Dalal Street extended record
setting rally on Thursday's trading session, with the Sensex and the Nifty
ending around 0.30% higher each. The start of the day was lackluster, impacted
with former Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian's statement that India is
facing a Great Slowdown with its economy headed for intensive care unit
primarily due to a second wave of the twin balance sheet crisis at banks.
Sentiments also got hit with reports that most of the states opposed a change
in slabs or hike in GST during the crucial GST Council meeting, arguing an
increase in the levies would have adverse implications for the economy facing a
slowdown. In noon deals, bourses staged sharp recovery to hit fresh record
highs, taking support with NASSCOM President, Debjani Ghosh's statement that
technology startups alone have created 60,000 direct jobs this year and overall
the IT sector will be a positive hirer in the current financial year.
Sentiments also remained positive, as Union Minister for Finance &
Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman held her 5th Pre-Budget Consultation with
the representatives of various Trade Unions and Labour Organisations in
connection with the forthcoming General Budget 2020-21. Discussions were held
on skilling, re-skilling and up-skilling of existing labour force. Quality of
job creation and ensuring minimum wages of workers were also discussed.
Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 115.35 points or 0.28% to 41,673.92, while the
CNX Nifty was up by 38.05 points or 0.31% to 12,259.70.
The US markets ended at record
highs again on Thursday as investors looked past the news of President Donald
Trump's impeachment by the House as well as mixed US economic data. The
Democrat-led House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump for abuse of power
and obstruction of Congress. Trump became only the third president to be
charged with high crimes and misdemeanors and will now face a trial in the
Republican-controlled Senate. However, markets have largely shrugged off
impeachment news as the chances of a trial conviction in the Senate are low.
Because of this, the market's performance during Trump's impeachment process is
tracking that of the time when former President Bill Clinton was impeached. On
the economic data front, after reporting a significant increase in first-time
claims for US unemployment benefits in the previous week, the Labor Department
released a report showing initial jobless claims pulled back in the week ended
December 14. The report said initial jobless claims fell to 234,000, a decrease
of 18,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 252,000. Meanwhile, a
report released by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) showed a much
bigger than expected pullback in US existing home sales in the month of
November. NAR said existing home sales tumbled by 1.7 percent to an annual rate
of 5.35 million in November after jumping by 1.5 percent to a revised 5.44
million in October.
Crude oil futures ended higher on
Thursday and logged their highest settlement since mid-September on easing
worries about outlook for energy demand on hopes the US and China will soon
sign the phase one trade deal. Meanwhile, China has announced a list of United
States chemicals that will be exempted from import tariffs starting December
26. This comes under a week after Beijing and Washington agreed a phase one
trade deal. Besides, oil prices were supported by the decision of Organization
of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC producers to deepen
production cuts by a further 500,000 barrels per day from January 1. This will
be on top of existing reductions of 1.2 million barrels per day. Benchmark
crude oil futures for January gained 29 cents or 0.5 percent to settle at
$61.22 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. February Brent rose 37
cents or 0.6 percent to settle at $66.54 a barrel on London's Intercontinental
Exchange.
Indian
rupee ended marginally weaker against the US dollar on Thursday, due to
increased demand of the greenback from the importers and the banks. Traders
remained cautious with Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian's statement
that India is facing a Great Slowdown with its economy headed for intensive
care unit primarily due to a second wave of the twin balance sheet crisis at
banks. However, losses were limited as some optimism remained among the traders
with private report that after months of slump witnessed in consumer confidence
in India, the same has picked up in December as various government measures
boost the mood. In December, consumer confidence has further surged by 3.3 percentage
points. On the global front, dollar took in stride the impeachment of US
President Donald Trump on Thursday while its Australian counterpart rallied
after a surprise fall in the country's unemployment rate. Finally, the rupee
ended at 71.03, 6 paise weaker from its previous close of 70.97 on Wednesday.
The
FIIs as per Thursday's data were net buyers in both equity and debt segments.
In equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 7569.08 crore against gross
selling of Rs 5716.48 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was
of Rs 1433.57 crore with gross sales of Rs 975.41 crore. Besides, in the hybrid
segment, the gross buying was of Rs 14.94 crore against gross selling of Rs
15.41 crore.
The US markets settled at
all-time highs on Thursday as investors looked past the news of President
Donald Trump's impeachment by the House as well as mixed US economic data.
Asian markets are trading mostly higher on Friday following gains on Wall
Street. Indian markets continued their bulls run and ended at a record close
for the third straight session led by auto, IT, and FMCG sectors. Today, the
markets are likely to get flat-to-positive start tracking global markets.
Traders will be getting some support as DPIIT Secretary Guruprasad Mohapatra
expressed optimism that India will soon break into the top 50 in the World
Bank's ease of doing business ranking. Traders may take note of report that
after the minutes of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting was released,
rating agency Care Ratings said it is expecting another 25 basis points rate
cut in February itself. However, there will be some cautiousness with Union
Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar's statement that the dream of
India becoming a 5 trillion dollar economy cannot be achieved if the villages
in the country are ignored. Also, a private report indicated that industry
fears that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council's decision to further
restrict input tax credit (ITC) on invoices not uploaded in the relevant form
would block the cash flow of businesses, at a time when they're struggling on
finances due to economic slowdown. Meanwhile, trade unions urged the government
to provide a minimum wage of Rs 21,000, a minimum pension of Rs 6,000 under
Employees' Pension Scheme and tax exemption on an annual income of up to Rs 10
lakh. There will be some buzz in the textile stocks as the government said the
new Textiles Policy 2020 being formulated by the Centre is aimed at developing
in the country a competitive textile sector which is modern, sustainable and
inclusive. Aviation stocks will be in focus with rating agency ICRA's report
that domestic passenger traffic growth is expected to decline to a six-year low
of 4.5 percent in the current fiscal and the financial health of the aviation
industry will continue to deteriorate. There will be some reaction in insurance
stocks with report that life insurers have sought 100 percent foreign direct
investment (FDI) limit for the sector through the automatic route, which can
help the sector attract capital of Rs 40,000-60,000 crore.
Support and Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE Nifty
|
12,259.70
|
12,211.12
|
12,288.32
|
BSE Sensex
|
41,673.92
|
41,513.78
|
41,776.67
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
|
Previous close (Rs)
|
Support (Rs)
|
Resistance (Rs)
|
(in Lacs)
|
Yes Bank
|
3,079.36
|
49.90
|
46.10
|
52.55
|
Tata Motors
|
534.67
|
179.15
|
175.37
|
181.57
|
SBI
|
275.16
|
328.15
|
325.23
|
330.33
|
Tata Steel
|
205.47
|
446.75
|
440.03
|
451.43
|
Vedanta
|
177.13
|
149.35
|
147.13
|
152.73
|
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