Indian equity benchmarks
continued their positive momentum for the fourth consecutive session and ended
Thursday's session with handsome gains of over three percent, tracking
favourable global cues as positive results for experimental remdesivir drug
towards Covid-19 treatment. Markets started session on a higher note, as the
government's announcement to give considerable relief to many districts post
May 4 boosted sentiments. Traders took encouragement with Niti Aayog CEO
Amitabh Kant's statement that India's COVID-19 recovery rate has improved from
15% on April 19 to 24.56% as of April 29. Some optimism also came as a
government task force has firmed up a road map for capital investments of Rs
111 lakh crore in infrastructure over six years through FY25, pledging 71% of
the expenditure for energy, roads, urban development and railways, and
envisaging a key role for private investors. Buying got intensified in the
afternoon session, taking support from Open Budget Survey indicating that India
has been placed at 53rd position among 117 nations in terms of budget
transparency and accountability. The survey, conducted by International Budget
Partnership (IBP), has provided India's Union Budget process a transparency
score of 49 out of 100, which is higher than the global average of 45. However,
markets trimmed most of gains in late afternoon session but still ended with
solid gains, as sentiments remained buoyant with Agriculture Minister Narendra
Singh Tomar's statement that the country's farm sector is functioning smoothly
despite COVID-19 lockdown and there will not be much impact on its growth in
the current fiscal unlike other sectors. Agriculture and allied sector's growth
stood at 3.7 per cent during the 2019-20 fiscal. A strong rupee further
strengthened investors' sentiment on Dalal Street. Indian rupee has ended
higher by 57 paise at 75.09 per dollar, amid weak American currency in the
overseas market. Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 997.46 points or 3.05% to
33,717.62, while the CNX Nifty was up by 306.55 points or 3.21% to 9,859.90.
The US markets ended lower on
Friday amid disappointing earnings reports. The steep drop in shares of Amazon
came after the company reported weaker than expected first quarter earnings.
Shares of Honeywell also came under pressure after the conglomerate reported
first quarter earnings that beat estimates but weaker than expected sales.
Apple also moved to the downside after the tech giant reported better than
expected quarterly results but declined to provide guidance amid uncertainty
about the coronavirus pandemic. Further, weakness also prevailed in the markets
amid the potential resumption of US-China trade tensions. On the economic data
front, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) released a report showing
manufacturing activity continued to contract in the month of April. The ISM
said its purchasing managers index slumped to 41.5 in April from 49.1 in March,
with a reading below 50 indicating a contraction in manufacturing activity. The
manufacturing index showed a notable decrease compared to the previous month
but still came in above street estimates for a reading of 36.9. With the
decline, the purchasing managers index dropped to its lowest level since
hitting 39.9 in April of 2009. Meanwhile, a separate report released by the
Commerce Department showed an unexpected increase in construction spending in
the month of March. The Commerce Department said construction spending climbed
by 0.9 percent to an annual rate of $1.361 trillion in March after tumbling by
2.5 percent to a revised $1.348 trillion in February. The increase came as a
surprise to market participants, who had expected construction spending to
plunge by 3.5 percent compared to the 1.3 percent slump originally reported for
the previous month.
Crude oil futures ended higher on
Friday as the market marked the official start date for production cuts under
the recent agreement between major oil producers. The Organization of the
Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, collectively known as
OPEC+, were due to start cutting production after agreeing in April to reduce
output by 9.7 million barrels a day in May and June. The move was meant to
offset a severe drop in global demand on the back of travel restrictions tied
to preventing the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. Further, Oil prices were also
supported by a report from Baker Hughes that said the number of active rigs
drilling for oil in the US dropped by 52 to 325 this week, declining for a seventh
successive week. Crude oil futures for June gained 94 cents or 5 percent to
settle at $19.78 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. However, June
Brent crude lost 4 cents or 0.2 percent to settle at $26.44 a barrel on
London's Intercontinental Exchange.
Indian rupee continued its upward
momentum for the fourth day and ended fairly higher against US dollar on
Thursday, on the back of aggressive selling of the American currency by
exporters. Sentiments got up-beat with Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant's statement
that India's COVID-19 recovery rate has improved from 15% on April 19 to 24.56%
as of April 29. Gains in domestic equity benchmarks in tandem with global
markets along with weakness in the dollar overseas also supported the rupee.
