Buying in
second half of the trade helped Indian equity benchmarks to end near intraday
high points. Markets started the session on pessimistic note as traders
remained worried over the second wave of COVID-19 in the country and tightening
of restrictions in various states weighted down on the markets. India reported
315,802 fresh coronavirus infections on Thursday, taking the cumulative
caseload to 15,924,806. Sentiments also remain dampened after Care Ratings
revised down its forecast for GDP growth to 10.2 per cent in 2021-22 from
earlier projection of 10.7-10.9 per cent, with economic activities getting
affected across the country due to curbs imposed by states amid surge in
COVID-19 cases. Adding to the worries, domestic rating agency ICRA has cut its
2021-22 GDP growth estimate by 0.5 per cent on the upper end. The agency now
expects the economy to grow 10-10.5 per cent in 2021-22, against the 10-11 per
cent estimated earlier. Starting with Maharashtra, a slew of other pockets in
the country like Delhi have been taking to localised lockdowns to arrest the
climbing COVID-19 cases, which derails economic activity. However, markets
started paring losses as traders took some support with Commerce Secretary Anup
Wadhawan's statement that the country's exports are reviving and the shipments
are expected to be in the solid positive territory in this financial year. He
said that exports recorded a significant contraction in April last year but
gradually things started improving and the shipments have entered the positive
territory. Key gauges entered into green terrain in second half of the trade as
traders opted to buy beaten down but fundamentally strong stocks. Traders also
took some solace after the Retirement fund body, Employees' Provident Fund
Organisation (EPFO) in its latest Provisional Estimate of Net Payroll data
report has showed that India created 1237489 new jobs in the month of February
2021 as against revised figure of 1195383 in January 2021. Finally, the BSE
Sensex gained 374.87 points or 0.79% to 48,080.67, while the CNX Nifty was up
by 109.75 points or 0.77% to 14,406.15.
The US markets
ended lower on Thursday following private report said that President Joe Biden
plans to propose nearly doubling the capital gains tax rate for wealthy
individuals to fund spending on child care and education. Biden is planning a
capital gains tax hike to as high as 43.4% for wealthy Americans. The proposal
would hike the capital gains rate to 39.6% for those earning $1 million or
more, up from 20% currently. The report raised concerns the Biden
administration's tax policies could halt the nearly persistent advance by the
markets throughout the past year. Further, growth stocks, which could come
under selling pressure on higher capital gains taxes, led the intraday decline
with shares of Tesla and Amazon falling 3.3% and 1.6% respectively. The iShares
S&P 500 Growth ETF fell 1%, more than its value counterpart. On the
economic data front, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released a
report showing another steep drop in US existing home sales in the month of
March. NAR said existing home sales tumbled by 3.7 percent to an annual rate of
6.01 million in March after plunging by 6.3 percent to a revised rate of 6.24
million in February. Street had expected existing home sales to dip by 0.5
percent to a rate of 6.19 million from the 6.22 million originally reported for
the previous month. Meanwhile, Labor Department report unexpectedly showing a
continued decline in initial jobless claims in the week ended April 17. The
report said initial jobless claims fell to 547,000, a decrease of 39,000 from
the previous week's revised level of 586,000. With the unexpected decrease,
jobless claims slid to their lowest level since hitting 256,000 in the week
ended March 14, 2020.
Crude oil futures ended
marginally higher on Thursday on report about production in Libya seeing a
significant drop. Libya's oil production fell to about 1 million barrels per
day in recent days and there is likelihood of further decline due to budgetary
issues. However, worries about the energy demand outlook following a massive
surge in new coronavirus cases in India weighed on oil prices. Meanwhile, Japan
has also been witnessing a surge in new cases of infections, and according to
private report, officials are looking at a state of emergency for Osaka and
Tokyo to curb the spread. Crude oil futures for June rose $0.08 or 0.1 percent
to settle at $61.43 barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. June Brent
crude gained $0.13 or 0.12 percent to settle at $65.40 a barrel on London's
Intercontinental Exchange.
