Wednesday's session saw Indian
benchmark indices complete a hat-trick of disappointing performances and
reaching the finishing line only after collapsing by over a percent. Investors
remained worried about the faster growth prospect in the United States in
absence of a big fiscal stimulus from President Donald Trump, political
uncertainties in Europe and a possible reversal of the easy money policy by the
European Central Bank. Metals, oil and auto stocks were prominent losers as the
commodity rally halted on fears the US growth prospects now looks dim if Trump
fails to come up with an expansionary fiscal policy. On the domestic front,
sentiments got undermined by the private report that India's GDP growth is expected
to slow to 6.7% in the January-March quarter of this fiscal year as overall
activity is yet to bounce back to levels seen prior to demonetisation.
According to the report, a pick-up in headline CPI inflation, better global
conditions (exports) and narrowing interest rate differentials (with the US)
have lowered the probability of a rate cut and increased the probability of a
hike. Market participants remained cautious over the reports that the
government wants to tighten even further the proposed Budget measure aimed at
discouraging black money through restrictions on cash transactions to Rs 2 lakh
from Rs 3 lakh. The government also plans to make inclusion of the Aadhaar ID
mandatory in applications for permanent account number (PAN) cards. However, Investors
failed to get any sense of relief with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's
statement that the government is hoping to implement the Goods and Services Tax
(GST) by July 1, after the enabling Bills get Parliament nod in the current
budget session. The Union Cabinet earlier this week approved four GST related
bills -- The Central Goods and Services Tax Bill 2017 (The CGST Bill), The
Integrated Goods and Services Tax Bill 2017 (The IGST Bill), The Union
Territory Goods and Services Tax Bill 2017 (The UTGST Bill) and the Goods and
Services Tax (Compensation to the States) Bill 2017 (The Compensation Bill).
Finally, the BSE Sensex decreased 317.77 points or 1.08% to 29167.68, while the
CNX Nifty was down by 91.05 points or 1% to 9,030.45.
The US markets closed mostly
higher on Wednesday, while the Dow fell for a fifth straight session as the
broader market staged a modest rebound on the back of technology stocks. The
selloff came as issues with the Republicans' health-care bill prompted
investors to question Trump's ability to follow through on promises of tax
reforms and $1 trillion in infrastructure spending. A terrorist attack in the
UK has not affected US stocks for the moment. On the economy front, sales of
previously owned homes tumbled in February as the housing market remained
choked by tight inventory. Existing-home sales were at a 5.48 million
seasonally adjusted annual rate last month. That was down 3.7% compared with
January's sales pace, which was the strongest in a decade. Sales in February
were still 5.4% higher compared with a year ago, but the supply situation has
worsened. Inventory was 6.4% lower than in February 2016. The median home price
rose 7.7% compared with a year ago to $228,400. . At the current pace of sales,
it would take 3.8 months to exhaust available homes for sale, the lowest in any
February back to 1999. Sales increased in only one region in February. They
rose 1.3% in the South. The Nasdaq was up 27.81 points or 0.48 percent to
5,821.64, S&P 500 gained 4.43 points or 0.19 percent to 2,348.45, while the
Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 6.71 points or 0.13 percent to
20,661.30.
Crude oil futures despite
recovering from the steep losses ended modestly down on Wednesday, as the Energy
Information Administration (EIA) reported crude oil futures jumped another 4.5
million barrels, however gasoline stockpiles continued to fall last week
indicating stockpiles imminent demand. Gasoline inventories dropped 2.8 million
barrels. Benchmark crude oil futures for May delivery declined by $0.20 or 0.4%
to $48.04 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent crude for May
delivery ended down by $0.31 at $50.65 on the ICE.
Indian
rupee ended weaker against the US dollar on Wednesday due to increased demand
of the greenback from the importers and the banks. The domestic currency
remained weak since opening tracking the fall in global equity markets.
Sentiments remained dampened with the private report that India's GDP growth is
expected to slow to 6.7% in the January-March quarter of this fiscal year as
overall activity is yet to bounce back to levels seen prior to demonetisation.
According to the report, a pick-up in headline CPI inflation, better global
conditions (exports) and narrowing interest rate differentials (with the US)
have lowered the probability of a rate cut and increased the probability of a
hike. On the global front, dollar hit a four-month low against safe-haven yen
on Wednesday as a risk-off mood grew in markets rethinking the ‘Trumpflation
trade' that had pushed the greenback to a 14-year peak and stocks to record
highs. Finally, the rupee ended at 65.44, 16 paise weaker from its previous
close of 65.28 on Tuesday.
The
FIIs as per Wednesday's data were net buyers in equity and debt segments both. In
equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 8601.30 crore against gross selling
of Rs 6983.99 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs
6250.91 crore with gross sales of Rs 1123.98 crore.
The US markets continued their
lackluster trade in the last session and made a mixed closing after a choppy
trade. Marketmen remained cautious due to uncertainty about the fate of the
Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare. The Asian markets have made a
modestly higher start. The Japanese market too has recovered following its biggest
drop since Donald Trump's election, as demand for haven assets ebbed and the
yen halted a seven-day rally. The Indian markets suffered sharp sell-off in the
last session, with major benchmarks deposing over a percent in tandem with the
selling in global markets, on uncertainty over US President's reform proposals.
Today, the start is likely to be in green and some recovery can be seen amid
positive regional cues. Traders will also be taking some support with Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley's statement that India's GDP can grow by 7-8 percent if
the global economy picks up. He also said the government was hopeful of
implementing from July 1 the Goods and Service Tax (GST) to help check tax evasion.
However, there will be some cautiousness too with reports that five people were
killed and 40 others injured when a terrorist suspect mowed down pedestrians on
a bridge and stabbed a police officer outside UK parliament complex. On
sectoral front, there will be buzz from the realty sector stocks, as the
government has announced a credit-linked interest subsidy (CLSS) scheme for
home loans, leading to savings of more than Rs. 2 lakh, or up to Rs. 2,000 on
EMIs. There will be some scrip specific actions too based on NSE announcement
of adding 15 new stocks to the futures and options (F&O) segment from March
31.
Support and Resistance: NSE
(Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE Nifty
|
9030.45
|
9008.87
|
9062.47
|
BSE Sensex
|
29167.68
|
29089.64
|
29293.57
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
(in Lacs)
|
Previous close
(Rs)
|
Support (Rs)
|
Resistance (Rs)
|
IDEA
|
547.40
|
91.30
|
89.28
|
93.53
|
ICICI Bank
|
223.03
|
265.00
|
263.42
|
267.67
|
Hindalco
|
177.62
|
193.40
|
191.43
|
195.93
|
Axis Bank
|
126.84
|
485.45
|
478.83
|
497.23
|
ITC
|
123.96
|
279.85
|
276.35
|
285.60
|
Tata Motors has started pre-bookings for the Tata Tigor across all authorized dealership with a booking amount of Rs 5000.
Hindustan Unilever has commenced the commercial production at its new manufacturing unit located at Assam on March 15, 2017.
Hindalco Industries is planning to set up a 24 Mw solar power plant within the premises of its aluminium plant at Lapanga in Sambalpur district.
Bharti Airtel is all set to transfer a 21.63% stake in mobile tower arm Bharti Infratel to wholly-owned subsidiary Nettle Infrastructure Investments.