Benchmarks trade flat; European shares advance

The domestic equity barometers traded near the flat line, with some negative bias in afternoon trade. The Nifty was trading a tad below the 17,500 mark. FMCG shares outperformed while pharma and healthcare stocks edged lower.

At 13:22 IST, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 4.15 points or 0.01% to 58,679.84. The Nifty 50 index lost 4.15 points or 0.02% to 17,494.10.

Hindalco (down 4.52%), Divi's Lab (down 2%), Apollo Hospitals Enterprise (down 1.91%), Cipla (down 1.39%) and Reliance Industries (down 1.28%) were the top Nifty losers.

Mahindra & Mahindra (up 1.93%), JSW Steel (up 1.71%), Britannia Industries (up 1.70%), Hero MotoCorp (up 1.31%) and Tata Consumer (up 1.12%) were the top Nifty gainers.

The broader market outperformed the main indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index added 0.29% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rallied 0.58%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was almost even. On the BSE, 1,688 shares rose and 1,629 shares fell. A total of 121 shares were unchanged.

Trading was volatile as March 2022 F&O contracts expire today, 31 March 2022.

Economy:

India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) stated that its FY23 Economic Outlook released in the month of January 2022, is unlikely to hold in view of the global geo-political situation arising out of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Since the duration of Russia-Ukraine conflict continues to be uncertain, Ind-Ra has created two scenarios with respect to the FY23 economic outlook basis certain assumptions.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Gail (India) rose 1.14% to Rs 155.15. The company proposes to buy back up to 5,69,85,463 equity shares, comprising 1.28% of the total paid-up equity capital of the company, at a price of Rs 190 per share, for an aggregate amount not exceeding Rs 1082,72,37,970.

Sandur Manganese & Iron Ores advanced 3.32% to Rs 3569.95. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India, has granted environmental clearance to the company's proposed change in plant configuration and product mix for the metal & ferro alloy plant situated in Karnataka

Ashoka Buildcon added 0.64% to Rs 86.45. The company announced that it has received a letter of award (LOA) from National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for a road project worth Rs 1,079 crore. The scope of the project involves the development of 6 lane access controlled greenfield highway from Baswantpur to Singondi of NH 150 C on Hybrid Annuity Mode (HAM) under Bharatmala Pariyojana project.

Global Markets:

European stocks edged higher on the last trading day of March, a month marked by global geopolitical and economic uncertainty after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Geopolitical uncertainty and concerns over rising inflation have dominated market sentiment in March.

Meanwhile, most Asian stocks declined on Thursday as oil prices fell sharply.

China's factory activity likely shrank in March, as the country imposed more mass testing and activity controls amid its worst resurgence of COVID-19 cases since early 2020. The country's official manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index for March came in at 49.5, lower than February's reading of 50.2.

United Kingdom's gross domestic product (GDP) rose 1.3% during the Jan-Mar'22 quarter, as declared by the country's Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Thursday.This was slightly higher than the expectations but 0.1% below the GDP growth achieved during the same period of FY20, before the pandemic.

The ONS also revealed that the output for the quarter advanced by 1.3%, while the services sector improved by 1.5%. Oil futures dived more than $5 a barrel on Thursday after reports indicated that the Biden administration is weighing releasing some 1 million barrels of oil per day from strategic reserves for several months in a bid to calm soaring crude prices.

U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday on waning signs of progress for peace talks between Ukraine and Russia against a backdrop of a hawkish Federal Reserve curbing economic growth.

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