Bourses extend upward rally; metal stocks shine

Indian equity benchmarks extended their upward rally in late afternoon session, despite weak cues from European markets. Gains led by Metal, Realty and Auto stocks along with firm broader markets, provided support to the markets. Further, Tata Motors emerged as the top gainer among all industry leaders on the BSE in late noon deals. The market participants were optimistic with Former Niti Aayog vice chairman Arvind Panagariya’s statement that the Modi government has achieved 'major successes' in social sector programmes like Ayushmaan Bharat, PM-Kisan and rural electrification. Besides, he added that this government has made an 'unprecedented progress' in tackling corruption. Traders overlooked rising inflation data reports. India’s Wholesale price index (WPI) inflation has come in at 3.18 percent in the month of March as compared to 2.93 percent (provisional) for the previous month, while India's retail inflation, measured in Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased to 2.86 percent in March 2019 as compared to 2.57 percent in February 2019.

On the global front, European markets were trading in red, as Eurozone's industrial production fell in February after rising in the previous month. The figures from the statistical office showed that industrial production fell 0.2 percent month-on-month in February, reversing a 1.9 percent rise in January. The latest decline was driven by 3.0 percent fall in energy production, followed by a 0.4 percent decline in the output of durable consumer goods and capital goods each and a 0.1 percent drop in manufacture of intermediate goods. Asian markets were trading in green, amid easing concerns about a slowdown in global growth and on hopes for a US-China trade deal. Strong Chinese exports as well as bank loan data helped ease investor worries over slowing global growth.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 38944.15, up by 177.04 points or 0.46% after trading in a range of 38780.08 and 38976.58. There were 24 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.58%, while Small cap index was up by 0.74%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.37%, Realty up by 1.67%, Auto up by 1.38%, Basic Materials up by 1.19% and Industrials up by 0.95%, while Oil & Gas down by 0.37% was the lone losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors - DVR up by 6.52%, Tata Motors up by 5.72%, TCS up by 4.53%, Coal India up by 4.11% and Tata Steel up by 3.43%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 3.00%, Sun Pharma down by 1.14%, ONGC down by 0.76%, Yes Bank down by 0.62% and HDFC down by 0.23% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India's retail inflation, measured in Consumer Price Index (CPI), has continued rising trend for second straight month and increased marginally to 2.86% in March 2019 as compared to 2.57% in February 2019, on account of increase in prices of food articles and fuel. On yearly basis, it was 4.28% in March 2018. Though, retail inflation remains well within the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) comfort level of 4% for about eight months now, coming down from 4.17% in July 2018. Besides, inflation in food basket rose to 0.30% in March from (-) 0.73% in the previous month.

As per the data of the Central Statistics Office (CSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme, the CPI (Rural, Urban, Combined) on Base2012=100 for March 2019, stood at 1.80%, 4.10% and 2.86% respectively, compared to 4.44%, 4.12% and 4.28%, respectively in March 2018. The index value of CPI for combined stood at 140.4. The data also showed that CFPI for all India Rural and Urban for March 2019 stood at (-) 1.46% and 3.47%, respectively, compared to 3.71% and 1.22%, respectively in March 2018. The index value of CFPI for combined stood at 135.9 for the month of March.

The rate of price rise was higher in 'fuel and light' category. The inflation in the segment rose to 2.42% as against 1.24% in February. Besides, the inflation for housing eased to 4.93%, while that for miscellaneous items also fell to 5.68% in March 2019. Within the miscellaneous items, the inflation for personal care and effects declined to 4.06%, education 7.58%, household goods and services 6.05% and transport and communication 2.98%, while it rose for recreation and amusement to 5.60% and health 8.86% in March 2019. The inflation for clothing and footwear declined to 2.59%, while the CPI inflation of fuel and light increased to 2.42% in March 2019.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11691.65, up by 48.20 points or 0.41% after trading in a range of 11648.25 and 11704.60. There were 34 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining, while 1 remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 5.88%, TCS up by 4.57%, Coal India up by 3.65%, Tata Steel up by 3.59% and Hero MotoCorp up by 2.47%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 3.00%, Sun Pharma down by 1.29%, GAIL India down by 1.11%, Bharti Infratel down by 0.89% and Indian Oil Corporation down by 0.84% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 298.55 points or 1.37% to 22,169.11, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 70.30 points or 0.65% to 10,875.60, Jakarta Composite soared 28.28 points or 0.44% to 6,434.15 and KOSPI rose 9.43 points or 0.42% to 2,242.88. On the flip side, Straits Times trembled 2.82 points or 0.08% to 3,329.16, Hang Seng was down by 99.04 points or 0.33% to 29,810.72 and Shanghai Composite was down by 10.84 points or 0.34% to 3,177.79.

European markets were trading mostly in red; UK’s FTSE 100 fell 4.45 points or 0.06% to 7,432.61 and Germany’s DAX decreased 4.51 points or 0.04% to 11,995.42. On the flip side, France’s CAC was up by 2.38 points or 0.04% to 5,505.08.