Indian equity bourses bounced
back to green on the last trading day of the week, with Sensex and Nifty
closing with gains of over a half percent. Key equity indices made a positive
start but failed to retain gaining momentum, as India's services sector
activity fell in month of December, as growth of new work and activity
moderated from November's recent high. As per the survey report, the seasonally
adjusted Nikkei Services Business Activity Index slipped to 53.2 in December
from 53.7 in November. Further, the Nikkei India Composite PMI Output Index --
which measures both manufacturing and services -- too eased to 53.6 in December
from 54.5 in November. Domestic sentiments also got affected with a private
report that despite crossing the Rs 1-trillion mark twice this year, the goods
and services tax (GST) collections are running well behind the budgeted target.
As opposed to a monthly target of Rs 1.04 trillion, the monthly run rate
adjusting for refunds, works out to around Rs 89,600 crore. This could force
the government to either cut its capital expenditure this year or roll over
spending on account of subsidies to next year in order to meet the fiscal
deficit target. But, in noon deals, the markets bounced back to end the session
in green, aided by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's statement that enacting the
Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) has helped lenders get Rs 80,000 crore in
66 cases and another about Rs 70,000 crore is likely to be recovered in the
remaining months of the current financial year. Separately, Finance Minister
Arun Jaitley said that there would be no loss of jobs due to merger of public
sector banks. Positive cues from the global markets also provided support to
the equity indices to hold their gains. Some support came with a report that
the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has allowed businesses
to correct any error or omission in filing of final sales return or GSTR-1 for
the period July 2017-March 2018. Now businesses can correct the errors in the
returns to be filed for January-March 2019. Finally, the BSE Sensex gained
181.39 points or 0.51% to 35,695.10, while the CNX Nifty was up by 55.10 points
or 0.52% to 10,727.35.
The US markets ended higher on
Friday, with gains of over 3 percent, on fresh signs of economic strength eased
fears that slowing growth around the world could drag on the US expansion.
Sentiment got boost on a better-than-expected jobs report for December which
showed employers adding new personnel at a robust pace. The Labor Department
said non-farm payroll employment soared by 312,000 jobs in December after
climbing by an upwardly revised 176,000 jobs in November. Street had expected
employment to increase by about 177,000 jobs. The report also said the
unemployment rate rose to 3.9% in December from 3.7% in November. However, the
unexpected uptick by the unemployment rate came as the labor force jumped by
419,000 people compared to a much more modest 142,000-person increase in the
household survey measure of employment. The Labor Department said average
hourly employee earnings payrolls climbed by 11 cents to $27.48 in December,
reflecting a 3.2% increase compared to the same month a year ago. Adding to the
optimism, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said jobs report didn't materially
increase concerns over rising inflation, while reiterating that the central
bank would continue to keep an open mind about how much it will raise interest
rates in 2019 and how aggressively it will shrink its balance sheet, based on
incoming data about the US and global economy, including recent weakness in
equity markets. The rally on Wall Street also came after China's Commerce
Ministry said China and the US would hold vice ministerial level trade talks in
Beijing next week. Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 746.94 points or 3.29
percent to 23433.16, Nasdaq surged 275.35 points or 4.26 percent to 6738.86 and
S&P 500 was up by 84.05 points or 3.43 percent to 2531.94.
Extending gains for fifth
successive session, crude oil futures ended significantly higher on Friday on
stronger than expected US jobs data and renewed trade talks set for next week
between the US and China. Sentiments remained upbeat on hopes that output
reductions by major oil producers like Saudi Arabia and Russia would help ease
concerns about excess supply in the market. Besides, the Energy Information
Administration's data showed that crude inventories in the US rose by 7,000
barrels in the week to December 28, beating expectations for a drop of more than
3 million barrels. Distillate stockpiles were up by 9.5 million barrels last
week, the biggest weekly jump in two years. Gasoline stocks rose by 6.9 million
barrels, more than thrice the expected increase. Benchmark crude oil futures
for February surged 87 cents or 1.9 percent to settle $47.96 a barrel on the
New York Mercantile Exchange. March Brent crude gained $1.11 or 2 percent to
settle at $57.06 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.
