Asian stocks opened in green following a strong performance by global equities last week. Japanese shares are higher as the Nikkei 225 gains 0.50%. The Shanghai Composite is trading up by 0.15%. Stock markets stateside were closed the previous session for Good Friday.

Back home, India share markets opened the day on a firm note. The BSE Sensex is trading higher by 147 points while the NSE Nifty is trading higher by 52 points. The BSE Mid Cap index and BSE Small Cap index opened the day up by 0.4% & 0.7% respectively.

Barring bank stocks, all sectoral indices have opened the day in green with automobile stocks and energy stocks witnessing buying interest. The rupee is trading at 65.04 to the US$.

ICICI Bank share price fell over 4.2% on the reports that the bank sanctioned Rs 32.5 billion of loans to Videocon Group because its chairman Venugopal Dhoot supposedly had dealings with NuPower Renewables, founded by ICICI Bank’s MD & CEO Chanda Kochhar’s husband Deepak Kochhar.

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd’s March domestic passenger car sales rose 13.3% from a year earlier to 147,170 units, led by growth across segments.

It is typically observed in March that auto firms dispatch more to their dealerships in a bid to liquidate unsold stock before closing accounts for the fiscal year, the reports noted. Automakers in India report dispatches to dealerships as sales.The utility vehicle (UV) segment, not included under passenger cars, grew 24.3% to 22,764 units in March, driven by sales of Maruti’s Vitara Brezza and S-Cross models.

The compact car segment comprising Baleno, Swift and Ignis hatchbacks clocked sales of 68,885 units, rising 13.5% from a year-ago.

Sales in the minicar segment, comprising old workhorses Alto and WagonR, rose 21.1% to 37,511 units.

Meanwhile, sales of the mid-sized Ciaz sedan declined 12.1% to 4,321 units, in line with a trend prevalent since July 2017, when the government withdrew the benefits extended to hybrid models under the goods and services tax (GST) regime.