Key benchmark indices moved in a narrow range in positive terrain in morning trade. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 13.39 points or 0.06%, up close to 40 points from the day's low and off close to 85 points from the day's high. The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive.
Hindalco Industries reversed direction after hitting 52-week high at the onset of the trading session. Small car maker Maruti Suzuki India reversed direction after hitting record high in early trade. Index heavyweight and cigarette major ITC edged lower. IT stocks gained.
A bout of volatility was witnessed as key benchmark indices slipped into the red after a firm opening took the Sensex and the 50-unit CNX Nifty to record high. Key benchmark indices regained positive terrain in morning trade.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 942.86 crore on Monday, 31 March 2014, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.
At 10:20 IST, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 13.39 points or 0.06% to 22,399.66. The index jumped 99.50 points at the day's high of 22,485.77 in early trade, a record high for the barometer index. The index fell 25.05 points at the day's low of 22,361.22 in early trade.
The CNX Nifty was down 1.05 points or 0.02% to 6,703.15. The index hit a high of 6,732.25 in intraday trade, a record high for the index. The index hit a low of 6,690.30 in intraday trade.
The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 4.08 points or 0.06% at 7,086.94, matching with the Sensex's gains in percentage terms. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 21.63 points or 0.31% at 7,093.59, outperforming the Sensex.
More From This Section
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On BSE, 1,035 shares gained and 772 shares fell. A total of 93 shares were unchanged.
Among the 30-share Sensex pack, 17 stocks declined and rest of them rose. Tata Motors (up 1.34%), Dr. Reddy's Laboratories (up 0.86%) and ONGC (up 1.85%) edged higher from the Sensex pack.
IT stocks gained. HCL Technologies (up 1.63%), Infosys (up 0.85%), TCS (up 1.48%), Tech Mahindra (up 1.28%) and Wipro (up 1.83%) gained.
Index heavyweight and cigarette major ITC shed 0.91% to Rs 349.75. The stock hit high of Rs 353.45 and low of Rs 349.10 so far during the day.
Small car maker Maruti Suzuki India declined 0.27% to Rs 1,966, with the stock reversing direction after hitting record high of Rs 1,979.55 in early trade.
Hindalco Industries fell 2.47% to Rs 138.20, with the stock reversing direction after hitting 52-week high of Rs 142.80 at the onset of the trading session.
Kalpataru Power Transmission rose 3.45% after the company said it has secured new orders worth over Rs 700 crore. The company made the announcement after market hours on Monday, 31 March 2014.
Kalpataru Power Transmission (KPTL) said it won an order to supply and erect 765KV D/C Solapur-Aurangabad transmission line of 140 km, worth over Rs 350 crore from PGCIL. The company also won an order to supply transmission towers worth Rs 134 crore in Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia. The company's infrastructure division secured various orders worth around Rs 188 crore.
Commenting on the announcements, Mr Ranjit Singh (Managing Director) said "We continued to expand in international market in African region and also maintained order flow from PGCIL. We also succeeded in getting traction in infrastructure division with a healthy mix of orders."
The Reserve Bank of India will announce the First Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Statement, 2014-15 at 11:00 IST today, 1 April 2014. Citing price pressures, the Reserve Bank of India raised its key lending rates by 25 basis points after Third Quarter Review of Monetary Policy for 2013-14 on 28 January 2014.
Infrastructure sector output rose 4.5% year-on-year in February 2014, mainly driven by higher electricity generation, oil refining and steel production, data released by the government after trading hours on Monday, 31 March 2014, showed. The sector grew 1.6% year-on-year in January 2014. In the first 11 months of the current fiscal year, the output grew an annual 2.6%, the data showed. The infrastructure sector, which comprises coal, crude oil, oil refining, natural gas, steel, cement, electricity and fertilisers, accounts for 37.9% of India's industrial output.
Markit Economics will unveil HSBC India Manufacturing PMI, which gauges the business activity of India's factories, for March 2014 today, 1 April 2014. The manufacturing PMI ticked up to 52.5 in February 2014 from 51.4 in January 2014.
The next major trigger for the market is Q4 March 2014 and year ended 31 March 2014 (FY 2014) corporate earnings. Investors and analysts will closely watch the management commentary that would accompany the results to see if there is any revision in their future earnings forecast of the company for the year ending 31 March 2015 (FY 2015) and/or for the year ending 31 March 2016 (FY 2016). Indian companies will start reporting their Q4 and full year results from mid-April 2014. The result season will conclude in end-May 2014.
