Indian equity
benchmarks ended the last trading session of the financial year 2020-21 (FY21)
on a tepid note with losses of over a percent each, as rising bond yields in US
stoked fears of foreign outflows from emerging markets like India. The
benchmark opened gap down and traded with negative bias throughout the session,
amid concerns over rising Covid cases in the country, with the Centre warning
that Covid-19 situation in the country is turning from bad to worse. The
sentiments remained down-beat with a report by the United Nations Economic and
Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) stated that India's
economic output in 2021 is expected to remain below the 2019 level despite roll-out
of the vaccine to deal with the menace of the coronavirus pandemic. Traders
remained cautious with Moody's Analytics statement that India's inflation is at
uncomfortably high level, which is an exception among Asian economies. It said
higher fuel prices will keep upward pressure on retail inflation and keep the
RBI from offering further rate cuts. Retail inflation rose to 5 per cent in
February, from 4.1 per cent in January. Markets extend losses in afternoon
trading, as sentiments were fragile as the World Bank stating that India's
economy has bounced back amazingly from the COVID-19 pandemic and nationwide
lockdown over the last one year, but it is not out of the woods yet. Market
participants overlooked a private report stated that the gig economy can serve
up to 90 million jobs in the non-farm sectors in India with a potential to add
1.25 percent to the GDP over the long term. It also said the gig economy, where
workers get hired typically for short durations, can lead to transactions of
over $250 billion over the long term. Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry said the
Centre has released Rs 30,000 crore to the states as GST compensation on March
27, and about Rs 63,000 crore is pending for the current fiscal. Finally, the
BSE Sensex fell 627.43 points or 1.25% to 49,509.15, while the CNX Nifty was
down by 154.40 points or 1.04% to 14,690.70.
The US markets
ended mostly higher on Wednesday. The rally by technology stocks reflected
window dressing on the final day of the first quarter, as the tech-heavy Nasdaq
underperformed the Dow and the S&P 500.
The advance on the day helped the Nasdaq surge up by 2.8 percent for the
quarter, although that compares to a 5.8 percent jump by the S&P 500 and a
7.8 percent spike by the Dow. The Dow and the S&P 500 have also recently
reached new record highs, while the Nasdaq remains well off its highs set last
month. Meanwhile, traders were also reacting to the details of President Joe
Biden's infrastructure and economic recovery plan. The plan calls for spending
approximately $2 trillion over eight years, with the proposal including
investments in transportation infrastructure and accelerating the transition to
clean energy. A report from payroll processor ADP showing strong private sector
job growth in the month of March also generated some positive sentiment. ADP
said private sector employment surged up by 517,000 jobs in March after
climbing by an upwardly revised 176,000 jobs in February. Street had expected
employment to jump by 550,000 jobs compared to the addition of 117,000 jobs
originally reported for the previous month. Besides, on Friday, the Labor
Department is scheduled to release its more closely watched monthly jobs
report, which includes both public and private sector jobs. Street currently
expect employment to jump by 639,000 jobs in March after climbing by 379,000
jobs in February. The unemployment rate is expected to drop to 6.0 percent from
6.2 percent.
Crude oil futures ended sharply
lower on Wednesday on concerns about the market's recovery after the
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies,
together called OPEC+, lowered their 2021 demand growth forecast. OPEC+ has
lowered its oil demand growth forecast for this year by 300,000 barrels per day
(bpd). The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies are set
to meet on Thursday, to decide on output policy. Meanwhile, data released by
Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed crude inventories dropped by
876,000 barrels last week versus expectations for a build of 107,000 barrels.
The EIA said gasoline inventories also declined by 1.735 million barrels last
week compared with expectations for a 730,000-barrel build. According to a
report released by the American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday, US crude
stockpiles increased by 3.9 million barrels in the week ended March 26. Crude
oil futures for May fell $1.39 or 2.3 percent to settle at $59.16 barrel on the
New York Mercantile Exchange. June Brent crude declined 53 cents or 0.83
percent to settle at $63.64 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.
