Markets pare early gains after making a positive opening

After making a positive start the benchmarks have pared their initial gains but are managing to remain in green terrain, tracking positive global cues. The US markets ended higher on Friday, with the Dow snapping a three-day losing streak, while Asian markets too were trading mostly in green following the positive lead from Wall Street and European markets. On the domestic front, some support came in with a private report that India's net FDI flows are expected to rise further this fiscal to $38 billion on emergence of some “positive signs” such as regulatory easing in select sectors and reform measures initiated by the government. Net FDI flows in 2015-2016 stood at around $36 billion as against $31 billion for 2014-2015.  Besides, rupee opened higher against the dollar on Monday and was trading at 66.28, up 16 paise at the Interbank Foreign Exchange that too kept supporting the sentiment. However, upside remained capped with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan's statement that India should restrain itself from being “too ambitious” at a time when the world is full of uncertainties and instead focus on sensible policies to ensure a sustainable economic growth. Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) and foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth net Rs 372.25 crore during the week as per Sebi's record, including the provisional figure of May 20.  

In the scrip specific development, ITC surged over 7 per cent on the BSE after reporting a better-than-expected numbers for the quarter ended March 31, 2016 (Q4FY16).  ITC posted 5.7 per cent year-on-year growth in net profit at Rs 2,495 crore, on back of 9.5 percent year-on-year jump in net sales in Q4FY16. The operating profit margin (OPM) improved by 210 basis point year-on-year to 36.3 per cent.

Back Home, on the sectoral front FMCG witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by Power, Metal, Banking and Capital Goods, while IT, TECK and Oil & Gas remained the losers. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 929: 633 while 69 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25383.39, up by 81.49 points or 0.32% after trading in a range of 25371.52 and 25519.26. There were 14 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.01%, while Small cap index gained 0.38%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 2.16%, Power up by 0.52%, Metal up by 0.52%, Bankex up by 0.20% and Capital Goods up by 0.18%, while IT down by 0.47%, TECK down by 0.29% and Oil & Gas down by 0.14% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC up by 5.30%, Adani Ports &Special up by 1.91%, ICICI Bank up by 0.82%, Lupin up by 0.75% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.73%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 0.93%, Infosys down by 0.76%, Cipla down by 0.73%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.65% and Wipro down by 0.64% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the domestic aviation industry has got another reason to cheer, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in its latest data release has said that the number of passengers flown by the Indian airlines witnessed a huge jump of 20.34 percent in the period January-December 2015 and stood at 81.09 million, compared to 67.38 million they had flown in same period last year.

The DGCA has further said that in the past four months of the current year (January-April) domestic passengers growth is 23 per cent at 30 million and expects that at this rate, it will cross 100 million domestic passengers by the end of this year which perhaps is the highest in the entire world.

The carriers collectively flew 7.93 million passengers, 21 percent more than 6.55 million passengers they carried in April 2015. IndiGo improved its market share to a fourth-month high of 38.7 in April. Air India improved its share to 15.1 percent in April from 14.7 percent in March, while SpiceJet saw its share go up marginally to 12.9 percent from 12.8 percent in the preceding month and Go Air witnessed a growth to 8.5 percent from 8.3 percent in the previous month. On the other hand, Jet Airways posted a decline to 15.9 percent in April from 17.6 percent in March. New airlines, Air Costa and Vistara saw a modest improvement while AirAsia India's share declined in April.

According to the DGCA data, passenger load factor (PLF) was recorded highest for SpiceJet of 93.2 percent, followed by Go Air's 87.8 percent and 85.8 percent of IndiGo. Air India improved its PLF to 78.9 percent from 75.7 percent in March.In absolute terms, IndiGo carried 3.06 million passengers in April, Jet Airways 1.26 million, Air India 1.20 million and SpiceJet 1.02 million passengers.

Air traffic has been posting more than 20 per cent growth over the past several months with travel demand in April surging to 20.93 per cent over the same month of 2015 driven by lower fares. According to the data from the country’s Ministry of Civil Aviation, the number of passengers carried by Indian airlines on domestic routes had reached 23 million in the first three months of the year, up 24.0% compared to the same period in 2015.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7771.55, up by 21.85 points or 0.28% after trading in a range of 7768.45 and 7820.60. There were 27 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ITC up by 5.16%, Adani Ports &Special up by 1.83%, Tata Power up by 1.73%, Power Grid Corpn. up by 1.24% and Bharti Infratel up by 1.21%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 1.04%, Infosys down by 1.00%, BPCL down by 0.76%, Wipro down by 0.70% and Sun Pharma Inds. down by 0.63% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 2.21 points or 0.14% to 1,631.00, KOSPI Index increased 4.18 points or 0.21% to 1,951.85, Shanghai Composite increased 14.79 points or 0.52% to 2,840.27, Jakarta Composite increased 25.29 points or 0.54% to 4,737.17, Hang Seng increased 50 points or 0.25% to 19,902.20, Taiwan Weighted increased 195.78 points or 2.41% to 8,327.04.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 decreased 182.37 points or 1.09% to 16,553.98.