Traders took a note of former Union minister and Rajya Sabha member Suresh
Prabhu's statement that India should leverage technology towards manufacturing
in the post-COVID-19 scenario to tap consumption-based economies like the US
and Japan. On the global front, the dollar nursed losses on Thursday after the
U.S. Federal Reserve left the door open to more monetary easing and dampened
expectations for a quick economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
Finally, the rupee ended at 75.09, 57 paise stronger from its previous close of
75.66 on Wednesday.
The FIIs as per Thursday's data
were net buyers in equity segment, while they were net sellers in debt segment.
In equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 5587.68 crore against gross
selling of Rs 4802.38 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was
of Rs 1461.66 crore with gross sales of Rs 5494.57 crore. Besides, in the
hybrid segment, the gross buying was of Rs 16.07 crore against gross selling of
Rs 5.62 crore.
The US markets ended sharply
lower on Friday amid negative reaction to earnings and contraction in economic
data of manufacturing activity for the month of April. Asian markets are
trading in red on Monday as rising US-China tensions over the coronavirus and
oil prices fell further turned investors cautious. Indian markets before going
for a long weekend holiday ended higher with notable gains for fourth straight
session on Thursday mirroring firm global cues. Markets remain closed on May
01, 2020, for Maharashtra Day. Today, the start of session is likely to be weak
following lackluster trade in Asian peers. Investors will be looking ahead to
the Manufacturing PMI data to be out later in the day. Traders will be
concerned with report that India has entered the third phase of its nationwide
lockdown. The worldometer data showed that the total number of coronavirus
cases in the country has reached 42,505 and there have been 1,391 fatalities so
far. There will be some cautiousness with government data showing that India's
core sector output contracted 6.5% in March, marking the worst performance by
the key infrastructure areas going back to 2005, as the nationwide lockdown to
combat the spread of Covid-19 stalled the economy. However, traders may take
some support later in the day with report that direct tax collection surged
36.5% to Rs 34,784 crore in the first month of fiscal year 2020-21, despite a
nationwide lockdown, thanks to a 63% year-on-year fall in tax refunds in April.
Some support may also come as Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a series of
meetings with key cabinet ministers and officials of economic ministries to
firm up the second stimulus package to lift the economy reeling under the
impact of coronavirus-induced lockdown. Traders may take note of report that
describing infrastructure development as an enabler for growth, a finance
ministry-constituted task force has observed that creating new and upgrading
existing infra projects with Rs 111 lakh crore investment will be key to
raising India's competitiveness and achieving $5 trillion economy goal by 2025.
There will be some buzz in the auto stocks reacting their monthly sales
figures. Eicher Motors April auto sales plunged 98%, while Maruti Suzuki
reported zero sales in domestic market. Sugar stocks will be in focus with
ISMA's report that India's sugar production fell 20% to 258.01 lakh tonne in
the current marketing year ending September due to lower cane output, while
sales plummeted during the last two months because of the lockdown. There will
be lots of earnings reaction based on the performance of the companies.
Support and
Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE Nifty
|
9,859.90
|
9,764.58
|
9,922.13
|
BSE Sensex
|
33,717.62
|
33,419.28
|
33,951.60
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
|
Previous close (Rs)
|
Support (Rs)
|
Resistance (Rs)
|
(in Lacs)
|
Tata Motors
|
1,706.45
|
93.25
|
88.22
|
96.02
|
Vedanta
|
636.87
|
89.55
|
83.70
|
93.20
|
State Bank of India
|
630.69
|
190.10
|
185.13
|
193.43
|
Oil & Natural Gas
Corporation
|
542.95
|
79.90
|
73.92
|
83.47
|
Hindalco Industries
|
459.94
|
130.20
|
122.40
|
135.10
|
Britannia Industries has launched WhatsApp-based Store Locator service for its customers to help them find its range of products in nearby stores during the lockdown.
Wipro and Nutanix, a leader in enterprise cloud computing have launched Wipro's Digital Database Services powered by Nutanix Era and Nutanix HCI software.
Credit rating agency -- S&P Global has affirmed its BBB+ rating with a stable outlook on Reliance Industries.
Coal India has reported fall in its production by 10.9% to 40.38 million tonnes in April 2020.