Indian benchmarks gained for the
second consecutive session on Thursday, with Sensex and Nifty closing above
their crucial psychological levels of 35,800 and 10,750, respectively. The
markets made a cautious start, affected with the National Association of
Software and Services Companies' (NASSCOM) latest survey report stating that
global economic uncertainties are leading to a cautionary outlook among CEOs,
but they expect digitization initiatives to continue with the same momentum.
According to the report, digitization of businesses and enhanced customer
experience have emerged as the top 2 spending areas in IT and BPM for 2019.
Some concerns also came with reports that the Goods and Services Tax (GST)
Council has deferred a decision on tax rates on real estate and lottery till
February 24, and extended the deadline for businesses to file sales returns for
January till February 22 for all states; and February 28 for Jammu &
Kashmir. However, in late morning deals, key indices gained momentum to end the
trading session in green territory, aided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's
statement that the Indian economy is based on sound fundamentals and will in
the near future double in size to $5 trillion. Traders also took encouragement
with a private report stating that India will remain the fastest growing major
economy, much ahead of China, in the next decade 2019-28. Some support also
come with the Finance Ministry expecting bad loan recoveries to touch Rs 1.80
lakh crore during the current fiscal with two major cases at the final stage of
resolution. Adding comfort among the market participants, the Retirement fund
body, Employment Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) in its latest Net Payroll
Data report showed that employment generation in the India's formal sector
almost trebled to touch a 16-month high of 7.16 lakh in December 2018 as
compared to 2.37 lakh in the same month a year ago. Finally, the BSE Sensex
gained 142.09 points or 0.40% to 35,898.35, while the CNX Nifty was up by 54.40
points or 0.51% to 10,789.85.
The US markets ended lower with
losses of over quarter a percent on Thursday, with Nasdaq snapping an
eight-session winning streak, on the heels of a slew of disappointing economic
data, including a report from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve unexpectedly
showing a contraction in regional manufacturing activity for the first time
since May of 2016. The Philly Fed said its index for current manufacturing
activity in the region tumbled to a negative 4.1 in February from a positive
17.0 in January, with a negative reading indicating contraction. The index had
been expected to slip to 14.0. A separate report from the Commerce Department
also showed a smaller than expected increase in durable goods orders in
January. The report said durable goods orders surged up by 1.2 percent in
December after jumping by an upwardly revised 1.0 percent in November. The
National Association of Realtors (NAR) released a report showing existing home
sales unexpectedly fell to their lowest level in over three years in January.
NAR said existing home sales tumbled by 1.2 percent to an annual rate of 4.94
million in January after plunging by 4.0 percent to a revised rate of 5.00
million in December. The continued decrease surprised participants, who had
expected existing home sales to climb by 1.0 percent to a rate of 5.04 million
from the 4.99 million originally reported for the previous week. Meanwhile, the
Labor Department released a report showing first-time claims for unemployment
benefits fell more than expected in the week ended February 16. The report said
initial jobless claims dropped to 216,000, a decrease of 23,000 from the
previous week's unrevised level of 239,000. Dow Jones Industrial Average
declined 103.81 points or 0.40 percent to 25850.63, Nasdaq dropped 29.36 points
or 0.39 percent to 7459.71 and S&P 500 was down by 9.82 points or 0.35
percent to 2774.88.
Crude oil futures settled lower
on Thursday after a US government report revealed that domestic supplies
climbed for a fifth straight week as production jumped to a record level. The
Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that domestic crude supplies
rose a fifth straight week, up 3.7 million barrels for the week ended February
15. That was a bit more than the 3.5 million-barrel rise expected by S&P
Global Platts. The American Petroleum Institute data on Wednesday showed an
increase of 1.3 million barrels. However, overall signs of declines in
world-wide output capped price losses for the session. Benchmark crude oil
futures for April declined 20 cents or 0.4 percent to settle at $56.96 a barrel
on the New York Mercantile Exchange. April Brent crude was little changed,
inching lower by a penny to end at $67.07 a barrel on London's Intercontinental
Exchange.
