Indian equity markets staged a
strong comeback after the biggest fall in history a day prior and ended
Tuesday's session with healthy gains of over two and half percent, on the back
of sustained buying across sectors. The gains in the markets were in line with
the gains seen in other Asian markets and European indices. Key indices made
gap-up opening, as in a bid to provide additional liquidity to the system hit
by the coronavirus outbreak, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) decided to inject
Rs 1 lakh crore and assured such move further also if required. The first
tranche of term repo worth Rs 50,000 crore was conducted on March 23, while the
second tranche of the same amount will be conducted on March 24. But, the
markets wiped out all of their gains soon and traded marginally in red, as
traders turned cautious with Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing his
concern on the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on Indian economy and said
the informal sector will face the brunt and the impact on the overall economy
will be felt gradually. However, selling proved short-lived as markets bounced
back into the green in late morning deals, as the government raised the
threshold that would trigger insolvency proceedings to Rs 1 crore from current
Rs 1 lakh to help small companies facing the threat of defaults due to
coronavirus-related lockdown. Buying further crept in after Finance Minister
Nirmala Sitharaman stated that the government is preparing an economic package which
will be announced soon in a bid to tackle the economic fallout affecting the
Indian economy due to coronavirus pandemic. She also said the last date for
filing Income Tax return for the year 2018-19 has been extended from March 31
to June 30, 2020. Though, markets erased most of gains in late trade but
managed to garner gains of over two and half percent as the Finance Ministry
declared the government expenditure system as an essential service, implying
that all its payment functions will run normally to ensure that there are no
delays in transfer of funds to meet any emergent needs amidst the coronavirus
crisis. Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 692.79 points or 2.67% to 26,674.03,
while the CNX Nifty was up by 190.80 points or 2.51% to 7,801.05.
The US markets ended sharply
higher on Tuesday, partly offsetting the significant weakness seen in recent
sessions, amid indications Democrats and Republicans are closing in on an
agreement on a massive fiscal stimulus bill. After a meeting with Treasury
Secretary Steve Mnuchin and incoming White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows,
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said negotiations were on the
two-yard line. Meanwhile, Schumer indicated Democrats are still pushing for
increased oversight of a proposed $500 billion bailout fund to help industries
that are struggling amid the coronavirus outbreak. Besides, Traders were also
reacting to President Donald Trump's comments suggesting the
coronavirus-related shutdown of much of the country could end sooner than many
anticipated. Trump said that he would love to see the country open by Easter,
which is on April 12. On the economic data front, after reporting a jump in US
new home sales in the previous month, the Commerce Department released a report
showing home sales pulled back sharply in the month of February. The Commerce
Department said new home sales tumbled by 4.4 percent to an annual rate of
765,000 in February after spiking by 10.5 percent to an upwardly revised rate
of 800,000 in January. With the upward revision, the annual rate of new home
sales in January was the highest since reaching 842,000 in May of 2007. Street
had expected new home sales to slump by 1.8 percent to a rate of 750,000 from
the 764,000 originally reported for the previous month. The bigger than
expected decrease was partly due to a substantial pullback in new home sales in
the West, which plunged by 17.2 percent in February after soaring by 28.8
percent in January.
Extending their previous
session's gains, crude oil futures ended higher on Tuesday a day after the
Federal Reserve unveiled a historic round of monetary stimulus and investors
remained upbeat about prospects for a Congressional approval of a massive
fiscal stimulus package. The Fed had announced it would purchase an unlimited
amount of Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities to support the functioning
of financial markets. Crude oil futures for May rose 65 cents or 2.8 percent to
settle at $24.01 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. May Brent crude
added 12 cents or 0.4 percent to settle at $27.15 a barrel on London's
Intercontinental Exchange.
