In highly
volatile trade, Indian equity benchmarks traded in red for most part of the day
and ended marginally lower on Thursday, as geopolitical tensions between
Ukraine and Russia remained unabated. Besides, Brent crude prices above $120
per barrel also added to investor woes. Key indices made a gap-down opening, as
traders got worried with the Ministry of Commerce & Industry stated that
total foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow to India declined to $74.01
billion in the calendar year 2021, which is 15 per cent lower from $87.55
billion recorded in the previous year.
Traders remained cautious with private report stated that domestic banks'
share in the overall commercial credit has plunged to a low of 34 per cent in
FY2021 from 56 per cent in FY2011 partly due to the pandemic and more because
companies are moving away from banks for funds. However, markets pared losses
and traded flat with a positive bias in late morning session, as traders took
some support with the government data showed that the country's exports for the
first time crossed the $400 billion mark in a fiscal on healthy performance by
sectors such as petroleum products, engineering, gems and jewellery, and
chemicals. But, key gauges failed to hold recovery and once again fell into
negative terrain in afternoon deals, as Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush
Goyal expressed concerns over the country's bilateral trade and said the
government is in continuous dialogue with exporters to address the problems and
challenges that are emerging due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and could
lead to some kind of disruption in trade.
Meanwhile, the commerce ministry will extend the existing foreign trade
policy (FTP) for some more months beyond March 31. Last year in September, the
government extended the Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20 till March 31, 2022, due
to the COVID-19 pandemic. The present policy came into force on April 1, 2015.
The policy provides guidelines related to imports and exports in India.
Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 89.14 points or 0.15% to 57,595.68 and the CNX
Nifty was down by 22.90 points or 0.13% to 17,222.75.
The US markets ended higher on
Thursday as falling jobless claims added to confidence in the U.S. economic
recovery. First-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits fell to their lowest
level in over 50 years in the week ended March 19th, according to a report
released by the Labor Department. The report showed initial jobless claims slid
to 187,000, a decrease of 28,000 from the previous week's revised level of
215,000. Street had expected jobless claims to edge down to 212,000 from the
214,000 originally reported for the previous week. With the bigger than
expected decrease, jobless claims dropped to their lowest level since hitting
182,000 in September 1969. Besides, the rebound on Wall Street came as stocks
extended the see-saw performance shown by the markets over the past few
sessions. Traders also kept an eye on any developments out of Europe, where
President Joe Biden is meeting with U.S. allies in Brussels. The Biden
administration has imposed additional sanctions against Russia over its
invasion of Ukraine, targeting dozens of Russian defense companies, 328 members
of the Russian State Duma, and the head of Russia's largest financial
institution. With Europe depending heavily on Russian gas for heating and power
generation, the European Union is split on whether to sanction Russia's energy
sector. On the sectoral front, Semiconductor stocks showed a substantial move
to the upside on the day, driving the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up by
5.1 percent to its best closing level in over a month.
Crude oil futures ended lower on
Thursday as the United States and its
allies discussed a possible further coordinated release of oil from storage to
help calm energy markets in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the United
States and its allies had made progress in Iran nuclear talks but issues
remained. A lifting of Iranian export restrictions would help alleviate the
immense tightness prevalent in crude markets right now. Benchmark crude oil
futures for May delivery fell $2.10 or 1.8 percent to settle at $112.82 a
barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for May delivery
dropped $1.99 or 1.6 percent to settle at $119.61 a barrel on London's
Intercontinental Exchange.
Indian rupee ended higher against
American currency on Thursday, due to selling of the US currency by exporters
and banks. Sentiments were upbeat as India's merchandise exports rose by 37 per
cent to $400.8 billion in 2021-22 until March 21, 2022 as against $292 billion
in 2020-21, on healthy performance by sectors such as petroleum products,
engineering, gems and jewellery, and chemicals. However, upside remain capped
as Ministry of Commerce & Industry said that total foreign direct
investment (FDI) inflow to India declined to $74.01 billion in the calendar
year 2021, which is 15 per cent lower from $87.55 billion recorded in the
previous year. Besides, losses in local equity market also limited gains. On
the global front, sterling drift lower against dollar on Thursday after data
showed British business activity remained buoyant in March amid surging prices.
