Indian markets open in green

Wed, 11 Mar 09:30 am

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   Pre-Open   

   01:30 pm   

   03:30 pm   

   Closing   

Asian stock markets have opened on a mixed note. Japanese, Chinese and Taiwanese market are trading in the green with 0.5%, 0.9% and 0.1% gains while Korean and Hong Kong markets are trading with moderate losses of 0.3% each. The U.S. markets witnessed a sell-off yesterday as broader indices fell over 1.5% as investors grew more sceptical over the possibility of raising the interest rates. European markets closed on a negative note with FTSE and CAC closing with more than 1% losses and DAX closing with 0.7% losses.

Indian markets have opened in green. BSE Sensex and NSE-Nifty are trading with moderate gains of 0.2% each or 18 points and 60 points, respectively. Barring stocks from metal sector, most of the sectoral indices have opened on a firm note. BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small Cap increased 0.3% and 0.5%, respectively.

Commodities are trading in the red. Gold prices, per 10 grams, declined 0.42% and is trading at Rs 25,916 while Silver prices, per kilogram, declined 0.6% and is trading at Rs 35,700 levels. Crude oil prices tanked 3.5% as the sell-off in international crude continued. Per barrel crude oil prices traded near Rs 3060 levels. The value of Indian Rupee against the U.S. Dollar increased marginally by 0.04% or 0.03 to trade at Rs 62.77. According to leading financial sources, Reserve Bank of India purchased nearly $12.2 billion to minimize the damage of volatile currency movements on Indian Rupee.

As per the recently released economic data, India's Current Account Deficit (CAD) for three months (October - December) came as per expectations. The, CAD of India came to $8.2 billion for three months ending December FY15. The CAD narrowed on the back of increase in exports and slight increase in imports; resulting in inflow of funds that narrowed the CAD. On a QoQ basis, the CAD declined from $10.1 billion to $8.2 billion, however, on YoY basis CAD doubled itself from $4.2 billion.

The foreign exchange reserves for the first nine months of the current fiscal increased by $16.4 billion. This is much higher than the reading of $1.8 billion recorded last year same period. According to the Reserve Bank of India, the forex reserve as of December 26, 2014 stood at $320 billion. Factors responsible for the increase in forex reserves are increased in foreign investments and decline in current account balance. Foreign investments increased $52.2 billion while current account balance declined $26.3 billion. On the other hand, capital account showed a positive movement of $57.6 billion.