Indian equity benchmarks joined
global sell-off on Monday, as both Sensex and Nifty ended in red, suffering
from their worst losses. The start of day was disappointing, impacted by
jitteriness on the street ahead of declaration of elections results of the five
major states - Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Telangana and Rajasthan -
on December 11. The exit polls for five states showed that Prime Minister
Narendra Modi's popularity is in doubt going into 2019 election. Domestic
sentiments were also got cautious with former chief economic advisor Arvind
Subramanian's statement that the new gross domestic product back-series data,
released late last month by the Central Statistics Office and NITI Aayog,
raised a lot of questions and hurt the credibility of official data. Adding
more anxiety, the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) data showed that India's
current account deficit (CAD) widened to 2.9% of the Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) in the second quarter of the fiscal compared to 1.1% in the year-ago
period, mainly due to a large trade deficit. Some concerns also came with a
report that foreign investors have pulled put close to Rs 400 crore from the
Indian stock market in the last five trading sessions amid weakness in global
equities due to the arrest of a high-profile Chinese executive. The trade
remained under pressure throughout the session, following weak global markets
amid trade worries. Weakness continued on the markets, despite rise in direct
tax collections. As per the data released by finance ministry, revenue from
direct tax grew 14.7% to Rs 5.51 lakh crore in the first eight months of the
current financial year 2018-19 (April-March). The market participants failed to
take any sense of relief with IMF's Chief Economist Maurice Obstfeld's
statement that India's growth has been very solid over the past four years and
he praised the fundamental economic reforms like the GST and the Insolvency and
Bankruptcy Code carried out by the government. The street paid no heed towards
RBI's weekly statistical supplement showing that India's foreign exchange
(forex) reserves rose by $932.8 million during the week ended November 30.
Traders even overlooked Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's statement that the
number of income tax payers can double to almost 12 crore, amid increasing
formalisation of the economy. He also expects number to go up to 7.6 crore
before the present government completes its five year term and noted that as
many as 6.86 crore I-T returns have been filed this year. Finally, the BSE
Sensex plunged 713.53 points or 2.00% to 34,959.72, while the CNX Nifty was
down by 205.25 points or 1.92% to 10,488.45.
The US markets ended marginally
higher on Monday as traders went bargain hunting after the early weakness
extended the sell-off seen last week. Further, some support also came in as
renewed confidence in the strength of the US economy offset lingering worries
over the US-China trade dispute. The Dow and the S&P 500 rebounded after
hitting their lowest intraday levels in seven and eight months, respectively.
However, traders remained on the sidelines amid a lack of major US economic
data. The economic calendar remains relatively light throughout the week,
although reports on producer and consumer price inflation, retail sales, and
industrial production are likely to attract attention in the coming days.
Meanwhile, investors were increasingly focusing on the December 18-19 Federal
Reserve meeting, where the central bank is widely expected to raise interest
rates. On the economic front, a report released by the Federal Reserve on
Friday showed a substantial increase in US consumer credit in the month of
October. The report said consumer credit spiked by $25.4 billion in October
after climbing by an upwardly revised $11.6 billion in September. Street had
expected consumer credit to jump by $17.0 billion compared to the $10.9 billion
increase originally reported for the previous month. Dow Jones Industrial
Average rose 34.31 points or 0.14 percent to 24423.26 and S&P 500 added
4.64 points or 0.18 percent to 2637.72 and Nasdaq was up by 51.27 points or
0.74 percent to 7020.52.
Crude oil futures ended sharply
lower on Monday on growing concerns over a slowdown in energy demand, failing
to extend last week's rally in prices following the Organisation of the
Petroleum Exporting Countries-led agreement among major producers to cut back
on production. Both crude benchmarks marked their lowest settlements for a
front-month contract since November 30. Meanwhile, prices had fallen by more
than 30% by late November, after reaching multiyear highs as recently as early
October. Benchmark crude oil futures for January dropped $1.61 or 3.1 percent
to settle $51 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. February Brent
crude declined $1.70 or 2.8 percent to settle at $59.97 a barrel on London's
Intercontinental Exchange.
