Extending
previous session losses, Indian equity benchmarks ended the Thursday's trade
with a cut of around a percent, breaching their crucial 37,200 (Sensex) and
11,250 (Nifty) levels, following the 25 basis points (bps) hike in repo and
reverse repo rates by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday. That apart,
weak global sentiment on account of rising trade war fears also impacted
sentiment. Markets started the session on pessimistic note and never looked in
recovery mood to end near intraday low levels. Sentiments remained dampened
since beginning, as traders remained concerned with RBI Governor Urjit Patel
flagging the risks to macroeconomic stability from a potential currency war in
the wake of rising global trade tensions. Also, traders reacted negatively on
EEPC India chairman Ravi Sehgal's statement that the 25 bps increase in the
interest rates by the RBI is a big negative for exporters, as they would become
less competitive in a tough global market that is already facing the threat of
tariff war. Markets extended losses in second half of the session as traders
paid no heed towards report that RBI has maintained its growth outlook for the
economy, estimating the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to grow at 7.4%
in 2018-19. It noted that GDP growth would range between 7.5-7.6% in H1 and
7.3-7.4% in H2. The market participants failed to take any support with Finance
Minister Piyush Goyal's statement that GST revenues will go up in the coming
months on improved compliance and market demand. Traders even overlooked the
Cabinet's approval to GST laws amendments which included hiking threshold limit
for availing composition scheme dealers to Rs 1.5 crore, among other things.
Finally, the BSE Sensex declined 356.46 points or 0.95% to 37,165.16, while the
CNX Nifty was down by 101.50 points or 0.89% to 11,244.70.
The US markets ended mostly in
green on Thursday, as an historic milestone for Apple (AAPL) contributed to a
substantial advance by the tech-heavy Nasdaq. Apple became the first U.S.
company to reach a $1 trillion market capitalization as traders continued to
react positively to its upbeat fiscal third quarter results and guidance.
However, renewed trade war concerns weighed on some of the other Dow components
after President Donald Trump's administration confirmed reports it is
considering raising the rate of tariffs on Chinese imports. U.S. Trade
Representative Robert Lighthizer said Trump has directed him to consider
increasing the proposed tariff rate on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods to
25 percent from the previously announced 10 percent. Meanwhile, traders were
also looking ahead to the release of the Labor Department's closely watched
monthly jobs report on Friday. Employment is expected to increase by 190,000
jobs in July, while the unemployment rate is expected to edge down to 3.9
percent. A day ahead of the release of the monthly report, the Labor Department
released a report showing a modest increase in initial jobless claims in the
week ended July 28th. The report said initial jobless claims inched up to
218,000, an uptick of 1,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of
217,000. Traders had expected jobless claims to rise to 220,000. A separate
report from the Commerce Department showed factory orders climbed by 0.7
percent in June, matching traders' estimates. The S&P 500 gained 13.86
points or 0.49 percent to 2,827.22 and Nasdaq jumped 95.24 points or 1.24
percent to 7,802.69, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down by 7.66
points or 0.03 percent to 25326.16.
Crude oil
futures ended higher on Thursday, marking a sharp reversal from earlier
declines as data reportedly showing a dip in stockpiles at the domestic
delivery hub at Cushing, Okla, helped provide a boost to prices. Energy market
data provider Genscape showed a week-on-week decline of 3.6% in stocks to
roughly 24.6 million barrels on July 31. Growing concerns surrounding Iranian
oil also contributed to oil's gains Thursday. As per a report, Iran was
preparing for a drill in the Persian Gulf that may threaten to shut the Strait
of Hormuz, a key world chokepoint for oil shipping. Benchmark crude oil futures
for September gained $1.30 or 1.9 percent to settle at $68.96 a barrel on the
New York Mercantile Exchange. October Brent crude advanced $1.06 or 1.5 percent
at $73.45 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.
Snapping
2-day winning streak, Indian rupee ended considerably weaker against dollar on
Thursday, as demand for the American unit from importers and banks picked up.
