Indian equity markets traded with
volatility throughout the session but in green terrain and finally ended with
solid gains on Thursday, as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced Rs
1.7 lakh crore PM Gareeb Kalyan scheme to cushion the impact of the lockdown in
wake of COVID-19 pandemic. This was the third consecutive day of rise for the
domestic markets, settling just shy of their crucial 8,650 (Nifty) and 29,950
(Sensex) levels. Markets made optimistic start and traded higher, as the
Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has set up a
control room to monitor in real-time the status of transportation and delivery
of essential commodities amid the coronavirus lockdown in the country. It will
also monitor difficulties being faced by various stakeholders during the
lockdown period from March 25 to April 14. However, markets witnessed some
volatility in early afternoon deals, as traders turned wary with Care Ratings'
report that if the 21-day long national lockdown leads to 80 per cent
production loss, the economy will take a hit of Rs 35,000-40,000 crore on a
daily basis, shaving off Rs 6.3-7.2 trillion cumulatively. It added that Q4
growth may not be negative but can go down to 1.5-2.5%. The economy was slated
to grow by Rs 1.74 lakh crore in Q4 or by 4.7%. But, the indices started to
rise steadily in final hour of trade, as in order to improve capital base, the
Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has given its approval for
continuation of the process of recapitalization of Regional Rural Banks (RRBs)
by providing minimum regulatory capital to RRBs for another year beyond
2019-20, that is, up to 2020-21 for those RRBs which are unable to maintain
minimum Capital to Risk weighted Assets Ratio (CRAR) of 9%, as per the
regulatory norms prescribed by the Reserve Bank of India. Finally, the BSE
Sensex gained 1410.99 points or 4.94% to 29,946.77, while the CNX Nifty was up
by 323.60 points or 3.89% to 8,641.45.
The US markets ended higher on
Thursday, Dow and the S&P 500 settling higher for the third straight day,
as investors focused on Senate passage of a $2 trillion stimulus package. The
rally on markets came even though the Labor Department released a report
showing first-time claims for unemployment benefits soared last week, as large
swaths of the US economy were shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic. The
Labor Department said initial jobless claims skyrocketed to 3,283,000 in the
week ended March 21, an increase of 3,001,000 from the previous week's revised
level of 282,000. Street had expected jobless claims to spike to about 1.5
million from the 281,000 originally reported for the previous week. While the
increase in unemployment claims is staggering, economists noted the data may
still underestimate the number of new claims due to constraints on the capacity
of offices to process claims. Meanwhile, a report released by the Commerce
Department showed the increase in US gross domestic product in the fourth
quarter was unrevised from the previous estimate. The Commerce Department said
GDP increased by 2.1 percent in the fourth quarter, unchanged from the estimate
provided last month and in line with economist estimates. The unrevised growth
came as an upward revision to consumer spending was largely offset by downward
revisions to federal government spending and non-residential fixed investment.
GDP growth in the fourth quarter was unchanged from the third quarter, as a
downturn in imports and an acceleration in government spending were offset by a
larger decrease in private inventory investment and a slowdown in consumer
spending.
Crude oil futures ended deeply in
red on Thursday, snapping 3-day gaining streak, as growing worries about the decline in energy demand
on account of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Oil prices further fell as the
International Energy Agency's Executive Director Fatih Birol said the effects
of the glut will be felt for years to come, and with three billion people in
the world on lockdown, oil demand may fall by as much as 20 million barrels a
day. Meanwhile, the US Energy Department withdrew a March 19 tender for the
first part of a plan to buy 77 million barrels of oil for the Strategic
Petroleum Reserve as the Trump administration failed to win funding for the
purchase from Congress. Prices for oil have depreciated 60% since the start of
2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak and aggressive price war between Saudi
Arabia and Russia. Crude oil futures for May dropped $1.89 or 7.7 percent to
settle at $ 22.60 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. May Brent crude
fell $1.05 or 3.8 percent to settle at $ 26.34 a barrel on London's
Intercontinental Exchange.
