Benchmarks add gains; Sensex surpasses 21300 mark

Indian equities added gains to continue firm trade in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters. Though the market sentiments were on positive note in early trades, volatility crept in as the Election Commission declared the election dates which are set to commence on April 7 with voting to be held in nine staggered phases until May 12. Traders were seen piling positions in PSU, Capital Goods and Bankex stocks, while selling was witnessed in Consumer Durables and Auto sector. In scrip specific development, Autoline Industries was trading firm ahead of its board meeting scheduled on March 11 where the board will look at various options of raising funds to meet funding requirements via full disinvestment of stock or shares in Autoline Industries Inc, USA. Tata Communications was trading in green after the company signed a collaboration agreement with Turkey-based telecom operator Turkcell Superonline. Bharti Infratel was trading in green after the tower infrastructure provider signed a master services agreement with Reliance Jio Infocomm, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries.

On the global front, the Asian markets barring Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng were trading in green, while the European markets were trading on pessimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 6,300 and 21,300 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1367:1144 while 137 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 21303.46, up by 93.73 points or 0.44% after trading in a range of 21333.20 and 21176.16. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were outperforming the benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.93%, while Small cap index gained 0.48%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were PSU up by 1.49%, Capital Goods up by 1.36%, Bankex up by 1.30%, Realty up by 0.96% and IT up by 0.56%. On the other hand, Consumer Durables down by 1.99% and Auto down by 0.30% were the only losing indices on BSE.   

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 2.29%, ONGC up by 2.27%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.10%, Cipla up by 1.61% and Coal India was up by 1.56%. On the flip side, Tata Power down by 2.94%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.60%, M&M down by 1.12%, Tata Motors down by 0.82% and Reliance Industries down by 0.56% were the major losers on Sensex.

Meanwhile, in a big sigh of relief for financially-stressed highway developers, the government has cleared a long awaiting bailout policy for financially-stressed developers which would also allow the developers to defer the premium that they have committed to pay the government.

As per the bailout policy, relief would be offered for highway developers through a mechanism called revenue shortfall loan under an article of the model concession agreement between developers and the government. Highway projects that are facing economic stress would now be eligible for this article which allows developers to reschedule the cash shortfall between necessary expenses and toll revenue in case of political events or default by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI). Further, under this provision, the money that the developers need to pay the government would be considered as an expense.

The move is likely to benefit started highway projects facing difficulty in servicing debt. Now, the developers can service debt fully as it will be given priority over premium. Highway projects involving expansion from two lane to four lane are likely to benefit more as their debt servicing commences with tolling. On the other hand, projects involving expansion to six lane may not benefit so much owing to the fact that these projects have a moratorium period for servicing debt but toll collections commence from the beginning, thus, they would have to bring in equity on their own. Furthermore, debt flow to sector is also expected to improve as bankers will get more comfort and stressed projects could be prevented from turning into non-performing assets. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,330.30, up by 32.35 points or 0.51% after trading in a range of 6,333.90 and 6,287.80. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 declining ones on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Bank of Baroda up by 5.46%, PNB up by 4.95%, ACC up by 2.69%, ONGC was up by 2.21% and Maruti Suzuki up by 2.07%. On the flip side, Tata Power down by 3.00%, JP Associates down by 1.75%, Bharti Airtel was down by 1.51%, HCL Tech down by 1.29% and M&M down by 1.12% were the major losers on the index.

Asian indices were trading in green barring the Chinese market; Shanghai Composite which declined by 0.89% and Hang Seng lost 0.34%.On the other hand, Jakarta Composite inched higher by 1.08%, KLSE Composite added 0.18%, Nikkei 225 surged by 1.20%, Straits Times gained 0.24%, Seoul Composite was up by 0.88% and Taiwan Weighted advanced 0.92%.

The European markets were trading in red; France’s CAC 40 was down 0.14%, Germany’s DAX lost 0.17% and UK’s FTSE 100 dropped 0.23%.