Indian equity
benchmarks snapped their three-day winning streak and ended lower by over a
percent each on Thursday, as another spike in bond yields weighed on the
overall global market sentiment. The benchmarks staged a gap down opening, as
India's tally of coronavirus cases has risen to 11,156,748, with a daily
increase of 15,000 in total cases. Death toll has reached 157,471, with 110
fatalities in a day. India's count of active cases has jumped to 175,044. The
country continues to be second-most-affected globally, and ranks 13th among
worst-hit nations by active cases. But markets recovered partially from lower
levels in afternoon trading, as traders took some solace with Fitch Solutions'
statement that household spending in India is likely to grow by a real rate of
7.9 percent year-on-year in 2021, marking an improvement from the negative 14
percent contraction in 2020. Some support also came as the income tax
department said it has issued over Rs 1.98 lakh crore worth refunds to over
1.95 crore taxpayers so far this fiscal. Of this, personal income tax refunds
of Rs 70,572 crore have been issued to over 1.92 crore taxpayers, and corporate
tax refunds of Rs 1.27 lakh crore have been issued in 2.19 lakh cases. However,
markets failed to hold recovery and settled with heavy losses due to heavy
selling in metal, banking, energy and telecom stocks. Market participants took
a note of Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal's statement that the need
of the hour is to reduce logistics cost in the country as India cannot be
competitive if this cost remains high. He said the investments in the Sagarmala
project will boost the country's maritime infrastructure, expand freight
corridors, make freight more cost-effective and bring down the current
logistics cost, which is estimated to be about 13-14 percent. Meanwhile,
Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has asked stock exchanges,
clearing corporations and depositories to put in place code of conduct and
institutional mechanism to prevent fraud or market abuse by them and their
designated persons. Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 598.57 points or 1.16% to
50,846.08, while the CNX Nifty was down by 164.85 points or 1.08% to 15,080.75.
The US markets
ended lower on Thursday as treasury yields spiked in reaction to highly
anticipated comments by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. The yield on the
benchmark ten-year note soared as Powell spoke, ending the session at its
highest closing level in a year. Powell acknowledged the reopening of the
economy could create some upward pressure on prices. However, Powell suggested
the increase in the annual rate of inflation would largely reflect comparisons
to the low prices seen a year ago. The Fed chief said he expects the increase
in inflation to be transitory and stressed there is a lot of ground to cover
before price growth reaches a sustainable level above the Fed's 2 percent
target. Powell said the recent spike in bond yields has caught my attention,
and he would be concerned by disorderly conditions in markets or persistent
tightening in financial conditions that threatens the achievement of our goals.
On the economic data front, the Labor Department released a report showing a
modest increase in first-time claims for US unemployment benefits in the week
ended February 27th. The report said initial jobless claims inched up to
745,000, an increase of 9,000 from the previous week's revised level of
736,000. Street had expected jobless claims to rise to 750,000 from the 730,000
originally reported for the previous week. Meanwhile, the Commerce Department
released a report showing a bigger than expected increase in new orders for US
manufactured goods in the month of January. The Commerce Department said
factory orders surged up by 2.6 percent after jumping by an upwardly revised
1.6 percent in December. Street had expected factory orders to advance by 2.1
percent compared to the 1.1 percent increase originally reported for the
previous month.
Magnifying their previous
session's gains, Crude oil futures ended sharply higher on Thursday after the
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its oil-producing allies
(OPEC+) would keep production largely steady through April. Saudi Arabia also
said that it would extend its one million barrels per day voluntary production
cut into April. Meanwhile, crude oil prices have soared to pre-virus levels in
recent weeks, driven higher by substantial OPEC+ production cuts and the mass
rollout of Covid-19 vaccines in many high-income countries. Crude oil futures
for April rose $2.55 or 4.2 percent to settle at $63.83 barrel on the New York
Mercantile Exchange. May Brent crude surged $3.10 cents or 4.8 percent to
settle at $67.17 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.
