Monday turned-out to be a
jubilant day of trade for Indian equity benchmarks with frontline gauges ending
the session with gains of around two percentage points, recapturing their
crucial 10,400 (Nifty) and 33,900 (Sensex) levels. After making a gap-up
opening, markets gained strength-to-strength and not even an iota of profit
booking witnessed on Dalal Street as traders continued to build hefty positions
across the board. Sentiments remained up-beat throughout the session as traders
took some encouragement with IMF's statement that the Indian economy now seems
to be on its way of recovering from disruptions caused by demonetisation and
roll-out of goods and services tax. At the same time, the IMF has underscored
the significance of reforms in other key sectors like education, health and
improving the efficiency of banking and financial systems. Investors also took
some support with industry body FICCI's report that manufacturers in the
country have a positive outlook for the sector in the January-March quarter on
the back of higher production. The proportion of respondents reporting higher
output growth during the Q4 2017-18 has increased significantly to 55 per cent
from 47 per cent in Q3. Sentiments also remained up-beat as Union commerce and
industry minister Suresh Prabhu exuded confidence that India will become a $5
trillion economy in the next seven years, adding that India will be a bigger
economy than China at some point of time. He also said that manufacturing
sector would contribute $1 trillion, services sector $3 trillion and the rest
would come from agriculture for the country to become a $5 trillion economy in
the next seven years. Some support also came with a report stating that the
Centre is expecting to get around Rs 8,044 crore on account of dividend from
Coal India as the miner's board approved payment of interim dividend for the
financial year 2017-18 at a rate of Rs 16.50 per share. The miner's total
payout on account of this would be to the tune Rs 10,242 crore. Finally, the
BSE Sensex surged 610.80 points or 1.83% to 33,917.94, while the CNX Nifty was
up by 194.55 points or 1.90% to 10,421.40.
The US markets
closed mostly lower on Monday, weighed down by the industrials sector, while
the Nasdaq closed at a record, in part due to optimism over Friday's jobs data,
which showed solid economic growth without triggering wage pressure. With
nothing major on the economic-data calendar, the market's focus will likely
remain on last week's so-called Goldilocks jobs numbers. Separately, US
inflation expectations edged higher last month, with one measure hitting its
highest level in a year, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of New York survey
that adds to signs of price pressures. The survey of consumer expectations,
which the Fed considers among other data as it continues to gradually raise
interest rates, showed median one-year ahead inflation expectations rose to
2.83 percent from 2.71 percent in January, the highest reading since February 2017.
The three-year measure was 2.88 percent in February, up from 2.79 the month
before. On the economy front, the US government recorded a monthly budget
deficit of $215 billion in February, up 12% from the same month last year due
to lower revenue and higher spending. For the first five months of the fiscal
year, the government's deficit is $391 billion, $40 billion more than the
shortfall during the same period last year. Revenues were down 9% in February
from same month last year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 157.13 points
or 0.62 percent to 25,178.61, the S&P 500 was down by 3.55 points or 0.13
percent to 2783.02, while Nasdaq gained 27.515 points or 0.36 percent to
7,588.32.
Crude oil futures edged lower on
Monday ahead of closely watched U.S. inflation data that may set the stage for
interest rate hikes. The U.S. consumer price and producer price readings come
out this week. If inflation picks up analysts say the Federal Reserve might
raise interest rates four times this year. A stronger dollar would likely dent
oil prices. The decline was also because of report that Crude production from
seven major U.S. shale plays is expected to see a climb of 131,000 barrels a
day in April to 6.954 million barrels a day. Benchmark crude oil futures for
April delivery declined 68 cents or 1.1 percent at $61.36 a barrel on the New
York Mercantile Exchange. May Brent crude dropped by 54 cents or 0.8 percent to
settle at $64.95 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.
Indian
rupee trimmed some of its early gains but still ended higher against the
American currency on Monday, on continued dollar selling by banks and
exporters. Sentiments got support after Union commerce and industry minister
Suresh Prabhu exuded confidence that India will become a $5 trillion economy in
the next seven years, adding that India will be a bigger economy than China at
some point of time. He also said that manufacturing sector would contribute $1
trillion, services sector $3 trillion and the rest would come from agriculture
for the country to become a $5 trillion economy. Besides, a spectacular
performance on domestic equities too supported the rupee. However, gains were
capped as anxiety spread among the traders ahead of key economic data -
industrial production (IIP) numbers for January and retail inflation for
February - to be released later in the day. On the global front, US dollar
dropped against yen on Monday, after the US jobs report dampened expectations
of aggressive interest-rate hikes from the Federal Reserve. Finally, the rupee
ended at 65.04, 12 paise stronger from its previous close of 65.16 on Friday.
The FIIs as per Monday's data were net buyers in equity
segment, while they were net sellers in debt segment, in equity segment, the
gross buying was of Rs 4598.74 crore against gross selling of Rs 3990.76 crore,
while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 770.24 crore with gross
sales of Rs 3163.55 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was
of Rs 0.92 crore against no selling.
The US markets ended mostly lower
on Monday as traders remained on sidelines ahead of data related to consumer
and producer price inflation, retail sales, regional manufacturing activity,
housing starts and industrial production, to be released later during the week.
Asian markets trading mostly in red on Tuesday, as Washington's policies hit
regional steel producers. Indian equity markets edged higher on Monday, as
geopolitical tensions eased somewhat, trade-war worries subsided and a robust
U.S. jobs report stoked optimism about global growth. Today, the start of the
session is likely to be in green and traders will be reacting positively to the
IIP numbers, as strong manufacturing growth and a rebound in the consumer
durables sector lifted India's total factory production to 7.5 percent in
January from 7.1 percent in December. As per the street expectation it was
likely to come at 6.6%. The cumulative growth for the period April-January
2017-18 over the corresponding period of the previous year stood at 4.1%.
Traders will also get some encouragement with report that Inflation as measured
by the CPI slowed to 4.44% in February from 5.07% in January, mostly due to
easing food and fuel prices. Inflation in the food and beverages segment slowed
to 3.38% in February from 4.58% in the previous month. Some support will also
come with report that foreign direct investment (FDI) has increased steadily in
the country with total capital inflows reaching $208.99 billion during April
2014 to December 2017 period. The main sectors that received maximum foreign
inflows include services, computer software and hardware, telecommunications,
construction, trading and automobile. There will be buzz in defence related
stocks after Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that defence public
sector undertakings (PSUs) and ordnance factories in the country have a lot of
potential but they need to be revitalised and made more dynamic.
Support
and Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE Nifty
|
10,421.40
|
10,333.35
|
10,471.55
|
BSE Sensex
|
33,917.94
|
33,603.24
|
34,097.56
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
|
Previous close
(Rs)
|
Support (Rs)
|
Resistance (Rs)
|
(in Lacs)
|
SBI
|
253.32
|
252.85
|
248.32
|
256.32
|
ITC
|
199.00
|
270.10
|
265.08
|
272.98
|
Indian Oil
Corporation
|
138.49
|
400.65
|
391.08
|
406.63
|
Yes Bank
|
128.60
|
311.15
|
303.50
|
316.65
|
Tata steel
|
121.94
|
622.90
|
610.73
|
630.73
|
Tata Motors Group global wholesales in February 2018, including Jaguar Land Rover, were at 121,252 units, higher by 18%, over February 2017.
Power Grid has been declared as the successful bidder under Tariff based competitive bidding to establish transmission system.
Bharti Airtel has received an approval for issuance of NCDs of up to Rs 10,000 crore on a private placement basis.
L&T's construction arm -- L&T Construction -- has bagged orders worth Rs 2,597 crore across various business segments.