Benchmarks trade in fine fettle in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks made an optimistic start and are trading mostly in green in early deals with frontline gauges recapturing their crucial 34,400 (Sensex) and 10,550 (Nifty) levels. Traders took some encouragement with International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) statement that the debt level is relatively high in India, but the authorities are planning to bring it down over the medium term with the right policies. In fiscal year 2017-18, India is planning to continue with the consolidation in the current fiscal year and over the medium term. Traders shrugged off former finance minister P Chidambaram’s statement that the ghost of demonetisation has come back to haunt the government and alleged that the Rs 2,000 notes were printed only to help hoarders. In the wake of cash crunch in some parts of the country, he also said there was a possibility that people have lost confidence in the banking system due to the bank scams and they were not putting their surplus money into the banks.

Global cues remained supportive with Asian markets are rallying at this point of time with oil prices at three and a half year highs helping to boost sentiment for the region’s equities. The US markets ended mostly higher on Wednesday after the Fed said economic activity continued to expand at a modest to moderate pace across the twelve districts in March and early April. It also said the economic outlooks remains positive but noted contacts in various sectors.

Back home, export related stocks remained buzzing after Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu exporters of taking up the issue of GST refund with the finance ministry and said he plans to call a ministerial meeting to discuss export related issues. In scrip specific developments, Sun Pharma gained on arm hiking stake in Ranbaxy Malaysia and Lemon Tree Hotels surged on strengthening presence in Uttarakhand.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 34418.35, up by 86.67 points or 0.25% after trading in a range of 34395.68 and 34478.82. There were 23 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.40%, while Small cap index was up by 0.35%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.28%, Basic Materials up by 1.44%, Realty up by 0.86%, TECK up by 0.63% and IT was up by 0.60%, while Oil & Gas down by 0.81%, Consumer Durables down by 0.69%, PSU down by 0.28% and Energy was down by 0.26% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 1.93%, Tata Steel up by 1.34%, Adani Ports up by 1.01%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.01% and Indusind Bank up by 0.94%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 0.94%, Wipro down by 0.58%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.30%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.16% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.13% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has indicated that the Indian airlines have registered 28.03% growth in domestic passengers during the month of March. It noted that in March 2018, domestic airlines flew 1.15 crore passengers compared to 90.45 lakh passengers flown during the corresponding month last year. Moreover, passengers carried by the domestic airlines between January and March this year also saw a growth of 23.87 percent as compared to the same period last year.

According to the data, the SpiceJet continued to maintain its pole position on the load factor front by flying its planes 95% seats full, followed by IndiGo, which flew its planes with 89% seats full. Vistara came third by flying its planes with 88.2% seats full. Besides, IndiGo pipped SpiceJet on 'on-time performance' at 84.1%. SpiceJet was at 83.9 percent and the Vistara closely following at 83 percent. The on-time performance of disinvestment-bound Air India improved from 68.8 percent in March to 76.5 percent. The performance was computed based on data from Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad airports.

The DGCA further revealed that IndiGo led the industry with the highest market share of 39.5%, followed by Jet Airways (15%) and Air India (13.4%). However, the overall cancellation of the airlines stood at 1.38 percent, higher than 0.89 percent in February. While 80.25 percent of the Air Deccan flights remained cancelled in March, Vistara on the other hand reported zero cancellations. More than 60.5 percent of the cancellations were due to technical reasons. During this period, about 657 passenger-related complaints were received. They ranged from flight problem to baggage and customer services.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10560.20, up by 34.00 points or 0.32% after trading in a range of 10549.15 and 10568.90. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 4.61%, Vedanta up by 3.74%, Tata Steel up by 1.85%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.74% and ONGC up by 1.70%. On the flip side, HPCL down by 3.97%, BPCL down by 3.91%, Indian Oil Corporation down by 2.55%, Titan down by 1.48% and Axis Bank down by 1.16% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index rose 7.95 points or 0.32% to 2,487.93, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI gained 8.12 points or 0.43% to 1,887.44, Jakarta Composite increased 14.22 points or 0.22% to 6,334.22, Shanghai Composite jumped 30.12 points or 0.97% to 3,121.51, Nikkei 225 added 90.99 points or 0.41% to 22,249.19, Taiwan Weighted surged 118.96 points or 1.1% to 10,966.85 and Hang Seng was up by 388.04 points or 1.28% to 30,672.29.