Indian indices back in green in early noon deals

Erasing all of their losses, Indian equity benchmarks came back in green during early noon deals, with both Sensex and Nifty trading notably higher, aided by positive cues from other Asian markets along with buying at Energy and Telecom counters. Sentiments were positive, as an article on the ‘State of Economy’ published in the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) March Bulletin showed that India can sustain 8 per cent annual GDP growth and the conducive macroeconomic configuration may become a launching pad for a step-up in the country’s growth trajectory.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, ahead of Indonesia Rate Decision. The central bank in Indonesia will wrap up its monetary policy meeting on Wednesday and then announce its decision on interest rates, highlighting a modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. The benchmark lending rate (6.00 percent), lending facility rate (6.75 percent) and deposit facility rate (5.25 percent) all are expected to remain unchanged.

Back home, pharma stocks were in watch as maintaining a neutral outlook for the pharmaceuticals sector for FY25, credit rating agency, India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) in its latest report is expecting pharmaceuticals companies to continue to benefit from growth in the domestic as well as export markets, while maintaining healthy EBITDA margins led by a moderation in the price erosion in the US generics business, softening of input costs, and high-value product launches in the US generic market. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 72219.09, up by 207.04 points or 0.29% after trading in a range of 71674.42 and 72268.60. There were 19 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining, while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.04%, while Small cap index was down by 0.20%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 0.63%, Telecom up by 0.62%, Oil & Gas up by 0.59%, Auto up by 0.55% and TECK up by 0.44%, while Metal down by 0.83%, Basic Materials down by 0.71%, Consumer Durables down by 0.58%, Realty down by 0.36% and Healthcare down by 0.06% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 3.24%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.79%, Nestle up by 1.71%, Indusind Bank up by 1.57% and SBI up by 1.43%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 2.09%, Tata Steel down by 1.82%, JSW Steel down by 0.70%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.67% and HDFC Bank down by 0.61% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, rating agency ICRA in its latest report has said the ICRA-rated securitised pools have shown healthy performance, with collection efficiencies ranging from 92% to 107% across all asset classes in FY2024 so far, aided by a favourable operating environment, rigorous collection efforts, and adoption of digitised processes. Housing Loans (HL) and Loans Against Property (LAP) pools have showcased steady collections in FY2024 so far. This can be attributed to the critical nature of the underlying collateral for the borrowers and advances in online collection methods.

According to the report, the vehicle pools are expected to continue their stable performance in the medium term, given the strong domestic economic cycle; financiers would also ramp up the collection efforts in Q4 of the fiscal. However, the impact of the current fluctuations in global fuel prices would be a key monitorable. Microfinance institutions embraced technology-driven collections, post the Covid-19 pandemic, showing positive signs and healthy performance. Secured Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) pools have outperformed unsecured SME pools in terms of collection efficiency and asset quality. Furthermore, the delinquencies in the securitised personal loans pools have remained range-bound, with 90+dpd between 1.6% and 3.4%.

It further said in Mortgage-backed securities (MBS) transactions, the rate hikes undertaken during the last two years did not have a significant bearing on the collection efficiencies as most lenders passed on the hikes in the form of elongated tenures rather than increased EMIs. For vehicle loan pools, there has been a marginal decrease in the collection efficiency in the first two months of Q2 FY2024 and Q3 FY2024, a trend usually seen every year as lenders increase collection efforts towards the end of the quarters, and especially in the last quarter of the financial year. The collections of the microfinance (MFI) pools have remained steady. Although the delinquencies increased slightly during Q3 FY2024, ICRA expects them to stabilise in Q4 FY2024 and in the subsequent quarters owing to greater collection efforts. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 21864.05, up by 46.60 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 21710.20 and 21891.70. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Eicher Motors up by 4.06%, Maruti Suzuki up by 3.23%, Nestle up by 1.77%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.60% and Indusind Bank up by 1.52%. On the flip side, Tata Consumer Products down by 2.60%, Tata Motors down by 2.00%, Tata Steel down by 1.82%, Hindalco down by 1.54% and UPL down by 1.50% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Hang Seng advanced 49.01 points or 0.3% to 16,578.49, Straits Times rose 8.03 points or 0.25% to 3,181.58, Shanghai Composite strengthened 15.43 points or 0.5% to 3,078.19 and KOSPI increased 33.97 points or 1.26% to 2,690.14, while Taiwan Weighted lost 72.75 points or 0.37% to 19,784.45 and Jakarta Composite plunged 11.17 points or 0.15% to 7,325.58.