Indian rupee ended lower against
dollar on Thursday, on increased demand for the greenback from importers and
banks. Investors were worried on fears that virus led restrictions will now
extend beyond the bigger cities, to smaller towns and states as cases continue
to rise. The localised lockdowns and severe restrictions on movements are also
going to take toll on the expected GDP growth for FY22. However, downfall
remain limited as Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan stated that the country's
exports are reviving and the shipments are expected to be in the solid positive
territory in this financial year. On the global front; pound slipped on
Thursday before a European Central Bank meeting, as investors weighed up the outlook
for an economic recovery from COVID-19 in the UK. Finally, the rupee ended
74.94, weaker by 6 paise from its previous close of 74.88 on Tuesday.
The FIIs as per Thursday's data
were net seller in both equity and debt segment. In equity segment, the gross
buying was of Rs 9046.81 crore against gross selling of Rs 9774.98 crore, while
in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 799.58 crore with gross sales
of Rs 1412.83 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was of Rs
28.74 crore against gross selling of Rs 26.12 crore.
The US markets ended lower on
Thursday following losses in global peers and worries over a continuous spike
in coronavirus cases in the county. Asian markets are trading mixed on Friday
following an overnight drop on Wall Street. Indian markets pared early losses
and ended higher on Thursday led by metals and financials. Today, the markets
are likely to make negative start tracking weakness in global peers and worries
over a continuous spike in coronavirus cases in the county. India reported
332,503 fresh coronavirus infections on Friday, taking the cumulative caseload
to 16,257,309, Worldometer showed. Delhi recorded its highest ever single-day
fatalities -- 306 people died as more than 26,000 fresh cases were logged.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra reported 67,013 new Covid-19 cases and 568 deaths in the
last 24 hours. Uttar Pradesh recorded highest single-day spike of 34,379 cases.
Coronavirus cases rise unabated across the globe with 145,312,232 infected by
the deadly contagion. There will be some cautiousness as S&P Global Ratings
said the Indian economy is projected to grow at 11 per cent in the current
fiscal, but flagged the substantial impact of broader lockdowns on the economy.
In its report on Asia-Pacific Financial Institutions, S&P said the control
of COVID-19 remains a key risk for the economy. New infections have spiked in
recent weeks and the country is in the middle of a second pandemic wave. Also,
rating agency Fitch Ratings has affirmed India's long-term foreign-currency
Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at BBB- with a negative outlook. However, traders
may take note of report that amid reports of shortage of oxygen in the
hospitals during the second wave of Covid across the country, India will be
importing oxygen generation plants and containers from Germany to cater the
shortage. Meanwhile, Initial public offerings (IPO) activity in India jumped
massively in the January-March period of 2021, fuelled by ample liquidity,
robust demand and investor appetite. On the BSE and NSE, there were 17 IPOs in
Q1CY2021 as compared to 1 IPO in the same period last year and 10 IPOs in
Q4CY2020. Banking stocks will be in focus as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
said that in order to stay resilient during the Covid-19 crisis banks could pay
maximum 50 per cent of dividend from their profits in 2020-21. There will be
some important earnings announcements too to keep the markets buzzing.
Support and
Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE
Nifty
|
14,406.15
|
14,230.11
|
14,503.46
|
BSE
Sensex
|
48,080.67
|
48,101.50
|
48,101.50
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
|
Previous close (Rs)
|
Support (Rs)
|
Resistance (Rs)
|
(in Lacs)
|
Tata
Motors
|
610.22
|
294.55
|
290.34
|
300.64
|
State
Bank of India
|
491.05
|
336.65
|
327.41
|
341.76
|
Wipro
|
426.20
|
486.65
|
474.00
|
496.90
|
ICICI
Bank
|
349.42
|
579.20
|
557.20
|
590.90
|
Tata
Steel
|
319.02
|
921.40
|
899.41
|
941.01
|
Hero MotoCorp and Gogoro Inc. have entered into strategic partnership to accelerate the shift to sustainable electric mobility in India.
L&T's Buildings and Factories business has secured a significant contract from Oilfields Supply Company Saudi owned by the Dubai based Oilfields Supply Center.
Infosys and bp have signed a MoU under which both companies intend to work together to develop an integrated EaaS.
Maruti Suzuki India -- Cargo Variants of EECO have been upgraded to new version of Reverse Park Alert Systems system.