Erasing all of its initial
losses, Indian rupee appreciated considerably against the US dollar on Tuesday,
driven by weakening of the greenback in overseas markets. Investors' sentiment
improved after the Reserve Bank said that it will conduct Rs 1 lakh crore of
short-term variable repo auction to boost liquidity. The first tranche of term
repo worth Rs 50,000 crore was conducted on March 23, while the second tranche
of the same amount will be conducted on March 24. Some optimism also came after
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated that the government is preparing an
economic package which will be announced soon in a bid to tackle the economic
fallout affecting the Indian economy due to coronavirus pandemic. Splendid
recovery in domestic equity markets also supported the forex sentiment. On the
global front, dollar slipped for a second consecutive day on Tuesday after the
U.S. Federal Reserve unveiled fresh measures to supply precious liquidity into
funding markets, sending risky currencies such as the Australian dollar
soaring. The last traded price of rupee was 75.94, 26 paise stronger from its
previous close of 76.20 on Monday.
The FIIs as per Tuesday's data
were net sellers in both equity and debt segments. In equity segment, the gross
buying was of Rs 5767.26 crore against gross selling of Rs 8407.39 crore, while
in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 2032.28 crore with gross
sales of Rs 3601.14 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was
of Rs 6.04 crore against gross selling of Rs 4.99 crore.
The US markets ended higher on
Tuesday amid indications Democrats and Republicans are closing in on an
agreement on a massive fiscal stimulus bill. Asian markets are trading mostly
in green on Wednesday following overnight gains on Wall Street. Indian markets
ended higher on Tuesday amid reports that government will soon announce an
economic package to help the coronavirus-hit sectors. Today, the start of
session is likely to be negative as the government has announced a complete
lockdown across the country for 21 days to contain the spread of fast-spreading
novel coronavirus -- the COVID-19. The nationwide lockdown came into effect on
March 24 midnight and will continue until April 14. Prime Minister Narendra
Modi said the country will be set back by 21 years if we don't manage these 21
days. Meanwhile, the coronavirus death toll in India has gone up to 11 with the
death of a man in Tamil Nadu. The total number of COVID-19 cases reported from
the states so far is 562. However, some respite may come later in the day as
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman extended the deadline for filing tax
returns by three months beyond March 31. She also announced a slew of
regulatory and compliance measures across sectors to alleviate the hardships
being faced by various businesses. Also, allaying fears that the economy may
not be financially equipped to deal with the fallout of the global coronavirus
pandemic, Sithraman said that there is no economic emergency in India. Some
support may also come as investments through participatory notes (P-notes) in
the domestic capital market rose to Rs 68,862 crore at the end of February,
making it the second consecutive monthly increase. Meanwhile, stock brokers
association Anmi has asked market regulator Sebi to close stock exchanges for
at least two days, which will give brokerage firms time to close their entire
outstanding positions, in case all states do not declare stock broking as an
essential service, exempted from lockdown. Aviation stocks will be in focus as
airlines have sought help from the government to help them pay employees'
salaries as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak has forced the
authorities to stop air transport till March 31. There will be some reaction in
copper industry stocks with a private report that taking advantage of the lower
international prices, India turned out to be a net importer of copper so far in
this fiscal.
Support and
Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE Nifty
|
7,801.05
|
7,529.12
|
8,054.97
|
BSE Sensex
|
26,674.03
|
25,721.00
|
27,544.97
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
|
Previous close (Rs)
|
Support (Rs)
|
Resistance (Rs)
|
(in Lacs)
|
ICICI Bank
|
298.55
|
296.50
|
274.87
|
311.57
|
State Bank of India
|
185.40
|
183.20
|
173.85
|
192.25
|
ITC
|
151.00
|
149.70
|
143.50
|
159.80
|
Axis Bank
|
304.80
|
303.15
|
283.60
|
330.10
|
Tata Motors
|
68.95
|
68.55
|
64.20
|
72.20
|
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HCL Technologies has released BigFix 10 to be generally available in April 2020.
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Hindustan Unilever has signed an agreement with Glenmark Pharmaceuticals to acquire its intimate hygiene brand VWash.