Sentiments turned pessimistic with RBI Governor Urjit Patel flagging the risks
to macroeconomic stability from a potential currency war in the wake of rising
global trade tensions. Investors even overlooked a report that RBI has
maintained its growth outlook for the economy, estimating the country's Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) to grow at 7.4% in 2018-19. It noted that GDP growth
would range between 7.5-7.6% in H1 and 7.3-7.4% in H2. Besides, poor
performance of the domestic equity market, too affected the rupee. On the
global front, dollar rallied on Thursday as the Federal Reserve's upbeat
assessment of the economy combined with a flare-up in the trade tensions
between the United States and China to boost demand for the U.S. currency.
Finally, the rupee ended at 68.71, 28 paise weaker from its previous close of
68.43 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 4596.85 crore against gross
selling of Rs 4872.79 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was
of Rs 1837.12 crore with gross sales of Rs 455.49 crore. Besides, in the hybrid
segment, the gross buying was of Rs 2.01 crore against gross selling of Rs 3.13
crore.
The US markets ended mostly
higher on Thursday, as investors eyeing the July US jobs report due later on
Friday, which will give a reading on the health of the world's largest economy
and possible clues about the pace of Federal Reserve interest rate rises. Asian
markets were trading mixed in early deals on Friday, as investors were cautious
amid an elevation in trade tensions between the US and China. Indian equity
markets ended lower on Thursday, as investors scrambled for the exit amid a
flare-up in Sino-US trade tension and the 25-basis point hike in the repo rate
by the RBI to cool down inflation. Today, the markets are likely to make
positive start, taking support from a private report that India's economic
growth momentum is likely to pick up further in the April-June period and the
country is expected to clock GDP growth of 7.5% in this financial year.
Investors will also be eyeing Services PMI data for the month of July to be out
later in the day. However, there will be some cautiousness with the
International Monetary Fund in its latest report stating that Real interest
rates in India may drop by more than 150 basis points over the next decade. It
said that a decline in the India's dependent youth (those from ages 0-15 years)
between 2020 and 2030 is expected to result in a reduction of long-term
interest rates in the country. Traders will also be concerned with former
Reserve Bank Governor C Rangarajan's statement the full implementation of
recent hike in Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for some of the agricultural
products may push financial system under stress. Some anxiety may also be
persist with Chairman of GST Implementation Committee Sushil Modi's statement
that revenue collection might fall in the next 3-4 months due to rate cuts on a
number of items totalling to Rs 70,000 crore. Meanwhile, the trade ministry has
said India plans to delay the imposition of retaliatory duties on US goods, to
allow time to resolve disputes that worsened after President Donald Trump
imposed tariff hikes on steel and aluminium. There will be buzz in markets, as
around 82 companies will report their results for the quarter ended June today.
Support and
Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE Nifty
|
11,244.70
|
11,210.13
|
11,304.08
|
BSE Sensex
|
37,165.16
|
37,019.54
|
37,420.24
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
|
Previous close
(Rs)
|
Support (Rs)
|
Resistance (Rs)
|
(in Lacs)
|
Tata Motors
|
174.21
|
260.85
|
257.55
|
265.30
|
SBI
|
156.65
|
293.90
|
290.83
|
296.68
|
Vedanta
|
143.20
|
214.15
|
211.10
|
217.55
|
ICICI Bank
|
140.89
|
298.55
|
294.85
|
301.50
|
Hindalco
Industries
|
128.30
|
207.90
|
203.85
|
211.35
|
TCS has launched Jile, the first of its kind Agile DevOps product-on-cloud to plan, deliver and track Agile programs within the enterprise.
Hero MotoCorp has sold 679,862 units of two-wheeler in the month of July 2018, registering a growth of 9% over the corresponding month of the previous fiscal when it sold 623,269 units.
Coal India has reported provisional coal production of 40.56 MT in July 2018, as against 36.69 MT reported during corresponding month of previous year.
Tata Motors has registered an impressive growth of 21% in its domestic sales at 51,896 units in July 2018, as against 42,775 units over last year.