Wednesday turned out to be a
dismal day of trade for Indian equity benchmarks, where key gauges went home
with a cut of over one and half percent each, breaching their crucial 43,850
(Sensex) and 12,900 (Nifty) levels, as investors booked profit
across-the-board. Both indices had scaled fresh record highs in the opening
session, as sentiments got a boost after Nilesh Shah, a part-time member of the
economic advisory council to the Prime Minister, said the GDP contraction will
improve to higher single digits in the September quarter, and the economy will
be back to positive growth by the March quarter. Some support also came with
CII National Committee on Retail Chairman Shashwat Goenka's statement that a
cohesive national retail policy would go a long way in reviving the sector and
help generate up to 30 lakh additional jobs in the country by 2024, He said a
thorough national retail policy would help the sector bounce back and grow
exponentially in the years to come. However, benchmark indices erased all gains
and slipped into the red in late morning deals, as the sentiments turned
pessimistic with S&P Global Ratings' statement that non-performing loans in
the Indian banking sector is likely to witness an uptick and may shoot up to 11
per cent of gross loans in the next 12-18 months. Some cautiousness also came
after a senior finance ministry official said that India's score on protection
of minority investors compiled by the World Bank as part of the Ease of Doing
Business rankings has slipped recently and there is a need for stakeholders to
improve on this aspect. Traders remain concerned even after Union Commerce and
Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said that the results of the second quarter
of major companies show that profitability of most of them has gone up,
indicating that the Indian industry has utilized the Covid period to do the
belt-tightening, improve the product-mix, and focus on quality and
productivity. Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 694.92 points or 1.56% to 43,828.10,
while the CNX Nifty was down by 196.75 points or 1.51% to 12,858.40.
The US markets ended mostly lower
on Wednesday as some traders looked to cash in on yesterday's gains, although
recent upbeat coronavirus vaccine news kept selling pressure relatively
subdued. The mixed performance on markets came as traders seemed reluctant to
make more significant moves amid uncertainty about the near-term outlook for
the markets. Traders were also digesting a slew of US economic data, with a
report from the Labor Department showing fist-time claims for US unemployment
benefits unexpectedly increased in the week ended November 21st. The report
said initial jobless claims climbed to 778,000, an increase of 30,000 from the
previous week's revised level of 748,000. The increase surprised participants,
who had expected jobless claims to drop to 730,000 from the 742,000 originally
reported for the previous week. Meanwhile, new orders for US manufactured
durable goods increased by more than expected in the month of October, the
Commerce Department revealed in a report. The Commerce Department said durable
goods orders jumped by 1.3 percent in October after spiking by 2.1 percent in
September. Street had expected durable goods orders to climb by 0.9 percent.
Excluding an increase in orders for transportation equipment, durable goods
orders still surged up by 1.3 percent in October after jumping by 1.5 percent
in September. Ex-transportation orders were expected to rise by 0.4 percent.
Crude oil futures ended higher on
Wednesday, extending recent gains, and posted an over 8-month high after data
showed a fall in US stockpiles last week. Data released by the Energy
Information Administration (EIA) shoed crude inventories in the US dropped by
754,000 barrels last week, as against expectations for an increase of about
127,000 barrels. The EIA data also showed that inventories at Cushing,
Oklahoma, declined by 1.7 million barrels last week. Further, continued optimism
about coronavirus vaccine and a likely pick-up in energy demand further
supported oil's uptick. Crude oil futures for January rose $0.80 or about 1.8
percent to settle at $45.71 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
January Brent crude surged $0.48 or 1 percent to settle at $48.34 a barrel on
London's Intercontinental Exchange.
Indian rupee ended higher for
fourth straight session against dollar on Wednesday, on persistent selling of
the American currency by exporters amid optimism about coronavirus vaccines.
