Indian equity benchmarks logged
in sixth straight session of gains on Thursday, led by buying in IT, TECK,
Healthcare and Telecom stocks. An upbeat Asian market also added to the
jubilant mood on Dalal Street. Markets made a gap-up opening, as sentiments got
a boost with the Union health ministry's statement that the number of people
recovered from Covid-19 has exceeded those with active infection by more than
48 lakh as the recovery rate surpassed 85% on Wednesday. Buying further crept
in with Union Minister VK Singh's statement that highways and infrastructure
can spur the country's economic growth. He said the workforce is back at
pre-COVID levels, which is a healthy sign and added that good quality road
network leads to ease of doing business, goods transportation and economic
growth. Market participants also took a note of the chairman of the Standing
Committee on Statistics, ministry of statistics and programme implementation
Pranob Sen's statement that the government should continue with the stimulus to
revive the economy for three years and it should not be one off. Domestic
indices extended their upside in afternoon deals, taking support from Principal
Economic Adviser Sanjeev Sanyal's statement that the government recognizes the
need for further stimulus at an appropriate time to perk up demand in the
economy, hit by COVID-19. Addressing the 115th AGM of PHD Chamber of Commerce
and Industry, he said there was space on the monetary and fiscal side to
implement further stimulus. However, the benchmarks closed below the day's
high, paring some gains in the last hour of trade, as World Bank said that
India's GDP is expected to contract by 9.6 per cent this fiscal which is
reflective of the national lockdown and the income shock experienced by
households and firms due to the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that the country's
economic situation is much worse than ever seen before. Finally, the BSE Sensex
rose 303.72 points or 0.76% to 40,182.67, while the CNX Nifty was up by 95.75
points or 0.82% to 11,834.60.
The US markets ended higher on
Thursday, following the rally seen in the previous session. The strength on
markets reflected continued optimism about a coronavirus stimulus bill
following the latest comments from President Donald Trump. Trump said
administration officials and Democrats are starting to have some very
productive talks. Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected the idea of
passing a stand-alone bill providing aid to airlines without a broader relief
package. Pelosi noted that negotiations continue over a broader bill, saying, we
are at the table. We want to continue the conversation. We have made some
progress, we are exchanging language. On the economic data front, the Labor
Department released a report showing initial jobless claims came in above
estimates in the week ended October 3rd. The Labor Department said initial
jobless claims edged down to 840,000, a decrease of 9,000 from the previous
week's revised level of 849,000. Street had expected jobless claims to dip to
820,000 from the 837,000 originally reported for the previous week. The report
said the less volatile four-week moving average also fell to 857,000, a
decrease of 13,250 from the previous week's revised average of 870,250.
Continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing
unemployment assistance, also tumbled by 1.003 million to 10.976 million in the
week ended September 26th.
Crude oil futures ended higher
with gains of over 3 percent on Thursday as Hurricane Delta forced the shut-in
of more than 90% of the Gulf of Mexico's crude output and the Saudis reportedly
consider postponing Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
plans to raise output. A strike in Norway also threatened to reduce production
in the North Sea. The US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said as
of Wednesday, 91.53% of Gulf oil production and 61.82% of natural-gas output
were shut in as the hurricane churned in the Gulf of Mexico. Crude oil futures
for November surged $1.24 or 3.1 percent to settle at $41.19 a barrel on the
New York Mercantile Exchange. December Brent crude rose $1.35 or 3.2 percent to
settle at $43.34 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.
Rising for second session, Indian
Rupee ended stronger against dollar on Thursday due to fresh selling of the
American currency by banks and exporters. Traders were optimistic as RBI stated
that the two per cent interest subvention scheme for micro, small and medium
enterprises (MSMEs) on loans extended by co-operative banks has been extended
till March 31, 2021. However, upside remained capped as World Bank said that
India's GDP is expected to contract by 9.6 per cent this fiscal which is
reflective of the national lockdown and the income shock experienced by
households and firms due to the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that the country's
economic situation is much worse than ever seen before. On the global front,
dollar and Japanese yen nursed losses after the revival of hopes for some U.S.
stimulus spending improved investor sentiment, while the prospect of negative
interest rates dragged on the New Zealand dollar. Finally, the rupee ended at
73.24, 9 paise stronger from its previous close of 73.33 on Wednesday.
The FIIs as per Thursday's data
were net buyers in equity, while net sellers in debt segment. In equity segment,
the gross buying was of Rs 6118.38 crore against gross selling of Rs 5098.45
crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 249.24 crore
with gross sales of Rs 917.16 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross
buying was of Rs 6.30 crore against gross selling of Rs 17.70 crore.
The US markets ended in green on
Thursday after US President Donald Trump said talks with Congress had restarted
on targeted fiscal relief. Asian markets are trading mostly higher on Friday as
investors await the release of a private survey of China's services sector
activity for September. Indian markets pared some gains but ended higher for
the sixth straight session on Thursday as IT stocks gained on buyback plans of
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Wipro. Today, the start of session is
likely to be positive ahead of the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) monetary
policy outcome later in the day. The newly-constituted Monetary Policy
Committee (MPC) of the RBI began its three-day deliberations on Wednesday.
There are expectations that RBI MPC will maintain status quo on the benchmark
lending rates and accommodative stance in today monetary policy. The monetary
policy address will be given by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das at 10 am today.
Some support will come with the Finance Ministry's statement that banks have
sanctioned loans of about Rs 1,87,579 crore to 50.7 lakh business units under
the Rs 3-lakh crore Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) for the MSME
sector impacted by slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Though, there
may be some cautiousness with former Reserve Bank Governor C Rangarajan's
statement that the combined fiscal deficit of states and the centre during the
current year may go up to 14 percent against the mandated level of six percent.
Besides, India registered over 70,824 new Covid-19 cases, taking the tally to
6,903,812 and the death toll reached 106,521. Meanwhile, rate-sensitive stocks
and sectors like banks, real estate, and auto will react to the MPC's decision.
Aviation stocks will be in focus as Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri
said airlines may be permitted to operate maximum 75 per cent of their
pre-COVID scheduled domestic flights if the passenger numbers continue to
remain healthy during the next 7-10 days. There will be some reaction in real
estate stocks with a private report that India's top eight cities have
witnessed 70 per cent fall in gross office space leasing and 43 per cent dip in
housing sales during July-September quarter compared with the year-ago period
on lower demand amid COVID-19 pandemic.
Support and
Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous
close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE
Nifty
|
11,834.60
|
11,781.94
|
11,896.49
|
BSE
Sensex
|
40,182.67
|
40,006.98
|
40,413.63
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
|
Previous
close (Rs)
|
Support (Rs)
|
Resistance
(Rs)
|
(in
Lacs)
|
Wipro
|
1072.70
|
359.45
|
348.01
|
369.31
|
State
Bank of India
|
433.52
|
191.50
|
189.44
|
194.69
|
Tata
Motors
|
409.43
|
140.95
|
139.20
|
143.10
|
HCL
Technologies
|
258.61
|
849.55
|
836.36
|
870.86
|
ITC
|
255.04
|
167.15
|
165.90
|
169.40
|
NTPC has incorporated a Wholly Owned Subsidiary company to undertake renewable energy business.
Titan Company and Montblanc by mutual agreement have ended their joint venture partnership in India.
Infosys has entered into definitive agreement to acquire Blue Acorn iCi.
HDFC Bank has entered into partnership with Apollo Hospitals to launch the HealthyLifeProgramme.