Bourses near day’s high points

Extending their gains, Indian bourses reached near their intraday high points in late afternoon session, on the back of firm opening in European markets. Heavy buying in PSU, Auto and Basic Materials stocks helped the markets to achieve further rally in late noon deals, while Tata Motors emerged as the top gainer among all the industry players on the BSE. Optimism remained among the market participants, on the back of positive data of Services PMI. India’s services sector gathered momentum in the month of February, with a quicker expansion in new work supporting a faster increase in output and solid job creation. As per the survey report, the seasonally adjusted Nikkei Services Business Activity Index rose to 52.5 in February from 52.2 in January. Further, the Nikkei India Composite PMI Output Index -- which measures both manufacturing and services -- also surged to 53.8 in February as against 53.6 in January.

On the sectoral front, textile sector stocks were trading higher, after Union Textiles Minister, Smriti Zubin Irani, inaugurated the renovated Handloom Haat in New Delhi. Its main objective is to provide infrastructure support to handloom agencies to augment their sales of handloom products and to showcase the exquisite variety of handloom products produced all over the country. Stocks related to the tea industry came under pressure, with Tea Board data showing that tea production saw a decline across the country during January at 13.96 million kg as against 17.68 million kg in the corresponding period a year ago.

On the global front, European markets were trading in green, as Eurozone investor confidence improved in March. The survey data from Sentix showed that the investor confidence index for the euro area improved to -2.2 in March from -3.7 in February. Besides, Germany's unemployment declined sharply in February, while retail sales rebounded strongly in January, both surpassing economists' expectations by wide margins, suggesting that the growth in the biggest euro area economy is set to be driven by private consumption as exports suffer due to global factors. As per the figures from the Federal Labor Agency, the seasonally adjusted number of unemployed fell by 21,000 in February. However, Asian markets were trading in red, after China lowered its economic growth target for this year and warned of further turbulence in the global economy. China cut its GDP growth target for 2019 to 6.0 percent from 6.5 percent and warned of tough challenges from rising debt and a trade dispute with the US.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36325.52, up by 261.71 points or 0.73% after trading in a range of 35926.94 and 36335.61. There were 26 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.89%, while Small cap index was up by 2.78%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were PSU up by 2.64%, Auto up by 2.52%, Basic Materials up by 2.41%, Oil & Gas up by 2.36% and Metal up by 2.19%, while IT down by 0.74% and TECK down by 0.60% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 7.91%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 6.88%, Hero MotoCorp up by 3.50%, Coal India up by 3.42% and Axis Bank up by 3.40%. On the flip side, Larsen & Toubro down by 0.94%, Infosys down by 0.92%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.73%, TCS down by 0.47% and HDFC down by 0.03% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, after showing slowdown in activity during the previous month, India’s services sector gathered momentum in the month of February, with a quicker expansion in new work supporting a faster increase in output and solid job creation. As per the survey report, the seasonally adjusted Nikkei Services Business Activity Index rose to 52.5 in February from 52.2 in January. Further, the Nikkei India Composite PMI Output Index -- which measures both manufacturing and services – also surged to 53.8 in February as against 53.6 in January.

The survey report found that new business received by services companies grew to a greater extent in February, on the back of strengthening underlying demand along with marketing efforts. Besides, the upturn in services new work was domestically driven, as highlighted by a renewed contraction in external sales. The report also noted that service sector jobs expanded at the same solid rate that was registered at the start of 2019. However, services firms indicated that higher workloads reflected delayed client payments. The rise in backlogs was the quickest in 16 months and outpaced that seen in the manufacturing economy.

On the price front, input prices ticked higher during February, with a number of service providers indicating greater fuel costs. Moreover, the pass-through of additional cost burdens to clients resulted in a further increase in services fees, the twenty-fifth in as many months. However, the rate of charge inflation moderated to the joint-weakest over this period.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10949.55, up by 86.05 points or 0.79% after trading in a range of 10817.00 and 10951.55. There were 39 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 7.99%, Indiabulls Housing Finance up by 6.70%, Eicher Motors up by 6.41%, HPCL up by 5.97% and Indian Oil Corporation up by 3.78%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 2.58%, Wipro down by 1.80%, Infosys down by 1.08%, Larsen & Toubro down by 0.89% and Zee Entertainment down by 0.77% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 95.76 points or 0.44% to 21,726.28, Jakarta Composite dropped 47.14 points or 0.73% to 6,441.28, Taiwan Weighted dropped 44.62 points or 0.43% to 10,305.26, Straits Times trembled 16.15 points or 0.5% to 3,234.93 and KOSPI fell 11.43 points or 0.52% to 2,179.23. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite gained 26.61 points or 0.88% to 3,054.19 and Hang Seng was up by 2.01 points or 0.01% to 28,961.60.

All European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 gained 23.21 points or 0.33% to 7,157.60, Germany’s DAX added 22.68 points or 0.20% to 11,615.34 and France’s CAC was up by 7.50 points or 0.14% to 5,294.07.