Markets trade marginally in green in early noon session

Indian equity benchmarks pared its early losses and were trading in marginally in green in early noon session on account of buying by fund and retail investors in the select stocks. Investors got some encouragement with the Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das, pledging a strong focus on the execution of Budget announcements and ensuring that there are no delays in investments by key ministries, said that India plans to further liberalise rules for overseas investors as the government looks to reduce the need for approvals. Some support also come in with the report of Secretary the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) -- Ramesh Abhishek’s statement that the Foreign Direct Investment into India touched the ‘highest ever’ mark of $51 billion during the April-February period of last fiscal ended March 31. He said that healthy business climate has been created in the county so that investments are promoted. However, investors preferred to stay on the sidelines ahead of U.S. Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan policy meetings due to begin later today. Meanwhile, shares of cigarette makers were trading down on the BSE on reports that the government is working on a proposal to completely ban foreign direct investment (FDI) in the tobacco sector.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, following the negative cues from Wall Street and as oil prices eased overnight. Back home, in the broader market, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were trading up by 0.37% and 0.39% respectively. In scrip specific development, share of Hindalco was trading higher, as Australian company, Metal X intends to acquire shares of company’s arm Aditya Birla Minerals (ABY) and will offer 1 share for every 4.5 ABY shares. Hindalco holds a 51 per cent stake in ABY.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25684.31, up by 5.38 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 25549.05 and 25699.27. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.42%, while Small cap index up by 0.43%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.29%, Realty up by 0.79%, PSU up by 0.48%, Bankex up by 0.31% and Oil & Gas up by 0.20%, while FMCG down by 0.29% and Consumer Durables down by 0.15% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 1.79%, Tata Steel up by 1.45%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.29%, HDFC Bank up by 1.08% and Asian Paints up by 0.96%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 1.46%, Adani Ports &Special down by 1.25%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.22%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.07% and Axis Bank down by 0.74% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, amid weak solvency position, Moody's Investors Service has said that the government will have to provide capital support to Public sector banks (PSBs) in the near future, as they will not be able to raise funds from the markets. It added that with little chance of the banks accessing the capital markets in the near term, we expect much of the capital support will be required from the Indian government”.

Moody’s further stated that it could see negative pressure on PSBs credit profile if the government does not revise upwards its capital infusion plans as from a timing perspective, the front-ending of problem loans recognition and provisioning requirement has up fronted the capital requirements of the Indian public banks. PSBs are facing balance sheet problems because of mounting bad loans. They have gross non-performing assets of about Rs 3.7 lakh crore at end of December.

Government has planned to infuse Rs 70,000 crore in PSBs over four years ending March 2019, of this Rs 25,000 crore each would come in 2015-16 and 2016-17 and infusion of Rs 10,000 crore for each of 2017-18 and 2018-19 fiscals. The capital infusion roadmap indicates that the overall capital requirements of the banks over the four-year period would be total Rs 1.80 lakh crore. The remaining Rs 1.10 lakh crore is to be raised by PSBs from the markets.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7867.25, up by 12.20 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 7822.55 and 7868.75. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 4.22%, Indusind Bank up by 3.14%, Idea Cellular up by 2.96%, Bank Of Baroda up by 2.19% and BHEL up by 1.87%. On the flip side, Adani Ports &Special down by 1.32%, ICICI Bank down by 1.17%, HCL Tech. down by 1.04%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.98% and Bajaj Auto down by 0.98% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 145.09 points or 0.68% to 21,159.35, Nikkei 225 decreased 107.01 points or 0.61% to 17,332.29, Jakarta Composite decreased 73.4 points or 1.5% to 4,805.46, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 12.43 points or 0.72% to 1,702.08 and Shanghai Composite decreased 4.62 points or 0.16% to 2,942.05, while KOSPI Index increased 5.08 points or 0.25% to 2,019.63 and Taiwan Weighted increased 21.29 points or 0.25% to 8,581.57.