Post Session: Quick Review

Last trading session of the financial year and also the fourth quarter turned out to be impressive one for the Indian equity markets, which clocked record highs for sixth straight session on Monday. A combination of foreign flows, hopes for a recovery in the domestic economy and incremental bets that the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), perceived as more business-friendly, coming to power drove over gains of close to 18% for Nifty and Sensex in FY14. For the session, both Nifty and Sensex eked out modest gains in the range of 0.10%-0.25% and ended at all time high level of 22,350 and 6,700 respectively. Nevertheless, broader markets outperformed larger counterparts and settled with gains of close to a percent.

For the session, strong dollar inflows and positive global peers aided benchmark equity indices to extend its winning streak for third consecutive session and hit all time high level, though profit booking crept into the markets during the afternoon deals, ‘buy into dips’ strategy in the last hour of trade returned the cheer at Dalal Street, especially ahead of RBI’s monetary policy review tomorrow.

On the global front, Asian stocks ended mostly higher on Monday at the end of a quarter that was characterized by poor performances in China and Japan and reviving fortunes in Southeast Asia, while European equities rose for a fifth straight session to a three-week high on Monday on growing speculation that the European Central Bank could ease its policy and China might take steps to stimulate its economy.

Closer home, while most of the sectoral indices ended in green, stocks from Fast Moving Consumer Goods, Capital Goods and Power counters were the pockets of weakness for local equity markets. Power stocks sulked in trade after Central Electricity Regulatory Commission's (CERC's) order allowing Tata Power and Adani Power higher tariffs to compensate for increased cost of coal imports was challenged in the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (APTEL). However, IT stocks which were trading lower on more aggressive stance by investors in favour of cyclicals and high beta stocks recovered by the end of trade. On the flip side, stocks from Metal, Consumer Durables and Auto counters were the pillars of strength for Dalal Street. While, Metal stocks shone upmove by growing expectations that China, the world's largest consumer of copper and aluminum, will take steps to stimulate its sagging economy, Auto stocks spped drove before reporting their monthly sales figure. The market breadth on the BSE ended positive; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1,694: 1,036, while 145 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex gained 44.79 points or 0.20% to settle at 22,384.76. The index touched a high and a low of 22,467.21 and 22,253.78 respectively. Among the 30-share Sensex, 18 stocks gained, while 12 stocks declined. (Provisional)

The BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices ended higher by 1.02% and 0.99% respectively. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Metal up by 3.74%, Realty up by 2.71%, Consumer Durables up by 2.41%, Auto up by 0.97% and Oil & Gas up by 0.72% were the top gainers, while Capital Goods down by 0.77%, FMCG down by 0.71%, Power down by 0.59%, PSU down by 0.31% and Bankex down by 0.05% were the top losers in the space. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindalco up by 8.75%, Tata Steel up by 3.33%, RIL up by 2.60%, SSLT up by 2.54% and Maruti Suzuki up by 2.10%. On the other hand, ONGC down by 2.99%, Dr Reddys Lab down by 2.52%, Tata Power down by 1.97%, ITC down by 1.95% and L&T down by 1.42% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, the government will borrow Rs 3.68 lakh crore during the first half of next fiscal, accounting for 61.5 percent of the total budget target for 2014-15. The move will provide more scope for private sector to tap the market in the second half as the front-loading of borrowing is aimed at making available capital to the private sector.

According to borrowing plan, the government will borrow an average Rs 17,000 crore per week during April and May. Four bonds having long-term as well as short-term maturity will be auctioned and the first auction will start next week, while the last auction for the six-month period will end in the week beginning September 22.

The gross market borrowing through issue of dated securities in FY15 has been pegged at Rs 5.97 lakh crore, which is Rs 34,000 crore higher than FY14. However, net the borrowing which excludes redemptions of government securities will be at Rs 4.57 lakh crore, which is around 3 percent lower than the current fiscal. The government will continue with inflation index bonds, while net borrowing through T-bill is likely to set at Rs 40,000 crore for first quarter of next financial year.  Furthermore, the government expects to garner Rs 36,925 crore from disinvestment, Rs 14,000 crore from residual stake sale in companies and healthy growth in tax collection to fund its expenditure during FY15. India VIX, a gauge for markets short-term expectation volatility gained 16.06% at 21.62 from its previous close of 18.63 on Friday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty gained 5.40 points or 0.08% to settle at 6,701.30. The index touched high and low of 6,730.05 and 6,662.40 respectively. Out of the 50 stocks on the Nifty, 28 ended in the green, while 22 ended in the red. 

The major gainers of the Nifty were Hindalco up 8.02%, Jindal Steel up by 4.03%, Tata Steel up by 3.15%, Sesa Sterlite up by 2.79% and ACC up by 2.61%. The key losers were ONGC down by 3.45%, IDFC down by 2.91%, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories down by 2.62%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.41% and BHEL down by 2.40%. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC 40 was up by 0.02%, Germany’s DAX was up by 0.07% and UK’s FTSE 100 down by 0.26%.

The Asian markets concluded Monday’s trade mostly in green following a strong lead from Wall Street. Jakarta Stock Exchange was closed for trade on account of ‘Hindu New Year’ holiday. Thailand’s investment promotion board stated that the latest casualty of country’s five-month political deadlock may be foreign investment as project approvals face delays and new investors hesitate to commit funds. The applications for investment incentives fell 58% to 63.1 billion baht ($1.94 billion) in the first two months of 2014. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority stated that Yuan deposits in Hong Kong increased by 3% to 920.3 billion yuan at the end of February. Total remittance of yuan for cross-border trade settlement amounted to 394.1 billion yuan in February, compared with 492.3 billion in January.

Japan’s industrial production fell to a seasonally adjusted -2.3%, from 3.8% in the preceding month while Housing Starts fell to a seasonally adjusted 1.0%, from 12.3% in the preceding quarter. The National Statistical Office Thailand stated that Thai Trade Balance rose to a seasonally adjusted 3.90B, from -0.75B in the preceding month.