Indian equity barometers ended
Monday's trading session in green territory and extended their winning streak
for sixth straight session, with Sensex and Nifty regaining their crucial
psychological levels of 38,000 and 11,450, respectively. The markets made a
cheerful start of the day, as India's merchandise exports continued their
growth momentum for fifth straight month. Exports grew by 2.44% in the month of
February 2019, over the same month of last year, on account of growth in
sectors such as pharmaceuticals, textiles, handloom, engineering goods and
chemicals. Traders were positive, amid reports that the Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) came out with guidelines for financial instruments, with an aim to
prevent misuse of price-sensitive information by participants in markets. The
guidelines have become effective from March 16, 2019. Some support also came
with a report that overseas investors poured in more than Rs 20,400 crore in
the domestic capital market in the first half of March, mainly driven by
positive global cues. However, in noon deals, key indices pared their gains to
trade lackluster, impacted by a private report stating that India will
underperform this year compared to other emerging markets as valuations
continue to be a concern for the country. But, last-hour buying along with firm
global cues lifted the equity indices to settle higher. The market participants
took encouragement with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's statement that
infrastructure development and clearing backlog of defence procurement will be
the government's priorities for the future. He also noted that rural India
development and improvement of healthcare and education would be the other
priority areas. Traders took a note of report that industry body Associated
Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) released a charter of
demands to make India a $5 trillion economy by 2025. Finally, the BSE Sensex
rose 70.75 points or 0.19% to 38,095.07, while the CNX Nifty was up by 35.35
points or 0.31% to 11,462.20.
The US markets ended higher, with
gains of over quarter a percent, on Monday on optimism about a US-China trade
deal after China's state-owned Xinhua news agency reporting the US and China
have made further concrete progress on the text of a final agreement. Further,
reports on the merger-and-acquisition front added to the positive sentiment, as
Deutsche Bank (DB) and rival German bank Commerzbank confirmed they are in
merger talks. However, buying interest was somewhat subdued as traders seemed
reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary
policy Meeting to begin Tuesday. The Fed is widely expected to leave interest
rates unchanged, although traders are likely to keep a close eye on the
accompanying statement for clues about the outlook for rates. The central
bank's economic projections and Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's subsequent press
conference are also likely to be in focus. On the economic front, homebuilder
confidence in the US has held steady in the month of March, according to a
report released by the National Association of Home Builders. The report said
the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index came in at 62 in March, unchanged
from February. NAHB Chairman Greg Ugalde said builders report the market is
stabilizing following the slowdown at the end of 2018 and they anticipate a
solid spring home buying season. The unchanged reading by the homebuilder
confidence index reflected a mixed performance by the three index components.
While the component charting sales expectations in the next six months rose
three points to 71 and the component gauging current sales conditions increased
two points to 68, the component measuring traffic of prospective buyers fell
four points to 44. Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 65.23 points or 0.25
percent to 25914.10, Nasdaq gained 25.95 points or 0.34 percent to 7714.48 and
S&P 500 was up by 10.46 points or 0.37 percent to 2832.94.
Crude oil futures ended higher on
Monday as Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its
allies looked set to continue their crude production cuts until June. The Joint
Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC), a production policy monitoring group
that includes Saudi Arabia and Russia, said that overall conformity with the
production cut agreement among OPEC and some nonmember allies that began at the
start of the year rose to almost 90% in February, up from 83% in January. The JMMC also recommended that OPEC forgo its
full ministerial meeting in April and instead hold its next meeting on June 25
to make a decision on the production target for the second half of the year.
The current production pact expires at the end of June. Benchmark crude oil
futures for April rose 57 cents or 1 percent to settle at $59.09 a barrel on
the New York Mercantile Exchange. May Brent crude gained 38 cents or 0.6
percent to settle at $67.54 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.
Extending gaining streak for
sixth straight session, Indian rupee appreciated against dollar on Monday, on
the back of dollar sales by investors. Investors sentiment was supported with
the trade ministry's statement that India's trade deficit narrowed to $9.60
billion in February, dragged down by a fall in gold and oil imports, as
compared to $14.73 billion in January. The data showed that in February,
merchandise exports rose 2.44 percent from a year earlier to $26.67 billion,
while imports were down 5.41 percent to $36.26 billion. Besides, gold imports
in February fell 10.81 percent year-on-year to $2.58 billion, compared to $2.90
billion during the same month a year ago. Some support also came with report
that overseas investors poured in more than Rs 20,400 crore in the domestic
capital market in the first half of March, mainly driven by positive global
cues. Besides, weakness of dollar in the overseas market coupled with strong
gains in the local equity markets helped the domestic currency rebound.