Another major trigger for the stock market is the outcome of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Lok Sabha elections will be held between 7 April 2014 and 12 May 2014 in nine phases. The counting of votes will take place on 16 May 2014. The term of the current Lok Sabha expires on June 1 and the new House has to be constituted by May 31. Along with the Lok Sabha election, Andhra Pradesh (AP), including the regions comprising Telangana, Odisha and Sikkim will go to polls to elect new assemblies. AP, Odisha and Sikkim assemblies come to end on June 2, June 7 and May 7 respectively.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday, 31 March 2014, said that if it wins national elections set to begin next week, its first priority would be to revive investment in the country's slowing economy. "We'll have to reestablish confidence of both Indian and international investors in the Indian economy," said Arun Jaitley, a senior BJP leader. But, he added, "our policy will also have a social conscience," a signal that welfare programs for the country's poor would also be a priority. Mr. Jaitley said that in the last decade, Congress had halted the liberal approach it had adopted in 1991, and he said his party would work to make sure "India once again is a great place for doing business." At the same time, Mr. Jaitley said, his party wouldn't rely on the benefits of growth to trickle down to the poor. "India will always need, at least for the foreseeable future, a state intervention for poverty alleviation," he said, a message aimed at India's millions of poor.
The BJP's prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, has campaigned on pledges to spur development, create jobs and boost manufacturing. In a televised interview on Monday, 31 March 2014, Mr. Modi spoke about removing bureaucratic hurdles, bringing predictability to tax policies and creating jobs by encouraging new industries like agro-based ventures, ship building and defense manufacturing. "Today, vote-bank-oriented programs that are bankrupting our treasury are being called economic reforms. Economic reforms are those that breathe new life into a system and create opportunities for people," Modi said.
Congress has criticized Mr. Modi for being too close to big business. "His brand of liberalism is crony capitalism," India's finance minister P. Chidambaram said on Monday, 31 March 2014.
Asian stocks edged higher on Tuesday, 1 April 2014, after China's official PMI survey showed manufacturing managed to continue expanding in March, and dovish comments from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen. Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Japan and Taiwan were up 0.1% to 1.81%. Japan's Nikkei Average was off 0.04%. South Korea's Kospi was off 0.01%.
China's official Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) increased to 50.3 in March from February's 50.2. Above 50 indicates expansion, below 50 signifies contraction. A seperate PMI HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics pointed to weakness in the world's second-biggest economy. Chinese Purchasing Managers' Index fell to 48 in March, the lowest reading since July, from 48.5, HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics said today, 1 April 2014.
The Tankan index of sentiment among large Japanese manufacturers was at 17 in March, climbing from 16 in December, a Bank of Japan report showed today, 1 April 2014.
Developing Asia is poised to sustain its current growth momentum and is well positioned to manage risks coming from a slightly slower Chinese economy and possible uneven demand from major industrialised nations, the Asian Development Bank said. India is forecast to accelerate to 5.5% this year, much faster than the 4.7% forecast in December, although the South Asian nation was still operating below potential which can be solved by clearing investment bottlenecks, the bank said. Asian nations can undertake preemptive measures to protect the region's growing economy from unpredictable capital inflows, said the Manila-based lender as it unveiled its forecasts for the region for 2014 and 2015. The bank said it expects the region, grouping 45 counties in Asia-Pacific, to grow 6.2% this year, slightly faster than its most recent estimate of 6% in December, before accelerating further to 6.4% in 2015.
"Most regional economies have strengthened their economic fundamentals. Looking ahead, strengthening macroprudential measures before the boom can help avert sudden capital reversals that accompany the bust," the ADB said in its Asian Development Outlook 2014.
Trading in US index futures indicated that the Dow could advance 15 points at the opening bell on Tuesday, 1 April 2014. US stocks edged higher on the final trading day of the quarter on Monday, 31 March 2014, after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said the economy will need stimulus for some time.
In economic news, a gauge of Chicago-area businesses unexpectedly tumbled in March, hitting the lowest level since August, led by drops for new orders and employment, according to data released Monday.
The influential US non-farms payroll data for March 2014 will be released this Friday, 4 April 2014.
Yellen said on Monday the Fed hasn't done enough to combat unemployment even after holding interest rates near zero for more than five years and pumping up its balance sheet to $4.23 trillion with bond purchases. "This extraordinary commitment is still needed and will be for some time, and I believe that view is widely shared by my fellow policy makers," Yellen said at a community development conference in Chicago. "The scars from the Great Recession remain, and reaching our goals will take time."
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) next undertakes monetary policy review at a two-day meeting on 29-30 April 2014. The Federal Reserve on 19 March 2014 said after the conclusion of a monetary policy review that it will trim its monthly bond purchases by $10 billion to $55 billion. The Federal Reserve will end its bond-buying program before the end of the year with an interest-rate increase likely to follow in "around six months," Chair Janet Yellen said on 19 March 2014. Quarterly Fed forecasts on 19 March 2014 showed more officials predicting that the benchmark interest rate, now close to zero, will rise to at least 1% by the end of 2015 and 2.25% a year later.
In Europe, a policy meeting of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) will be held on Thursday, 3 April 2014, in Frankfurt to decide euro zone interest rates. ECB President Mario Draghi has consistently reassured listeners that the euro zone isn't heading for deflation, but that the central bank stands ready to act if needed.
Powered by Capital Market - Live News