Indian equity benchmarks traded
in green zone for most part of the day and ended near day's high on Wednesday,
driven by heavyweight Reliance Industries which ended over 10 percent due to
its subsidiary Jio Platform's deal with global social media Facebook. Markets
made a cautious start amid rising coronavirus cases in the country. Traders
were also concerned with a survey by FICCI-Dhruva showing that as many as 72
percent of businesses surveyed as part of a report said they expect to see a
high or very high impact from the coronavirus pandemic and the steps taken to
counter it. Also, ASSOCHAM-Primus Partners' joint survey showed that economic
stress on the industry arising out of the nationwide lockdown forced by the
Covid-19 health emergency is expected to last well beyond one quarter. However,
key indices soon gained traction, as traders found support with the Central
Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) extending the deadline to import and
export goods without furnishing bonds to the Customs authorities by a fortnight
till May 15, with an aim to facilitate trade during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Markets continued strong bullish momentum in final hour of trade, taking
support from Crisil Ratings' report that the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI)
three-month suspension of EMIs could provide a liquidity breather of Rs 2.10
lakh crore if all corporates avail it. The report is based on assessment of
9,300 of its rated non-financial sector companies across 100 sectors. It said
sectors with higher leverage, such as power, telecom, roads, textiles and
fertilisers, will be the major beneficiaries and account for nearly 47% of the
total breather available. Some optimism also came as the government advised
banks to extend the interest subversion (IS) and prompt repayment incentive
(PRI) benefit to all the farmers whose accounts become due during March 1 to
May 31 period. Positive cues from global markets too lifted investor sentiment.
Separately, to ease fundraising for stressed companies, markets regulator Sebi
proposed easier pricing guidelines under the preferential route and exemption
from making an open offer for the allottees of such issue. Finally, the BSE
Sensex gained 742.84 points or 2.42% to 31,379.55, while the CNX Nifty was up
by 205.85 points or 2.29% to 9,187.30.
The US markets ended higher on
Wednesday as investors gained confidence from stabilizing crude oil markets,
some better-than-expected corporate earnings reports. The jump in oil prices
contributed to considerable strength among energy stocks, with the NYSE Arca
Oil Index and the Philadelphia Oil Service Index surging up by 4.8 percent and
2.9 percent, respectively. Buying interest was also generated in reaction to
report that the Senate has passed a new bill to provide funding for hospitals
and small businesses and expand coronavirus testing. The $484 billion aid
package was approved unanimously by the Senate and now heads to the House,
which could approve the bill as soon as Thursday. President Donald Trump has
said he will sign the bill and then plans to begin discussions on additional
legislation to provide fiscal relief for states and local governments, increase
infrastructure spending, provide tax incentives for restaurants and
entertainment businesses and cut payroll taxes. Gold stocks turned in some of
the market's best performances on the day, driving the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs
Index up by 6.9 percent to its best closing level in well over three years.
Significant strength was also visible among semiconductor stocks, as reflected
by the 5.9 percent spike by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index.
Crude oil futures ended higher on
Wednesday, rebounding from recent big setbacks that resulted in the front month
contract plunging to sub-zero levels for the first ever time in history, as a
rise in US-Iran tensions. Trump said that he has instructed the United States
Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass US'
ships at sea. However, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported
that US crude inventories rose 15 million barrels for the week ended April 17
to 518.6 million barrels. That marked a 13th straight weekly climb and followed
a record weekly increase of 19.2 million barrels a week earlier. Crude oil
futures for June surged $2.21 or 19.1 percent to settle at $13.78 a barrel on
the New York Mercantile Exchange. June Brent crude rose $1.04 or 5.4 percent to
settle at $20.37 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.
