After 3 days of poor run, Indian
equity bourses resumed their gaining rally on Friday, with Sensex & Nifty
rising around a percent each. Indices made a firm start, as Reserve Bank
announced simultaneous purchase and sale of government securities through
special open market operations for Rs 10,000 crore each on December 30
following a review of liquidity situation. Adding some relief, ICRA said that
aided by better recoveries and declining slippages, overall net non-performing
assets (NPAs) of the banking sector are likely to improve to 3.2-3.3 per cent
by the end this fiscal from 3.7 per cent in September 2019. Bulls held their
tight grip on the Dalal Street in the second half of the trading session, on
account of positive cues from the global markets. Market participants remained
positive with Food & Agriculture Organisation's (FAO) latest data
showing that select agri and agri-based
commodities such as meat, milk and fruits, among others, present export
opportunity worth over $97 billion (about Rs 6.9 lakh crore) for India. The
street paid no heed towards a private report indicating that the government
could miss its FY20 divestment target by as much as Rs 50,000 crore. Finally,
the BSE Sensex gained 411.38 points or 1.00% to 41,575.14, while the CNX Nifty
was up by 119.25 points or 0.98% to 12,245.80.
The US markets ended mostly
higher on Friday amid reports that US and China reached an agreement on a phase
one trade deal has helped lift some of the uncertainty hanging over the
markets. However, buying interest remained somewhat subdued as the details of
the deal are still unknown and the trade dispute between the US and China will
persist even after the agreement is signed. As the same time, the somewhat
stifled nature of the rally has made traders reluctant to take profits amid
concerns about missing out on any further upside. Many traders remained away
from their desks following the Christmas holiday on Wednesday and the New
Year's Day holiday next Wednesday. A lack of major US economic data also kept
traders on the sidelines as they attempt to deduce what is in store for the
economy in the New Year. Most of the major sectors showed only modest moves on
the day, contributing to the lackluster performance by the broader markets.
Crude oil futures ended
marginally higher on Friday after a report showed a bigger-than-expected
decline in US stores of crude and its byproducts. The Energy Information
Administration (EIA) reported that US crude supplies fell by 5.467 million
barrels for the week ended December 20. Analysts polled by S&P Global
Platts had forecast a decrease of 3 million barrels, although the less closely
followed American Petroleum Institute report showed a 7.9 million-barrel tumble
on Tuesday. EIA data also showed supply increases of 1.963 million barrels for
gasoline stocks and a decline of roughly 152,000 barrels for distillates. Crude
oil futures for February added 4 cents or less than 0.1 percent to settle at
$61.72 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. February Brent gained 24
cents or 0.4 percent to settle at $68.16 a barrel on London's Intercontinental
Exchange.
Indian
rupee ended marginally lower against US dollar on Friday, due to fresh demand
for the American currency from banks and importers. Traders remained cautious
with private report indicating that the government could miss its FY20
divestment target by as much as Rs 50,000 crore. Traders also took a note of
the International Monetary Fund (IMF) raised doubts over India's methodology to
calculate gross domestic product (GDP) numbers, saying certain changes to
historical series and discrepancies between GDP by activity and GDP by
expenditure have made the growth calculation process complex. However, strong
gains in the domestic equity markets capped the rupee losses. On the global
front, dollar hovered near a six-month high versus the Japanese yen on Friday,
buoyed by easing Sino-US trade tensions. Finally, the rupee ended at 71.35, 4
paise weaker from its previous close of 71.31 on Thursday.
The
FIIs as per Friday's data were net buyers in equity and debt segments both. In
equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 2830.57 crore against gross selling
of Rs 2699.09 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs
2705.18 crore with gross sales of Rs 236.80 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment,
the gross buying was of Rs 0.42 crore against gross selling of Rs 1.35 crore.
The US markets ended mixed on
Friday as many traders remained away from their desks following Christmas.
Asian markets were trading lower in early deals on Monday from the highest
level in a year and a half, with few financial-market catalysts going into the
year-end. Indian equity markets snapped their three-session losing streak on
Friday to end at a gain of one percent as investors bought into banking, energy
and auto stocks. Today, the start is likely to remain cautious following weak
cues in other Asian trade. Traders will remain concern on report that the
Reserve Bank of India has flagged falling government revenue as a threat to the
overall fiscal numbers -- with tax and non-tax revenues lagging way behind
targets -- saying this along with weaker private consumption and investment
could prove to be a challenge. Trades may take note with Commerce Secretary
Anup Wadhawan's statement that the continuous contraction in India's exports is
likely to stop next year but the rate of growth will be subdued on account of
the uncertain global trade situation due to rising protectionism. Also, Niti
Aayog distinguished fellow Ramgopal Agarwala said the country's economy is
going through a difficult situation but not in a crisis. The reforms like
demonetisation, Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy
Code (IBC) were required but hastily implemented. However, traders may get some
support with industry body CII's statement that India's economy is expected to
rebound in 2020 on the back of measures taken by the government and the RBI
coupled with easing of global trade tensions. Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of
India (RBI) in latest data has stated that the country's foreign exchange
reserves increased by $456 million to a fresh lifetime high of $454.948 billion
in the week to December 20. In the previous week, the reserves had swelled by
$1.070 billion to $454.492 billion. In the reporting week, the rise in reserves
was mainly on account of an increase in foreign currency assets, a major
component of the overall reserves, which surged by $311 million to $422.732
billion. There will be some reaction in non-banking financial companies (NBFCs)
stocks as RBI in its Financial Stability Report has said that Non-bank lenders
witnessed stress in their asset quality in the first half of the current
fiscal, with gross NPA ratio increasing to 6.3 per cent in September 2019 from
6.1 per cent in March. However, the net NPA ratio of NBFCs remained steady at
3.4 per cent between end-March 2019 and end-September 2019.
Support and Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous
close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE Nifty
|
12,245.80
|
12,182.98
|
12,283.53
|
BSE Sensex
|
41,575.14
|
41,356.28
|
41,702.63
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
|
Previous close (Rs)
|
Support (Rs)
|
Resistance (Rs)
|
(in Lacs)
|
Yes Bank
|
1,549.57
|
48.00
|
47.18
|
49.28
|
State Bank of India
|
334.77
|
337.25
|
334.05
|
339.40
|
Vedanta
|
126.36
|
151.75
|
150.23
|
153.08
|
Zee Entertainment
Enterprises
|
124.51
|
299.00
|
295.13
|
303.88
|
Tata Motors
|
120.96
|
176.15
|
175.02
|
177.12
|
Bharti Airtel's subsidiary -- Airtel Payments Bank has started NEFT facility for its customers on 24x7 basis, in-line with the RBI guidelines.
SBI is going to introduce OTP based cash withdrawal system to help protect its customers from unauthorised transactions at ATMs.
ZEE5, a video on demand website run by Zee Entertainment Enterprises, has unveiled a new Progressive Web App, in order to increase the web reach of the service.
HDFC has filed an application to list Commercial Paper at BSE for an Issue Size of Rs 1,000 crore.