Indian equity benchmarks extended
their rally for third straight day and went home with a gain of over half a
percent, recapturing their crucial 33,400 (Sensex) and 10,300 (Nifty) levels.
Sentiments remained up-beat throughout the session with markets making a gap-up
opening after CII's Business Confidence Index climbed to 59.7 during
October-December 2017, against 58.3 in the previous quarter, as reform measures
such as the Goods and Services Tax (GST) instilled optimism in India Inc.
Traders also took some encouragement with statement of the prime minister's
economic advisory panel member Rathin Roy who has expressed hope that the
forthcoming budget will not be a 'populist' and will reflect the commitment of
the government to improve quality of expenditure. Meanwhile, industry body
Assocham has said that the government needs to accord top priority to
agriculture in the budget as a major shortfall in kharif production resulted in
sluggish growth of farm sector in the second quarter this fiscal. Markets
accelerated speed in last leg of trade to end near intraday high levels after
former Reserve Bank Governor Y V Reddy said that Indian economy may require two
more years to consolidate and it should aim to go back to 7.5-8 percent growth
in two years. Some support also came with the Bihar Deputy Chief Minister
Sushil Modi's statement that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council would
examine the possibility of merging the 12 and 18 percent tax rates to a new
slab. He added that more than 90 percent of issues related to tax rates have
been resolved after the Council brought down 178 items from higher rates to
lower one. Besides, report that Direct Tax collections, which comprise personal
income and corporate tax, surged 14.4 percent to Rs 4.8 lakh crore in the first
eight months ending November 2017, mainly on account of income tax mop-up from
individuals, too aided sentiments. Finally, the BSE Sensex soared 205.49 points
or 0.62% to 33,455.79, while the CNX Nifty was up by 56.60 points or 0.55% to
10,322.25.
The US markets closed higher on
Monday, with the S&P 500 index and Dow industrials closing at records on
the back of a rally in telecommunications and technology shares. Wall Street
shrugged off news of a terrorism incident in the heart of New York City earlier
in the session, which resulted in no fatalities. Investors mostly looked ahead
to the Federal Reserve's two-day monetary-policy meeting, which is slated to
conclude Wednesday. The central bank is largely expected to deliver its third,
and last, interest-rate hike for 2017. On the economy front, the number of job
openings in the country fell to a hair under 6 million in October from a record
6.18 million in the prior month. About 5.55 million people were hired and 4.85
million lost their jobs. The share of people who left jobs on their own, known
as the quits rate, was unchanged at 2.4% among private-sector employees. It was
2.2% if government workers are included. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added
56.87 points or 0.23 percent to 24,386.03, the Nasdaq gained 34.997 points or
0.51 percent to 6,875.08, while the S&P 500 edged higher by 8.49 points or
0.32 percent to 2,659.99.
Crude oil futures continued their
gaining streak to the new week and ended higher on Monday, mid supply
disruptions after a major North Sea pipeline shut for repairs. The major
pipeline crack in the UK's North Sea which carries 40% of North Sea oil and gas
has caused Brent crude oil prices to spike fast than US oil, leading the Brent
crude to reach its highest since 2015. Oil prices shrugged off somewhat bearish
comments from UAE Energy Minister Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazroui, who said OPEC
and non-OPEC producers plan to announce in June an exit strategy from global
supply cuts. Benchmark crude oil futures for January delivery ended higher by $0.63
or 1.1 percent at $57.99 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent
crude for February delivery was up by 2.1 percent to $64.72 a barrel on the
ICE.
Rising
for the second straight day, Indian rupee ended marginally higher against
dollar on Monday, owing to dollar sale by exporters and banks. Traders took
support with CII's Business Confidence Index climbing to 59.7 during
October-December 2017, against 58.3 in the previous quarter, as reform measures
such as the Goods and Services Tax instilled optimism in India Inc. Some
optimism also came with data showing that direct Tax collections, which
comprise personal income and corporate tax, surged 14.4 percent to Rs 4.8 lakh
crore in the first eight months ending November 2017, mainly on account of
income tax mop-up from individuals. However, gains were limited as some caution
lingered in the market ahead of release of crucial macro-economic data- October
IIP and November CPI data, which are scheduled to be released tomorrow. On the
global front, dollar edged lower on Monday on disappointing US wages data that
analysts said could weigh on the pace of interest rate hikes from the Federal
Reserve next year. Finally, the rupee ended at 64.36, 9 paise stronger from its
previous close of 64.45 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 6846.32 crore against gross selling
of Rs 6802.69 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs
1063.09 crore with gross sales of Rs 964.25 crore.
The US markets continued their
upmove and the Dow and the S&P 500 reached new record closing highs in the
last session, even though traders seemed somewhat reluctant to make significant
moves ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday.
The Asian markets have made mostly a positive start though traders are a bit
cautious awaiting U.S. and European central bank meetings this week for further
clues on the 2018 policy outlook. The Indian markets regained their momentum in
the final hours to post decent gains of over half a percent in the last
session, on firm global cues. Today, the start is likely to remain positive
tailing supportive global cues. Traders will also be getting some support with
the UN DESA's World Economic Situation and Prospects 2018 report, which has
said that despite a slowdown observed in early 2017, the outlook for India
remains positive, underpinned by strong private consumption, robust public
investments and structural reforms. It has forecast that the Indian economy
will grow by 7.2 per cent in 2018 and 7.4 per cent in 2019. Meanwhile,
Economists as part of pre-budget consultations have suggested a range of
measures, including increasing social security pension, to Finance Minister
Arun Jaitley. The finance minister though reiterated that the government is following
the roadmap of fiscal consolidation under which the fiscal deficit, as a ratio
of GDP, stood at 3.9 per cent in 2015-16 and 3.5 per cent in 2016-17 and is
budgeted to be 3.2 per cent for the current financial year. He also expressed
confidence in the economic situation after demonetisation and rollout of the
Goods and Services Tax and said the second quarter GDP growth marks the
reversal of the declining trend of growth witnessed in the last few quarters.
Traders will also be eyeing the release of the IIP data for October and
inflation data based on consumer price index (CPI) for November after the
market hours.
Support and
Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE Nifty
|
10,322.25
|
10293.13
|
10340.28
|
BSE Sensex
|
33455.79
|
33333.98
|
33556.78
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
(in Lacs)
|
Previous close (Rs)
|
Support
(Rs)
|
Resistance (Rs)
|
ITC
|
171.81
|
266.25
|
263.87
|
268.07
|
SBI
|
140.14
|
318.40
|
315.90
|
320.10
|
Bharti Airtel
|
111.56
|
532.70
|
525.37
|
539.02
|
NTPC
|
71.02
|
178.35
|
176.70
|
181.00
|
ICICI Bank
|
68.29
|
311.45
|
309.05
|
313.05
|
Coal India is planning to leverage the expertise for diversification.
M&M is planning for electrification of some of the models of its South Korean arm SsangYong Motor.
Tata Motors is planning to increase prices of its entire passenger vehicles range by up to Rs 25,000, starting January 2018.
Bharti Airtel is planning to set up 2,000 mobile towers across villages and national highways in the North East with the help of government funding.