Reversing its two-session fall,
Indian rupee bounced back to end higher against the US currency on Wednesday,
on persistent selling of the American currency by exporters. Traders took a
note of report that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has increased the
short-term borrowing capacity of the central government by over 65% to temper
market fears that excessive borrowing by the government to fight Covid-19 could
put pressure on interest rates. Positive trend in domestic equities and dollar
losing shine against major currencies also supported the local unit. On the
global front, euro edged higher against dollar on Wednesday as hotspot Italy
looked set to relax strict curbs put in place to contain the coronavirus, with
investors remaining cautious about a swift recovery as more companies issued
worrying financial forecasts. Finally, the rupee ended at 76.68, 15 paise
stronger from its previous close of 76.83 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 4302.47 crore against gross
selling of Rs 6133.32 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was
of Rs 1002.61 crore with gross sales of Rs 588.29 crore. Besides, in the hybrid
segment, the gross buying was of Rs 10.61 crore against gross selling of Rs
8.25 crore.
The US markets ended in green on
Wednesday amid report that the Senate has passed a new bill to provide funding
for hospitals and small businesses and expand coronavirus testing. Asian
markets are trading mostly higher on Thursday after rebounding crude prices and
the promise of more US government aid to ease the economic pain inflicted by
the coronavirus crisis helped calm global equity markets. Indian markets ended
higher on Wednesday supported by gains in Reliance Industries, as it alone
contributed 100 bps to the indices. Today, the start of session is likely to be
optimistic with positive leads from global markets. Also, sentiments are likely
to be positive with anticipation of another stimulus package from the
government, in the wake of novel coronavirus outbreak. Principal Economic
Adviser Sanjeev Sanyal has said more calibrated monetary and fiscal stimulus
measures are on the anvil to deal with the economic fallout from COVID-19 and
the consequent lockdown. Investors will be looking ahead to the two-day (April
23-24) meeting of the economic advisory council which is expected to deliberate
on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on economic growth in this fiscal year
and the next. Traders may take note of report that to ease fundraising for
stressed companies, markets regulator SEBI has proposed easier pricing
guidelines under the preferential route and exemption from making an open offer
for the allottees of such issue. Though, there may be some cautiousness with
the World Bank's statement that as a result of the deadly coronavirus pandemic,
which has resulted in a global recession, remittances to India are likely to
drop by 23% from $83 billion last year to $64 billion this year. Meanwhile, the
Centre has slashed the subsidy on non-urea fertilisers, a move that would
reduce the burden on the exchequer to Rs 22,186.55 crore in this fiscal amid
the COVID-19 outbreak. There will be some buzz in the MSME stocks as SIDBI
launched a liquidity support scheme for micro, small and medium enterprises
(MSMEs) impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak. Agriculture related stocks will be
in focus as the Centre set the wheat procurement target at 40.7 million tonnes
for the 2020-21 marketing year (April-March) as the country is expected to
harvest a record 106.21 million tonnes of the grain this year. There will be
some reaction in metal stocks with World Steel Association data showing that
global crude steel production fell 6% to 147.1 million tonnes in March from a
year earlier, as the coronavirus crisis forced the closure of furnaces. There
will be some result announcements to keep the markets in action.
Support and
Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE Nifty
|
9,187.30
|
9,019.12
|
9,282.62
|
BSE Sensex
|
31,379.55
|
30,815.02
|
31,707.61
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
|
Previous close (Rs)
|
Support (Rs)
|
Resistance (Rs)
|
(in Lacs)
|
Oil & Natural Gas Corporation
|
738.48
|
65.35
|
61.98
|
67.53
|
Reliance Industries
|
652.31
|
1,363.60
|
1,314.10
|
1,399.00
|
State Bank of India
|
615.04
|
188.70
|
183.53
|
191.68
|
Tata Motors
|
565.30
|
75.90
|
73.45
|
77.45
|
ICICI Bank
|
491.16
|
335.95
|
326.67
|
341.62
|
Larsen & Toubro's construction arm -- L&T construction has bagged orders from prestigious clients in India for buildings & factories business.
Coal India's Subsidiary--Western Coalfields has launched a roadmap to achieve beyond 75 million tonnes of output by FY23.
Reliance Industries' wholly-owned subsidiary -- Jio Platforms and Facebook, Inc. have signed binding agreements for an investment of Rs 43,574 crore by Facebook into Jio Platforms.
Tata Steel has raised Rs 510 crore and allotted 5,100 - 7.85% Unsecured, Redeemable, Rated, Listed NCDs having face value of Rs 10 lakh each to identified investor on private placement basis.