Indian
rupee ended weaker against the US dollar on Thursday, on the back of consistent
demand for the greenback from state-run banks and importers. Investors failed
to get solace with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement that the Indian economy
is based on sound fundamentals and will in the near future double in size to $5
trillion. Traders even overlooked a private report stating that India will
remain the fastest growing major economy, much ahead of China, in the next
decade 2019-28. The rupee's losses were mainly caused by a firm dollar against
some global currencies overseas. On the global front, dollar inched up on
Thursday after minutes from the Federal Reserve's last meeting revived
expectations for a possible US rate hike this year while investors shifted
their focus back to trade issues for fresh directional cues. Finally, the rupee
ended at 71.24, 14 paise weaker from its previous close of 71.10 on Wednesday.
The FIIs as per Thursday'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 5913.11 crore against gross
selling of Rs 4630.23 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was
of Rs 949.62 crore with gross sales of Rs 2613.67 crore. Besides, in the hybrid
segment, the gross buying was of Rs 7.83 crore against gross selling of Rs 9.35
crore.
The US markets ended in red on
Thursday pressured by disappointing readings on the state of the US and
European economies. Asian markets are trading lower on Friday following
weakness on Wall Street as investors nervously watched the US-China trade talks
in Washington. Indian markets shrugged off early weakness and ended higher for
second straight session on Thursday, with auto, banking, pharma and metal
stocks rallying amid buying by foreign and domestic institutional investors. Today,
the markets are likely to make a negative start on weak global cues amid
cautiousness over US-China trade talks coupled with disappointed economy data
in US. Traders will be concerned with rating agency Moody's statement that the
fresh round recapitalisation of 12 state-run banks is positive as it will help
them improve their core capital but a complete turnaround is still away due to
the large quantum of legacy bad loans. It said these banks are far from a
complete turnaround as large volumes of problem-loans will still continue to
cap improvements in profitability and capitalisation, constraining their credit
profiles. However, some support may come later in the day with Niti Aayog's
note stating that the host of reforms undertaken by the government has
transformed India into the fastest-growing major economy along with the
macroeconomic stability not witnessed in the past. It added the country's
growth has decisively increased over the last five years and is much higher
than the average growth among the emerging and developing economies. Some
support may also come with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement that India
is on the way to becoming a $5 trillion economy soon and hoped that the country
would to be among world's top three economies in the next 15 years. Traders may
take note of the Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy committee (MPC) said
in minutes that India needs to take steps to boost economic growth as the
inflation outlook remains low. Meanwhile, Retirement fund body Employees' Provident
Fund Organisation (EPFO) has announced an increase in interest rate to 8.65
percent from 8.55 percent on PF deposits for 2018-19, to its 6 crore
subscribers. There will be some buzz in the reality sector stocks with report
that the proposed bid by the Centre to reduce GST on the under-construction
houses to a maximum of 5 per cent without input tax credit (ITC) has been
welcomed by developers who think it will revive demand.
Support and
Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE Nifty
|
10,789.85
|
10,737.95
|
10,825.30
|
BSE Sensex
|
35,898.35
|
35,742.74
|
36,018.52
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
|
Previous close (Rs)
|
Support (Rs)
|
Resistance (Rs)
|
(in Lacs)
|
Yes Bank
|
279.76
|
215.15
|
213.15
|
218.00
|
ICICI Bank
|
186.31
|
351.30
|
346.72
|
355.42
|
Tata Motors
|
148.12
|
169.70
|
166.33
|
171.83
|
Vedanta
|
146.36
|
164.60
|
161.40
|
166.70
|
Tech Mahindra
|
141.94
|
820.65
|
806.50
|
837.40
|
BPCL is planning to raise funds up to Rs 2,000 crore during the current financial year through private placement of unsecured NCDs subject to market conditions.
Bharti Airtel has lost 15.01 lakh subscribers in December 2018 taking its customer base to 34.02 crore.
The Government will give ONGC pricing and marketing freedom for yet to be developed discoveries and will charge less royalty for raising production from existing fields.
Reliance Industries' telecom arm -- Reliance Jio Infocomm has added 85.64 lakh customers in December 2018.