Local equities trade in green in morning session

Local equity benchmarks are trading in green in morning session, with Sensex and Nifty garnering gains of around quarter a percent. Some enthusiasm came with RBI’s report which showed that bank credit rose by 14.19 percent to Rs 96.45 lakh crore while deposits grew 10.60 percent to Rs 125.30 lakh crore in the first fortnight ended on April 12. In the year ago fortnight, deposits were at Rs 113.29 lakh crore and advances stood at Rs 84.46 lakh crore. Traders also took some optimism with Governor Shaktikanta Das’ statement the central bank is also aligning its framework to help the market intermediaries provide financial access to the bottom- of-the-pyramid. However, gains remained capped as traders remain concerned with a report that the country's crude oil production fell over 4 per cent in the financial year 2018-19 after aging fields of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India (OIL) missed the target. Some cautiousness also came with Fitch Solutions’ report which stated that victory of opposition UPA alliance in the general elections could bring ‘considerable uncertainty’ to India’s policymaking environment and disappointment on oil and gas reforms. 

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, with investors remained cautions as global slowdown worries return to the fore, with traders pointing to an economic divergence between the US and the rest of the world. Back home, a report stated that the number of Indian companies investing in the UK registered a jump over the previous year despite the ongoing uncertainties around BREXIT.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 38791.49, up by 60.63 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 38765.33 and 38897.63. There were 18 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index slipped 0.14%, while Small cap index was down by 0.02%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.51%, Utilities up by 0.95%, Oil & Gas up by 0.93%, Basic Materials up by 0.80% and Healthcare was up by 0.70%, while Auto down by 0.86%, Consumer Disc down by 0.47%, Realty down by 0.38%, Consumer Durables down by 0.28%, Industrials down by 0.06% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 6.21%, Sun Pharma up by 1.17%, NTPC up by 1.13%, Axis Bank up by 1.11% and Power Grid was up by 1.07%. On the flip side, Tata Motors - DVR down by 1.95%, Tata Motors down by 1.85%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.43%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.41% and IndusInd Bank was down by 1.16% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the rating agency ICRA has said the completion of the second round of medium-term power purchase agreement (PPA) auctions along with the slightly higher tariffs discovered is positive for the independent power producers (IPPs). However, the agency said signing of sale agreements with discoms remains crucial. The Ministry of Power recently completed the reverse auction under the second scheme for procurement of 2.5 GW from operational coal-based power projects having no power purchase agreements for a period of three years.

ICRA highlighted that the lowest quoted tariff under this scheme was at Rs 4.41 per unit, which is slightly higher than the Rs 4.24 per unit discovered in the first medium-term PPA scheme, wherein 1.9 GW was tied up.  It said ‘the tariff discovered is largely in line with the cost of generation for a recently commissioned coal-based power project having capital cost of Rs 7.0 crore to 7.5 crore per MW and with part availability of coal under long-term domestic linkage.’

The government had brought this scheme last year in April to give relief to those coal-fired power plants which were operational but starving for coal in a the absence of any PPA with discoms. The PPA is a prerequisite for getting fuel linkage or supply under the existing legal framework.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11670.25, up by 28.45 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 11661.75 and 11697.55. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 6.37%, JSW Steel up by 3.66%, Cipla up by 2.57%, GAIL India up by 2.23% and Bharti Infratel was up by 2.03%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.96%, Grasim Industries down by 1.59%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.40%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.16% and IndusInd Bank was down by 1.16% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 121.32 points or 0.54% to 22,186.26, Taiwan Weighted dropped 117.35 points or 1.06% to 10,922.51, Shanghai Composite declined 24.47 points or 0.78% to 3,099.36, KOSPI fell 13.05 points or 0.6% to 2,177.45, Straits Times trembled 0.69 points or 0.02% to 3,349.59 and Jakarta Composite was down by 2.90 points or 0.05% to 6,375.69. On the other hand, Hang Seng was up by 12.81 points or 0.04% to 29,562.61.