Jubilation continued for the
seventh straight session on Wednesday, with both the larger peers, Sensex and
Nifty, ending with notable gains. The markets made a positive start of the day,
as traders took engorgement with Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Suresh
Prabhu's statement that India will be 5 trillion dollar economy in coming 7-8
years and already have complete road-map for it. Domestic sentiments also
remained optimistic with chairman designate of Central Board of Indirect Taxes and
Customs P K Das' statement that the next three months would see the Centre put
in place changes in policy and procedures to ensure India further improves its
position in the Ease of Doing Business Report-2019. Adding more enthusiasm,
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley released the NITI Aayog's strategy for New India,
a paper envisaging goals for the country in the 75th year of its Independence
in 2022. According to the NITI Aayog strategy paper, the government aims to
increase India's tax-to-GDP ratio to 22 per cent and accelerate economic growth
rate to 8 per cent. Besides, investors took note of Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh
Kant's statement that achieving double digit growth in the manufacturing sector
on sustainable basis is a ‘doable challenge' but for that the country needs to
integrate with global markets. The trade remained positive during the whole
day, tracking firm global cues. Traders were seemed taking encouragement with
Union Minister Giriraj Singh's statement that the government will set up 20
additional technology centres to help micro, small and medium enterprises
(MSMEs). These centres support MSMEs by giving them access to advanced
manufacturing technologies, skilling manpower and providing technical and
business advisory support. Investors paid no heed towards a private report
stating that the overall consumer confidence has slipped in the month of
December, with liquidity crunch, high inflation and rising interest rates
leading to pessimism. The India Primary Consumer Sentiment Index (Consumer Confidence)
has dropped by 0.6% over the previous month of November, signalling growing
pessimism about the future prospects of the economy. The market participants
even overlooked another private report that the government's note ban decision
shaved off economic growth by at least 2 percentage points for the
October-December quarter of 2016 in which the demonetisation move was effected.
Finally, the BSE Sensex surged 137.25 points or 0.38% to 36,484.33, while the
CNX Nifty was up by 58.60 points or 0.54% to 10,967.30.
The US markets ended lower on
Wednesday after the Fed announced its fourth interest-rate increase of the
year, hiking the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to a range of 2.25% to
2.5%. While the Fed also forecast fewer than previously estimated rate hikes
next year, the central bank's tone was not as dovish as some traders had hoped.
The central bank said its Federal Open Market Committee decided to raise the
target range for the federal funds rate by 25 basis points from 2.25 percent to
2.50 percent. Besides, cautiousness also prevailed in the markets as the
central bank lowered its forecasts for real GDP growth in 2018 and 2019 to 3.0
percent and 2.3 percent, respectively. The Fed previously projected 3.1 percent
growth in 2018 and 2.5 percent growth in 2019. On the economic front, existing
home sales in the US unexpectedly showed a significant increase in the month of
November, according to a report released by the National Association of
Realtors. NAR said existing home sales surged up by 1.9 percent to an annual
rate of 5.32 million in November after jumping by 1.4 percent to a rate of 5.22
million in October. Street had expected existing home sales to drop by 0.6
percent. Despite the second consecutive monthly increase, existing home sales
in November were down by 7.0 percent compared to the same month a year ago. The
report said the median existing home price for all housing types in November
was $257,700, up 1.0 percent from $255,100 in October and up 4.2 percent from
$247,200 in November of 2017. Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 351.98
points or 1.49 percent to 23323.66, Nasdaq declined 147.08 points or 2.17
percent to 6636.83 and S&P 500 was down by 39.20 points or 1.54 percent to
2506.96.
After a price decline a day
earlier pushed the US benchmark down to its lowest finish in nearly 16 months,
Crude oil futures ended Higher on Wednesday, buoyed by a third straight weekly
decline in US crude supplies and a drop in distillate stocks. The Energy
Information Administration (EIA) reported that domestic crude supplies fell by
500,000 barrels for the week ended December 14. Benchmark crude oil futures for
January surged 96 cents or 2.1 percent to settle $47.20 a barrel on the New
York Mercantile Exchange. February Brent crude gained 98 cents or 1.7 percent
to settle at $57.42 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.