Finally, the rupee ended at 76.33 (Provisional), stronger by 6 paise from its
previous close of 76.39 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 Rs 10424.39 crore against gross selling of Rs 9529.28 crore,
while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 191.51 crore with gross
sales of Rs 175.03 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was
of Rs 19.98 crore against gross selling of Rs 17.49 crore.
The US markets ended higher on
Thursday as investors watched western leaders present a unified front against
Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Asian markets are trading mixed on Friday amid a
hawkish Fed, shifts in Chinese economic policy and ongoing ructions in
commodity markets due to the Ukraine war. Indian markets failed to stay in the
green in a choppy session on Wednesday, as gains in IT, oil & gas and metal
shares were offset by losses in financial and auto stocks. Today, the markets
are likely to make positive start following a strong session on Wall Street
overnight. Traders may take note of report that the Income Tax department said
it has issued refunds of over Rs 1.93 lakh crore to over 2.26 crore taxpayers
till March 20 this fiscal. This includes 1.85 crore refunds of 2020-21,
AY2021-22, amounting to Rs 38,447.27 crore. However, traders may be concerned
as India's projected economic growth for 2022 has been downgraded by over 2 per
cent to 4.6 percent by the United Nations, a decrease attributed to the ongoing
war in Ukraine, with New Delhi expected to face restraints on energy access and
prices, reflexes from trade sanctions, food inflation, tightening policies and
financial instability. There may be some cautiousness as S&P Global Ratings
in its report said rising commodity prices, further triggered by the
Russia-Ukraine war, could moderate healthy recovery of the country's economy,
and put pressure on the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to normalise its monetary
policy faster than anticipated. Besides, a private report stated that after
crossing the $550-billion mark in the first 11 months of the financial year,
India's import bill is set to hit record highs in FY22 and probably touch $600
billion. Led by high prices of crude oil along with gold, diamond and
industrial inputs, imports are set to continue their strong rise in the first
half of FY23. Meanwhile, the government has proposed to tighten the norms for
taxation of cryptocurrencies by disallowing set off of any losses with gains
from other virtual digital assets. Oil & Gas industry stocks will be in
focus as Petrol and diesel prices were hiked by 80 paise a litre each on
Friday, the third increase in four days as oil firms recoup losses from holding
rates during the period prior to the recently-concluded assembly elections.
There will be some reaction in OMCs stocks as Moody's Investors Service said
state-run fuel retailers IOC, BPCL and HPCL have together lost around $2.25
billion (Rs 17,000 crore) in revenue between November and March third week by
keeping petrol and diesel prices unchanged despite a sharp rise in crude oil
prices.
Support and
Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE
Nifty
|
17,222.75
|
17,112.01
|
17,312.61
|
BSE
Sensex
|
57,684.82
|
57,363.42
|
58,211.39
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
|
Previous close (Rs)
|
Support (Rs)
|
Resistance (Rs)
|
(in Lacs)
|
ITC
|
382.39
|
254.75
|
251.96
|
257.01
|
Oil & Natural Gas Corporation
|
203.32
|
177.00
|
175.54
|
179.44
|
Kotak Mahindra Bank
|
197.10
|
1714.95
|
1,701.00
|
1,728.90
|
State Bank of India
|
181.74
|
486.90
|
482.00
|
493.30
|
ICICI Bank
|
177.27
|
704.25
|
697.26
|
711.96
|
L&T has received approval from board of directors for long term borrowings upto Rs 10,000 crore.
NTPC has made commercially operational an additional 42.5 MW of power generation capacity at Ramagundam floating solar project in Telangana from March 24, 2022.
Bharti Airtel has showcased its high-speed 5G network and low latency capabilities to transform the users' experiences to the next level.
State Bank of India has signed a co-lending agreement with five housing finance companies including PNB Housing Finance and Shriram Housing Finance to give loans for affordable homes.