Sanguinity prevails at D-street; Nifty continues to trade above 5600 level

Although trading near day’s low, sanguinity continued at D-street as investors took a heart out of the lower than expected March quarter Current Account Deficit (CAD) data. Gaining around a percent, benchmarks indexes Sensex and Nifty are comfortably gyrating past 18650 and 5600 levels respectively. However, broader indices failing to entice much of traction are trading on mixed note. On the macro-front,  taking markets by surprise, India’s Current Account Deficit (CAD) stood at $18.1 billion or 3.6 % of the GDP in the March quarter, sharply lower from the historically high level of 6.7% seen in the December quarter.

On the global front, while, Asian pacific shares extended gains for a second day on Thursday, buoyed by hopes that the US Federal Reserve will not rush to end its stimulus programme, and on further signs that stress in China's banking system are easing, European shares have got off to a soft start.

Closer home, On the BSE sectoral front, while stocks from Oil & Gas, Health Care and Information Technology are hogging limelight, stocks from Consumer Durables, Capital Goods and Metal space are being beaten blue.  Shares in oil and gas explorers, all have gained on media reports that a government committee is meeting later in the day to contemplate a hike in natural gas prices. While, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation gained around 3.5%, Oil India and Reliance Industries have rallied close to 3%. Additionally, Information Technology stocks continue to draw comfort from depreciation of Indian currency, which despite recovering from day’s low, is trading past 60/$ mark. The overall market breadth on BSE is in the favour of declines which have outnumbered advances in the ratio of 1016:992; while 126 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18691.93, up by 139.81 points or 0.75% after trading in a range of 18,775.47 and 18688.28. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading on mixed note; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.06%, while the Small cap index was up by 0.17%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Oil & Gas up by 2.32%, Health Care up by 1.64%, IT up by 1.60%, TECk up by 1.30% and Bankex up by 0.82%, while Consumer Durables down by 2.47%, Capital Goods down by 0.63%, Metal down by 0.35%, FMCG down by 0.30% and Power down by 0.19% were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 3.25%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.98%, Sun Pharma up by 2.84%, RIL up by 2.40%, HDFC Bank up by 2.38%.

On the flip side, Jindal Steel down by 2.83%, Tata Motors down by 2.16%, NTPC down by 1.38%, &T was down by 0.99% and Tata Steel down by 0.93% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, an inter-ministerial panel which may comprise members from various government departments like department of pharmaceuticals, ministry of health and family welfare, department of industrial policy and promotion and department of commerce is likely to decide soon on the issue of controlling expensive patented drugs prices in the country.

The panel formation was necessitated after the government put in place a new market based method to control prices of 348 essential drugs last month.  As per the pharma department, the panel on the patented drug pricing issue will consult other ministries such as health, DIPP and commerce and a decision on modalities for this would be finalised soon. Presently, there is no mechanism to regulate prices of patented drugs in India.

Earlier in March, an internal committee from department of pharma suggested that the prices of patented drug should be adjusted by taking into account, India's purchasing power parity and to be linked to rates at which governments of UK, Canada, France, Australia and New Zealand procure these patented medicines from innovator drug firms. However, the suggestion was rejected because of limitations, as the proposed mechanism would apply only to medicines bought through public procurement and health insurance companies, which was not liked by the public health activists and drug regulatory experts. Further, the committee suggestion also came against linking the marketing approval of a patented drug with prices fixed for procurement citing fears that such a move may threaten availability of such drugs in the country. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,631.80, up by 43.10 points or 0.77% after trading in a range of 5,662.25 and 5,638.30. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were UltraTech Cement up by 3.75%, ONGC up by 3.10%, Bajaj Auto and Sun Pharma were up by 3.06%, and ACC up by 2.72%.

On the flip side, Jindal Steel down by 2.53%, JP Associates down by 2.47%, Tata Motors down by 1.94%, NTPC down by 1.38%, and Reliance Infra down by 1.23 % were the major losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading in green; Hang Seng soared 0.90%, Jakarta Composite jumped 2.76%, KLSE Composite increased 0.70%, Nikkei 225 surged 2.96%, Straits Times added 1.20%, KOSPI Composite strengthened 2.87%  and Taiwan Weighted was up 1.27%. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite down by 0.08% were the sole losers amongst Asian pack.

European markets got off to a negative start; with CAC 40 declining 0.27%, DAX sliding 0.04% and FTSE 100 gaining 0.31%.