.3 in March from 49.4 in the previous month. Earlier, the start was good after crude oil prices rose more than 2 percent and bolstered investor sentiment. The European markets made a cautious start but soon moved higher buoyed by energy stocks.

Back home, Indian markets kept moving in a narrow range throughout the day, with every attempts of recovery meeting similar strength of profit booking. It was hopes of more rate cuts going forward and statement of NITI Aayog member Bibek Debroy’s that India's growth could be around 7.8 percent in 2015-16, higher than the Finance Ministry's projection of 7.5 percent that restricted any major fall in the markets, though the general sentiment remained cautious as companies gear up to report their March quarter earnings. Both the benchmarks after much of dilly-dallying managed a close with positive bias, while the Nifty remained above the 7600 level, the BSE Sensex managed to cross the 24900 mark. Most of the sectoral indices posted gains for the day, barring banking and IT. Banking stocks which had faced severe selling pressure in the last session, showed some recovery from intraday low levels but was dragged down by decline in some heavyweights. Some selling pressure was also visible in select energy, PSU banking, IT sector stock. However, metal stocks were the one who witnessed maximum buying interest and outperformed not only the peers but the benchmarks as well. The fertilizer stocks moved higher despite the government notifying the subsidy rates for phosphatic and potassic (P&K) fertilisers for the current fiscal, which are lower than the last year. For this fiscal, 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), while in the previous fiscal, the subsidy on nitrogen (N) was Rs 20.88 per kg, phosphorous (P) Rs 18.68 per kg, potash (K) Rs 15.50 per kg and sulphur (S) Rs 1.68 per kg. RCF was up by 1.15%, Chambal Fertilisers was up by 0.71%, NFL ended flat and Coromandel Fertilisers gained 0.89%. In other non sectoral gauge, aviation remained in jubilant mood on reports that the civil aviation ministry is likely to abolish the 5/20 rule.

Finally, the BSE Sensex ended at 24900.63, up by 17.04 points or 0.07%, while the Nifty ended higher by 11.15 points or 0.15% at 7614.35.

BSE Sensex traded in a range of 24834.16 and 25000.65. There were 19 stocks on gainers side against 11 stocks on losers side on the index. The broader indices outperformed the benchmarks and ended with good gains; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.60%, while Small cap index ended higher by 0.91%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.33%, Capital Goods up by 1.11%, Realty up by 0.76%, Oil & Gas up by 0.62%, Auto up by 0.58%, while IT down by 0.51%, Bankex down by 0.44%, TECK down by 0.29%, Consumer Durables down by 0.03% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 5.24%, Tata Motors up by 1.81%, Lupin up by 1.54%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.47% and Larsen & Toubro up by 1.22%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 1.71%, Infosys down by 1.44%, ICICI Bank down by 1.20%, Adani Ports &Special down by 1.19% and NTPC down by 0.75% were the top losers.

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 traded in a range of 7591.75 and 7638.65. There were 32 stocks advancing against 19 stocks decliners on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 5.20%, Hindalco up by 4.77%, Ultratech Cement up by 2.84%, 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.

The European markets were trading mostly in green, France’s CAC increased by 17.65 points or 0.42% to 4,267.93 and UK’s FTSE 100 was up by 30.74 points or 0.5% to 6,121.97, while Germany’s DAX declined by 18.03 points or 0.19% to 9,545.33.

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.