Indian equity
benchmarks ended significantly higher on Wednesday after trading hours were
extended following a technical glitch at NSE. Markets made optimistic start, as
traders took encouragement with a private report that India's GDP may turn
positive at 1.3 percent in the third quarter of 2020-21, having witnessed
contraction in the previous two quarters due to the coronavirus pandemic, as
the number of cases is falling and public spending has started rising. Some
support also came in as Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that the
government's decision to increase the agriculture credit target to Rs 16.5 lakh
crore for the next fiscal will help in easing the liquidity crunch of
farmers. However, trading has been
halted on NSE due to a technical glitch as the live price quotes of spot Nifty
and Bank Nifty indexes have stopped updating. Post resumption of trade,
benchmark indices shot up specularly in an unprecedented extended session, as
private banks edged higher after Centre lifted the embargo on grant of
government business to private banks, enabling banks to participate in all
developmental activities. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that Private
Banks can now be equal partners in development of the Indian economy,
furthering the government's social sector initiatives and enhancing customer
convenience. Traders also took some support with Union Minister Sadananda
Gowda's statement that the chemicals and petrochemicals sector has huge
potential and can contribute significantly towards achieving the government's
target of $5 trillion economy. He also said India has potential to become a
global petrochemical hub & factors like high GDP growth, presence of
skilled manpower, big domestic market makes India an attractive platform for
investment in the sector. Traders took a note of Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant's
statement that India now needs to get into cutting edge technology in order to
boost its exports which will benefit sectors such as telecom, automobiles,
battery storage devices, and solar energy, among others. Finally, the BSE
Sensex rose 1030.28 points or 2.07% to 50,781.69, while the CNX Nifty was up by
274.20 points or 1.86% to 14,982.00.
The US markets
ended higher on Wednesday as bond yields gave back ground after moving
significantly higher early in the session. The yields on ten-year notes and
thirty-year bonds reached their highest intraday levels in a year before
pulling back as the day progressed. The pullback by yields followed Federal
Reserve Chair Jerome Powell once again reiterating that the Fed is likely to
maintain its ultra-easy monetary policy for the foreseeable future. Powell
testified before House Financial Services Committee, with his prepared remarks
mirroring those he delivered before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday.
The Fed chief also continued to downplay the risks of inflation, which have
recently spooked investors and driven treasury yields to their highest levels
since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. Besides, news FDA staff have
endorsed Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ) Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use also
have contributed to the strength on markets, with the move paving the way for
final approval of the new single-dose vaccine. On the economic data front, data
released by the Commerce Department showed a much bigger than expected jump in
new home sales in the US in the month of January. The Commerce Department said
new home sales spiked by 4.3 percent to an annual rate of 923,000 in January
after soaring by 5.5 percent to a revised rate of 885,000 in December. Street
had expected new home sales to surge up by 1.5 percent to a rate of 855,000
from the 842,000 originally reported for the previous month.
Crude oil futures ended at
13-month high on Wednesday as concerns over the likely impact of last week's
severe cold conditions on refinery activity in Texas outweighed official data
showing an unexpected increase in US crude inventories. Data released by US
Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed US crude stockpiles increased by
1.3 million barrels in the week ended February 19 compared to expectations for
a drop of nearly 5 million barrels. The American Petroleum Institute's report,
released on Tuesday, said crude inventories rose by 1.026 million barrels last
week versus estimates for a draw of 5.2 million barrels. The oil market also shrugged
off a report saying that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
and allies, collectively known as OPEC+, will likely consider increasing crude
production by 500,000 barrels per day beginning in April. The OPEC+ meeting is
scheduled to take place next week. Crude oil futures for April surged $1.55 or
2.5 percent to settle at $63.22 barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
April Brent crude rose $1.67 or 2.6 percent to settle at $67.04 a barrel on
London's Intercontinental Exchange.
Indian rupee ended higher against
dollar on Wednesday as traders mood were upbeat as commerce ministry in its
latest report has showed that India's exports to China has increased by 16.15
per cent to $20.87 billion in 2020 from $17.9 billion in the previous year on
account of healthy growth in the shipments of ores, iron and steel, aluminum
and copper. Adding optimism, private report stated that India's GDP may turn
positive at 1.3 percent in the third quarter of 2020-21, having witnessed
contraction in the previous two quarters due to the coronavirus pandemic, as
the number of cases is falling and public spending has started rising. On the
global front, dollar remained at multi-year lows against the Antipodean
currencies and held near a one-month low versus the euro as reflation trades
gripped the currency markets on Wednesday. Finally, the rupee ended at 72.35,
11 paise stronger from its previous close of 72.46 on Tuesday.
