Markets went home empty handed on
July month F&O expiry despite trading jubilantly for most part of the day.
It was the final hour of trade which played spoil sports for Indian equity
benchmarks and rally got fizzled out with key indices ended unchanged, as
traders opted to book profits at higher levels. Markets kick started the day on
optimistic note, hitting lifetime highs of 32,672.66 (Sensex) and 10,114.85
(Nifty) levels, as sentiments remained up-beat with news that retirement fund
body the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation is planning to pump in Rs
22,500 crore in exchange traded funds in 2017-18 following approval from the
central board of trustees to increase the equity investment from 10 per cent to
15 per cent. Traders also took some comfort with report that Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) strengthened its foothold in Bihar after Nitish Kumar ended his
party, JDU's mahagathbandhan or Grand Alliance with Lalu Yadav's RJD and the
Congress last evening and joined hands with his former partner BJP. Investors
also took note of global financial services major report that the Reserve Bank
of India is expected to go for a 25 basis points (bps) repo rate cut in its
policy review meet on August 2 as inflation is likely to have reached a new
normal of 4 percent. The report highlighted that inflation in India has fallen
dramatically, and though the excessively low level it witnessed this fiscal is
not sustainable, the rebound may not be too sharp either. However, markets
failed to hold their early gains and started moving southward to end flat on
account of late selling in bluechips like Reliance Industries, ITC, Infosys,
TCS and Bharti Airtel. A string of mixed-to-weak corporate earnings also soured
sentiment. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose marginally by 0.84 points to 32,383.30,
while the CNX Nifty was down marginally by 0.10 points to 10,020.55.
The US markets closed mostly
lower on Thursday, as investors remained cautious a day ahead of Donald Trump's
presidential inauguration. Wall Street closely monitored the Senate
confirmation hearing of Steven Mnuchin for the post of Treasury Secretary for
his views on the dollar and tax issues. Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen
is due to give a speech covering the economic outlook and monetary policy. On
the economy front, the number of Americans who applied for unemployment
benefits rose in late July but remained near the lowest level in decades,
underscoring a red-hot labor market that shows little sign of cooling. Initial
jobless claims in the period running from July 16 to July 22 increased by
10,000 and stood to seasonally adjusted 244,000. The average of new claims over
the past month, which gives a more stable picture of layoff trends, was
unchanged at 244,000. Claims often bounce up and down in July when auto makers
typically close plants to retool in preparation for model switch-overs. The
Nasdaq lost 40.56 points or 0.63 percent to 6,382.19, S&P 500 edged lower
by 2.41 points or 0.10 percent to 2,475.42, while the Dow Jones Industrial
Average added 85.54 points or 0.39 percent to 21,796.55.
Crude oil futures extended their
northward march on Thursday near $50 a barrel, powered by hopes that OPEC can
re-balance the global oil market. Investors continued to cheer signs that
rising demand will offset excess supplies in the second half of the year amid a
larger-than-expected draw in US supplies. News that Saudi Arabia plans to lower
crude exports to 6.6 million barrels per day (bpd) in August, almost 1 million
bpd below the level last year, kept the spirit high for the traders. Benchmark crude oil futures for September delivery gained
$0.29 or 0.61 percent to $49.04 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London,
Brent crude for September delivery ended higher by 1.10 percent at $51.53 a
barrel on the ICE.
Indian
rupee ended at near 10-week high against US dollar on Thursday, taking its
winning streak for second straight session on continued dollar selling by banks
and exporters. Sentiments remained up-beat with news that retirement fund body
the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation is planning to pump in Rs 22,500
crore in exchange traded funds in 2017-18 following approval from the central
board of trustees to increase the equity investment from 10 percent to 15
percent. The rupee sentiment was also boosted as dollar weakened against some
currencies overseas along with positive gains in the local equity markets. On
the global front, yen rose against dollar after the Federal Reserve policy
statement highlighted a tepid inflation outlook fuelling speculation that it is
unlikely to hike rates in September. Finally, the rupee ended at 64.11, 25
paise stronger from its previous close of 64.36 on Wednesday.
The
FIIs as per Thursday'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
5456.65 crore against gross selling of Rs 5649.21 crore, while in the debt
segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 2769.81 crore with gross sales of Rs 594.77
crore.
The US markets made a mixed
closing in last session, and while the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 pulled back
into negative territory, the Dow reached a new record closing high. Traders
took the opportunity to cash in on some of the recent strength despite a report
showing a substantial increase in durable goods orders in the month of June.
The Asian markets have made mostly a soft start on some weak earnings;
attention remained on corporate results ahead of a report on U.S.
second-quarter growth. The Indian markets despite snapping the best F&O
series in years ended flat in last session. Today, the start of the new series
is likely to be in red tailing the weakness in other global markets. On the
domestic front traders will be concerned with banking major ICICI reporting an
eight percent fall in first quarter profit from a year earlier to Rs. 2,049
crore, though the bank said it was optimistic about containing its bad loans
after the three months to June saw the smallest rise in soured assets for seven
quarters. Traders will be getting some support with report from the prestigious
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which has said that monsoon has
strengthened over north central India in the last 15 years, indicating a
reversal in the general perception that the region has dried up in over a
decade. There will be some buzz in the gems and jewellery stocks, as the
government expects export growth of six per cent a year for the industry, which
is going to be the new normal. Gems and jewellery net exports declined in FY'16
to $32 billion, as compared to $36.2 billion the previous year. There will be
lots of important earnings to keep the markets in action.
Support and Resistance: NSE
(Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE Nifty
|
10020.55
|
9979.08
|
10088.43
|
BSE Sensex
|
32383.30
|
32248.20
|
32595.53
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
(in Lacs)
|
Previous close
(Rs)
|
Support (Rs)
|
Resistance (Rs)
|
ICICI Bank
|
285.36
|
307.20
|
303.55
|
312.65
|
SBI
|
222.86
|
298.35
|
296.42
|
300.07
|
ITC
|
188.93
|
288.55
|
285.07
|
293.72
|
Bharti Airtel
|
139.18
|
416.05
|
409.42
|
424.72
|
Tata Motors
|
137.39
|
445.40
|
436.82
|
457.47
|
Tata Motors has launched a range of commercial vehicles in the Philippines to expand presence in the South East Asian nation.
Bharti Airtel is planning to roll out VoLTE service that enables phone calls using 4G technology, across India by end of the current financial year.
Yes Bank has reported 31.94% rise in its net profit at Rs 965.52 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2017 as compared to Rs 731.8 crore for the same quarter in the previous year.
Dr. Reddy's Laboratories has entered into a global licensing agreement with CHD Bioscience for the clinical development and commercialization of Dr. Reddy's phase III clinical trial candidate, DFA-02.