Sensex, Nifty continue to trade in positive terrain

Indian stock markets continued to trade in positive terrain in the early noon session due to buying in Consumer Durables, Energy and Healthcare stocks. Buying in frontline stocks such as ONGC, Yes Bank, and Reliance Industries were aiding sentiment, while selling in NTPC, Tata Steel and TCS kept the gains in the markets in check. Investors took support as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is set to inject long-term liquidity worth USD 5 billion into the banking system through dollar-rupee buy-sell swap for a tenure of three years, the second such auction within a month. The RBI’s dollar-rupee swap auction would help absorb dollar inflows that could make the rupee stronger. However gains remain limited as the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) in its latest payroll data has showed that job creation declined by 1.73% in February 2019 to 15.03 lakh as compared to 15.30 lakh in the same month last year. Meanwhile, The Finance Ministry has asked all departments to undertake a review of government guarantees given by respective ministries to their Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) or entities. The review should undertake aspects such as discharge of repayment obligations or interest obligations as per terms of the loan agreement and covenants and conditions met.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, as many markets reopened after the Easter long weekend break, while oil jumped to its highest this year as the US tightened sanctions on Iran. Back on the street, in scrip specific development, Reliance Industries edged higher as its telecom arm -- Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio) has been emerged as the fastest mobile network in terms of download speed during March.  

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 38713.71, up by 68.53 points or 0.18% after trading in a range of 38612.23 and 38832.61. There were 18 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.06%, while Small cap index was up by 0.03%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 0.99%, Energy up by 0.94%, Healthcare up by 0.57%, Realty up by 0.53% and FMCG was up by 0.35%, while Telecom down by 0.82%, Utilities down by 0.79%, Power down by 0.43%, Basic Materials down by 0.29%, Capital Goods was down by 0.24% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 1.46%, Yes Bank up by 1.43%, Reliance Industries up by 1.36%, Sun Pharma up by 1.29% and Hero MotoCorp was up by 1.19%. On the flip side, NTPC down by 1.25%, Tata Steel down by 1.18%, TCS down by 1.14%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.13% and Bharti Airtel was down by 1.05% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in its latest data has indicated that domestic air passenger traffic continued to grow in March 2019, but almost flat at 0.14 percent, mainly due to the huge capacity reduction following Jet Airways' troubles in the month. It noted that the cumulative traffic of 11 domestic carriers stood at 11.59 million in March 2019 as compared to 11.58 million passengers in the same period of last fiscal.

According to the data, the flat growth in traffic is a big setback to the industry which had been clipping at over 20 percent for more than four years in a row. It also stated that after a record run-rate in high double digits, traffic has been on a lower altitude in January when it grew 9.1 percent, first single digit growth in four years, and lost the momentum further in February when the incremental growth was capped at a low 5.62 percent.

DGCA has said that the disappointing March numbers can most be attributed to the troubles that Jet had been facing and the resultant spike in ticket prices across other airlines. However, it highlighted that domestic air passenger volume grew 14.27 percent to 126.77 million in fiscal 2019 over the previous year, even as March posted the lowest growth rate in many years. It added that in FY18, the passenger volume had clipped at a higher 18.3 percent to 108.68 million.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11614.00, up by 19.55 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 11582.95 and 11645.95. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Zee Entertainment up by 5.71%, Yes Bank up by 1.62%, ONGC up by 1.42%, Indiabulls Housing up by 1.39% and Reliance Industries was up by 1.37%. On the flip side, GAIL India down by 1.99%, NTPC down by 1.47%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.23%, Bharti Infratel down by 1.13% and BPCL was down by 1.12% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Hang Seng increased 66.98 points or 0.22% to 30,030.24, KOSPI rose 5.06 points or 0.23% to 2,221.71, Jakarta Composite soared 44.12 points or 0.69% to 6,458.86, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 19.17 points or 0.17% to 11,006.88 and Nikkei 225 was up by 35.38 points or 0.16% to 22,253.28.

On the other hand, Shanghai Composite declined 5.42 points or 0.17% to 3,209.62 and Straits Times was down by 5.02 points or 0.15% to 3,352.68.