Indian
rupee trimmed most of its early gains but managed to end higher against the
American currency on Wednesday, on persistent drop in crude prices amid
sustained selling of the American currency by exporters and banks. Sentiments
remained positive with chairman designate of Central Board of Indirect Taxes
and Customs P K Das saying that the next three months would see the Centre put
in place changes in policy and procedures to ensure India further improves its
position in the Ease of Doing Business Report-2019. However, gains were capped
as anxiety spread among the traders with a private report stating that the
overall consumer confidence has slipped in the month of December, with
liquidity crunch, high inflation and rising interest rates leading to
pessimism. On the global front, dollar fell on Wednesday as investors bet that
the Federal Reserve would signal plans to slow its pace of interest rate raises
at a keenly-watched meeting later in the day. Finally, the rupee ended at
70.39, 5 paise stronger from its previous close of 70.44 on Tuesday.
The FIIs as per Wednesday's data
were net sellers in equity segment, while they were net buyers in debt segment.
In equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 4369.28 crore against gross
selling of Rs 4709.93 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was
of Rs 1194.07 crore with gross sales of Rs 810.68 crore. Besides, in the hybrid
segment, the gross selling was of Rs 0.13 crore against no buying.
The US markets ended lower on
Wednesday after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the fourth time
in 2018 and signaled a milder path of increases over the next year. Asian
markets were trading in red on Thursday following the overnight sell-off on
Wall Street. Investors are also cautious ahead to the Bank of Japan's monetary
policy decision due later in the day. Extending gains for seventh straight
session, Indian markets ended higher on Wednesday after oil prices plunged and
the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) decided to inject more liquidity into the
system, helping spur optimism about India's growth story. Today, the markets
are likely to make gap-down opening tacking sell-off in the global markets.
There will be some cautiousness with the US think-tank National Bureau of
Economic Research's (NBER) report that the November 2016 demonetisation
impacted economic activity in the country in the immediate aftermath, affecting
the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) numbers for that fiscal, while the measure's
impact had dissipated by the summer of the following year. Traders will also be
concerned about the World Bank's latest report stating that India lost a
staggering $86.1 billion, equivalent to over 4% of its GDP, owing to
distortions in the power sector in 2016. It added that although India has
achieved 100 per cent village electrification earlier this year, 178 million
Indians still remain unconnected to the grid as per figures for 2017. Traders
may react to the government think-tank Niti Aayog's statement that farm loan
waiver a move helps only a fraction of farmers and is no solution to mitigate
agrarian distress. However, some support may come later in the day with the
NITI Aayog unveiling a strategy document with an aim to accelerate economic
growth to 8% and catapult the country to a $5-trillion economy by 2030. Laying
down a multi-pronged strategy to promote the country's overall development, the
document said the annual growth rate of 9 per cent by 2022-23 would be
essential for generating sufficient growth and achieving prosperity for all.
There will be some buzz in public sector banks (PSBs) stocks with Economic
Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg's statement that the government is
likely to make additional capital infusion in the PSBs. This will be over and
above Rs 1.35 lakh crore capital infusion announced by the government for the
PSBs in October last year to meet global capital risk norms called Basel III.
There will be some reaction in agriculture related stocks with Crisil
expressing concerns on an over 5% dip in sowing for winter crops, which account
for the bulk 40% of the nation's annual agricultural output, amid reports of
rising rural distress. There will be some buzz in the insurance sector stocks
with Moody's Investors Service's statement that the new regulations for
re-insurance in India are credit-positive. It said they will improve Indian
insurers' access to a broader reinsurance base, which will support their
management of underwriting risk and performance.
Support and
Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE Nifty
|
10,967.30
|
10,935.15
|
10,992.30
|
BSE Sensex
|
36,484.33
|
36,392.47
|
36,565.59
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
|
Previous close
(Rs)
|
Support (Rs)
|
Resistance (Rs)
|
(in Lacs)
|
Yes Bank
|
402.48
|
179.55
|
177.72
|
182.27
|
SBI
|
261.24
|
300.70
|
296.27
|
303.57
|
ICICI Bank
|
194.42
|
366.50
|
361.92
|
370.17
|
IOC
|
181.33
|
145.95
|
145.08
|
147.28
|
Axis Bank
|
167.59
|
641.65
|
623.32
|
655.82
|
NTPC's Feroze Gandhi Unchahar Thermal Power Station of Unit number 6 of 500 MW capacity has been synchronized with grid after boiler restoration.
Yes Bank has sold 1,23,37,323 equity shares having nominal value of Rs 10 each, constituting 2.13% of the paid-up share capital of Fortis Healthcare in tranches.
TCS has launched a next-generation, private cloud in Canada to help forward-thinking enterprises move rapidly along the digital maturity curve.
Vedanta is looking to contain its alumina imports to 500,000 tonnes a year by the financial year 2021.