Benchmarks erase gains; trade in red

Indian equity benchmarks erased gains and started trading in red in the late afternoon session on account of selling in frontline blue chip counters. Traders failed to draw solace despite activity in India’s services sector accelerated sharply in March following a strong increase in demand, although employment growth remained sluggish. The Nikkei/Market Services Purchasing Managers’ Index jumped to 54.3 in March from February’s 51.4, matching January’s 19-month high. Traders were seen piling position in Metal, Auto and Power stocks while selling was witnessed in IT, Bankex and TECK sector stocks. In scrip specific development, RPG Life Sciences was trading firm after the company informed bourses that it has received good manufacturing practice (GMP) certificate from German authority for its formulation facility in Gujarat. Aviation stocks such as InterGlobe Aviation, SpiceJet and Jet Airways were trading in green on reports that the civil aviation ministry is likely to abolish the 5/20 rule. The 5/20 rule restricts companies from flying abroad unless they have flown in India for five years and have a fleet size of 20 aircraft. On the other hand, Ashoka Buildcon tumbled and was locked at lower circuit limit on reports of a raid being conducted by the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department at the infrastructure company’s Nashik office.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mostly in red, while the European markets were trading mostly on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below the psychological 7,600 and 24,900 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1439:946 while 122 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 24872.59, down by 11.00 points or 0.04% after trading in a range of 24834.16 and 25000.65. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.06%, while Small cap index up by 0.46%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.39%, Auto up by 0.49%, Power up by 0.32%, Capital Goods up by 0.29%, FMCG up by 0.14% while, IT down by 0.64%, Bankex down by 0.63%, TECK down by 0.41%, Consumer Durables down by 0.03%, PSU down by 0.01% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 5.58%, Tata Motors up by 2.55%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.23%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.14% and Lupin up by 0.81%.

On the flip side, Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone down by 2.33%, ICICI Bank down by 1.77%, Axis Bank down by 1.50%, Infosys down by 1.20% and Cipla down by 0.84% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that the road construction in India has accelerated to an all-time high pace of 20 kilometres per day. Gadkari  also said that ‘We’ll touch our target of 30 kilometres per day in another five-six months.’ He said that the current pace is a third more than the previous best of 15 km per day achieved in 2012.

For the current fiscal year, the government has a target of constructing 10,000 km of greenfield highways, for which it has made a budgetary allocation of Rs 57,000 crore. Gadkari said that his ministry has proposed the formation of dispute resolution mechanism to the finance ministry for early implementation of stuck projects. About 14 road projects with an investment of over Rs 25,000 crore are stuck due to various reasons including cost escalation.

The minister further said that the government has already awarded contracts worth Rs 1.8 lakh crore and by 2017 it will award road construction projects worth Rs 3 lakh crore. He added that 'the emphasis has been on awarding the projects under the innovative hybrid annuity and toll-operate-transfer mode so that there are more opportunities for private sector investment.'

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7596.90, down by 6.30 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 7591.75 and 7638.65. There were 30 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 5.44%, Hindalco up by 4.71%, Ultratech Cement up by 2.83%, Tata Motors up by 2.51% and ACC up by 2.24%.

On the flip side, Bosch down by 3.07%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.61%, ICICI Bank down by 2.19%, Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone down by 1.83% and HCL Tech. down by 1.79% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Taiwan Weighted decreased 144.25 points or 1.67% to 8,513.30, Nikkei 225 decreased 17.46 points or 0.11% to 15,715.36, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 2.52 points or 0.15% to 1,715.56 and Shanghai Composite decreased 2.47 points or 0.08% to 3,050.59.

On the other hand, KOSPI Index increased 8.58 points or 0.44% to 1,971.32, Jakarta Composite increased 16.31 points or 0.34% to 4,874.38 and Hang Seng increased 29.67 points or 0.15% to 20,206.67.

The European markets were trading mostly in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 13.83 points or 0.23% to 6,105.06, France’s CAC increased 7.9 points or 0.19% to 4,258.18 while, Germany’s DAX decreased 36.62 points or 0.38% to 9,526.74.