Sentiments also got boost after Nilesh Shah, a part-time member of the economic
advisory council to the Prime Minister, said the GDP contraction will improve
to higher single digits in the September quarter, and the economy will be back
to positive growth by the March quarter. Traders paid no heed toward, S&P
Global Ratings' statement that non-performing loans in the Indian banking
sector is likely to witness an uptick and may shoot up to 11 per cent of gross
loans in the next 12-18 months. On the global front; dollar nursed losses on
Wednesday as progress in developing a novel coronavirus vaccine and
expectations for a fiscal boost from a new U.S. government triggered a shift of
funds from the greenback to riskier assets. Finally, the rupee ended at 73.91,
10 paise stronger from its previous close of 74.01 on Tuesday.
The FIIs as per Wednesday's data
were net buyer in equity segment and net seller in debt segment. In equity
segment, the gross buying was of Rs 13381.83 crore against gross selling of Rs
7855.62 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 307.29
crore with gross sales of Rs 1062.72 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the
gross buying was of Rs 68.02 crore against gross selling of Rs 72.08 crore.
The US markets ended mostly lower
on Wednesday as investors switched their focus from vaccine hopes to
disappointing US jobs data and new Covid-19 lockdowns. Asian markets are
trading mixed on Thursday as investors reacted to minutes released overnight
from the U.S. Federal Reserve's November meeting. Indian markets fell from
their record-highs and ended lower on Wednesday after investors booked profits.
Banking and financial stocks dragged the most, while IT and pharma stocks also
weighed on the indices. Today, the start of F&O expiry day is likely to be
positive despite mixed cues from global peers. Traders will be getting
encouragement with a private report stating that the Indian economy is likely
to have improved in the second quarter with GDP printing in at -7.8 percent as
against 24 percent contraction in the June quarter. Some support will come with
another private report that India was the fourth major host of greenfield
foreign direct investment (FDI) projects and eight major host of cross-border
M&A deals between 2004 to 2015. Traders may take note of report that in a
bid to push infrastructure creation in the country, the Union Cabinet has approved
Rs.6000 crore capital infusion in National Investment and Infrastructure Fund's
(NIIF) debt platform over the next two years. Investors will track the meeting
of SEBI-appointed Secondary Market Advisory Committee which is expected to
discuss big bang reforms for the capital market. However, there may be some
cautiousness with report that India reported 44,699 fresh Covid-19 cases on
Wednesday, taking its tally to 9,266,697. The country's death toll mounted to
135,261. Meanwhile, market regulator SEBI has relaxed certain surveillance
measures, including those pertaining to market wide position limits that were
put in place eight months ago to curb volatility in the markets due to the
coronavirus pandemic. Metal stocks will be in focus with World Steel Association
(worldsteel) report that India's crude steel output increased marginally by 0.9
per cent to 9.058 million tonne (MT) in October 2020. There will be some
reaction in real estate sector stocks as a recent CRISIL report on the real
estate sector has said that new home sales have seen a surprise surge in the
last couple of months bringing it back to pre-pandemic levels in key markets.
Support and
Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE
Nifty
|
12,858.40
|
12,746.09
|
13,058.29
|
BSE
Sensex
|
43,828.10
|
43,448.93
|
44,516.33
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
|
Previous close (Rs)
|
Support (Rs)
|
Resistance (Rs)
|
(in Lacs)
|
Oil
& Natural Gas Corporation
|
870.40
|
80.80
|
78.04
|
82.69
|
State
Bank of India
|
747.67
|
243.00
|
239.76
|
248.06
|
Tata
Motors
|
543.67
|
171.45
|
168.20
|
175.75
|
ITC
|
416.59
|
193.85
|
191.59
|
197.04
|
Axis
Bank
|
351.16
|
599.85
|
587.24
|
621.24
|
L&T's construction arm -- L&T construction has secured a large contract to construct India's longest road bridge across river Brahmaputra connecting Dhubri in Assam to Phulbari in Meghalaya.
HDFC has entered into agreements for investment in Renaissance Investment Solutions ARC.
Alphabet Inc's Google has paid Rs 33,737 crore for a 7.73 percent stake in Reliance Industries' digital subsidiary, Jio Platforms, joining the list of global investors such as Facebook.
JSW Steel has entered into a legally binding share purchase agreement to acquire paid-up share capital of JSW Vallabh Tinplate.