Indian equity
benchmarks ended marginally higher on Wednesday driven by gains in select
heavyweights including JSW Steel, Tata Steel and Power Grid, amid broadly
positive global cues. Markets made a positive start and extended gains as the
day progressed, as traders took some support with a private report that India's
GDP growth is likely to average 7% from 2024-25 to 2029-30. Some support also
came with report stating that the government is formulating action plans for as
many as 20 agricultural products including banana, mangoes, potato and baby
corn with a view to further boost export of these commodities. Traders took
note of an article in the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) monthly bulletin
released that to achieve its developmental goals over the next three decades,
the Indian economy must grow at a rate of 8-10 per annum over the next decade
to reap the demographic dividend that started accruing from 2018 and, as
calculations show, will last till 2055. However, markets trimmed some gains in
late afternoon deals, as traders turned cautious with the Reserve Bank of
India’s (RBI) latest bulletin stating that extreme weather events along with
prolonged geopolitical tensions could pose a risk to India’s inflation
trajectory, even as growth in the South Asian nation exhibits an uptrend. It
said food price pressures have been interrupting the ongoing disinflation
process even as shocks from adverse climate events and geopolitical tensions
add uncertainties to the outlook. Some concern also came as the country's
agriculture exports declined by 8.8 per cent to $43.7 billion during April-February
period of 2023-24 fiscal due to factors like the Red Sea crisis, Russia-Ukraine
war, and domestic restrictions imposed on critical items like rice, wheat,
sugar and onion. According to the data of the commerce ministry, the exports
stood at $47.9 billion in April-February 2022-23. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose
114.49 points or 0.16% to 73,852.94 and the CNX Nifty was up by 34.40 points or
0.15% points to 22,402.40.
The US markets ended mostly in
green on Wednesday. A positive reaction to the latest corporate earnings news
initially contributed to an extended rebound on markets following the
considerable weakness seen last week. Shares of Tesla (TSLA) spiked by 12.1
percent even though the electric vehicle maker reported weaker than expected
first quarter results. The surge by Tesla came after CEO Elon Musk said the
company plans to start production of a new affordable model by early 2025.
Semiconductor company Texas Instruments (TXN) also saw significant strength
after reporting first quarter results that beat expectations on both the top
and bottom lines. Shares of Visa (V) and Mattel (MAT) also moved to the upside
after the companies reported better than expected quarterly results. However,
buying interest waned shortly after the start of trading, with traders still
worried about the outlook for interest rates ahead of next week's Federal
Reserve meeting. The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged.
Later this week, the Commerce Department is due to release a report on personal
income and spending that includes readings on inflation said to be preferred by
the Fed. On the sectoral front, the Commerce Department released a report
showing new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods surged by more than
expected in the month of March. The report said durable goods orders soared by
2.6 percent in March after climbing by a downwardly revised 0.7 percent in
February. Street had expected durable goods orders to spike by 2.3 percent
compared to the 1.3 percent jump that had been reported for the previous month.
Crude oil futures ended lower on
Wednesday on stronger dollar. Traders tracked progress toward fresh sanctions
against Iran, with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian expressing
disapproval of the European Union's recent move to broaden sanctions. Oil
prices fell despite crude oil inventories in the U.S. unexpectedly pulled back
sharply in the week ended April 19th, according to a report released by the
Energy Information Administration (EIA). The EIA said crude oil inventories
plunged by 6.4 million barrels last week after jumping by 2.7 million barrels
in the previous week. Street had expected crude oil inventories to increase by
1.6 million barrels. Benchmark crude oil futures for June delivery fell $0.55
or 0.66% to settle at $82.81 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent crude for June delivery dropped $0.40 or 0.45% to $88.02 per barrel on
London's Intercontinental Exchange.
Indian rupee consolidated in a
narrow range and settled almost unchanged against the US dollar on Wednesday,
as the support from positive domestic equities was negated by rising American
currency. Elevated crude oil prices and significant foreign fund outflows in
the international market dented investors' sentiments. Some concern also came
as the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) latest bulletin stated that extreme
weather events along with prolonged geopolitical tensions could pose a risk to
India’s inflation trajectory, even as growth in the South Asian nation exhibits
an uptrend. It said food price pressures have been interrupting the ongoing
disinflation process even as shocks from adverse climate events and
geopolitical tensions add uncertainties to the outlook. On the global front,
U.S. dollar regained some lost ground on Wednesday following big falls against
the euro and sterling the day before, while the yen remained mired near 34-year
lows even as Japanese officials stepped up intervention warnings. Finally, the
rupee ended at 83.30 (Provisional), stronger by 1 paise from its previous close
of 83.31 on Tuesday.
