Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity markets after taking a pause in last session, ended at one month closing high and puffed up massive gains of over a percent on Tuesday, with both Sensex and Nifty, settling past crucial 21,200 (Sensex) and 6,250 (Nifty) psychological levels respectively. In the splendid rally, broader indices also participated equally and ended with profits of over a percent. Sense of euphoria ran across all the emerging markets, including ours, after Russia’s President Vladimir Putin ordered troops that took part in military exercises in central and western Russia to return to their base. Nevertheless, benchmarks right from the start were upbeat on value buying activities after markets cracked close to a percent in the previous trading session. Sentiments also got a boost from the reports suggesting of government likely considering a proposal to allow companies to issue depository receipts such as American depository receipt (ADR) and global depository receipt (GDR) against debt instruments, in a bid to deepen financial markets.

On the global front, Asian shares turned higher and the safe-haven yen drooped on Tuesday, after Russia’s president ordered troops in military exercises in central and western Russia to return to base, raising hopes that a peaceful solution might be reached. Meanwhile, European shares too receiving positive handover from Asian counterparts ended upbeat.

Closer home, amidst across the board rally, only stocks from healthcare counters ended in red, while stocks from Metal, Banking and Capital Goods counters were the top gainers of the session. Defensive pharmaceuticals stocks lost vigor after Russia’s President ordered troops to return their base, a move which bolstered risk appetite. Additionally, auto stocks which were down in previous session and also in early deals after automobile manufacturers reported sluggish sales in February due to a slowing economy that is plagued by high fuel and interest costs recovered all the lost ground by the end of trade and went home with gains of close to half a percent.  Meanwhile, In stock-specific activities, shares from Sahara Group's, namely, Sahara Housingfina Corporation and Sahara one Media & Entertainment gained ground after Sahara chief Subrata Roy apologized to SC and asked for more time to refund investors’ money. The market breadth on the BSE ended positive; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1,601: 1,103, while 142 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex gained 274.83 points or 1.31% to settle at 21,221.48. The index touched a high and a low of 21,224.64 and 20,940.39 respectively. Among the 30-share Sensex, 28 stocks gained, while 2 stocks declined. (Provisional)

The BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices ended higher by 1.31% and 0.98% respectively. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Metal up by 3.37%, Bankex up by 2.51%, PSU up by 2.11%, Capital Goods up by 1.92% and Power up by 1.85% were the top gainers, while Healthcare down by 0.39% and IT down by 0.04% were the top losers in the space. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindalco up by 8.25%, SSLT up by 4.96%, ICICI Bank up by 3.61%, Axis Bank up by 3.60% and Gail India up by 3.49%, while, Sun Pharma down by 0.49% and Dr Reddys Lab down by 0.40% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, the government has received Rs.18,267 crore upfront spectrum payment from telecom companies, which was about Rs.30 crore less than the bids received from seven companies in the spectrum auction last month owing to the unavailability of radiowaves in some parts of the service areas. However, the amount received was about 61 percent higher than the government’s set target of about Rs.11,333 crore for the current fiscal. The government received bids worth Rs.62,162 crore in the auction for 1800 Mhz and 900 Mhz bands in last month.

The seven winning telecom firms of recently held spectrum auction have to pay 33 per cent upfront for the 1800 Mhz bank and 25 per cent for the 900 Mhz band, while, rest of the amount is to be paid in yearly instalments after two years with about 10 per cent interest. Vodafone, the biggest winner of spectrum, had to make an upfront payment of about Rs.5,582 crore; Airtel Rs.5,425 crore; Idea Rs.3,240 crore; Reliance Jio Rs.3,648; Telewings (Uninor) Rs.290 crore; Aircel Rs.69 crore and RCom Rs.54 crore.

The high spectrum payment will help the government to contain the widening fiscal deficit, which has crossed the FY 14 set target of Rs 5.33 lakh crore or 4.8 percent of GDP in the first ten months of the 2013/14 financial year.

 India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of volatility lost 5.82% at 14.39 from its previous close of 15.28 on Monday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty gained 76.55 points or 1.23% to settle at 6,298.00. The index touched high and low of 6,302.15 and 6,215.70 respectively. Out of the 50 stocks on the Nifty, 46 ended in the green, while 4 ended in the red.

The major gainers of the Nifty were Hindalco up 8.10%, Bank of Baroda up by 5.80%, IndusInd Bank up by 5.11%, IDFC up by 4.89% and PNB up by 4.63%. The key losers were HCL Tech down by 1.51%, JP Associate down by 0.99%, Sun Pharma down by 0.79% and Dr. Reddy's Laboratories down by 0.46%. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC 40 was up 1.35%, Germany’s DAX was up 1.02% and UK’s FTSE 100 up 1.09%.

The Asian markets concluded Tuesday’s trade mostly in green, on back of peaceful Ukraine solution, with Japan’s Nikkei average clawing higher, snapping four days of losses as some foreign investors scooped up battered shares. The once-a-year meeting of China’s legislature - the National People’s Congress will begin on Wednesday, and it will likely make news, all the more so this year, as it follows the Communist Party’s big reform plenum reform late last year. Indonesia’s rupiah dropped by the most in two weeks after the January trade balance unexpectedly swung into deficit, complicating government efforts to trim the current-account shortfall. South Korean CPI rose to 0.3%, from 0.5% in the preceding month. Japan’s Average Cash Earnings fell to a seasonally adjusted -0.2%, from 0.5% in the preceding quarter whose figure was revised down from 0.8%.