Paring all of their initial
gains, Indian equity benchmarks ended the trade in red terrain on Wednesday.
Selling which crept in final hour of trade mainly played spoil sport for the
key gauges and pulled them below their crucial 10,000 (Nifty) and 31,900
(Sensex) levels, as traders opted to book profit at higher levels ahead of Q2
numbers of TCS and Reliance scheduled to be released on October 12 and October
13 respectively. Though, markets started the session on optimistic note, as
sentiments remained upbeat with OPEC's statement that India is experiencing
some of the greatest structural changes as bold new reforms like note ban and
GST have put the country firmly on a sustainable growth path. Some support also
came with report that Private Equity/Venture Capital (PE/VC) investments
touched a record high of $8.7 billion in the September quarter, a sharp
increase over the last year, largely driven by big-ticket transactions. The
surge was driven by large transactions, with nine $200-million-plus deals in
the said quarter. Adding to the optimism, former RBI Governor C Rangarajan said
that he expects that the economy would grow at 6.5% for the year 2017-18. He
also said the job opportunities and economic growth of the country are
inter-related. However, markets took
U-turn and entered into negative terrain as traders booked profit ahead of key
economic data of August IIP and September CPI, which are scheduled to be released
tomorrow. Some cautiousness also crept on report that US President Donald Trump
discussed a ‘range of options' with his top military advisors to respond to
North Korea's aggression and prevent it from threatening the US and its allies.
North Korea has fired 22 missiles during 15 tests since February, drawing a
sharp reaction from the US and its allies. Sentiments also turned downbeat on
report that International Monetary Fund (IMF) pared India's growth forecast for
FY18, citing the lingering impact of demonetisation and disruption caused by
the goods and services tax (GST), though it expects a revival as structural
reforms bear fruit. Finally, the BSE Sensex lost 90.42 points or 0.28% to
31,833.99, while the CNX Nifty was down by 32.15 points or 0.32% to 9,984.80.
The US markets closed higher on
Wednesday, after minutes from the Federal Reserve's September meeting suggested
caution among policy makers on the next interest rate hike which the market had
widely expected in December. Federal Reserve policymakers had a prolonged
debate about the prospects of a pickup in inflation and slowing the path of
future interest rate rises if it did not, according to the minutes of the US
central bank's last policy meeting on September 19-20 released. The readout of
the meeting, at which the Fed announced it would begin this month to reduce its
large bond portfolio mostly amassed following the financial crisis and
unanimously voted to hold rates steady, also showed that officials remained
mostly sanguine about the economic impact of recent hurricanes. On the economy
front, the number of job openings in the country fell slightly to 6.08 million
in August from a record 6.14 million in July. Some 5.43 million people were
hired and 5.23 million lost their jobs. The so-called quits rate among
private-sector employees was unchanged at 2.4%. It slipped a notch to 2.1% if
government workers are included. Job openings declined for most industries,
though the biggest drop was in education. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
added 42.21 points or 0.18 percent to 22,872.89, the Nasdaq gained 16.3 points
or 0.25 percent to 6,603.55, and the S&P 500 edged higher by 4.6 points or
0.18 percent to 2,555.24.
Crude oil futures extended their
gains on Wednesday, after Opec said demand for oil is set to increase in 2018
raising investor expectations that higher demand will rein in excess supplies. Opec
indicated that market rebalancing will continue amid forecasts that global oil
demand will rise by around 30,000 barrels a day for this year and 2018. Also
the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said it expects U.S. crude oil
production in 2018 to rise by more than previously expected. The EIA also
raised its crude oil price outlook for both West Texas and Brent oil this year
and next. Benchmark crude oil futures for November delivery ended higher by $0.38
or 0.72 percent at $51.30 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent
crude for November delivery gained 0.23 cent to $56.84 a barrel on the ICE.
Extending
its previous session's gains, Indian rupee strengthened further against dollar
on Wednesday, due to sustained selling of the US currency by exporters and
banks. Sentiments got some support with oil cartel OPEC's Secretary General
Mohammed Barkindo's statement that India is experiencing some of the greatest
structural changes as bold new reforms like note ban and GST have put the
country firmly on a sustainable growth path. Besides, dollar's slide against
some currencies overseas, too gave some support to rupee, though last hour
losses in domestic equity markets restricted the further up move. On the global
front, dollar was trading at more than one week lows against a basket of the
other major currencies on Wednesday amid uncertainty over President Donald
Trump's tax plan, while the euro was higher as fears over Catalonia eased.
Finally, the rupee ended at 65.13, 15 paise stronger from its previous close of
65.28 on Tuesday.
The
FIIs as per Wednesday'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
3606.93 crore against gross selling of Rs 4011.06 crore, while in the debt
segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 2082.81 crore with gross sales of Rs
359.03 crore.
The US markets extended their
gains despite a relatively lackluster day of trade in last session and the
major averages climbed to new record closing highs, following the release of
the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting, where many
participants expressed concern that the low inflation readings this year might
reflect not only transitory factors but also the influence of developments. The
Asian markets have made mostly a positive start, as the minutes showed there
remains a strong degree of caution at the US Federal Reserve over the timing of
future interest-rate increases. The Indian market suffered sharp selling in the
second half that dragged the benchmarks from record highs to the negative
terrain and major averages closed with loss of about a quarter percent. Today,
the start is likely to be in green and recovery can be expected with traders
getting some support from report that direct tax collections in the first six
months of the current fiscal stood at Rs 3.86 lakh crore, growing by 15.8 per
cent over the same period last year. Gross collections (before adjusting for
refunds) have increased by 10.3 per cent to Rs 4.66 lakh crore during April to
September. Also, the newly constituted Economic Advisory Council to the Prime
Minister (EAC-PM) wants the government to stick to its fiscal consolidation
road map and has suggested that stimulus to the industry should not be at the
cost of fiscal prudence. The EAC-PM in its first meeting stressed upon
accelerating economic growth and employment. Apart from the macro economic data
of IIP and CPI to be released later in the day, traders will be eyeing the
second quarter earnings of IT bellwether TCS. The company is expected to post
increase in its profit on sequential basis and improvement in margin. There
will be some buzz in oil & gas sector stocks, as the government has
rationalised the tax rates on upstream oil and gas operations, while the Petrol
pump dealers called off their proposed strike on October 13.
Support and
Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE Nifty
|
9984.80
|
9937.98
|
10049.43
|
BSE Sensex
|
31833.99
|
31702.77
|
32031.83
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
(in Lacs)
|
Previous close (Rs)
|
Support
(Rs)
|
Resistance (Rs)
|
Coal India
|
171.03
|
282.95
|
280.30
|
286.05
|
SBI
|
141.93
|
251.75
|
248.65
|
256.65
|
ICICI Bank
|
126.88
|
267.60
|
265.20
|
271.00
|
Hindalco
|
97.99
|
249.50
|
245.87
|
253.87
|
Hindustan Petroleum
|
95.77
|
455.00
|
440.23
|
466.23
|
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Lupin's US subsidiary, Lupin, Inc. has acquired Symbiomix Therapeutics, LLC. Lupin had entered into an option to acquire the company earlier this year.