Finally, the rupee ended at 68.53, 57 paise stronger from its previous close of
69.10 on Friday.
The FIIs as per Monday's data
were net buyers in equity and debt segments both. In equity segment, the gross buying
was of Rs 15322.65 crore against gross selling of Rs 11860.26 crore, while in
the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 3345.49 crore with gross sales
of Rs 421.07 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was of Rs
0.39 crore against gross selling of Rs 0.55 crore.
The US markets settled higher on
Monday, ahead of a meeting of Federal Reserve policy makers to begin on March 19,
while losses for aircraft maker Boeing dragged capped the further gains. Asian
markets are trading mostly lower on Tuesday, ahead of a closely watched meeting
by the US Federal Reserve set to kick off later in the day. Indian equity
benchmarks ended higher for the sixth straight session on Monday, with modest
gains, amid sustained FII inflows coupled with firm global cues. Today, the
markets are likely to make a cautious start amid mixed cues from global market.
The US Fed will begin its meeting on interest rates later in the day, which
ends with a news conference on March 20. On the domestic front, investors will
be eyeing the all-powerful Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council's 34th meeting
to be held later in the day, it is expected to take up various issues including
the implementation of lower GST rates for the real estate sector. In the
previous meeting, the Council slashed tax rates for under-construction flats to
5% and affordable homes to 1%, effective April 1. Traders may take some
encouragement with a report that the net direct tax collection figure has
crossed the Rs 10 lakh crore mark as on March 16, helped by the fourth and
final installment of tax payment. The entire advance tax data from across the
country has not come yet. The net direct tax collection during April-January of
this fiscal stood at Rs 7.89 lakh crore as against Rs 12 lakh crore targeted
for the entire fiscal of 2018-19. Investors may take note of Niti Aayog CEO
Amitabh Kant's statement that India cannot achieve 9-10% Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) growth without revolution in the farm sector. He said there is a need to
boost investment in the agriculture sector as well as to introduce new
technology and market reforms. Meanwhile, the government has constituted an
inter-ministerial panel for monitoring, sanctioning and implementation of
projects under the Rs 10,000-crore FAME-II programme, aimed at incentivising
clean mobility. Besides, the country's first real estate investment trust
(REIT) offering has been subscribed 20% on the first day of bidding on March
18. There will be some buzz in information technology (IT) sector stocks with
ICRA's report that the IT services sector is estimated to clock a flat growth
of up to 9% in the fiscal year 2019-20. It also said that there will be higher
consolidation in the industry, especially among the small and mid-size players,
owing to margin pressures in the next decade. There will be some reaction in
sugar sector stocks with the Indian Sugar Mills Association's (ISMA) statement
that India's sugar production rose by 6% to 273.47 lakh tonne till March 15,
2019. On the corresponding date last year, 258.20 lakh tons had been produced.
Support and
Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE Nifty
|
11,462.20
|
11,406.42
|
11,524.07
|
BSE Sensex
|
38,095.07
|
37,908.25
|
38,325.74
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
|
Previous close (Rs)
|
Support (Rs)
|
Resistance (Rs)
|
(in Lacs)
|
IOC
|
414.82
|
162.80
|
158.37
|
166.72
|
Yes Bank
|
248.26
|
245.95
|
242.32
|
249.07
|
SBI
|
237.83
|
298.95
|
295.43
|
301.68
|
ICICI Bank
|
212.21
|
398.05
|
394.40
|
400.80
|
NTPC
|
160.75
|
158.75
|
156.07
|
161.12
|
IndusInd Bank has inaugurated branch in Sadar Bazar area of Delhi making its 54th branch to become operational in the city.
Wipro has launched Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning solutions on Amazon Web Services.
Lupin's subsidiary -- Novel Laboratories' Somerset facility has been cautioned by the USFDA that it may be subject to regulatory or administrative action.
Maruti Suzuki India has cut production by over 8% in February on account of subdued demand.