Bourses maintain upbeat mood in afternoon deals

Indian equity indices maintained their upbeat mood in afternoon session, tracking positive cues from other Asian markets amid heavy buying by domestic institutional investors. Sentiments remained up-beat with Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian’s statement that inflation has remained well under control during the Modi government’s tenure, providing relief to the middle class and the poor. Low prices, strong monetary policy framework by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and economic reforms have boosted the domestic consumption in the country. Local investors also cheered with the RBI’s data showing that India's foreign exchange reserves continued to surge for the third week in a row, adding $1.029 billion at $406.667 billion in the week to March 22. Meanwhile, the government has notified a new Indian Accounting Standard (Ind AS) 116 that will bring in more transparency in recognition and disclosures about leases in companies' balance sheets. On the sectoral front, stocks related to Media & Entertainment sector traded higher with a joint study by ASSOCHAM-PwC stating that India is expected to be among the top-10 entertainment and media markets globally by 2021 in terms of absolute numbers. It also noted that the country's per capita media and entertainment spending is likely to be capped at $32 or Rs 2,080 by 2021.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green, after encouraging economic news from China. China’s official purchasing managers index showed that the country’s manufacturing sector rebounded strongly in March, to a six-month high of 50.5, from 49.2 in February. Later, the private Caixin China manufacturing purchasing managers index rose to 50.8 in March from 49.9 in February, expanding for the first time in four months. The readings helped ease worries that the world’s second-largest economy was significantly slowing down.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 38938.70, up by 265.79 points or 0.69% after trading in a range of 38844.81 and 39028.67. There were 22 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.91%, while Small cap index was up by 1.25%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 3.38%, Basic Materials up by 2.05%, Industrials up by 1.51%, IT up by 1.40% and Auto up by 1.38%, while Realty down by 0.33% was the lone losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors - DVR up by 6.64%, Tata Motors up by 6.14%, Vedanta up by 4.54%, Tata Steel up by 4.15% and Bharti Airtel was up by 2.07%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 1.75%, ONGC down by 0.85%, HDFC down by 0.73%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.51% and Hindustan Unilever was down by 0.43% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg has said that the central government will borrow Rs 4.42 lakh crore from the market in the first half of the 2019-20 fiscal (H1 FY20). As per the Union Budget, the gross borrowing was pegged at Rs 7.1 lakh crore for 2019-20, higher than Rs 5.71 lakh crore estimated for the ongoing fiscal. He also said that the remaining Rs 2.68 lakh crore or 37.7 percent of the total gross borrowing would be raised from the markets by floating government bonds and treasury bills during the October-March period.

Besides, net borrowing would be Rs 3.40 lakh crore in the first half (April-September) and in the second half it would be lower at Rs 1.33 lakh crore. Garg has stated that the gross borrowing is higher because of the repayment programme. He also noted that gross borrowing amount is also used towards repayments of past loans.

Adding further, he said that the government will stick to the fiscal deficit target of 3.4 percent of the GDP for the current fiscal. He informed the government would be introducing a new benchmark of 7 years for dated securities. He also said “You would recall in the current financial year we had introduced two new benchmarks of two-year security and five-year security. Now there will be 7-year security also. So we complete the yield curve.” In the interim Budget in February, the government had proposed to restrict the fiscal deficit at 3.4 per cent of the GDP in the next fiscal beginning February 1.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11691.35, up by 67.45 points or 0.58% after trading in a range of 11664.60 and 11715.65. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 6.11%, Hindalco up by 5.79%, Vedanta up by 4.31%, Tata Steel up by 4.15% and GAIL India was up by 2.98%. On the flip side, Indian Oil Corporation down by 2.92%, Indusind Bank down by 1.62%, UPL down by 1.50%, Titan down by 1.48% and Zee Entertainment down was by 1.36% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green; Hang Seng increased 498.38 points or 1.72% to 29,549.74, Nikkei 225 surged 303.22 points or 1.43% to 21,509.03, Shanghai Composite gained 77.37 points or 2.5% to 3,168.13, KOSPI rose 27.61 points or 1.29% to 2,168.28, Straits Times advanced 28.68 points or 0.89% to 3,241.56, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 1.59 points or 0.01% to 10,642.63 and Jakarta Composite was up by 2.70 points or 0.04% to 6,471.46.