The FIIs as per Wednesday's data
were net seller in equity segment and net buyer in debt segment. In equity
segment, the gross buying was of Rs 9177.74 crore against gross selling of Rs
9522.95 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 1501.49
crore with gross sales of Rs 1036.53 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the
gross buying was of Rs 4.56 crore against gross selling of Rs 48.26 crore.
The US markets ended higher on
Wednesday shaking off early weakness after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome
Powell's comments calmed inflation worries. Asian markets are trading in green
on Thursday after US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reaffirmed interest
rates would stay low, calming market fears that higher inflation might prompt
the central bank to tighten the monetary spigot. Indian markets ended 2 percent
higher on Wednesday, tracking strong buying in financial stocks with the Nifty
Bank surging over 1,400 points, after trading hours were extended till 5:00 PM
following a technical glitch at NSE. Today, the markets are likely to make
gap-up start following a rally in global markets. There may be some volatility
in the markets ahead of the February F&O expiry. Traders will be taking
encouragement with a private report that India's economy is likely to have
returned to growth in the December quarter due to the easing of restrictions on
movement after the first wave of the coronavirus epidemic peaked. Some support
will come as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced yet another round of
Open Market Operations (OMO) or simultaneous purchase and sale of gilts on
March 4. Under this, the RBI will buy Rs 15,000 crore worth bonds in four
different papers and sell Rs 150,000 crore worth bonds in two different
securities. However, there may be some cautiousness as India's count of active
cases once again topped the 150,000 mark. On Wednesday, the country registered
17,106 fresh Covid-19 cases, taking its the caseload tally to 11,046,432. India
continues to be second-most-affected globally, and ranks 14th among worst-hit
nations by active cases. Banking stocks will be in focus as bank unions under
the umbrella body All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) opposed the
government's decision to allow all private sector lenders in government-related
business, saying it was unfair and to the disadvantage of public sector banks
(PSBs). The finance ministry, in a statement, said all private sector banks can
now participate in government-related businesses like collection of taxes,
pension payments and small savings schemes. There will be some reaction in PSU
stocks as Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his strongest pitch for
privatisation of non-strategic public sector units (PSUs), saying the
government has no business to be in business and sustaining loss-making units
on taxpayers' money drains resources that could otherwise have been spent on
public welfare schemes. Aviation stocks will be in limelight as global airline
industry body IATA warned that the outlook for airlines had weakened since its
December forecasts, and due to tightening travel restrictions it now expected
the sector to still be bleeding cash by the fourth quarter of this year. There
will be some buzz in pharma and IT hardware stocks as extending the
Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme to more sectors, the Union Cabinet
approved Rs 15,000 crore for incentives to domestic manufacturing of
pharmaceuticals and Rs 7,350 crore for production of laptops, tablets,
all-in-one personal computers and servers in India. Meanwhile, the 100-crore
Nureca initial public offering (IPO), which received nearly 40 times
subscription, is set to make its share market debut on Thursday. During
February 15-17, 2021. The home healthcare and wellness products seller issue
was sold in the price band of Rs 396-400 apiece.
Support and
Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE
Nifty
|
14,982.00
|
14,800.44
|
15,086.19
|
BSE
Sensex
|
49,751.41
|
49,498.41
|
50,165.87
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
|
Previous close (Rs)
|
Support (Rs)
|
Resistance (Rs)
|
(in Lacs)
|
Tata
Motors
|
508.21
|
321.65
|
315.44
|
328.94
|
State
Bank of India
|
396.32
|
406.25
|
397.46
|
412.76
|
Coal
India
|
387.75
|
144.40
|
140.94
|
146.44
|
Oil
& Natural Gas Corporation
|
260.71
|
113.60
|
111.29
|
115.64
|
Tata
Steel
|
216.76
|
727.70
|
716.80
|
741.80
|
Maruti Suzuki India has launched all-new Swift 2021, engineered to further excite the customer with an advanced powertrain, appealing dual tone exterior and new exciting features.
Bharti Airtel has entered the advertising business with the launch of Airtel Ads - a powerful brand engagement solution.
ICICI Bank has entered into partnership with GCC and CSCL to launch Common Payment Card System called Namma Chennai Smart Card.
GAIL India has executed Share Purchase agreements with NTPC on February 23, 2021 for purchase of NTPC's entire shareholding (14.82%) in Konkan LNG.