Indian equity benchmarks managed
to erase intraday losses in the final trading hour to end above the flat line
on Thursday. Key gauges started the session in red territory and stayed in red
for most part of the day, as traders remained cautious with former deputy
chairman of the erstwhile Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia said it
would be unrealistic to assume that India would record a sustained growth of 8
per cent, which is needed to become a developed nation by 2047. Domestic
sentiments remained weak amid a private report stating that India's economy
grew at a slower pace than the monetary policy committee's (MPC's) projection
of 16.2 per cent in the first quarter of financial year 2022-23 (Q1FY23). Their
projections range between 14.5 per cent and 16 per cent. However, key gauges
reversed losses and ended with gains, taking support from report stated that
with RBI hiking the lending rate, the Union Cabinet earmarked Rs 34,856 crore
towards the interest subvention scheme to help banks provide short term
agriculture loans of up to Rs 3 lakh at a rate of 7 per cent. Information and
Broadcasting Minister Anurag Singh Thakur said the Cabinet has decided to
restore interest subvention on short term agriculture loans to 1.5 per cent for
all financial institutions. Some support also came as the ministry of
statistics and programme implementation in its final Annual Survey of
Industries (ASI) said manufacturing sector investments grew 20.9% in 2019-20
over the previous fiscal. Besides, the latest exchange data showed foreign
institutional investors remained net buyers in the capital market on Wednesday
as they purchased shares worth Rs 2,347.22 crore. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose
37.87 points or 0.06% to 60,298.00 and the CNX Nifty was up by 12.25 points or
0.07% to 17,956.50.
The US markets ended marginally
higher on Thursday, after swinging between modest gains and losses as mixed
economic data failed to spark a broad conviction trade. The Federal Reserve
Bank of Philadelphia released a report showing regional manufacturing activity
unexpectedly returned to growth in the month of August. The Philly Fed said its
diffusion index for current activity jumped to a positive 6.2 in August from a
negative 12.3 in July, with a positive reading indicating growth. Street had
expected the index to rebound to a negative 5.0. Meanwhile, the Labor
Department released a report unexpectedly showing a modest pullback in
first-time claims for US unemployment benefits in the week ended August 13th.
The Labor Department said initial jobless claims edged down to 250,000, a
decrease of 2,000 from the previous week's revised level of 252,000. Street had
expected jobless claims to inch up to 265,000 from the 262,000 originally
reported for the previous week. However, the National Association of Realtors
(NAR) released a report showing another significant decrease in existing home
sales in the month of July. NAR said existing home sales plunged by 5.9 percent
to an annual rate of 4.81 million in July after tumbling by 5.5 percent to a
revised rate of 5.11 million in June. Street had expected existing home sales
to slump by 4.5 percent to a rate of 4.89 million from the 5.12 million
originally reported for the previous month. On the sectoral front, Energy
stocks moved sharply higher, however, benefiting from a substantial increase by
the price of crude oil. Crude for September delivery surged $2.39 to $90.50 a
barrel amid renewed supply concerns. Significant strength was also visible
among networking stocks, as reflected by the 2.9 percent jump by the NYSE Arca
Networking Index.
Crude oil futures settled sharply
higher on Thursday, extending their previous session's rally, as investors
weighed hopes for strong fuel demand after a larger-than-expected drawdown in
US crude stocks. Prospects of a drop in oil supply from Russia during the later
part of the year due to bans by the European Union on Russian oil exports
contributed as well to the jump in crude prices. Meanwhile, traders also noted
a report about supply constraints after OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais
said global oil markets remained at the risk of a supply squeeze. Benchmark
crude oil futures for September delivery rose $2.39 or about 2.7 percent to
settle at $90.50 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for
October delivery surged $2.94 or 3.13 percent to settle at $96.59 a barrel on
London's Intercontinental Exchange.
Indian rupee ended considerably
lower against dollar on Thursday on emergence of demand for the greenback from
importers. Sentiments were negative as aggressive rate hikes by the Fed and
central banks in Europe and Asia to control inflation that is running at multi
decade highs might disrupt global economic growth. Federal Reserve's July
meeting pointed to US interest rates staying higher for longer to bring down
inflation back to its 2% target. Traders were also worried as former deputy
chairman of the erstwhile Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia said it
would be unrealistic to assume that India would record a sustained growth of 8
per cent, which is needed to become a developed nation by 2047. On the global
front, pound weakened against the dollar on Thursday as soaring UK inflation
would mean higher interest rates and a weaker British economy. Finally, the
rupee ended at 79.64 (Provisional), weaker by 19 paisa from its previous close
of 79.45 on Wednesday.
