Indian equity markets extended
southward journey on Tuesday, as both the larger peers, Sensex and Nifty, ended
the day with sharp losses. The bourses made a cautious start of the day to
trade mostly in red terrain, affected by the Agricultural & Processed Food
Products Export Development Authority's (Apeda) data showing that India's
exports of agricultural commodities nosedived by up to a staggering 46 per cent
in volume terms due to supply glut in the international market which prompted
stockists to defer their purchase plans amid expectations of further price
fall. But, losses remained limited in the first half of the trading session,
with Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Giriraj
Singh's statement that the value of MSME related products' export reached
$147,390.08 million during 2017-18, as per the information received from
Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCIS). In the
second half of the trading session, the key indices extended their losses to
close near their intraday low points, despite positive cues from global
markets. Domestic sentiments were pessimistic, amid a private report stating
that India's budgets show the government's been fixing unrealistic revenue
targets, and in the process setting itself up for falling short of fiscal
deficit goals. The market participants got cautious with the Comptroller and
Auditor General (CAG) report that the Ministry of Finance spent Rs 1,157 crore
on various heads during 2017-18 without obtaining prior approval of Parliament.
The report further noted that the Ministry of Finance did not devise a suitable
mechanism in respect of new service/new instrument of service, which led to the
extra spending. Investors overlooked India Ratings and Research's (Ind-Ra)
report which has maintained a stable outlook on the infrastructure sector,
except thermal power, for financial year 2020. Finally, the BSE Sensex fell
241.41 points or 0.66% to 36,153.62, while the CNX Nifty was down by 57.40
points or 0.53% to 10,831.40.
The US markets ended higher with
gains of around one and half percent on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 finishing
above its 200-day moving average for the first time in 46 days, marking its
longest sojourn under the key trend-line since March 2016, on the account of
optimism lawmakers will manage to avoid another government shutdown after
negotiators reached a tentative agreement on border security. Senate
Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., a lead Republican
negotiator, said the two sides have reached an agreement in principle. The
agreement reportedly includes $1.4 billion for physical barriers on the border,
well short of the $5.7 billion President Donald Trump has demanded for
construction of a border wall. Democrats have also purportedly agreed to drop
their demand to reduce the number of illegal immigrants who can be detained by
Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Further, support also came as optimism
grew over a potential trade deal between the US and China. Bilateral trade
negotiations entered a second day in Beijing, with Treasury Secretary Steven
Mnuchin and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer due to arrive Thursday
for more high-level discussions. Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome
Powell said the economy is strong at the national level and highlighted the
fact that unemployment is near multidecade lows. Dow Jones Industrial Average
surged 372.65 points or 1.49 percent to 25425.76, S&P 500 gained 34.93
points or 1.29 percent to 2744.73 and Nasdaq was up by 106.71 points or 1.46
percent to 7414.62.
Crude oil futures ended higher on
Tuesday as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said
its crude output fell by 797,000 barrels a day in January, month on month, to
average 30.81 million barrels a day. De facto OPEC head Saudi Arabia, took on
the bulk of output reductions as well as the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.
OPEC also lowered its demand growth forecast for this year by 50,000 barrels a
day to 1.24 million barrels a day. However, upside remained capped as the US
Energy Information Administration (EIA) lifted its forecasts for US crude
production for this year and next and cut its 2020 forecasts for US and global
benchmark oil prices. The EIA forecasts 2019 US crude production of 12.41
million barrels a day, up 2.8% from the January forecast. It also raised its
2020 output view by 2.6% to 13.2 million barrels a day. Benchmark crude oil
futures for March rose 69 cents or 1.3 percent to settle $53.10 a barrel on the
New York Mercantile Exchange. April Brent crude gained 91 cents or 1.5 percent
to settle at $62.42 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.
Indian
rupee appreciated for the sixth consecutive session against the US dollar on
Tuesday, on account of selling in American currency by banks and exporters.
Traders took encouragement with the Prime Minister said that India is the
fastest-growing large economy in the world and a recent report has estimated
that it could be the second largest world economy by 2039. However, there was
some cautiousness too ahead of index of industrial production (IIP) data for
December and inflation numbers for January to be released later in the day. On
the global front, Sterling fell against the dollar, as doubts grow about
whether Prime Minister Theresa May can convince the European Union to accept
changes to her Brexit divorce deal. Finally, the rupee ended at 70.70, 48 paise
stronger from its previous close of 71.18 on Monday.
The FIIs as per Tuesday's data
were net sellers in equity and debt segments both. In equity segment, the gross
buying was of Rs 3887.53 crore against gross selling of Rs 4292.37 crore, while
in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 558.23 crore with gross sales
of Rs 985.87 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was of Rs
0.88 crore against gross selling of Rs 0.56 crore.
The US markets rose on Tuesday,
with gains over a percent, as President Donald Trump downplayed the chance of
another government shutdown and said he could delay new tariffs on Chinese
imports. Asian markets are trading mostly in green, tracking overnight gains on
Wall Street amid optimism over US-China trade talks. Late hour sell-off mainly
dragged the Indian markets near their intra-day low levels to end Tuesday's
trading session with massive losses, even as global cues remained positive.
Today, the start of the session is likely to be positive mirroring firm global
cues coupled with strong macro-economic data. The Central Statistics Office's
(CSO) data showed that India's Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation for
the month of January 2019 eased to a 19-month low at 2.05% over the previous
month on continued decline in food prices, including vegetables and eggs, while
industrial production in December 2018 bounced back to 2.4% after sliding to a
17-month low in November. Traders will be getting encouragement with Finance
Minister Piyush Goyal stressing that tax concessions have been provided with a
view to help poor and middle class people living on a tight budget, said now
individuals earning up to Rs 9.5 lakh can escape liability by taking advantage
of saving schemes. The Minister also said he did not propose any change in the
tax rate but only provided few rebates which will boost spending and help the
economy. However, there may be some cautiousness with Care Ratings' report that
corporate bond issuance declined 13% to Rs 4 lakh crore during the first nine
months of the current financial year due to higher cost of borrowing and
slowing investment activity. It said higher cost of borrowings amid liquidity
challenges in the Non-banking finance companies (NBFC) segment (that dominates
the corporate bond with a nearly 70% share) as well as limited pick up in
investments have contributed to lower issuances. Meanwhile, the government
introduced a Bill to set up a unified authority for regulating all financial
services in international financial services centres (IFSCs) in the country.
There will be some buzz in the banking sector stocks with the government's
statement that loans worth Rs 7,277.31 crore of public sector banks under
Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) have turned bad at the end of March 2018.
Also, there will be some reaction in port sector stocks with report that major
ports of the country together handled 578.86 Million Tonnes (MT) of cargo
during April-January 2019, representing a growth of 3.11%. There will be some
important result announcements to keep the markets in action.
Support and
Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous
close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE
Nifty
|
10,831.40
|
10,799.83
|
10,886.93
|
BSE
Sensex
|
36,153.62
|
36,023.22
|
36,374.71
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
|
Previous
close (Rs)
|
Support (Rs)
|
Resistance
(Rs)
|
(in
Lacs)
|
Yes
Bank
|
222.99
|
172.65
|
171.08
|
175.23
|
Tata
Steel
|
188.36
|
487.40
|
477.00
|
497.50
|
Hindalco
|
164.67
|
198.35
|
196.00
|
201.70
|
Axis
Bank
|
158.57
|
705.60
|
699.27
|
712.67
|
SBI
|
153.26
|
275.40
|
272.63
|
280.18
|
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