Erasing prevision session losses,
Indian rupee ended substantially stronger on fresh selling of American currency
by banks and exporters. Traders mood were upbeat as World Bank has scaled up
its projection for India's economic growth by 4.7 percentage points to 10.1 per
cent for Financial Year 2021-22, citing a strong rebound in private consumption
and investment growth. Adding optimism, India has emerged as the biggest
recipient of foreign portfolio investments this fiscal with net inflows worth
Rs 2.6 lakh crore, driven by ample liquidity in global markets and hopes of
faster economic recovery. Investments in the equities segment touched Rs
2,74,503 crore, which is the highest quantum of money recorded ever since the
National Securities Depository began making FPI data publicly available. On the
global front, pound edged higher against the dollar and the euro on Wednesday
as traders look past economic data in Britain and focused on a planned
re-opening of shops in April. Finally, the rupee ended 73.12, stronger by 26
paise from its previous close of 73.38 on Tuesday.
The FIIs as per Tuesday's data
were net buyer in both equity and debt segment. In equity segment, the gross
buying was of Rs 7003.36 crore against gross selling of Rs 6608.35 crore, while
in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 1877.79 crore against gross
selling of Rs 1016.68 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying
was of Rs 16.84 crore against gross selling of Rs 29.42 crore.
The US markets ended mostly
higher on Wednesday after big tech rallied and as President Joe Biden announced
a multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure investment plan. Asian markets are
trading mostly in green on Thursday following overnight gains on Wall Street.
Indian markets ended the final session of the financial year 2020-21 (FY21) a
percent lower dragged by banking, financial and IT stocks. Today, the start of
fiscal year 2021-22 (FY22) is likely to be firm with gap-up opening tracking
gains in global markets. Traders will be taking encouragement with Reserve Bank
data showing that India's current account deficit narrowed to $1.7 billion or
0.2 per cent of the GDP in the December quarter as against $2.6 billion or 0.4
per cent of GDP in the year-ago period. Some support will come as the foreign
portfolio investors (FPI) have pumped in more than Rs 2.75 lakh crore ($37
billion) in the Indian equity market during FY2020-2021. This is the highest
ever investment by foreign investors into Indian equities in the last two
decades. Traders may take note of report that the central government's fiscal
deficit at the end of February worked out to be 76 per cent of the revised
estimate, indicating that it is likely to remain within the projections made by
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman last month. Meanwhile, the government has
extended the existing foreign trade policy (FTP) for six more months up to
September 30 this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a notification.
FTP provides guidelines for enhancing exports to push economic growth and
create jobs. However, there may be some concern as India has recorded a massive
surge in the number of Covid-19 cases. In the last 24 hours, the country
registered 72,182 cases. With the latest addition, the country's tally has
soared to 12,220,669, Worldometer showed this morning. With active cases
hitting 585,215, India is now the 5th-worst hit country. The death toll from
the deadly infection jumped to 162,960. There may be some cautiousness with
report that the combined output of the eight core sector industries fell at the
fastest pace in 6-months, contracting 4.6 percent in February, from a year ago,
confirming fears that a recovery in industrial growth would be slower than
expected. Also, after remaining in surplus for three quarters, India's current
account balance recorded a deficit of $1.7 billion (0.2 per cent of Gross
Domestic Product - GDP) in the quarter ended December 2020 (Q3FY21). Food
processing sector stocks will be in limelight as the government approved the
PLI scheme for the sector, entailing an outlay of Rs 10,900 crore. There will
be some reaction in banking stocks as the Finance Ministry notified that
government will infuse Rs 14,500 crore through recapitalisation bonds in four
public sector banks. Shares of auto companies will be in focus as they are set
to unveil their March sales figures today.
Support and
Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE
Nifty
|
14,690.70
|
14,636.05
|
14,779.55
|
BSE
Sensex
|
49,509.15
|
49,284.32
|
49,892.14
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
|
Previous close (Rs)
|
Support (Rs)
|
Resistance (Rs)
|
(in Lacs)
|
Tata
Motors
|
585.69
|
301.80
|
297.04
|
307.04
|
State
Bank of India
|
386.51
|
364.30
|
358.89
|
368.79
|
ITC
|
364.85
|
218.50
|
214.36
|
220.96
|
Tata
Steel
|
280.44
|
811.85
|
793.46
|
826.86
|
NTPC
|
230.63
|
106.55
|
105.44
|
108.34
|
TCS has renewed its strategic partnership and services footprint with Nationwide Building Society to help strengthen the latter's enterprise agility and operational resilience.
Asian Paints has unveiled Cherish as the Colour of the Year for 2021.
Maruti Suzuki India has partnered with Karnataka Bank to offer vehicle financing options for potential car buyers.
Cipla has entered into an agreement to become a partner in ABCD Technologies LLP.