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Indian Indices Continue Momentum; Sensex Ends 268 Points Higher
Tue, 19 Mar Closing

After opening the day marginally higher, Indian share markets continued their momentum and ended their day on a positive note. Sectoral indices ended on a mixed note with stocks in the telecom sector and energy sector witnessed maximum buying interest while capital goods stocks and auto stocks witnessed selling pressure.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 268 points (up 0.7%) and the NSE Nifty closed higher by 70 points (up 0.6%). The BSE Mid Cap index ended the day up by 0.5%, while the BSE Small Cap index ended the day up by 0.4%.

Asian stock markets finished on a negative note as of the most recent closing prices. The Hang Seng was up 0.2% and the Nikkei was trading down by 0.1%. The Shanghai Composite stood lower by 0.2%.

The rupee was trading at 68.92 to the US$ at the time of writing.

In the news from the aviation space, Jet Airways share price witnessed selling pressure today amid massive cancellation of flights by the airline due to grounding of a large part of its fleet.

As per reports, Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu directed his ministry's secretary to hold an emergency meeting on Jet Airways massively cancelling flights after grounding of a large part of its fleet.

Shares of the company fell 5% on back of the above news.

The minister's direction came in the wake of the airline drastically reducing its operations due to liquidity crunch.

Note that reports had also suggested that the debt-laden airline could be staring at another default of US$ 109 million, which is to be paid by March 28 to the HSBC Bank Middle East as the second tranche of the US$ 140-million loan it had taken in 2014 and for which Etihad stood guarantor.

On March 11, Jet Airways defaulted on its external commercial borrowings (ECBs) of US$ 31 million, payable to HSBC and guaranteed by Etihad Airways.

An early resolution to the financial woes is crucial for crisis-hit Jet Airways as 61 of its 116 aircraft are currently grounded by lessors due to non-payment of lease rentals. It has also delayed salaries to pilots and interest payments on its debt.

Jet Airways had tried to lease or sell some of its owned aircraft to raise money that could help pare its over Rs 80 billion debt.

How this pans out remains to be seen. Meanwhile, we will keep you updated on all the developments from this space.

Moving on, Auto stocks remained under pressure for the second straight day on concerns of production cut due to slower demand.

TVS Motor company, Eicher Motors and Hero MotoCorp ended down in the range of 2-3% while Ashok Leyland, Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki ended down by 1%.

Maruti Suzuki has fallen nearly 4% in the past two trading days over a report that the company cut production by a quarter over March last year.

As per an article in The Economic Times, Maruti is estimated to have cut production to around 126,000 units as compared to more than 172,000 units a year ago, which is a 26.8% reduction.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

  • A slowing demand in India's passenger vehicle market has prompted the car market leader, Maruti Suzuki India, to cut production by a quarter over March last year.

    Slowing demand and uncertainties ahead of the elections pushed the production level this month to its lowest since March 2015.

Reports state that CY19 is a challenging year for the automobile sector given slow demand trends, need for channel inventory correction, and most importantly, significant regulatory-led cost push.

The February retails reflect sustained weak volume trends across segments in February. Total vehicle retails were down 8% YoY whereas wholesales were down 4% YoY.

The domestic Commercial Vehicle (CV) industry is witnessing cycles within a cycle, led by regulatory changes, financing issues and the upcoming Lok Sabha election.

Also, speaking of the auto sector, India's auto sales slowed down in past few months due to weak consumer sentiment because of high interest rate, a spike in fuel price and insurance cost and liquidity crunch.

During H1 of FY18, the sector grew 11% in which CV & tractor segment expanding 34% and 13% while PVs grew by only 7%. On the other hand, higher rural participation has led the 2-wheeler & 3-wheeler segments to grew 36% and 10%.

It is interesting to note that one out of every three household in India is a buyer of their products. They own some of the cult brands in Indian automobile space.

They have formidable R&D teams. They have been through several economic cycles over decades. Few have even visited near-bankruptcy in the past and come out successful.

Yet, some of the biggest passenger car, commercial vehicle, and two-wheeler companies in India have seen a huge dent in valuations in recent times. This is evident in the chart below:

Bluechip Auto Are Stocks Way Off Their Valuation Peaks

Tanushree Banerjee, Co-head of Research at Equitymaster believes, this could be the opportunity long term investors were waiting for.

To know what's moving the Indian stock markets today, check out the most recent share market updates here.

For information on how to pick stocks that have the potential to deliver big returns, download our special report now!

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