D-Street extends gains for third straight session; Nifty ends above 9150 mark

The final day of March series F&O expiry turned out to be a good session for the Indian equity indices as they managed to settle with gains of over quarter a percent. Sentiments were buoyant after Lok Sabha passed 4 GST-related laws, marking another step towards the rollout of the single national tax on July 1. The unified tax regime is expected to boost economic growth by about 0.5 percentage points in its first year of implementation. While the model law is available, few fundamental aspects, such as the states where tax has to be paid by service providers having multiple offices, treatment of current excise incentives, offset of tax already paid on transition stock, etc, are still unclear. The four bills, passed by the lower house, would now be presented before the upper house of parliament. Further, inventors got some confidence with Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal's statement that the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code is a key economic reform that will facilitate the ease of doing business. The code provides for a market determined, time-bound mechanism for orderly resolution of insolvency, wherever possible, and ease of exit, wherever required. Meanwhile, Aviation stocks gained traction after India's Minister of State for Aviation Jayant Sinha said the government will provide Rs 2.05 billion ($31.57 million) financial support to boost airline travel between smaller cities. Further, some auto stocks including Hero MotoCorp recovered from steep losses after the country's top court banned sale of new vehicles with older Euro III fuel technology from April 1. A bench of justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta on Wednesday said that health of millions of citizens was more important that commercial interests of manufacturers and directed the government not allow registration of polluting BS-III vehicles after March 31.

On the global front, Asian stock markets ended mostly lower on Thursday, led by a slide in Chinese shares on investor concerns about liquidity. China's central bank refrained from open market operations for a fifth straight day, effectively siphoning money from the banking system. Further, Japanese shares ended sharply lower, dragged down by financials after US Treasury yields fell on reports that ECB officials are wary of altering their dovish message before June. Meanwhile, European markets were trading mixed in early trade as investors mulled implications of Britain formally beginning the process of leaving the European Union. The reaction to Britain formally triggering the Brexit process on Wednesday was fairly muted from European shares, with the FTSE 100 index also ending higher as sterling weakened. As Britain embarked on a path of tough negotiations, all eyes turned to the government's White Paper, in which it will set out plans to convert European Union laws into domestic legislation.

Back home, after getting a positive start, the local benchmarks traded in tight range for most part of the session and ended the session with moderate gains. Finally, the NSE's 50-share broadly followed index Nifty, got buttressed by over quarter a percent to settle above the crucial 9,150 support level, while Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensitive Index- Sensex accumulated over one hundred points and closed above the psychological 29,600 mark. Moreover, broader markets managed a touch better than the larger peers as the BSE's midcap and smallcap indices settled with gains of 0.39% and 0.95% respectively. The market breadth remained optimistic, as there were 1739 shares on the gaining side against 984 shares on the losing side, while 232 shares remained unchanged.

Finally, the BSE Sensex surged 115.99 points or 0.39% to 29647.42, while the CNX Nifty was up by 29.95 points or 0.33% to 9,173.75.

The BSE Sensex touched a high and a low of 29684.54 and 29521.65, respectively and there were 15 stocks on gainers side as against 15 stocks on the losers side on the index.

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained by 0.39%, while Small cap index was up by 0.95%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.17%, Consumer Durables up by 1.38%, Bankex up by 0.82%, Telecom up by 0.81% and Industrials up by 0.79%, while Metal down by 0.26%, IT down by 0.23%, TECK down by 0.08% and PSU down by 0.07% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Adani Ports & SEZ up by 5.77%, HDFC Bank up by 2.51%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.67%, GAIL India up by 1.27% and Reliance Industries up by 1.17%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 1.34%, Coal India down by 1.33%, Tata Steel down by 1.08%, Axis Bank down by 0.97% and Infosys down by 0.66% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Power Ministry has said that India has turned around from a net importer of electricity to net exporter of electricity for the first time. According to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), the Designated Authority of Government of India for Cross Border Trade of Electricity, during April-February 2017, the country has exported around 5,798 million units to Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar, which is 213 million units more than the import of around 5,585 million units from Bhutan. Also, in the last three years, export to Nepal and Bangladesh increased 2.5 and 2.8 times respectively.

As per the report, ever since the cross border trade of electricity started in mid-Eighties, India has been importing electricity from Bhutan and marginally exporting to Nepal in radial mode at 33 kV and 132 kV from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. It also said that on an average Bhutan has been supplying around 5,000- 5500 Million units to India. It added that India had also been exporting around 190 MW power to Nepal over 12 cross border interconnections at 11kV, 33kV and 132 kV level.

The report highlighted that India’s power exports to Nepal has further increased by around 145 MW with the commissioning of the Muzaffarpur (India) - Dhalkhebar (Nepal) 400kV line (being operated at 132 kV) in 2016. It also noted that, in September 2013, India’s export of power to Bangladesh got a further boost with the commissioning of the first cross border interconnection between Baharampur in India and Bheramara in Bangladesh at 400kV.

According to the report, export of power to Nepal is expected to increase by around 145 MW shortly over 132 kV Katiya (Bihar) - Kusaha (Nepal) and 132 kV Raxaul (Bihar) - Parwanipur (Nepal).  Moreover, a few more cross border links with neighbouring countries are in pipe line which would further increase export of Power.

The CNX Nifty traded in a range of 9,183.15 and 9,136.35. There were 23 stocks in green as against 28 stocks in red on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Ports & SEZ up by 6.23%, Eicher Motors up by 2.65%, Gail up by 2.32%, HDFC Bank up by 2.20% and IndusInd Bank up by 2.05%. On the flip side, IDEA down by 1.80%, BHEL down by 1.64%, Coal India down by 1.53%, Bosch down by 1.51% and Tata Steel down by 1.42% were the top losers.

The European markets were trading mostly in red; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 2.28 points or 0.03% to 7,371.44, France’s CAC decreased 1 point or 0.02% to 5,068.04, while Germany’s DAX increased 13.64 points or 0.11% to 12,216.64.

Asian equity markets ended mostly in red on Thursday as oil prices dipped after two days of gains and investors assessed the possible effects of a hard Brexit as the UK began the formal process of exiting the European Union. Chinese stocks led regional losses to extend the downtrend for a fourth day on concerns over tightening liquidity and stepped-up regulation in the property market. Further, Japanese shares ended sharply lower, dragged down by financials after US Treasury yields fell on reports that ECB officials are wary of altering their dovish message before June. The Japanese yen was flat after comments from Federal Reserve officials suggested that the Fed is on track to raise interest rates twice more this year.