The FIIs as per Thursday's data
were net buyers in both equity and debt segment. In equity segment, the gross
buying was of Rs10630.31 crore against gross selling of Rs 6322.18 crore, while
in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 456.17 crore against gross
selling of Rs 442.66 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying
was of Rs 7.64 crore against gross selling of Rs 6.36 crore.
The US markets ended higher on
Thursday as an upbeat sales forecast from Cisco Systems helped to lift the
technology sector, while data showed the economy remained relatively strong.
Asian markets are trading mixed on Friday as recession clouds gathered over
Europe and highlighted the relative outperformance of the US economy. Indian
markets finished a choppy session in the green on Thursday, with the Nifty50
taking its winning spree to the eighth session in a row. Today, markets are
likely to get flat-to-negative start amid mixed Asian cues and elevating crude
oil prices. Traders will be concerned as an analysis of industrial output and
merchandise exports by India Ratings and Research suggested that the Indian
manufacturing sector, which received a fillip in FY22 due to export growth, is
likely to be hit by a slump in foreign trade activity in FY23. Some
cautiousness will come as an RBI article has warned that big bang privatisation
of public sector banks can do more harm than good, and asked the government to
take a nuanced approach on the issue. Outflow of foreign funds may impact the
sentiments in domestic markets. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned
net sellers for the first time in current month, offloading shares worth Rs
1,706 crore on August 18, as per provisional data available on the NSE.
However, some support may come with the Reserve Bank of India's state of the
economy report showing that the fall in consumer price index (CPI)-based
inflation to 6.7 per cent in July from 7 per cent in the previous month was a
heartening development, and retail inflation may ease to 5 per cent by the
first quarter of the next financial year before hitting the target of 4 per
cent. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways has released a
draft to amend the Indian Ports Act, 1908, which aims to bring in sweeping
reforms in the sector by bringing non-major ports into the national fold,
creating a new mechanism for resolution of disputes, and empowering maritime
state development council (MSDC). Aviation industry stocks will be in focus as
DGCA data showed that domestic air traffic in July fell 7.7 per cent
sequentially to 9.7 million on the back of seasonality and higher fares. There
will be some buzz in banking stocks with a private report stating that The net
profit of the banks rose by 37.1 per cent year-on-year to Rs 44,048 crore in
the first quarter of the current financial year. Shares of OMCs and aviation
will be in limelight as the government again revised the newly-introduced
windfall tax. The tax on domestically produced crude oil has been reduced to Rs
13,000 per tonne from Rs 17,750 per tonne, while export taxes on jet fuel has
been hiked to Rs 2 per litre from zero. The excise duty on the export of diesel
has been hiked to Rs 7 per litre from Rs 5 per litre earlier. The excise duty
on the export of petrol continues to be nil. The new rates will be applicable
from August 19.
Support and
Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE
Nifty
|
17,956.50
|
17,882.89
|
17,999.29
|
BSE
Sensex
|
60,298.00
|
60,049.15
|
60,444.12
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
|
Previous close (Rs)
|
Support (Rs)
|
Resistance (Rs)
|
(in Lacs)
|
Tata Steel
|
493.96
|
112.70
|
111.74
|
113.34
|
Oil & Natural Gas Corporation
|
425.97
|
135.75
|
134.20
|
137.80
|
ICICI Bank
|
131.37
|
886.20
|
878.29
|
890.89
|
Tata Motors
|
120.70
|
484.90
|
480.50
|
488.05
|
Bharti Airtel
|
103.54
|
733.00
|
723.94
|
739.04
|
ONGC has signed a Heads of Agreement with global oil giant ExxonMobil Corp for exploration of oil and gas in the deepsea on the country's east and west coasts.
Tata Motors has won an order of 921 electric buses from Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation.
Bharti Airtel has added 7,93,132 customers in June, 2022.
Maruti Suzuki India has launched the All-New Alto K10.