Extending their gains for fifth
straight session, Indian equity benchmarks ended Friday's trade with a gain of
around three fourth of a percent, with frontline gauges surpassing their crucial
38,000 (Sensex) and 11,400 (Nifty) levels. Sentiments remained upbeat
throughout the session and markets started the day with a decent gains with
traders taking encouragement with private report that the Reserve Bank of
India's (RBI) $5 billion plan to swap rupees for dollars with domestic banks
will help achieve its twin objectives of pushing interest rates down while also
preventing a sharp appreciation in the rupee. Markets extended northward
journey, as sentiment improved further with Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan's
statement that India's exports are likely to touch an all-time high of $330
billion in the current fiscal ending March 31 (FY19), braving global challenges
such as protectionist measures. He added that the country's engineering exports
have grown significantly in recent years, notwithstanding major global
challenges. Sentiments also remained jubilant with EEPC India-Deloitte strategy
paper stating that India can achieve a three-fold aspirational increase in its
engineering exports to reach $200 billion by 2025, if concerted efforts are
made by the government and industry to develop a conducive ecosystem, and
ensuring inputs at competitive prices. Traders took note of the RBI's statement
that financial sector regulators discussed ways to address challenges
pertaining to the quality of credit ratings and other issues concerning the
economy. It added that the sub-committee reviewed the major developments on the
global and domestic fronts that impinge on the financial stability of the
country. However, traders trimmed some of their gains in last leg of trade, as
investors remain little concerned with principal economic advisor's report that
the economic growth during the UPA era was not bad, but the system was out of
control. The economy then faced problems of rising soaring inflation, widening
and current account fiscal deficit. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 269.43 points
or 0.71% to 38,024.32, while the CNX Nifty was up by 83.60 points or 0.74% to
11,426.85.
The US markets ended higher on
Friday, with gains of over half a percent, amid optimism about US-China trade
talks coupled with indications of more Chinese economic stimulus. Chinese
Premier Li Keqiang pledged support for the slowing economy. Li said the country
could use reserve requirements and interest rates to prevent a sharper
deceleration in the world's second-largest economy. Investors overlooked the
disappointing US economic data, including a Federal Reserve report showing
industrial production rose by much less than expected in the month of February.
The Fed said industrial production inched up by 0.1% in February after falling
by a revised 0.4% in January. The uptick in production came as a spike in
utilities output and an increase in mining output was largely offset by a
continued drop in manufacturing output. Besides, a separate report from the New
York Fed showed an unexpected slowdown in regional manufacturing growth in the
month of March. The New York Fed said its headline general business conditions
index fell to 3.7 in March after climbing to 8.8 in February. The index
remained below 10 for the third straight month, which the New York Fed said
suggests growth has remained quite a bit slower so far this year than it was
for most of 2018. Meanwhile, preliminary data released by the University of
Michigan on Friday showed a significant improvement in US consumer sentiment in
the month of March. The report said the consumer sentiment index jumped to 97.8
in March from the final February reading of 93.8. Dow Jones Industrial Average surged
138.93 points or 0.54 percent to 25848.87, Nasdaq gained 57.62 points or 0.76
percent to 7688.53 and S&P 500 was up by 14.00 points or 0.50 percent to
2822.48.
Crude oil futures snapped
four-day winning streak and ended slightly lower on Friday amid growing signs
of tightening global supplies. Besides, renewed optimism about US-China trade
talks and a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) that said output
from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) had dropped
to its lowest level in four years capped the losses in crude oil prices.
Meanwhile, the meeting of the OPEC and non-OPEC Joint Ministerial Monitoring
Committee, scheduled for March 18. Benchmark crude oil futures for April lost 9
cents or 0.2 percent to settle at $58.52 a barrel on the New York Mercantile
Exchange. May Brent crude fell 7 cents or 0.1 percent to settle at $67.16 a
barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.
Rising
for the fifth straight session, Indian rupee ended higher against dollar on
Friday, on the back of dollar sales by investors. Investors sentiment was
supported with a private report that the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) $5
billion plan to swap rupees for dollars with domestic banks will help achieve
its twin objectives of pushing interest rates down while also preventing a sharp
appreciation in the rupee. Traders took note of the RBI's statement that
financial sector regulators discussed ways to address challenges pertaining to
the quality of credit ratings and other issues concerning the economy. It added
that the sub-committee reviewed the major developments on the global and
domestic fronts that impinge on the financial stability of the country.