Indian rupee rose sharply against
the US dollar on Thursday, amid dollar weakness against a basket of other Asian
currencies overseas and strong gains in the domestic stock market. Sentiments
remained up-beat after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced Rs 1.7
lakh crore PM Gareeb Kalyan scheme to cushion the impact of the lockdown in
wake of COVID-19 pandemic. Some support also came as the Department for
Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has set up a control room to
monitor in real-time the status of transportation and delivery of essential
commodities amid the coronavirus lockdown in the country. It will also monitor
difficulties being faced by various stakeholders during the lockdown period
from March 25 to April 14. On the global front, dollar fell further on Thursday
ahead of key US data that is expected to show a surge in unemployment benefit
claims as companies lay off workers due to the rapid spread of the coronavirus.
The last traded price of rupee was 75.16, 78 paise stronger from its previous
close of 75.94 on Tuesday.
The FIIs as per Thursday's data
were net sellers in both equity and debt segments. In equity segment, the gross
buying was of Rs 16505.68 crore against gross selling of Rs 20294.22 crore,
while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 85.77 crore with gross
sales of Rs 1021.01 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was
of Rs 6.66 crore against gross selling of Rs 12.64 crore.
The US markets ended higher on
Thursday after an eagerly awaited coronavirus relief package cleared the US
Senate and headed for the House. Asian markets are trading in green on Friday
as investors wagered policymakers will roll out additional stimulus measures to
combat the coronavirus pandemic after US unemployment filings surged to a
record. Indian markets ended higher for a third straight session on Thursday as
investors' sentiment got a boost after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman
announced a Rs 1.7 lakh crore Gareeb Kalyan Yojana to help the poor tide over
the coronavirus lockdown. Today, the markets are likely to extend their
previous session's gains with positive opening taking positive leads from
global cues. Investors will be looking ahead to the 10 AM press conference by
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das today and his
announcements, if any, a day after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled
a Rs 1.7 lakh crore economic welfare package for the poor in the backdrop of the
coronavius pandemic. Though, there may be some cautiousness as former chief
statistician Pronab Sen said the country's growth in the next two quarters will
not be more than 3% due to the lockdown across the country. Traders may be
concerned as the severe dent in the economic activity due to the coronavirus
pandemic led rating agency Crisil to sharply cut its growth estimate for
2020-21 to 3.5%. Also, SBI Research's Ecowrap report stated that the country's
economic growth is likely to fall sharply to 2.6% in 2020-21 due to lockdown
amid the coronavirus pandemic. There will be some reaction in banking stocks as
ratings agency Fitch said the coronavirus-related worries are likely to
aggravate difficulties for Indian banks, and revised down the operating environment
score for the critical sector by a notch. Telecom stocks will be in focus as
the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) asked operators to provide the
Wireless Planning and Coordination Wing (WPC) with details of the amount of
spectrum in each circle they would require temporarily. There will be some
reaction in reality stocks with a private report that bearing the brunt of
COVID-19 pandemic, sales of residential units saw a 42% year-on-year (Y-o-Y)
drop in the first quarter of the calendar year 2020. Also, infrastructure
stocks will be in limelight as ratings agency ICRA stated that the government's
move to stop toll collection amid the 21-days' nationwide lockdown is set to
push toll collection into the negative territory for FY 2020, while collection
in April, and subsequently FY 2021, is also likely to be adversely impacted.
Support and
Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE Nifty
|
8,641.45
|
8,381.22
|
8,825.37
|
BSE Sensex
|
29,946.77
|
28,975.44
|
30,509.01
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
|
Previous close (Rs)
|
Support (Rs)
|
Resistance (Rs)
|
(in Lacs)
|
State Bank of India
|
1,072.61
|
192.75
|
184.90
|
200.80
|
ICICI Bank
|
761.74
|
330.25
|
308.20
|
358.35
|
ITC
|
638.23
|
70.80
|
68.23
|
73.43
|
Tata Motors
|
629.72
|
341.40
|
315.93
|
382.93
|
Axis Bank
|
584.44
|
156.40
|
146.63
|
162.78
|
NTPC has added the 2nd Unit of 660 MW of Khargone Super Thermal Power Project to installed capacity.
Cipla has received final approval for its ANDA for Esomeprazole for Oral Suspension 10mg, 20mg and 40mg from the USFDA.
Bharti Airtel is offering free access to thousands of e-books on its platform, Juggernaut Books.
Reliance Industries' promoter Devarshi Commercials LLP has offloaded shares worth over Rs 11,000 crore in the firm through open market transactions on March 25, 2020.