Post Session: Quick Review

The start of new month F&O series turned out to be as splendid as the end of previous one, with markets scaling new peaks for yet another session and ending with hefty gains of close to 3 /4 of a percent since hot money continued to chase momentum driven rally. Although bout of selling pressure was witnessed during the session, hectic buying activity which took place during the last hour of trade drove the markets higher, with Sensex ending above the all time high 22,300 level and Nifty settling little shy of the record high of 6,700 mark. Meanwhile, rally at Dalal Street also saw participation of broader indices, which outperforming larger peers, ended with profit of over a percent.

The gains which were partially on account of positive global set-up, notably came ahead of the much awaited RBI’s monetary policy review on April 1, 2014, wherein its chief Raghuram Rajan is widely anticipated to keep interest rates unchanged. On the global front, Asian stocks ended mostly higher on Friday, led by Hong Kong as China's major banks this week reported solid profits for 2013, easing doubts around the sector's financial health. Additionally, European equities edged higher on Friday, led by basic resources shares on expectations any move by China to step up infrastructure spending would boost demand for industrial metals.

Besides FII inflows, eight month high level of Indian rupee also underpinned the sentiment back home, which led to across the board buying activity on BSE sectoral front. Nevertheless, top gainers were stocks from Power, Public Sector Undertaking and Realty counters. State-run banks also witnessed buying after RBI extended the deadline for banks to implement Basel III capital rules by a year. Additionally, shares of all Information Technology (IT) firms traded jubilant after global rival Accenture Plc raised its full-year profit forecast and the lower end of its revenue forecast. Furthermore, Airline shares extended gains for second straight session after the central bank on Wednesday extended the deadline for raising working capital via external commercial borrowings by domestic airlines to March 2015 from December 2013.

The BSE Sensex gained 126.74 points or 0.57% to settle at 22,341.11. The index touched a high and a low of 22,363.97 and 22,185.11 respectively. Among the 30-share Sensex, 23 stocks gained, while 7 stocks declined. (Provisional)

The BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices outperformed markets and ended higher by 1.58% and 1.23% respectively. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Power up by 3.31%, PSU up by 2.32%, Realty up by 1.69%, Metal up by 1.56% and Bankex up by 1.34% were the top gainers, while there were no losers in the space. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up by 4.66%, Hindalco up by 4.23%, SBI up by 3.66%, NTPC up by 3.42% and Axis Bank up by 2.64%. On the other hand, ONGC down by 0.93%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.50%, ITC down by 0.49%, Tata Motors down by 0.45% and HDFC down by 0.37% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, presenting a sluggish outlook of Indian industry, FICCI’s Business Confidence Survey noted that the industry may witness a weak demand and bleak employment scenario over the next 3 months beleaguered by economic slowdown and prevailing high interest rates. The survey found that despite rising input costs, the availability of credit has also become a problem for the India Inc with almost 53 percent of the companies covered by the survey felt that high cost of credit was creating a problem for them.

The survey found that around 56 percent of the companies indicated that demand has declined by over 10 percent and very few respondents cited an improvement in current performance, as against the last six months. During the period April-January 2013-14, India’s industrial output growth remained flat from a year earlier. FICCI also found negligible improvement in outlook for the coming months with only 24 percent of the companies receiving investments over the next six months. The overall Business Confidence Index value increased to 60.8 in the current survey as compared to 59.8 in the last survey round. Around 67 percent firms expected stagnant employment levels for the next six months.

The FICCI’s survey was based on the responses of about 173 companies having turnover ranging from Rs 1 crore to Rs 3.7 lakh crore in order to bring out expectations of the industry for the period January-June 2014. The survey covered companies belonging to various sectors such as textiles, cement, financial services, chemicals, construction, metal and metal products, automobiles, FMCG, electrical equipment and machinery, paper and paper products.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short-term expectation gained 1.40% at 19.15 from its previous close of 18.37 on Thursday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty gained 54.15 points or 0.82% to settle at 6,695.90. The index touched high and low of 6,702.60 and 6,643.80 respectively. Out of the 50 stocks on the Nifty, 38 ended in the green, while 12 ended in the red. 

The major gainers of the Nifty were PNB up 7.80%, Bank of Baroda up by 6.38%, Tata Power up by 4.83%, Hindalco up by 4.55% and UltraTech Cement up by 4.29%. The key losers were Cairn down by 1.09%, ONGC down by 1.04%, ITC down by 0.51%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.46% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.44%. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC 40 was up 0.46%, UK’s FTSE 100 up by 0.56% and Germany’s DAX was up by 0.96%.

The Asian markets barring Shanghai Composite and Taiwan Weighted concluded Friday’s trade in green. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is set to raise the consumption tax for the second time in Japanese history in order to cut the debt and to pay for a possible easing of the corporate tax at some point down the road. Japan’s retail sales fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.6%, from 4.4% in the preceding month while Japanese Household Spending fell to a seasonally adjusted -2.5%, from 1.1% in the preceding month. Japan’s National Core CPI remained unchanged at a seasonally adjusted 1.3%, from 1.3% in the preceding month while Tokyo’s core CPI, which excludes fresh food costs rose to at an annualized rate of 1.0%, from 0.9% in the preceding month. The total work force that is unemployed and actively seeking employment during the previous month in Japan fell to a seasonally adjusted 3.6%, from 3.7% in the preceding month. South Korean industrial production fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of -1.8%, from -0.1% in the preceding month whose figure was revised down from 0.1%. South Korean Retail Sales fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of -3.2%, from 2.4% in the preceding month.