Indian equity benchmarks ended
the session in green terrain on Thursday with frontline gauges recapturing
their crucial 34,600 (Sensex) and 10,500 (Nifty) levels. Markets traded with
traction throughout the session as sentiments remained up-beat with report
stating that India's direct tax collections for the last financial year crossed
the Rs 10 lakh crore mark, registering an increase of 18% over the previous
fiscal. Key gauges started the session on an optimistic note, as traders took
some encouragement with report stating that India has moved one notch higher,
to the 44th place in terms of competitiveness, in the annual rankings compiled
by International Institute for Management Development (IMD) which placed the US
in the top slot. The US became the most competitive economy globally driven by
its strength in economic performance and infrastructure, followed by Hong Kong
and Singapore in the second and third place, respectively. Some optimism came
with union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad's statement that the government is
working on a long-term solution to fuel prices. Meanwhile, the government has
cleared amendments to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), incorporating
changes suggested by a government-appointed panel. Markets extended gains in
last leg of trade with Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's statement that India
is trying to get a resolution soon on tackling rising fuel prices, and the
government is looking at both short-term and long-term solutions. Meanwhile,
engineering exporters' body, EEPC India said that India can make its export
promotion schemes WTO- compliant and make the country's exports competitive by
allowing the exchange rate to reflect the real value of the rupee , that has
only recently shown some parity, helping the exporting community. However,
traders shrugged off Union Minister Nitin Gadkari's statement that any cut in
petrol, diesel prices will take money away from the government's social welfare
schemes. He added that the increase in oil prices is an unavoidable, economic
situation, as India is now linked to the global economy. Finally, the BSE
Sensex rose 318.20 points or 0.93% to 34,663.11, while the CNX Nifty was up by
83.50 points or 0.80% to 10,513.85.
The US markets ended in red
terrain on Thursday, as geopolitical worries hovered over markets after Trump
called off the summit that was set to take place June 12 in Singapore. The
cancellation followed a statement from Choe Son Hui, North Korea's vice
minister of foreign affairs, in which he said if the talks didn't go ahead, the
U.S. could instead face off with North Korea in a nuclear-to-nuclear showdown.
Negative sentiment was also generated amid lingering trade concerns after
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross initiated an investigation into whether imports
of automobiles and parts threaten to impair U.S. national security. On the
economic front, the Labor Department released a report showing an unexpected
increase in initial jobless claims in the week ended May 19. The report said
initial jobless claims rose to 234,000, an increase of 11,000 from the previous
week's revised level of 223,000. The increase came as a surprise to economists,
who had expected jobless claims to edge down to 220,000 from the 222,000
originally reported for the previous week. A separate report from the National
Association of Realtors showed a much bigger than expected pullback in existing
home sales in the month of April. Existing home sales tumbled by 2.5 percent to
an annual rate of 5.46 million in April after climbing by 1.1 percent to a rate
of 5.60 million in March. The street had expected existing home sales to edge
down by 0.2 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 75.05 points or
0.30 percent to 24,811.76, the Nasdaq slipped 1.53 points or 0.02 percent to
7,424.43 and the S&P 500 was down by 5.53 points or 0.20% to 2,727.76.
Extending losing streak for the
third straight day, crude oil futures ended sharply lower to settle at nearly
2-week low on Thursday, as worries about US crude inventories helped to extend
the US benchmark's downturn. The US Energy Information Administration had
reported Wednesday that crude supplies climbed by 5.8 million barrels for the
week ended May 18. Besides, comments from the Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries that an increase on production will be discussed in the
June OPEC meeting, because of possible declines in crude production from Iran
and Venezuela, too weighted down on the oil prices. Benchmark crude oil futures
for July delivery fell $1.13 or 1.60 percent to settle at $70.71 a barrel on
the New York Mercantile Exchange. July Brent crude slipped $1.01 or 1.30
percent to settle at $78.79 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.
After
yesterday's steep losses, Indian rupee gained ground against dollar and ended
marginally higher on Thursday, due to selling of the US currency by exporters
and banks. Sentiments turned optimistic with report stating that India's direct
tax collections for the last financial year crossed the Rs 10 lakh crore mark,
registering an increase of 18 per cent over the previous fiscal. Some optimism
also came with report stating that India has moved one notch higher, to the
44th place in terms of competitiveness, in the annual rankings compiled by
International Institute for Management Development (IMD) which placed the US in
the top slot. Besides, splendid gains of local equities along with dollar's
slide against some currencies overseas, too supported the rupee. On the global
front, dollar was weaker on Thursday, hurt by concerns about a global trade war
and uncertainty over the planned U.S.-North Korea summit. Finally, the rupee
ended at 68.34, 7 paise stronger from its previous close of 68.41 on Wednesday.
The FIIs as per Thursday's data
were net sellers in equity and debt segments both. In equity segment, the gross
buying was of Rs 4452.19 crore against gross selling of Rs 4714.41 crore, while
in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 615.19 crore with gross sales
of Rs 1593.72 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross selling was of
Rs 5.10 crore against no buying.
The US markets ended lower on
Thursday, following news President Donald Trump has called off the historic
summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The president attributed the
decision to call off the meeting to North Korea displaying tremendous anger and
open hostility. Asian markets are trading slightly lower in morning trade
following overnight news that U.S. President Donald Trump canceled a scheduled
summit with Kim Jong Un. Indian equity benchmarks edged higher on Thursday,
with IT stocks leading the surge as a weakening rupee helped lift IT stocks.
Today, the markets are likely to make flat-to-positive start as oil prices
eased on expectations of a gradual increase in output from Russia and other
large producers. Traders will get some encouragement with Care Ratings' report
that the country's GDP growth will accelerate to 7.5 per cent this financial
year, from 6.6 per cent in the last fiscal, on better performance from the
industrial and agricultural sectors. Headline inflation, lending rates, fiscal
prudence, current account deficit (CAD) and exchange rates, however, are the
areas of concern. Some support will also come with NITI Aayog vice chairman
Rajiv Kumar's statement that States have the capacity and must reduce the duty
on petrol, while the Centre should create fiscal space to deal with the impact
of spurt in oil prices. The rising crude prices in the international market
prompted state-owned oil companies to raise domestic prices for 11th day in a
row. Petrol costs Rs 77.47 a litre in Delhi and diesel Rs 68.53 a litre.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has said that fuel
prices will come down once the Centre builds a consensus to bring petrol and
diesel under the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
Support and
Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE Nifty
|
10,513.85
|
10,444.05
|
10,559.40
|
BSE Sensex
|
34,663.11
|
34,440.14
|
34,813.77
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
|
Previous close (Rs)
|
Support (Rs)
|
Resistance (Rs)
|
(in Lacs)
|
Tata Motors
|
461.04
|
288.65
|
279.28
|
302.83
|
ONGC
|
348.19
|
167.70
|
156.53
|
177.48
|
SBI
|
346.80
|
268.50
|
262.87
|
271.92
|
Vedanta
|
202.20
|
250.60
|
242.75
|
255.85
|
Indian Oil
|
123.35
|
155.90
|
152.42
|
158.07
|
Tata Motors has reported fall of 50.53% in its consolidated net profit at Rs 2,125.24 crore for Q4FY18 as compared to Rs 4,295.85 crore for Q4FY17.
Yes Bank has received approval from NSE to be empanelled as Settlement Bank for NSCCL.
L&T's construction arm - L&T Construction has won orders worth Rs 2,112 crore.
HDFC Bank has tied up with Computer Age Management Services to offer Digital Loans against Mutual Funds.