Markets rebound sharply on first day of fiscal 

The benchmark indices closed in the green on the first day of the fiscal amidst positive global cues. 

Ignoring concerns over rising Covid cases and fear of a slowdown in the economy, the fdmarkets, rallied throughout the day. Notably, midcap and smallcap stocks outperformed the heavyweights today.

The BSE Sensex closed above the psychological mark of 50,000 at 50,029.83, up 520.68 points or 1.05 per cent. It hit an intraday high of 50,092.48 and a low of 49,478.53. The Nifty 50 closed at 14,867.35, up 176.65 points 1.2 per cent.

The advance-decline ratio favoured gainers by almost 3:1.

On the BSE, 2137 shares have advanced, 752 have declined and 154 remain unchanged.

As many as 430 securities hit the upper circuit, while 209 hit the lower circuit; 158 scrips hit their 52-week highs and 50 their 52-week low.

According to Anand Rathi Shares & Stock Brokers, “Indian markets opened on a positive note in an upbeat Asian market on global cues and marked a positive start to the first trading day of the new financial year. During the afternoon session markets continued to trade in positive terrain due to buying in metals, basic materials and power stocks.”

“Traders remain energised with the Economic Affairs Secretary’s statement that the government will borrow Rs 7.24 lakh crore, which is 60.06 per cent of the gross issuances, in the first half of 2021-22 fiscal (H1FY22) to meet resources to perk up the economy, hit by the coronavirus pandemic,” it added.

Metals rally, banking, auto follow 

Metal stocks remained in focus. Strong buying in financials and automobile stocks further helped the recovery, even as FMCG stocks remained under pressure. 

JSW Steel, Tata Steel, Hindalco, Adani Ports and IndusInd Bank were the top gainers among the Nifty 50 stocks, while Hindustan Unilever, Nestle India, HDFC Life, Divi’s Labs and Tata Consultancy Services were among the laggards.

Binod Modi, Head Strategy at Reliance Securities, said, “Domestic equities shrugged-off Covid-19 spikes on favourable global cues and recovered sharply, mainly led by strong buying in financials and automobile stocks. Strong monthly volume for March helped auto stocks attract investor interest. Further, a huge infrastructure spending budget in the US and the possibility of a persistent benign pricing environment resulted in the Nifty metal index rebounding over 5 per cent.”

However, “domestic equities are expected to remain volatile in the near term as long as the spike in Coronavirus cases is not controlled. Further, hardening bond yields and a strengthening dollar index may further aggravate investors’ concerns. A sharp 4.6 per cent contraction in core sector output for February does not bode well and underlines a patchy economic recovery,” added Modi. 

Among the sectoral indices, all the indices, except Nifty FMCG, closed in the green. Nifty FMCG closed 0.16 per cent lower.

Nifty metal gained 5.33 per cent at closing. 

Auto, financials and bank stocks also recovered from the previous session’s losses.

As auto majors announced their sales numbers for March today, Nifty Auto closed 1.62 per cent higher. Nifty Bank was up 1.66 per cent at closing. Nifty financial services was up 1.23 per cent. 

Broader indices outperform

All the broader indices closed in green.

Nifty Midcap 50 was up 2.14 per cent at closing, while Nifty Smallcap 50 was up 1.86 per cent. 

On the BSE, the S&P BSE Midcap index was up 1.60 per cent, while the S&P BSE Smallcap index ended 2.07 per cent higher. 

The volatility index softened by over 3 per cent and ended below the 20-point mark at 19.99.

Mid-day report

Benchmark indices were trading in the green intraday on Thursday after opening on a positive note, led by metal stocks. Amidst concerns over rising Covid cases and fear of a slowdown in the economy, markets remained positive on the US Government’s infrastructure push. At 1 pm, the BSE Sensex was at 49,689.89, up 180.74 points or 0.37 per cent. It hit an intraday high of 49,942.84 and an intraday low of 49,478.53.

The Nifty 50 was at 14,770.90, up 80.20 points or 0.55 per cent. It hit an intraday high of 14,814.65 and a low of 14,692.45.

Likhita Chepa, Senior Research Analyst at CapitalVia Global Research, said, “Market opened with a gap up at (Nifty 50) 14798.40 following the global peers but could not maintain the higher levels and took support near the levels of 14700. The US market ended positive after President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan. Asian markets were trading mostly in green, as traders are also optimistic on a stimulus-driven global economic recovery after US President Joe Biden announced a $2.25-trillion infrastructure investment plan.”

Metal stocks lead the rally 

Metal stocks gained ahead of the Q4 results. JSW Steel, Tata Steel and Hindalco were top gainers. The Nifty Metal was the top gainer among sectoral indices, surging 4.23 per cent.

JSW Steel has managed to maintain its momentum post the acquisition of Bhushan Power and Steel. The company hit its 52-week high of ₹508.80 on the NSE. 

Tata Steel also managed to hit a fresh 52-week high of ₹851.55 and regained a market cap of over ₹1 trillion. Moody’s, on Wednesday, revised the outlook on the company from “negative” to “stable” on the back of a strong recovery in operations in Q3 FY21.

Other gainers included Adani Ports and Hero Motocorp while HDFC Life, Mahindra & Mahindra, Nestle India, HDFC Bank and Grasim were among the top laggards among Nifty 50 stocks.

According to Dr V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, “In April the market is likely to be influenced by the Q4 results. IT, leading financials, cement, metals, pharma, leading telecom companies and some FMCG firms are likely to post very good results. The market will discount these results in advance."

Sectoral and broader indices

On the sectoral front, all sectoral indices except Nifty FMCG were in the green. Nifty FMCG was down 0.10 per cent.

With auto majors announcing their sales figures for March today, Nifty Auto was up 0.75 per cent. 

All broader indices were in green. Broader indices outperformed benchmark indices in the first half. The Nifty Midcap 50 was up 1.13 per cent while Nifty Smallcap 50 edged up 1.37 per cent.

The volatility index was down 1.88 per cent.