Besides, weakness of dollar in the overseas market coupled with strong gains in
the local equity markets helped the domestic currency rebound. On the global
front, dollar slipped against its rivals on Friday and was set for its biggest
weekly drop in more than three months before a US central bank meeting next
week where policymakers will shed more light on the outlook for interest rates.
Finally, the rupee ended at 69.10, 24 paise stronger from its previous close of
69.34 on Thursday.
The FIIs as per Friday's data
were net buyers in equity and debt segments both. In equity segment, the gross
buying was of Rs 6160.77 crore against gross selling of Rs 4211.83 crore, while
in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 3577.49 crore with gross
sales of Rs 1989.88 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was
of Rs 0.49 crore against gross selling of Rs 2.33 crore.
The US markets ended in green on
Friday on positive signs regarding trade talks between the US and China as well
as UK lawmakers voted to delay a potentially chaotic exit from the European
Union. Asian markets rose in early trade on Monday, buoyed on speculation the
US Federal Reserve will sound decidedly dovish at its policy meeting later in
the week. Indian markets extended their northward journey for fifth straight
session and ended higher with notable gains on Friday on the back of heavy
buying from foreign investors as well as domestic investors. Today, the start
of the holiday truncated week is likely to be optimistic, tracking positive
leads from global market. Traders will be getting encouragement with the trade
ministry's statement that India's trade deficit narrowed to $9.60 billion in
February, dragged down by a fall in gold and oil imports, as compared to $14.73
billion in January. The data showed that in February, merchandise exports rose
2.44 percent from a year earlier to $26.67 billion, while imports were down
5.41 percent to $36.26 billion. Besides, gold imports in February fell 10.81 percent
year-on-year to $2.58 billion, compared to $2.90 billion during the same month
a year ago. Some support will also come with report that overseas investors
poured in more than Rs 20,400 crore in the domestic capital market in the first
half of March, mainly driven by positive global cues. Traders may take note of
report that industry body Assocham released a charter of demands to make India
a $5 trillion economy by 2025. Listing out the charter, Assocham in a statement
said it wants political parties to pledge, among other steps, to enable growth
rate of 8-8.5 per cent per annum. Meanwhile, Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
Governor Shaktikanta Das will hold discussions on March 26 with representatives
of trade bodies and credit rating agencies on interest rate and steps to boost
economic activities. There will be some buzz in the banking sector stocks with
credit rating agency ICRA's statement that reduced net non-performing assets
will drive considerable improvement in solvency of public sector banks (PSBs).
Slippages will reduce during FY20 and reach levels of 1.9-2.4%, which is
acceptable. Besides, banks may have to make higher provisions on loans to the
power sector for the quarter ending March 2019 with the RBI saying that its
February 12 circular continues to remain in force despite being challenged in
the Supreme Court.
Support and
Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE Nifty
|
11,426.85
|
11,369.43
|
11,485.63
|
BSE Sensex
|
38,024.32
|
37,771.44
|
38,265.98
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
|
Previous close (Rs)
|
Support (Rs)
|
Resistance (Rs)
|
(in Lacs)
|
Yes Bank
|
387.15
|
245.05
|
241.43
|
250.73
|
SBI
|
379.28
|
298.40
|
293.50
|
302.30
|
ICICI Bank
|
314.67
|
395.30
|
389.52
|
399.67
|
IOC
|
296.34
|
157.35
|
152.30
|
160.80
|
ITC
|
213.95
|
290.80
|
287.92
|
295.12
|
M&M has received over 13,000 bookings for its compact SUV, Mahindra XUV300.
NTPC has signed a MoU with Hazipur-based East Central Railway Zone for transportation of fly ash under Indian Railways' SFTO scheme.
Tata Motors' wholly owned subsidiary -- JLR has started a voluntary recall of around 44,000 cars in the UK over higher than certified levels of carbon dioxide emissions.
Tata Steel in partnership with Tata Trusts has inaugurated the new Comprehensive Cancer Care Facility at the newly renovated Meherbai Tata Memorial Hospital.