Indian
rupee settled on stronger note on Friday against dollar tracking gains in Asian
currencies as the dollar fell on weak US manufacturing data. Rupee sentiment
remained upbeat with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's statement that enacting
the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) has helped lenders get Rs 80,000 crore
in 66 cases and another about Rs 70,000 crore is likely to be recovered in the
remaining months of the current financial year. Some support came with a report
that the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has allowed
businesses to correct any error or omission in filing of final sales return or
GSTR-1 for the period July 2017-March 2018. Traders shrugged off report that
the seasonally adjusted Nikkei Services Business Activity Index slipped to 53.2
in December from 53.7 in November. Further, the Nikkei India Composite PMI
Output Index -- which measures both manufacturing and services -- too eased to
53.6 in December from 54.5 in November. Finally, the rupee ended at 69.72, 48
paise stronger from its previous close of 70.20 on Thursday.
The FIIs as per Friday's data
were net sellers in equity segment, while they were net buyers in debt segment.
In equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 3957.73 crore against gross
selling of Rs 5015.43 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was
of Rs 3317.14 crore with gross sales of Rs 1886.52 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, there was no
buying and selling.
The US markets ended Friday's
trading session in green territory with notable gains on strong US jobs report
and upbeat note following dovish Federal Reserve comments. All the Asian
markets are trading higher on Monday as a dovish turn by the Federal Reserve
and startlingly strong US jobs data soothed some of the market's worst fears
about the global outlook. Snapping two-day losing streak, Indian markets ended
higher on Friday, with financials leading the surge, as global growth worries
eased coupled with strength in rupee. Today, the markets are likely to make
gap-up opening tacking firm trade in global markets after soothing Federal
Reserve comments. Traders will be getting encouragement with Federation of
Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry's (FICCI) president Sandip Somany's
statement that agricultural reforms, interest rate cut and credit availability
to micro, small and medium enterprises will drive India's economic growth to
7.5% in 2019-20. He added that the economy is on a good footing. There will be
some support with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showing that the country's
foreign exchange reserves increased by $116.4 million to $393.404 billion in
the week to December 28, on account of rise in foreign currency assets. In the
previous week, the reserves had increased by $167.2 million to $393.287
billion. However, there may be some cautiousness with RBI warning that a sudden
surge in crude prices can upset the nation's key macro-stability parameters, as
it can sharply spike the current account deficit (CAD), inflation and the
fiscal numbers, whittling the benefits of higher growth. It added that the
international crude prices increased by around 12 per cent between April and
September 2018. Traders may also be concerned about a report that overseas
investors pulled out over Rs 83,000 crore from the capital markets in 2018,
after pouring in a record Rs 2 lakh crore in the preceding year, on the back of
rate hikes in the US, rise in global crude prices and rupee depreciation. There
will be some buzz in the banking sector stocks with RBI's report that despite
concerns, credit growth of the scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) improved
across all bank groups between March and September 2018. Besides, Centre has
infused more than Rs 51,000 crore in public sector banks till December 2018.
There will be some reaction in sugar sector stocks with Indian Sugar Mills
Association (ISMA) saying that higher production is attributed to the fact that
Maharashtra and Karnataka sugar mills started crushing operations earlier this
year. Though, due to substantially lower rainfall and white grub infestation,
Maharashtra is likely to produce significantly lower quantities of the
commodity this year as compared to the last. Overall, the country is expected
to produce much less sugar this season as compared to last.
Support and Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous
close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE
Nifty
|
10,727.35
|
10,656.98
|
10,769.38
|
BSE
Sensex
|
35,695.10
|
35,470.05
|
35,832.17
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
|
Previous close
(Rs)
|
Support (Rs)
|
Resistance (Rs)
|
(in Lacs)
|
Yes Bank
|
459.15
|
189.65
|
184.03
|
192.78
|
ICICI Bank
|
228.96
|
365.20
|
359.23
|
369.98
|
SBI
|
195.14
|
297.65
|
293.10
|
300.60
|
Tata Motors
|
176.50
|
170.95
|
168.98
|
172.43
|
Hindalco
Industries
|
174.08
|
210.90
|
208.17
|
213.02
|
Yes Bank has sold 2,30,655 equity shares having nominal value of Rs 100 each, constituting 30% of the paid-up share capital of Valecha Investments.
Power Grid Corporation of India has received investment approval for implementation of 500MVAr Thyristor Controlled Reactor at Kurukshetra 400kV bus.
Bharti Airtel planning to launch of its 4G services at remote Hayuliang in Anjaw District of Arunachal Pradesh.
ICICI Bank has signed a MoU with Small Business FinCredit India for entrepreneurs, to jointly provide credit to MSMEs.