Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity benchmarks cut gains to end lower on Thursday’s trading session. The start of the day was on a positive note, as the commerce ministry in its preliminary data has indicated that India's exports rose by 22.36 per cent to $33.81 billion in February 2022 on account of healthy growth in sectors like engineering, petroleum and chemicals. Imports during the month too jumped by about 35 per cent to $55 billion, with inbound shipments of petroleum and crude oil surging 66.56 per cent to $15 billion.

Markets remained higher during the first half of the trading session, after the income tax department stated that it has issued refunds worth over Rs 1.83 lakh crore to more than 2.09 crore taxpayers so far this fiscal. This includes 1.70 crore refunds of the 2020-21 fiscal ended March 31, 2021, amounting to Rs 34,202.31 crore. Traders took some support with report stating that investments in agri-tech start-ups significantly grew in four years to nearly Rs 6,600 crore till 2020 on the back of explosive growth potential for companies that address inefficiencies across the agri value chain.

However, markets failed to hold gains in the second half of the trading session and ended the trading day in red terrain, as traders opted to book profit amid geopolitical tension between Russia and Ukraine. Sentiments got impacted as US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has signalled the central bank would start raising rates this month despite uncertainties stemming from the Russia-Ukraine crisis. The US Fed Chair said that he is inclined to propose a 25 basis point rate hike later this month. The rate of inflation in the US has scaled a 40-year high.

On the global front, European markets were trading higher amid the London Stock Exchange (LSE) blocked trading in 27 companies with close ties to Russia. Asian markets ended mostly higher, after the services sector in China continued to expand in February, albeit at a slower rate, the latest survey from Caixin showed on Thursday with a services PMI score of 50.2. That's down from 51.4 in January, although it remains above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.

The BSE Sensex ended at 55102.68, down by 366.22 points or 0.66% after trading in a range of 54931.48 and 55996.62. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.64%, while Small cap index up by 0.35%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 2.40%, Power up by 2.20%, Oil & Gas up by 2.07%, Metal up by 1.33% and IT up by 1.12%, while Auto down by 2.24%, Consumer Disc down by 1.36%, Bankex down by 1.28%, Capital Goods down by 1.26% and Consumer Durables down by 1.22% were the top losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Power Grid up by 3.34%, Wipro up by 2.66%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.62%, HCL Tech. up by 2.08% and ITC up by 1.90%. On the flip side, Ultratech Cement down by 6.47%, Asian Paints down by 5.14%, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 3.49%, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.76% and Hindustan Unilever down by 2.61% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, with an aim to enhance efficiency in processing of bills/claims, the Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman has launched the e-Bill system for Central Government Ministries. In a phased manner, the new system will make the entire process of submission and backend processing of bills completely paperless and transparent.  Thus, it is a major step forward in realizing the vision of ‘Digital India’ and promoting ease of doing business.

The objectives of the system are to provide convenience to all vendors/suppliers of the government to submit their bills/claims at anytime, from anywhere; eliminate physical interface between suppliers and government officers and reduce discretion in processing of bills through ‘First-In-First-Out’(FIFO) method.

The e-Bill system has been developed by the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) Division in the office of the Controller General of Accounts in the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance. The bills will be processed by First-In-First-Out (FIFO) method.

In addition to promoting ease of doing business and brining convenience to lakhs of vendors/suppliers, the e-Bill system will be environment friendly, eliminating the need to submit crores of paper bills annually and will thus save tonnes of papers every year.  The e-Bill system has an elaborate digital storage facility for retrieval of documents and a robust audit trail.

The CNX Nifty ended at 16498.05, down by 107.90 points or 0.65% after trading in a range of 16442.95 and 16768.95. There were 17 stocks advancing against 32 stocks declining, while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were ONGC up by 4.51%, UPL up by 3.51%, Power Grid up by 3.30%, Wipro up by 2.58% and Tech Mahindra up by 2.32%. On the flip side, Ultratech Cement down by 6.54%, Asian Paints down by 5.18%, HDFC Life Insurance down by 5.18%, Shree Cement down by 4.62% and Eicher Motors down by 3.93% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading higher, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 12.39 points or 0.17% to 7,441.95, France’s CAC increased 24.22 points or 0.37% to 6,522.24 and Germany’s DAX was up by 2.33 points or 0.02% to 14,002.44.

Asian markets ended mostly higher on Thursday, following the broadly positive cues overnight from Wall Street, as Traders were optimistic amid the ongoing talks to diffuse the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Meanwhile, some support also came in after Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said in testimony before Congress that he is inclined to support a 25 basis point rate increase at the upcoming Fed meeting, instead of a 50 bps hike recommended by some board members. Powell's comments came after European Central Bank policymakers this week argued against any drastic shift in monetary policy. Japanese shares advanced as worries eased of aggressive Fed rate hikes.