Bourses continue to trade higher in afternoon deals

Key benchmark indices continued to trade higher in afternoon session after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that India has emerged as a Space Power today; till now only US, Russia and China have achieved this; now India is the 4th country to achieve this feat. He added that, “we have enough satellites that are contributing in various segments such as agriculture, disaster management, communication, weather, navigation etc.” Moreover, India has successfully targeted a live satellite, anti-satellite weapon A-SAT, on a low Earth orbit. Mission Shakti took three minutes to complete. The PM added “our aim is to maintain peace over war mongering.”

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed, as fear of a worsening global economic outlook lingers. Back home, Aviation stocks remained in focus with private report that the turbulence at Jet Airways seems to have had an adverse impact on the growth in air passenger traffic in the county. The number of passengers travelling through domestic airways in February stood at 11.34 million, a 5.6% year-on-year (y-o- y) increase, the slowest pace of growth in a month in five years.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 38438.02, up by 204.61 points or 0.54% after trading in a range of 38301.57 and 38475.93. There were 19 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.85%, while Small cap index was up by 0.33%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 0.84%, FMCG up by 0.58%, Metal up by 0.38%, Basic Materials up by 0.33% and PSU up by 0.30%, while Energy down by 0.26%, Healthcare down by 0.09%, Oil & Gas down by 0.08%, Consumer Disc down by 0.01% and Realty down by 0.01% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Yes Bank up by 4.08%, Indusind Bank up by 3.85%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.42%, SBI up by 1.32% and ONGC up by 1.19%. On the flip side, Tata Motors - DVR down by 1.28%, Asian Paints down by 1.04%, ICICI Bank down by 0.58%, Tata Steel down by 0.51% and Tata Motors down by 0.46% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan has said that India needs to focus on alleviating farm distress rather than loan waivers which kill the credit culture. He also said that the top priority for the country should be of creating jobs.

Rajan said ‘I would say that one is start creating those jobs people want. Take care of the distress, but whatever measures you put, put them as a pathway for people to get those jobs rather than standing in the way of getting those jobs...We can talk about the economic reforms that are needed, but jobs are task one.’ He also stated that several state governments have announced the farm loan waivers. Referring to the issue of farm distress, he said loan waivers cover only those farmers who have taken loans from the formal system.

Former RBI governor said ‘I do worry about waiving loans because it only targeted to those farmers who have taken loans from the system, not the poorer farmers who have loans from the money lenders or an agricultural worker who never got a loan in the first place. So I would rather have a better-targeted system.’ He also said ‘That is why I have always said that farm loan waivers are problematic and various bankers have also opined that it kills the credit culture. It's very difficult to lend to those people once again. So they also suffer in credit down the line even though they may get some short-run benefit. So those are my objections.’

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11539.75, up by 56.50 points or 0.49% after trading in a range of 11496.90 and 11546.20. There were 33 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Yes Bank up by 4.43%, Indusind Bank up by 4.16%, Indiabulls Housing Finance up by 3.56%, JSW Steel up by 2.13% and SBI up by 1.88%. On the flip side, HPCL down by 1.34%, Eicher Motors down by 1.18%, Asian Paints down by 0.89%, NTPC down by 0.75% and Tech Mahindra down by 0.72% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Nikkei 225 slipped 49.66 points or 0.23% to 21,378.73, Jakarta Composite dropped 12.00 points or 0.19% to 6,458.00, Taiwan Weighted dropped 16.50 points or 0.16% to 10,542.70 and KOSPI fell 3.18 points or 0.15% to 2,145.62. On the flip side, Straits Times advanced 9.87 points or 0.31% to 3,210.15, Shanghai Composite gained 13.18 points or 0.44% to 3,010.28 and Hang Seng increased 175.67 points or 0.61% to 28,742.58.