Snapping two-day winning streak,
Indian rupee ended lower against dollar on Thursday weighed down by a rebound
in the US dollar and lackluster trade in domestic equities. Investors
maintained a cautious approach despite report that Piyush Goyal stressed on
improving Indian quality standards to ensure that India is recognised as a
quality-conscious country with which people can do business with confidence. He
called for more and more use of artificial intelligence, big data and other
technology-related solutions to help resolve standardisation issues facing
industry and other entrepreneurs. On the global front, dollar hit a seven-month
high against the yen on Thursday as a more orderly rise in U.S. Treasury yields
lent support ahead of a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell that
may determine the trend for global bond markets and currencies. Finally, the
rupee ended at 72.83, 11 paise weaker from its previous close of 72.72 on
Wednesday.
The FIIs as per Thursday's data
were net buyer equity segment, while net seller in debt segment. In equity
segment, the gross buying was of Rs 11214.49 crore against gross selling of Rs
8781.22 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 150.61
crore with gross sales of Rs 2286.75 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the
gross buying was of Rs 9.71 crore against gross selling of Rs 50.98 crore.
The US markets ended
significantly lower on Thursday amid a rout in tech stocks and Federal Reserve
Chair Jerome Powell's remarks on rising bond yields. Asian markets are trading
in the deep sea of red on Friday primarily due to the sell-off in technology
stocks and surge in bond yields overseas. Indian markets snapped three sessions
of gains and ended lower on Thursday, dragged by losses in metal, financial
stocks amid weak global cues as bond yields rose again. Today, markets are
likely to make gap-down opening for the second straight session amid feeble
global cues as rising US Treasury yields again rattled equity investors.
Besides, a jump in crude oil prices may add to the selling pressure. Traders
will be concerned as India's tally of coronavirus cases has risen to
11,173,572, with a daily increase of 16,824 in total cases. Death toll has
reached 157,584, with 113 fatalities in a day. India's count of active cases
has jumped to 177,967. The country continues to be second-most-affected
globally, and ranks 13th among worst-hit nations by active cases. Maharashtra,
the most affected state overall, has reported 9,000 new cases. The state has added
nearly 80,000 cases in the past 10 days. However, some respite may come later
in the day with the government data showing that foreign direct investment
(FDI) in India grew 40 percent to $51.47 billion during April-December 2020-21.
India has attracted 22 percent higher FDI inflow (including re-invested
earnings) of $67.54 billion during the first nine months of the current fiscal
as against $55.14 billion in the same period of 2019-20. Some support may also
come as the Reserve Bank decided to conduct simultaneous purchase and sale of
government securities under OMO, on a review of current liquidity and financial
conditions. This will be conducted for an aggregate amount of Rs 20,000 crore
under purchase and Rs 15,000 crore under sale on March 10, 2021. Traders may
take note of report that Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar hgas said
the government is promoting the agriculture sector through reforms in the laws
which seeks to bring revolutionary changes. Meanwhile, the Central Board of
Trustees (CBT) Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has recommended 8.5
percent annual rate of interest to member accounts for 2020-21. NBFCs, HFCs
stocks will be in focus with India Ratings' report that after a growth
moderation in FY21, Non-Bank Finance Companies (NBFCs) are estimated to witness
a 9.5 per cent jump in their assets under management in FY22. Housing Finance
Companies (HFCs) will post a higher growth at 10 per cent as home sales go up,
and maintained its stable outlook on both NBFCs and HFCs for FY22. Besides,
agrichemicals manufacturer Heranba Industries is scheduled to list on stock
exchanges today. The Rs 625-crore IPO was subscribed 83.29 times during the
three-day bidding process. The issue was sold in the range of Rs 626-627 per
share.
Support and
Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE
Nifty
|
15,080.75
|
14,973.19
|
15,195.34
|
BSE
Sensex
|
50,846.08
|
50,505.15
|
51,221.78
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
|
Previous close (Rs)
|
Support (Rs)
|
Resistance (Rs)
|
(in Lacs)
|
Tata
Motors
|
598.63
|
339.20
|
335.86
|
343.96
|
State
Bank of India
|
436.03
|
395.65
|
392.24
|
401.29
|
Oil
& Natural Gas Corporation
|
382.72
|
112.70
|
111.00
|
115.70
|
Adani
Ports And Special Economic Zone
|
306.07
|
752.45
|
723.64
|
773.49
|
NTPC
|
280.57
|
110.80
|
109.86
|
112.36
|
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