Bourses trade with healthy gains in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets continued to trade with healthy gains in late afternoon session on sustained buying activities in index heavyweights, viz HDFC and HDFC Bank as they have announced a transformational merger. With this, HDFC will merge into HDFC Bank and the public shareholders of HDFC Bank will become 100% shareholders of HDFC. The broader indices, the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap index were also trading higher. Sentiments remained upbeat after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that India continues to remain the highest receiver of the FDI, and the Indian retail investors have created the capacity to absorb the shock due to outflow of foreign funds from the country’s stock markets. Traders ignored that fuel prices go further up with petrol and diesel rates increased by 40 paise per litre each on April 4. With this fresh round of hike, there is a net increase of Rs 8.40 per litre in 14 days. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green as a solid U.S. jobs report helped ease concerns about slowing global growth. European markets were trading mostly in red with investors keeping an eye out for more Western sanctions after Ukraine accused Russia of war crimes.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60445.28, up by 1168.59 points or 1.97% after trading in a range of 59760.22 and 60845.10. There were 27 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 1.15%, while Small cap index was up by 1.63%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 2.92%, Metal up by 1.90%, Power up by 1.81%, Utilities up by 1.78% and Basic Materials was up by 1.54%, while there were no losers on sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HDFC Bank up by 8.74%, HDFC up by 8.15%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 2.45%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.97% and Sun Pharma up by 1.84%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 0.84%, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.11% and Asian Paints down by 0.10% were only losers.

Meanwhile, Indian manufacturing activity eased in the month of March, on the account of slower expansions in factory orders and production as well as a renewed decline in new export orders. The seasonally adjusted S&P Global India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to 54.0 in March from 54.9 in February.

As per the report, goods producers indicated that new orders continued to increase in March. The rate of expansion eased to a six-month low, but remained marked. The latest report showed a broad stabilisation in headcounts across the manufacturing industry, following three successive months of job shedding. Companies commonly indicated that payroll numbers were sufficient to cope with current requirements.

Besides, there was a renewed decline in new export orders received by Indian goods producers, ending an eight-month sequence of growth. However, the overall rate of reduction was only modest. March data pointed to subdued optimism towards growth prospects among Indian manufacturers, with the overall level of sentiment slipping to a two-year low.

On the inflation front, manufacturers reported another increase in input prices at the end of fiscal year 2021/22. Chemical, energy, fabric, foodstuff and metal costs were all reportedly greater than in February. The overall rate of inflation quickened and outpaced its long-run average, but was the second-slowest in six months. Output prices rose in March as goods producers sought to share part of the additional cost burden with their clients.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18001.15, up by 330.70 points or 1.87% after trading in a range of 17791.40 and 18114.65. There were 48 stocks advancing against 2 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HDFC Bank up by 8.75%, HDFC up by 7.86%, Adani Ports up by 3.86%, HDFC Life Insurance up by 3.53% and Hero MotoCorp up by 3.26%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 0.90% and Tata Consumer down by 0.47% were only losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, Hang Seng increased 462.76 points or 2.1% to 22,502.31, Nikkei 225 surged 70.49 points or 0.25% to 27,736.47, Jakarta Composite soared 37.46 points or 0.53% to 7,116.22 and KOSPI was up by 18.05 points or 0.66% to 2,757.90. On the flip side, Straits Times was down by 1.05 points or 0.03% to 3,418.06.

European markets were trading mostly in red, France’s CAC decreased 11.86 points or 0.18% to 6,672.45 and Germany’s DAX was down by 65.84 points or 0.46% to 14,380.64. On the flip side, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 13.10 points or 0.17% to 7,551.00.