The FIIs as per Wednesday's data
were net sellers in both equity and debt segments. In equity segment, the gross
buying was of Rs 15040.45 crore against gross selling of Rs 18498.57 crore,
while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 753.47 crore with gross
sales of Rs 2629.00 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was
of Rs 54.44 crore against gross selling of Rs 51.79 crore.
The US markets ended mostly in
green with marginal gains on Wednesday as investors weighed an uptick in
Treasury yields amid positive corporate results particularly from technology
giants. Asian markets are trading mixed on Thursday mirroring moves on Wall
Street ahead of the US first-quarter gross domestic product figures due on
April 25. Indian markets ended range-bound session with slim gains on Wednesday
as selling pressure in information technology (IT) stocks intensified in the
fag-end. Today, markets are likely to get cautious start amid mixed global
cues. Foreign fund outflows likely to dent sentiments. Foreign institutional
investors (FIIs) net sold shares worth Rs 2,511.74 crore on April 24,
provisional data from the NSE showed. However, some support may come with a
private report that merger and acquisition (M&A) deal value soared by 60
per cent to USD 19.6 billion in January-March 2024, while that of private
equity (PE) experienced a slight dip. With 455 deals amounting to $25.6 billion
disclosed value, the first quarter of 2024 showcases a 24 per cent rise in deal
volume compared to the fourth quarter of calendar year 2023 - marking a notable
resurgence. Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued Master
Direction to the Asset Reconstruction Companies. An Asset Reconstruction
Company (ARC) is a financial institution that buys the Non-Performing Assets
(NPA) or bad assets from banks and financial institutions so that the latter
can clean up their balance sheets. There will be some buzz in pharma industry
stocks with the commerce ministry data showing that the country's drugs and
pharmaceuticals exports increased 9.67 per cent year-on-year to $27.9 billion
in 2023-24, even as the total exports dipped by 3 per cent in the last fiscal.
In 2022-23, the exports stood at $25.4 billion. As per the data, pharma exports
in March grew by 12.73 per cent to $2.8 billion. IT sector stocks will be in
focus as Crisil Ratings said the Indian IT services sector is staring at a
second consecutive year of muted revenue growth due to modest increase in tech
spends in Europe and the US. It expects the sector to grow at 5-7 per cent in
FY25, after a growth of 6 per cent estimated to have been achieved in FY24.
There will be some reaction in sugar industry stocks with report that the
government has allowed sugar mills to use 6.7 lakh tonnes of B-heavy molasses
as feedstock for making ethanol in the current year. The move comes following
the industry's representations to the food ministry to allow B-heavy molasses
for ethanol production and improve the finances of the sugar mills. On the
earnings front, Nestle India, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Finance, Indusind Bank,
Glenmark Life Sciences, Coromandel International, Cyient, L&T Technology
Services, Laurus Labs, Mphasis, Schaeffler India, Tanla Platforms, UTI Asset
Management Co., and Zensar Technologies will report their Q4FY24 results today,
April 25, 2024.
Support and
Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE
Nifty
|
22,402.40
|
22,365.45
|
22,457.90
|
BSE
Sensex
|
73,852.94
|
73,720.49
|
74,053.49
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
|
Previous close (Rs)
|
Support (Rs)
|
Resistance (Rs)
|
(in Lacs)
|
Tata
Steel
|
598.95
|
165.70
|
162.46
|
167.91
|
Power
Grid
|
193.24
|
290.10
|
285.71
|
293.16
|
Hindalco
|
117.76
|
636.00
|
617.25
|
646.20
|
HDFC
Bank
|
112.21
|
1512.90
|
1507.39
|
1520.09
|
NTPC
|
111.32
|
351.60
|
348.21
|
354.06
|
- Tata Motors’ subsidiary -- TPEM
has signed a non-binding MoU with Vertelo, a Macquarie managed integrated fleet
electrification platform, for the delivery of 2,000 XPRES-T EVs.
- NTPC has signed a Supplementary
Joint Venture Agreement-3 with NHPC, POWERGRID, DVC & CPRI.
- L&T has manufactured a
hydrotreating reactor for the Antonio Dovali Jaime Refinery at Salina Cruz, in
Mexico.
- Bharti Airtel has registered 2.2
million customers using 5G service in the state of Kerala.