Indian benchmarks ended the range
bound day of trade on a flat note with positive bias as investors remained
cautious ahead of exit polls data for assembly elections in 5 states which will
be released later in the day. Actual results will be announced on Saturday, and
will help to shape the next two years of Modi's government as it heads for the
2019 general election. Sentiments got some support after Prime Minister
Narendra Modi express the hope of reaching a breakthrough on the goods and
services tax (GST) bill in the Budget session of Parliament that resumed after
a month-long break on Thursday. The government is looking to roll out the new
tax regime from July 1. Further, some support also came with the report that
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will chair a high-level meeting with Reserve Bank
officials on Friday to address the issue of non-performing assets in the
banking sector. The meeting, which will also be attended by Financial Services
Secretary Anjuly Chib Duggal, will discuss ways of resolution of stressed
assets urgently. However, gains remained capped with the ICRA's report that
India's current account deficit is expected to see a 50 per cent rise to $30
billion in 2017-18 from $20 billion in the current financial year on higher oil
and gold imports. Since 2013-14, a combination of lower crude oil and gold
imports has helped curtail India's current account deficit, absorbing the
impact of declining merchandise exports, services trade surplus or remittances
in some of these years. Finally, the BSE Sensex surged 27.19 points or 0.09% to
28929.13, while the CNX Nifty was up by 2.70 points or 0.03% to 8,927.00.
The US markets closed higher on
Thursday, on the back of a rebound in energy shares as the bull market quietly
marked its unofficial eighth birthday. Thursday marks the eighth anniversary of
the bull market, based on the fact that the S&P 500 notched its bear-market
closing low on March 9, 2009. According to the recent polls, the Federal
Reserve will raise interest rates next week in response to a series of strong
economic data, with two more hikes likely to follow later this year. Hawkish
comments from several Fed officials have pushed interest rate futures markets
to bet on a rate hike on March 15, with the probability now at 90 percent, up
from just 30 percent early last week. On the economy front, the number of
Americans who applied for unemployment benefits jumped by 20,000 to 243,000 in
early March, but layoffs remained near a 45-year low. Just a week earlier, new
claims had fallen to the lowest level since March 1973. And they've come under
the key 300,000 threshold for 105 straight weeks, the second longest streak
since the mid-1960s. The four-week average of initial claims, meanwhile, rose
by 2,250 to 236,500. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 2.46 points or 0.01
percent to 20,858.19, Nasdaq was up 1.26 points or 0.02 percent to 5,838.81,
while S&P 500 gained 1.89 points or 0.08 percent to 2,364.87.
Crude oil futures extended their
decline on Thursday with the Nymex crude plunging to the lowest since November,
as growing U.S. crude inventories to record levels weighed on sentiment. Despite
OPEC's high level of compliance with production cuts agreed last November, U.S.
crude oil stockpiles rose to an all-time high of 528.4 million barrels for the
week ended March 1. A stronger dollar has also weighed on oil prices in
anticipation of a U.S. interest rate hike next week. Benchmark crude oil
futures for May delivery plunged by $1 to $49.28 on the New York Mercantile
Exchange. In London, Brent crude for May delivery ended lower by $0.98 at $52.13
on the ICE.
Indian
rupee ended marginally weaker against the US dollar on Thursday on account of
buying of American currency by banks and importers amid stronger-than-expected
US private-sector jobs figures in February sealed expectations that the Federal
Reserve will raise interest rates next week. Traders also remained cautious
ahead of the exit polls data for assembly elections in five states that is set
to release later in the day. Sentiment remained subdued with the ICRA's report
that India's current account deficit is expected to see a 50 per cent rise to
$30 billion in 2017-18 from $20 billion in the current financial year on higher
oil and gold imports. Also, a weak domestic equity market affected the rupee
sentiment. On the global front, dollar hit a three-week high against the yen on
Thursday, on course for a fourth straight day of broader gains after a strong
ADP job number in the previous session broke 10-year US government bond yields
out of a long-held range. Finally, the rupee ended at 66.71, 1 paise weaker
from its previous close of 66.70 on Wednesday.
The
FIIs as per Thursday's data were net sellers in equity segment, while there
were no buying and selling witnessed in debt segment. In equity segment, the
gross buying was of Rs 0.25 crore against gross selling of Rs 0.32 crore.
The US markets managed a modestly
positive close in last session, though the consolidation continued and the
markets showed a lack of direction throughout the trading session ahead of the
release of the Labor Department's closely watched jobs report on Friday. The
Asian markets have made a mixed start and some of the indices are marginally in
red, however the Japanese market has strengthened and was up by over a percent
as the yen weakened against the dollar. The Indian markets sensing the exit
poll outcome of the 5 states, picked up pace in final hours of the last session
and posted modest gains. Today the start is likely to be in green with the exit
polls confirming that the ruling party in center BJP will be near to forming
government in 4 out of 5 states that went to election. Though the global cues are mixed but the
markets going for a long weekend will be accumulating gains today ahead of the
final poll verdict on March 11. There will be some cautiousness too with the
domestic rating agency ICRA stating that higher oil and gold imports will end
the four-year trend of moderation in the current account deficit (CAD) in
2017-18, and the gap will widen to $ 30 billion or 1.2 percent of the GDP. It
expects both a rise in prices as well volumes in both the commodities. The IT
stocks will be buzzing with the government trying to assuage concerns of Indian
professionals over H1B visa, saying the steps taken by the US were aimed at
illegal immigration and it would continue to engage with the Donald Trump
administration on the issue.
Support and Resistance: NSE
(Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE Nifty
|
8927.00
|
8902.40
|
8948.70
|
BSE Sensex
|
28929.13
|
28833.86
|
29005.56
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
(in Lacs)
|
Previous close
(Rs)
|
Support (Rs)
|
Resistance (Rs)
|
GAIL
|
189.07
|
379.25
|
371.23
|
385.13
|
SBI
|
155.94
|
273.25
|
269.80
|
275.30
|
IDEA
|
118.65
|
103.95
|
102.57
|
105.77
|
Hindalco
|
116.67
|
189.20
|
187.33
|
191.53
|
ICICI Bank
|
105.89
|
273.50
|
272.08
|
275.43
|
Tata Motors' subsidiary -- Jaguar Land Rover has sealed an agreement with EDF Energy to buy all its electricity from renewable sources up to March 2020.
HDFC Bank has digitized payments at over 1,200 dairy co-operatives in the country under its Milk to Money programme.
Dr. Reddy's Laboratories' formulation manufacturing facility at Duvvada, Visakhapatnam, has been audited by the USFDA, and the audit has been completed on March 8, 2017
HDFC will raise Rs 2,000 crore on private placement basis by issuing NCDs to shore up its long term capital.