Extending northward journey for
second straight day, Indian equity benchmarks ended the Tuesday's trade in
green terrain with frontline gauges recapturing their crucial 33,100 (Sensex)
and 10,150 (Nifty) levels amid easing concerns about a potential trade war.
Domestic markets started the session with a gain of over a percent, as
sentiments remained up-beat with the government's decision to bring down market
borrowings during the first-half of FY19 following careful assessment of its
financial needs. The Centre will raise a gross Rs 2.88 lakh crore from market
borrowings in the first half of the fiscal. It has also chosen to introduce
shorter duration government securities and will also an additional Rs 25,000
crore from the National Small Savings Fund against the Budgeted Rs 75,000 crore
to cut down its requirement for fund raising. Afterwards markets pared some of
their gains, with traders turning anxious ahead of the fiscal deficit data to
be released on March 28. Also, the expiry of the current month futures and
options contracts are due on Wednesday and positions will be rolled over to
next month. However, the markets gained some strength in second half of the
trade and ended the session with a gain of around half a percent, as some
support with Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg's statement that
the country is well poised to click a growth rate of 7-8 per cent and with
focus on start-ups, MSMEs and infrastructure investment it can step on to
higher growth pedestal. traders drew some support from NITI Aayog's statement
that the Indian economy is growing at 7 -8 per cent which needs to be reflected
on the human development index (HDI) wherein the country stands at 131st
position out of 188 nations. Meanwhile, Chief Economic Adviser Arvind
Subramanian has said the task force on direct tax reforms will submit its
report in the next 4-5 months. Traders also took note of the report that over
1,200 fresh foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) were registered with markets
regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) during April-January
period of fiscal year 2017-18, driven by their continued interest in Indian
equity, bonds and real estate. Finally, the BSE Sensex surged 107.98 points or
0.33% to 33,174.39, while the CNX Nifty was up by 53.50 points or 0.53% to
10,184.15.
Resuming southward journey after
a day of relief, the US markets ended sharply in red terrain, led by technology
stocks, as reflected by the particularly steep loss posted by the Nasdaq.
Social media giant Facebook (FB) helped to lead the way lower, extending a
recent downtrend following news CEO Mark Zuckerberg is planning to testify
before Congress in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Within the tech
sector, semiconductor stocks saw considerable weakness, dragging the
Philadelphia Semiconductor Index down by 3.8 percent. The index pulled back
sharply after jumping by 4.2 percent on Monday. Chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA) showed
a steep drop after halting testing of its driverless technology on public roads
following a fatal crash involving a self-driving car. On the U.S. economic
front, the Conference Board released a report showing an unexpected
deterioration in consumer confidence in the month of March. The Conference
Board said its consumer confidence index dipped to 127.7 in March from a
downwardly revised 130.0 in February. The drop surprised economists, who had
expected the index to inch up to 131.0 from the 130.8 originally reported for
the previous month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 344.89 points or
1.43 percent to 23,857.71, the Nasdaq dropped 211.74 points or 2.93 percent to
7008.81 and while the S&P 500 was down by 45.93 points or 1.73 percent to
2,612.62.
Extending their fall for second
day in a row, Crude oil futures edged slightly lower on Tuesday ahead of
expectation that U.S. government is likely to show a weekly rise in crude
supplies. However, support from talk among major producers to extend their
production-cut deal kept the losses in check. Weekly U.S. inventory data were
due out Wednesday from the Energy Information Administration (EIA). The Analyst
is expecting EIA to report a rise of 1 million barrels in domestic crude
supplies for the week ended March 23. They also forecast supply declines of 2
million for gasoline and 1.9 million for distillates. Benchmark crude oil
futures for May delivery slipped 30 cents or 0.5 percent at $65.25 a barrel on
the New York Mercantile Exchange. May Brent crude fell a penny to settle at
$70.11 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.
Snapping
its three-day winning streak, Indian rupee ended weaker against dollar on
Tuesday, due to demand for greenback by banks and importers. Traders failed to
get relief with the government's decision to bring down market borrowings
during the first-half of FY19 following careful assessment of its financial
needs. The Centre will raise a gross Rs 2.88 lakh crore from market borrowings
in the first half of the fiscal. Besides, the dollar's gains against some other
currencies overseas added some extra pressure. Meanwhile, investors have
maintained cautious approach ahead of the fiscal deficit data to be released on
March 28. On the global front, euro fell on Tuesday, as concerns about weak
inflation and a slowdown in company borrowing raised questions about the
momentum of the euro zone's economic expansion. Finally, the rupee ended at
64.96, 10 paise weaker from its previous close of 64.86 on Monday.
The FIIs as per Tuesday's data
were net sellers in equity and debt segments both, in equity segment, the gross
buying was of Rs 4426.31 crore against gross selling of Rs 4936.76 crore, while
in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 1970.74 crore with gross
sales of Rs 1984.57 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was
of Rs 14.51 crore against gross selling of Rs 5.69 crore.
The US markets
closed sharply lower on Tuesday, erasing earlier gains, as a decline in the
broader tech sector brought the major averages down. Asian stocks are trading
lower in early deals on Wednesday after US stocks fell sharply on the back of
declines in technology names. Indian markets edged higher for a second straight
session on Tuesday amid improved risk appetite on hopes that a trade war
between the U.S. and China is avoidable. Today, the markets are likely to make
pessimistic start to the F&O series expiry session, tracking feeble global
cues. Traders may also remain cautious ahead of a long holiday weekend, with
domestic equity markets likely to remain closed on Thursday and Friday, on
account of Mahavir Jayanti and Good Friday, respectively. There will be some
concern with report that Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections slid for the
second straight month to Rs 851.74 billion in February as only 69 per cent of
the assessees filed returns. Around 5.951 million GSTR 3B returns were filed
for the month of February till March 25. This is 69 per cent of total taxpayers
who are required to file monthly returns. There will be buzz in IT stocks after
the Income Tax Department freezed bank accounts and deposits of Nasdaq listed
IT firm, Cognizant in Chennai and Mumbai for allegedly evading dividend
distribution tax. Telecom stocks too will be in focus after Telecom Secretary
Aruna Sundararajan said that the much-awaited merger of Idea Cellular and
Vodafone is in final stages of approval.
Support
and Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous
close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE Nifty
|
10,184.15
|
10,146.57
|
10,214.82
|
BSE Sensex
|
33,174.39
|
33,044.00
|
33,337.91
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
|
Previous
close (Rs)
|
Support
(Rs)
|
Resistance
(Rs)
|
(in Lacs)
|
SBI
|
312.05
|
254.35
|
249.73
|
257.23
|
ICICI Bank
|
223.77
|
283.90
|
281.10
|
287.00
|
Hindalco
Industries
|
155.63
|
218.50
|
212.67
|
221.82
|
Yes Bank
|
152.67
|
303.50
|
299.72
|
308.27
|
Vedanta
|
103.34
|
287.00
|
283.83
|
290.03
|
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