Plethora of positives and an upward gradient are reasons to smile

Serbian protestors demonstrate against air strikes in Syria in Belgrade The US Britain and France took military action in response to an alleged chemical attack within Syria The US markets had reacted to the attack initially PicAFPMarkets continued their upward trend and gained for the third week in a row Yet another way of looking at it is the fact that the change in financial year has brought about a positive trend BSESENSEX gained 56568 points or 165 per cent to close at 3419265 points NIFTY gained 149 points or 142 per cent to close at 1048060 points The broader market saw BSE100 BSE200 and BSE500 gain 121 per cent 117 per cent and 108 per cent respectively BSEMIDCAP gained 049 per cent while BSESMALLCAP gained 055 per cent respectivelyStock sceneThe top sectoral gainer was BSEIT up 429 per cent followed by BSEMETAL 330 per cent and BSETECK 322 per cent The top loser was BSEOILampGAS down 107 per cent followed by BSEREALTY 058 per cent and BSEHEACARE 004 per cent In individual stocks the top gainer was Hindalco up 993 per cent followed by Axis Bank 760 per cent and TCS 639 per cent The top losers were the Oil Marketing Companies where BPCL lost 707 per cent HPCL 608 per cent and IOC 557 per cent followed by Lupin 371 per centDow trackThe Indian Rupee lost 23 paisa or 035 per cent to close at R 6520 to the US dollar Dow Jones continued its upward journey and was up 42739 points or 175 per cent at 2436014 points Late on Friday evening after markets closed in the US missiles were fired on Syria to destroy chemicals and facilities used for making deadly chemicals While Dow futures reacted on Friday night they were back to normal on Sunday at the time of writing thisInvestigations onInvestigation in the ICICI Bank case is on with the brotherinlaw and husband of Chanda Kochhar being questioned regularly The buck does not stop here is becoming more and more clear and there would be serious developments in the coming week What however is baffling is why the ICICI Bank board gave a clean chit so quickly and without any investigation In the case of Axis Bank the incumbent CEO Shikha Sharma would be stepping down from the post by the end of the current calendar year The prospects of the bank being taken over by another bank saw the share price rally significantlyLosing groundIn primary market news shares of Lemon Tree Hotels Limited listed on the bourses on Monday April 9 The company had issued shares through an offer for sale at Rs 56 The issue was subscribed by QIBs while HNI and Retail portion was subscribed a mere 12 per cent each The share closed at R 7160 a gain of R 1560 or 2786 per cent The share lost some ground during the week and closed at Rs 6765 up 2080 per cent There was no other primary market news other than Lemon Tree It appears the market conditions seem to have unnerved merchant bankers and promoters alikeLost auraIT major Infosys has declared results for the quarter and year ended March 2018 Its net profit for the year was at R 16029 crore against R 14353 crore in the previous year This includes a write back of Rs 1432 crore on account of a tax provision made in the US on which they received an advance ruling The EPS for the year was R 71 against R 6277 in the previous year The write back resulted in an EPS accretion of R 588 for the year The company had also done a buyback during the year which resulted in reduction of equity and hence higher earnings The company has guided for revenue growth of 6 to 8 per cent for next year What is important to note is that they have decided to sell Kallidus Skava and Panaya Panaya was the controversial acquisition during Vishal Sikkarsquos regime Infosys results are average One needs to see higher growth if the company has to regain its lost auraThe trendResults season for the quarter has begun and there is lot of expectation of better results this quarter Based on this expectation and the fact that the last financial year saw a selloff in markets towards the end is the reason for the upbeat mood in the markets currently It appears prudent to ride the rally and use any sharp dips on account of geopolitical tensions as buying opportunities Ride the trend and allow markets to move on The only negative for India currently is crude oil prices which could be a dampener if the upward trend in them continuesArun Kejriwal is founder of the Mumbaibased advisory firm Kejriwal Research amp Investment Services Pvt Ltd Disclaimer No financial information whatsoever published anywhere in this newspaper should be construed as an offer to buy or sell securities or as advice to do so in any way whatsoever All matter published here is for educational and information purposes onlyCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates