Friday turned out to be a dismal
day of trade for Indian equity benchmarks, with frontline gauges ending with a
cut of around a percent, as disappointing trade balance data and worries over
the Rs 11,300 crore fraud case at PNB kept the underlying sentiment cautious.
Markets started the session on an optimistic note but failed to gain any
momentum and entered into red terrain, as traders turned pessimistic on report
that India's merchandise trade deficit for January widened from a year ago. The
visible trade deficit increased to a 56-month high of $16.30 billion in January
from $9.90 billion in the same month last year as export growth slowed down and
imports of precious stones and crude oil surged. Exports grew an annual 9.07
percent, while imports jumped 26.10 percent. Sentiments also remained dampened
on report that the growth of India's debt capital markets moderated by three
percent in the current year with a growth of 16 percent in the value of
corporate bonds outstanding by December end, driven by a slowdown in bond
issuance. Meanwhile, IMF said that the tax collection assumptions in India's
budget is ambitious but there is a need to look into the fiscal implications of
some of the initiatives that are presently unfunded. The market participants
also remained worried, as the World Bank identified two global risks that could
jeopardise the country's progress towards a global middle-class status. These
two risks are anti-international trade sentiment and climate change. The World
Bank further noted that India's services exports are being challenged and the
climate change is posing threat to the agricultural sector. Meanwhile, Road
Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari stated that the government would
not bring any separate electric vehicle policy and would just frame rules for
the category. Separately, Union minister D V Sadananda Gowda has said that the
government will change the base year to 2017-18 for the calculation of GDP and
IIP numbers while for retail inflation the year will be revised to 2018. Finally,
the BSE Sensex declined 286.71 points or 0.84% to 34,010.76, while the CNX
Nifty was down by 93.20 points or 0.88% to 10,452.30.
The U.S. equity markets paring
most of their early gains ended mixed on Friday after Special Counsel Robert
Mueller's office revealed that a federal grand jury has indicted several
Russian nationals for allegedly interfering in the 2016 presidential election. The
indictment does not allege collusion between the Russians and President Donald
Trump's campaign but could still cause headaches for the president. The
strength seen earlier in the day came, as traders once again shrugged off
further indications of rising inflation, with a report from the Labor
Department showing import prices jumped by more than expected in the month of
January. The import prices surged up by 1.0 percent in January after edging up
by a revised 0.2 percent in December. The market participants had expected
import prices to climb by 0.6 percent compared to the 0.1 percent uptick
originally reported for the previous month. The export prices increased by 0.8
percent in January after inching up by a revised 0.1 percent in December.
Export prices had been expected to rise by 0.3 percent compared to the 0.1
percent drop originally reported for the previous month. The Dow Jones
Industrial Average added 19.01 points or 0.08 percent to 25,219.38 and S&P
500 rose 1.02 points or 0.04 percent to 2,732.22, while Nasdaq was down by
16.97 points or 0.23 percent to 7,239.46.
Extending winning streak for the
third straight day, Crude oil prices settled higher on Friday as global
equities headed for their biggest weekly gain in six years and as the dollar
slipped to a three-year low. Investor shrugged off data showing that the number
of US oil rigs jumped for the fourth straight week. According to data from
energy services firm Baker Hughes, US drillers added 16 rigs to bring the count
to 798, the highest level since April 2, 2015. The US shale book has offset
OPEC's supply quota plan that was intended to end the global oil surplus. Benchmark
crude oil futures for March delivery surged 34 cents or 0.6 percent, at $61.68
a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. April Brent crude gained 51 cents
or 0.8 percent to settle at $64.84 a barrel on London's Intercontinental
Exchange.
Indian
rupee ended considerably weaker against the US dollar on Friday, faced with
heavy demand for the American currency from importers and banks. Sentiments
remained sluggish with the report that the overall trade deficit widened to
$16298.47 million during the month under review as against $9904.82 million in
January 2017, the highest in more than three years. The rupee sentiment was
also hit as the World Bank identified two global risks that could jeopardise
the country's progress towards a ‘global middle-class status'. These two risks
are anti-international trade sentiment and climate change. The World Bank
further noted that India's services exports are being challenged and the
climate change is posing threat to the agricultural sector. Moreover,
persistent fall in equity markets together with dollar rose to a position of
strength overseas added some extra pressure on rupee. On the global front,
pound dipped against dollar on Friday following the lower than expected retail
sales figures for January. Finally, the rupee ended at 64.21, 30 paise weaker
from its previous close of 63.91 on Thursday.
The FIIs as per Friday's data
were net sellers in equity and debt segments both, in equity segment, the gross
buying was of Rs 4415.89 crore against gross sell of Rs 4550.42 crore, while in
the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 738.39 crore with gross sales of
Rs 780.32 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross selling of Rs 0.56
crore against no buying.
The US markets ended mixed on
Friday with the benchmarks paring most of their early gains, as political news
sparked late-session turbulence. Asian equities were trading higher, as
confidence in equities continued to return, with some markets in the region
reopening after the Lunar New Year holiday. Japanese Nikkei edged higher, as
the country posted a merchandise trade deficit of 943.417 billion yen in
January, an improvement of 13.6 percent from a year earlier. Indian equity
markets fell sharply on Friday, as financials succumbed to selling pressure on
worries over the Rs 11,300-crore fraud case at Punjab National Bank (PNB) and
weak trade data stirred concerns about the economic outlook. Today, markets is
likely to start in green terrain, tracking firm global markets, as investors
remain optimistic about global growth. However, traders may remain concern with
report that an index mapping the country's short-term financial conditions has
plunged over 12 points for the fourth quarter of the current fiscal ending
March 31, as compared to the previous quarter. Ongoing developments in PNB
fraud case may influence trading sentiment. Meanwhile, in lieu of the ongoing
fraudulent transaction scam involving Punjab National Bank, the ASSOCHAM
demanded that the government to reduce its stake in banks to less than 50
percent. Banking stocks would continue to remain in focus after the
government's chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian underlined the need for
more privatization in the banking sector. Steel stocks will remain in focus on
report that India's export of finished steel shrank by over 30 per cent to
0.616 million tonnes (MT) during January 2018. Stocks related to coal sector too
will be buzzing on report that the country's coal import increased by 12.4 per
cent to 18.49 MT in January, against 16.44 MT in the same month of the previous
fiscal, according to m-junction, a leading name in the e-auction space.
Support
and Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous
close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE
Nifty
|
10,452.30
|
10,386.60
|
10,565.45
|
BSE
Sensex
|
34,010.76
|
33,809.31
|
34,360.22
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
|
Previous
close (Rs)
|
Support (Rs)
|
Resistance
(Rs)
|
(in
Lacs)
|
SBI
|
303.38
|
271.65
|
267.40
|
278.55
|
ICICI
Bank
|
186.12
|
311.80
|
305.97
|
321.32
|
Yes
Bank
|
175.86
|
321.05
|
315.23
|
330.43
|
Vedanta
|
91.17
|
319.75
|
313.87
|
327.77
|
Tata
Motors
|
85.45
|
370.75
|
373.63
|
373.63
|
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Infosys has signed an agreement for divestment of its entire investment from Onmobile Systems USA as on February 15, 2018 for a total consideration of $ 2,498,756.