Benchmarks continue to trade in green in noon deals

Indian equity benchmarks are trading in green terrain in noon deals with gain of around quarter a percent after a private sector manufacturing and services activities surged 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 as sentiments 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.

Global cues too remained sluggish with Asian markets were trading mostly in red at this point of time 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). The broader indices were trading with traction, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,397 shares on the gaining side against 830 shares on the losing side while 108 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 24936.33, up by 52.74 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 24858.05 and 25000.65. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.04%, while Small cap index up by 0.52%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.00%, Basic Materials up by 1.94%, Auto up by 0.56%, Consumer Discretionary Goods & Services up by 0.47% and FMCG up by 0.40%, while Healthcare down by 0.26%, Finance down by 0.18%, Bankex down by 0.18% and Realty down by 0.01% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 3.65%, Tata Motors up by 1.89%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.74%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.41% and Maruti Suzuki up by 0.99%. On the flip side, Adani Ports &Special down by 1.56%, Axis Bank down by 1.33%, ICICI Bank down by 1.04%, Cipla down by 0.89% and Wipro down by 0.63% 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 is currently trading at 7624.40, up by 21.20 points or 0.28% after trading in a range of 7594.20 and 7638.65. There were 32 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 4.71%, Tata Steel up by 3.55%, Ultratech Cement up by 2.95%, ACC up by 2.63% and Idea Cellular up by 2.61%. On the flip side, Bosch down by 2.34%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.06%, Axis Bank down by 1.36%, Adani Ports &Special down by 1.33% and ICICI Bank down by 1.15% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in red; Taiwan Weighted declined 144.25 points or 1.67% to 8,513.30, Nikkei 225 slipped 17.46 points or 0.11% to 15,715.36, Shanghai Composite dipped 6.78 points or 0.22% to 3,046.28 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 1.15 points or 0.07% to 1,716.93.

On the flip side, KOSPI Index gained 8.58 points or 0.44% to 1,971.32, Jakarta Composite increased 13.82 points or 0.28% to 4,871.90 and Hang Seng was up by 14.11 points or 0.07% to 20,191.11.