Post Session: Quick Review

Buying in late afternoon session helped Indian equity markets to end Monday’s trade in green territory. Markets spent most of their time in red territory amid weak India’s industrial production data. Besides, investors turned their focus towards India’s retail inflation data, which going to be out later in the day. As for broader indices, the BSE Mid cap index ended in green, while Small cap index ended in red. 

Markets made negative start and extended their losses tracking mixed cues from Asian counterparts as well as following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight on Friday, on ongoing concerns over the tensions in the middle-east with reports of Israel retaliating to last weekend's attacks. Besides, the government data showed that India’s industrial production growth slowed marginally to 4.9 per cent month-on-month in March 2024, mainly due to poor show by the mining sector. The factory output growth, measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), was 5.6 per cent in February 2024. Markets trimmed their losses in afternoon session but continued to trade in red, as traders remained cautious, after think tank GTRI said that India's imports of goods from countries with which it has a free trade agreement like the UAE, South Korea, and Australia grew about 38 per cent during 2019-24 fiscal years to $187.92 billion. On the other hand, the country's exports to the FTA (free trade agreement) partners rose 14.48 per cent to $122.72 billion in 2023-24 from $107.20 billion in 2018-19. However, in late afternoon session, markets wiped out all their losses and turned positive as investors preferred to buy stocks at lowest levels. Traders took note of report that India’s G20 Sherpa and former CEO of Niti Aayog Amitabh Kant has projected that the country is all set to overtake Japan as 4th largest economy in the world by 2025. The size of India’s GDP is currently ranked 5th, after the US, China, Germany, and Japan. It overtook the UK in 2022. 

On the global front, Asian markets ended mixed after the release of weak lending and mixed inflation data from China. U.S. rate worries persisted, and Israel forces advanced deeper into Rafah despite warnings from the U.S. and Egypt, further weighing on sentiment. European markets were trading mostly in red after recent string of gains. A cautious undertone prevailed after more Federal Reserve officials said on Friday that U.S. interest rates are likely to remain at elevated levels until there is clear sign that the rate of inflation is slowing. Back home, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) in its latest report has said that as many as 449 infrastructure projects, each entailing an investment of Rs 150 crore or above, were hit by cost overrun of more than Rs 5.01 lakh crore in March 2024.

The BSE Sensex ended at 72,776.13, up by 111.66 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 71,866.01 and 72,863.56. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended mixed; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.36%, while Small cap index was down by 0.23%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 1.34%, Realty up by 1.32%, Healthcare up by 1.15%, Industrials up by 1.03% and Power was up by 0.88%, while Auto down by 1.46%, Energy down by 0.80%, Consumer discretionary down by 0.79%, Oil & Gas down by 0.72% and PSU was down by 0.63% were the top losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Asian Paints up by 3.69%, Sun Pharma up by 1.58%, HDFC Bank up by 1.38%, TCS up by 1.24% and Axis Bank up by 1.17%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 8.32%, NTPC down by 1.18%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.12%, Titan Company down by 1.10% and SBI down by 1.08% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, in line with weak performance by the mining sector, India’s factory output growth, measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), slowed marginally to 4.9 per cent month-on-month in March 2024, as compared to 5.6 per cent in February 2024. However, it was 1.9 per cent in March 2023. For the month of March 2024, the Quick Estimates of IIP with base 2011-12 stood at 159.2. For the fiscal 2023-24, IIP growth touched 5.8 per cent against 5.2 per cent in the preceding financial year.

As per the latest data, the mining output growth decelerated to 1.2 per cent in March against a 6.8 per cent expansion in the year-ago month. The manufacturing sector’s growth accelerated to 5.2 per cent in March compared to 1.5 per cent a year ago. The power generation increased by 8.6 per cent in March against a contraction of 1.6 per cent in the same month of the last year. The Indices of Industrial Production for the Mining, Manufacturing and Electricity sectors for the month of March 2024 stood at 156.1, 155.1 and 204.2 respectively. The cumulative growth rates of the three sectors, Mining at 7.5 per cent, Manufacturing at 5.5 per cent and Electricity at 7.1 per cent for the period of April-March 2023-24 over the corresponding period of the previous.

As per use-base classification, the output of primary goods logged 2.5 per cent growth in March this year, down from 3.3 per cent a year earlier. The capital goods segment growth fell to 6.1 per cent in March 2024 from 10 per cent in the year-ago period. The expansion in the intermediate goods segment was 5.1 per cent in the month under review, higher than the 1.8 per cent recorded in the same period a year ago. Infrastructure/construction goods reported a growth of 6.9 in March 2024 against a 7.2 per cent expansion in the year-ago period. Consumer durables output expanded 9.5 per cent. It had contracted by 8 per cent in March 2023. Consumer non-durable goods production grew by 4.9 per cent during the month compared to a contraction of 1.9 per cent in March 2023.

The CNX Nifty ended at 22,104.05, up by 48.85 points or 0.22% after trading in a range of 21,821.05 and 22,131.65. There were 26 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Cipla up by 5.61%, Asian Paints up by 3.90%, Adani Ports up by 3.13%, Divi's Lab up by 3.11% and Adani Enterprises up by 2.94%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 8.30%, BPCL down by 1.90%, Shriram Finance down by 1.82%, NTPC down by 1.29% and ONGC down by 1.24% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading mostly in red; France’s CAC fell 13.35 points or 0.16% to 8,205.79 and Germany’s DAX was down by 37.66 points or 0.2% to 18,735.19. On the flip side, UK’s FTSE 100 was up by 2.68 points or 0.03% to 8,436.44.

Asian markets ended mostly higher on Monday despite caution ahead of key US inflation data and Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech due this week that might shed additional light on the outlook for interest rates. Hong Kong shares gained as China's finance ministry said that it will start selling the first batch of 1 trillion yuan ($138 billion) of ultra-long special sovereign bonds on Friday to help stimulate key sectors. However, Chinese shares declined after the release of weak Chinese lending data and news that the US government plans to raise tariffs on a raft of Chinese exports. Japanese shares fell ahead of Q1 GDP data due to be released on Thursday. The Bank of Japan said it would cut its purchases of long-term Japanese government bonds at each of its funds-supplying operations.