Post Session : Quick Review

It turned out to be second positive session for the Indian equity indices at D-street, which trading lower in the early deals changed gears to end the session with good gains. Indian equity markets gathered momentum with the positive opening of European markets, indices, steadily gaining ground ended at high point of the day. Benchmark 30 share index, Sensex and 50 shares widely followed index Nifty, both gained close to a percent and settled past the psychological 19000 and 5700 levels respectively. Broader indices outperforming frontline equity indices for second consecutive session went home with gains of over a percent and half. Much of support came from up move in Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) group stocks, viz, Reliance Communication, Reliance MediaWorks and Reliance Capital, after few media reports suggested of Reliance Jio a Mukesh Ambani group company signing a Rs 1,200 crore agreement RComm for sharing its optic fibre network. Besides, gains of select blue chips stocks, namely, Tata Motors, L&T and Maruti Suzuki, also strengthened sentiment.

On the global front, Asian stocks ended mostly higher on Tuesday, though the Japanese market fell for second consecutive session amid a stronger yen. The yen strengthened against the US dollar in the lead to the Bank of Japan's much-anticipated policy meeting later this week as investors speculated about whether or not the central bank will be able to meet the markets’ easing expectations. On the other hand, European shares extended gains on Tuesday when new data showed that the region's factory activity in March was not that worse than originally estimated, while the euro slipped as investors’ remained worried about the impact of the Cyprus bailout. The euro zone Manufacturing Purchasing Manager's Index (PMI), which points to future levels of factory activity, fell in March to 46.8 but was slightly better than a preliminary estimate of 46.6.

Closer home, in the sentiment driven rally, sugar stocks, viz, Bajaj Hindustan, Shree Renuka Sugars, Balrampur Chini Mills and Dhampur Sugar Mills, surged in the range of 1-3% each on hopes that the government may soon remove some curbs on the tightly controlled sector. Meanwhile, PSU OMC’s erasing all the morning losses, ended upbeat despite slashing petrol prices by around a Rupee. Although broad based buying was witnessed across the board, nevertheless, stocks from Metal, Oil & Gas and Health Care (HC) counters were the top performers of the session. Auto stocks, which were trading lower on reporting subdued March sales numbers, edged up by the close of trade. Gains of Maruti Suzuki, which bucking negative trend, reported 9% rise in March sales, lifted Auto pivotal higher. Country's largest carmaker sold a total 119,937 units as against 1.09 lakh units in February 2013. The market breadth on the BSE ended positive; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1949: 834 while 113 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex gained 176.24 points or 0.93% to settle at 19040.99.The index touched a high and a low of 19060.51 and 18826.53 respectively. 21 stocks were up, while 9 stocks declined on the index. (Provisional)

The BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices ended higher by 1.46% and 2.33% respectively. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Metal up by 2.24%, Oil & Gas up by 2.12%, Health Care up by 1.83%, Capital Goods up by 1.81% and PSU up by 1.77% were the top gainers, while FMCG down by 0.22%was the only loser in the space. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 4.91%, Sterlite Industries up by 4.12%, Wipro up by 4.09%, Jindal Steel up by 2.88% and ONGC up by 2.74%, while, Bajaj Auto down by 1.45%, HDFC down by 0.97%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.65%, Tata Power down by 0.57% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.47% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, in a move to attract more foreign inflows to fund the widening current account deficit (CAD), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) rationalized FII investment in bonds, including government securities (G-Secs) by doing away with various categories. The central bank in a notification said ‘to simplify the existing limits, it has now been decided to merge the existing debt limits into two broad categories.’

Among the two broad categories, the first category will consist of G-Secs of $25 billion which merges $10 billion for investment limit in short-term government papers, including treasury Bills, and $15 billion for long-term government papers. While, the second category consists of the corporate debt with a limit of $51 billion, including a sub-limit of $25 billion each for bonds of infrastructure sector and non-infrastructure sector, and $1 billion for Qualified Foreign Investors (QFIs) in non-infrastructure sector. The above changes will come into effect from April 1, 2013.

Meanwhile, the eligible investors for these two categories are FIIs, QFIs and long terms investors registered with SEBI-Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs), pension and insurance, multilateral agencies and central banks of other countries. For the G-Secs category, eligible investors may invest in treasury bills only up to $5.5 billion within the limit of $25 billion. In the other category, investors may invest in commercial papers only up to $3.5 billion within the limit of $51 billion. The Non-Resident Indians are not subject to any limit for investment in government securities as well as corporate debt and will continue to be regulated as per existing guidelines.

As per Finance Minister P Chidambaram, CAD can be financed only through foreign inflows. Hit by high gold and petrol imports and slowdown in exports, current account deficit widened to a record high of 6.7% in October-December period of 2012-13.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility lost 5.05% at 14.10 from its previous close of 14.85 on Monday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty gained 40.50 points or 0.71% to settle at 5,744.90. The index touched high and low of 5,754.60 and 5,687.15 respectively. 36 stocks advanced against 13 declining and one stock remains unchanged on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 4.97%, Reliance Infrastructure up by 4.77%, Sesa Goa up by 4.26%, IDFC up by 3.51% and Cairn was up by 3.11%. On the other hand, Asian Paints down by 1.39%, Bajaj-Auto down by 1.36%, HDFC down by 1.11%, Axis Bank down by 0.98% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.73% were the top losers. (Provisional)

All European markets were trading in green with, Germany’s DAX up by 1.34%, the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 up by 1.09% and France’s CAC 40 down by 1.19%.

Asian markets ended mixed on Tuesday, as Japanese shares went home with huge losses as yen strengthened against the dollar. Investors remained cautious after a weaker-than-expected US manufacturing data sparked concerns over economic recovery. Chinese market closed flat in negative territory as China’s largest lender Industrial and Commercial Bank of China saw shares loss of 2.2%, while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng swung between modest gains and losses in choppy trade, as investors returned to the market after two days of closure for the Easter holiday.