Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity benchmarks rose for third day in a row on Monday, as information technology, metal, auto and realty shares witnessed buying interest, tracking advances in Asian peers. Markets started off with marginal gains, on the back of better-than-expected earnings from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys. Further, markets added some more points with report that foreign investors have pumped in a net sum of Rs 11,096 crore into the Indian capital markets in April so far, driven by global and domestic factors. Foreign portfolio investors (FPI) were net buyers for the previous two months as well, infusing a net sum of Rs 11,182 crore in February and Rs 45,981 crore in March. Markets hold on to the gains in afternoon trade, as traders remained optimistic with a private report that financing deals for Indian infrastructure projects are surging on market expectations that the next government will come through with at least some of the spending that politicians are promising now during a heated election campaign.

Key indices extended their upward momentum in late afternoon session, taking support from Former Niti Aayog vice chairman Arvind Panagariya’s statement that the government has achieved 'major successes' in social sector programmes like Ayushmaan Bharat, PM-Kisan and rural electrification. Besides, this government has made an 'unprecedented progress' in tackling corruption. However, further up-ward move got restricted as some anxiety spread among the traders with data showing that India's retail inflation saw a marginal rise of 2.86% in March on account of increase in prices of food articles and fuel. Also, industrial growth fell to its lowest in 20 months in February, barely rising from a year ago as manufacturing contracted following muted consumer demand, and public investment slowed toward the fiscal year-end.

On the global front, Asian markets ended mostly in green on Monday, while European markets were trading in green, as hopes that Sino-US trade talks could be nearing their final stages and strong Chinese economic data eased worries over the global economy, but domestic trade tensions kept a lid on advances. Back home, the BSE Sensex ended at 38910.26, up by 143.15 points or 0.37% after trading in a range of 38780.08 and 38976.58. There were 19 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.51%, while Small cap index was up by 0.63%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.27%, Realty up by 1.58%, Auto up by 1.47%, Basic Materials up by 1.22% and Industrials up by 0.87%, while Oil & Gas down by 0.48%, Energy down by 0.04% and Consumer Durables down by 0.03% were the few losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors - DVR up by 7.54%, Tata Motors up by 7.16%, TCS up by 4.83%, Coal India up by 4.19% and Tata Steel up by 3.42%. (Provisional)

On the flip side, Infosys down by 2.86%, Sun Pharma down by 1.28%, Yes Bank down by 1.06%, ONGC down by 0.98% and HDFC down by 0.70% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, in order to deal with poverty and other challenges, Reserve Bank of India ( RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das said the expansion of the India , world’s fastest-growing major economy, needs to pick up to around 8 percent. The Governor stated  that while the past few years’ average growth of around 7.5 percent was impressive, ‘the expectation is India can be better’. He also added more structural reforms were needed in areas such as land and labor.

He is expecting that India will post real economic growth of 7.2 percent in current financial year (FY20) and is seeing below-target inflation even as rising oil prices add an upside risk. Still, he added that the inflationary impact from spikes in crude -- India’s biggest import -- can be exaggerated. He further underlined ‘if there is a temporary spike of oil prices and again it comes down, then obviously the impact gets moderated. Any sustained increase in crude prices will definitely have an impact on inflation, but we have to see how sustained it is’.

Higher oil prices over the longer term may hurt India’s growth as well as its current account deficit, factors which would drag the rupee down. The recent oil spike is occurring against a backdrop of consumption suffering from a crisis in the shadow banking sector and exports stagnating amid a global slowdown -- all of which has seen India’s growth prospects dim.

The CNX Nifty ended at 11690.65, up by 47.20 points or 0.41% after trading in a range of 11648.25 and 11704.60. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 7.46%, TCS up by 4.94%, Coal India up by 3.82%, Tata Steel up by 3.68% and Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 2.52%. (Provisional)

On the flip side, Infosys down by 2.69%, Bharti Infratel down by 1.94%, Sun Pharma down by 1.39%, ONGC down by 0.92% and GAIL India down by 0.84% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 5.25 points or 0.07% to 7,442.31, France’s CAC increased 7.18 points or 0.13% to 5,509.88 and Germany’s DAX increased 7.90 points or 0.07% to 12,007.83.

Asian markets gave up most of their early gains but managed to end mostly higher on Monday as investors looked for further signs of a pick-up in global growth and progress in US-China trade talks. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he hoped US-China trade talks were approaching their final lap. Besides, easing fears of a slowdown in global growth on signs of stabilization in the Chinese economy further boosted investor sentiment. Meanwhile, Chinese data showing exports rebounded in March to a five-month high while new bank loans jumped by far more than expected. Japanese shares hit a four-month high, with sentiment lifted by a weaker yen and positive cues from global markets. However, Chinese shares gave up early gains to end lower.