Indian rupee ended tumbled on
Monday as nagging worries on global trade war front and uncertain crude prices
hurt forex market sentiment. Market participants remained concerned about the
Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) data showing that India's current account deficit
(CAD) widened to 2.9% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the second quarter
of the fiscal compared to 1.1% in the year-ago period, mainly due to a large
trade deficit. Adding some anxiety on the street, former chief economic advisor
Arvind Subramanian said that the new gross domestic product back-series data,
released late last month by the Central Statistics Office and NITI Aayog,
raised a lot of questions and hurt the credibility of official data. On the
global front, the dollar gained ground against all of its major rivals on
Monday. The lack of US economic data is keeping some investors on the sidelines
at the start of the new trading week. However, some new Brexit developments
have pushed the currency sharply higher against the British pound. Finally, the
rupee ended at 71.32, 65 paise weaker from its previous close of 70.67 on
Friday.
The
FIIs as per Monday's data were net buyers in equity and debt segments both. In
equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 9198.34 crore against gross selling
of Rs 4453.17 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs
1550.36 crore with gross sales of Rs 414.09 crore. Besides, in the hybrid
segment, the gross selling was of Rs 0.75 crore against no buying.
The US markets end higher on
Monday as investors overcame concerns over the fate of US-China trade talks,
and after U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May delayed a parliamentary vote on
Brexit. Asian markets were trading mostly in red on Tuesday as investors
shrugged off a rebound on Wall Street from sharp losses, with trade and U.K.
political concerns lingering. Indian markets ended in red territory with cut of
around two percent, tracking sell-off in global markets over slowdown concerns
coupled with weakening rupee and crude oil price rise. Investors also turned
jittery over exit poll results. Today, the markets are likely to make gap-down
opening for second consecutive session after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
governor Urjit Patel's unexpected resignation from his post on Monday. The
government and the RBI have been fighting for weeks over how much autonomy the
RBI should have as the administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks to
reduce curbs on lending and to gain access to the RBI's surplus reserves. Also,
traders will be cautious ahead of outcome of assembly elections in five states
of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Mizoram later in the
day. Traders will also be concerned about Moody's Investors Service's statement
that the independence of a country's central bank is an important consideration
while assessing a country's institutional strength and any attempt by the government
to curtail it would be credit negative. To a query on the sovereign rating
impact of the developments around RBI, Moody's said while the motivation for
the RBI Governor's resignation is unclear, the independence of a country's
central bank is an important consideration in their assessment of a sovereign's
institutional strength. Meanwhile, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu
stated that the New Industrial Policy, which will replace the 27-year-old
existing policy, has been sent for the Union Cabinet's consideration. The new
industrial policy aims to resolve bottlenecks arising from inadequate
infrastructure, restrictive labour laws and complicated business environment.
There will be some buzz in the airline industry stocks after rating agency ICRA
assigned a negative outlook to the domestic airline industry even as it expects
the passenger traffic growth to remain healthy at about 15-16% in the
medium-term. Also, there will be some reaction in gems and jewellery related
stocks with the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council's (GJEPC) report
that the gems and jewellery exports are likely to grow by up to 5% this
financial year, mainly aided by improving demand in the US market during the
upcoming Christmas season.
Support and Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE Nifty
|
10,488.45
|
10,455.98
|
10,539.88
|
BSE Sensex
|
34,959.72
|
34,834.67
|
35,165.87
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
|
Previous close (Rs)
|
Support (Rs)
|
Resistance (Rs)
|
(in Lacs)
|
IOC
|
506.10
|
134.35
|
129.33
|
137.53
|
Yes Bank
|
503.80
|
165.65
|
160.60
|
170.10
|
ONGC
|
330.97
|
137.10
|
134.42
|
140.52
|
NTPC
|
286.97
|
136.20
|
134.18
|
138.73
|
Sun Pharma
|
246.91
|
399.00
|
394.28
|
406.48
|
Lupin has received the Establishment Inspection Report from the United States Food and Drug Administration for its Pithampur (Unit 3) facility.
Tata Motors Group global wholesales in November 2018, including Jaguar Land Rover, were at 1,04,964 nos., lower by 7%, as compared to November 2017.
Maruti Suzuki has achieved the milestone of five lakh CNG vehicles sales in India, cumulatively.
HCL Technologies has entered into a new five-year contract with multinational life insurance, pensions and asset management company Aegon.