Indian equity benchmarks were on
the mend on the first day of the trading week, with both the larger peers
closing higher by over 340 and 80 points, respectively. The market made a firm
start, amid reports that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, headed by
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitely, cut tax rate on under-construction housing
properties to 5 per cent without input tax credit (ITC), from the existing 12
per cent. This step has been came a big relief to home buyers. Adding optimism
among the market participants, Commerce and industry minister Suresh Prabhu
said that the government is making a strategy to make India a $5 trillion
economy and simultaneously fine tuning the plan to take it to $10 trillion.
Traders overlooked Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar's statement that
ensuring intermediation by financial institutions like banks and NBFCs in a
clean manner is one of the major challenges faced by the Indian banking sector.
He added that making credit rating agencies more accountable is also another
challenge. In the second half of the session, the markets rallied further to
settle near day's high points, supported by firm opening of European markets.
Domestic sentiments got boost as the Government is launching the Pradhan Mantri
Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN), to provide an assured income support to the
small and marginal farmers. Under this programme, vulnerable landholding farmer
families, having cultivable land upto 2 hectares, will be provided direct
income support at the rate of Rs 6,000 per year. Traders also took
encouragement with report that the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs
(CBIC) constituted three Working Groups to study and recommend measures to
facilitate trade, promote exports and improve compliance. The Working Groups
will focus on improving the legislative structure of customs tariff and update
it to suit the emerging and future needs of the economy and industry. Special
focus would be given to create a comprehensive export tariff structure to
enhance India's export competitiveness. Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 341.90
points or 0.95% to 36,213.38, while the CNX Nifty was up by 88.45 points or
0.82% to 10,880.10.
The US markets ended higher on
Monday after President Donald Trump announced he intends to postpone a planned
increase in US tariffs on Chinese imports. He had previously threatened to
raise tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods to 25% from 10% if a
long-term trade agreement was not reached before a March 1 deadline. The
increase in tariffs will now be delayed, although Trump did not specify another
deadline to strike a trade deal. He said the decision to delay the tariff
increase reflected substantial progress in the ongoing trade talks between the
US and China. The president said the US and China have made progress on
important structural issues including intellectual property protection,
technology transfer, agriculture, services, currency, and many other issues. On
the economic front, delayed data released by the Commerce Department showed
wholesale inventories in the US jumped by much more than anticipated in the
month of December. The report said wholesale inventories surged up by 1.1% in
December after climbing by an upwardly revised 0.4% in November. The bigger
than expected jump in wholesale inventories came as inventories of durable
goods spiked by 1.5% in December after rising by 0.7% in November. Inventories
of metals, furniture, electrical equipment, and lumber all showed significant
increases during the month. The report said inventories of non-durable goods
also rose by 0.3% in December after edging down by 0.1% in November. Dow Jones
Industrial Average surged 60.14 points or 0.23 percent to 26091.95, Nasdaq
gained 26.92 points or 0.36 percent to 7554.46 and S&P 500 was up by 3.44
points or 0.12 percent to 2796.11.
Crude oil futures settled lower
on Monday as President Donald Trump blamed the Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC) for a recent resurgence in prices, calling for
moderation. Trump revived his criticism of the OPEC, as oil's price has been on
a tear in recent weeks. Meanwhile, the OPEC said that they were planning to
back a continuation of oil-production curbs when the group meets in April.
Benchmark crude oil futures for April dropped $1.78 or 3.1 percent to settle at
$55.48 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. April Brent crude fell
2.36 or 3.5 percent to settle at $64.76 a barrel on London's Intercontinental
Exchange.
Indian
rupee ended stronger against dollar on Monday, owing to dollar sale by
exporters and banks. This was the second day of consecutive gains for the
domestic currency. Sentiments remained up-beat with Commerce and industry
minister Suresh Prabhu's statement that the government is making a strategy to
make India a $5 trillion economy and simultaneously fine tuning the plan to
take it to $10 trillion. Besides, weakness in the dollar against some other
currencies overseas along with good going in the local equity markets gave the
uptrend some momentum. On the global front, pound strengthened against its
major counterparts on Monday, following a media report that U.K. Prime Minister
Theresa May is mulling a plan to postpone the Brexit for up to two months.
Finally, the rupee ended at 70.97, 17 paise stronger from its previous close of
71.14 on Friday.
The FIIs as per Monday'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 16452.10 crore against gross
selling of Rs 4320.00 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was
of Rs 812.07 crore with gross sales of Rs 1631.05 crore. Besides, in the hybrid
segment, the gross buying was of Rs 865.59 crore against gross selling of Rs
0.94 crore.
The US markets ended in green on
Monday, after President Trump said he would delay a planned increase in tariffs
on Chinese goods. Asian markets are trading mixed on Tuesday with several
markets slipping as the rush of optimism on US-China trade talks from early
Monday faded some. Indian markets ended sharply higher on Monday buoyed by a
rally in IT bluechips. Besides, firm global as well as domestic cues also
supported markets. Today, the markets are likely to make pessimistic start amid
lackluster cues from Asian peers. Traders will be concerned about a report that
the flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) into India is dropping and may
suffer its first full-year decline since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to
power in 2014. Inbound FDI dropped 7% to $33.5 billion in the nine months
between April and December 2018, compared with $36 billion in the year-earlier
period. There will be some cautiousness with Bibek Debroy, the head of Prime
Minister's economic advisory panel, stating that India lacks good data on
economy and jobs as it is majorly an informal economy. Also, there will be
negative reaction on domestic ratings agency Icra's report that India Inc
witnessed a dip in both revenue growth as well as margins in the December
quarter compared to the preceding three months. The analysis is based on the aggregate
numbers reported by 648 listed companies, which shows a revenue growth of 17.3%
in Q3 down from 19.4% in the preceding three months. However, traders may take
some support later in the day with SBI Research's report saying that the
economy is likely to grow at 6.6-6.7% in the third quarter and 7.2% for the
full financial year. The yearly SBI composite index for February saw a
marginally rise to 50.60 (a score of under 50 indicates negative growth).
Traders may take note of NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant's statement that
upliftment of over 100 aspirational districts can propel India to achieve a
growth rate of 9-10% for up to 30 years as it is imperative to have equity for
growth to sustain. There will be some buzz in the reality sector stocks with
CRISIL Research's report that even as the latest GST cut on under-construction
housing projects is expected to increase demand, real estate developers may see
mixed results. It added that the withdrawal of input tax credit (ITC) would
impact the profitability of developers. there will be some reaction in sugar
sector stocks with India Ratings' report that even as there is lower sugar
production due to deficient rainfall in sugar season (SS) 2018-19, surplus
situation continued following high carry-over stock from the last season.
Support and Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous
close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE
Nifty
|
10,880.10
|
10,816.40
|
10,915.45
|
BSE
Sensex
|
36,213.38
|
35,995.57
|
36,336.69
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
|
Previous close
(Rs)
|
Support (Rs)
|
Resistance (Rs)
|
(in Lacs)
|
Yes Bank
|
478.25
|
229.10
|
223.33
|
232.73
|
ITC
|
300.48
|
276.70
|
274.08
|
278.23
|
NTPC
|
229.65
|
140.35
|
137.40
|
142.15
|
Adani Ports
|
217.95
|
324.55
|
316.92
|
335.87
|
State Bank of
India
|
207.94
|
270.15
|
268.23
|
271.73
|
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