Indian equity
benchmarks fell for second straight session on Friday on the back of losses in
metal, power and telecom stocks amid weak global cues as rising bond yields
spooked investors. Markets made negative start and stayed in red for whole day,
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. Traders also remain worried as the Economic Survey 2021
tabled in the state Legislature said Maharashtra's economy is expected to see
an eight per cent negative growth during 2020-21 with industry and services
sectors bearing the maximum brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent
lockdown. Traders took note of private report stating that the Centre is likely
to first privatise profit-making state-run companies, a shift from the
previously announced strategy of focusing on loss-making units. The NITI Aayog,
which is identifying public sector units (PSUs) for privatisation, could put
out the first list of companies in April. However, markets managed to trim some
losses in late afternoon deals, taking support from 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.
However, the markets failed to hold recovery and ended around a percent lower
even after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said production linked incentive (PLI)
scheme, which is aimed at boosting domestic manufacturing and exports, is
expected to increase the country's production by $520 billion in the next five
years. Modi said the government is continuously carrying out reforms to boost
domestic manufacturing. Meanwhile, RBI will conduct simultaneous purchase and
sale of government securities under Open Market Operations (OMO) on March 10.
RBI will purchase four government securities of different maturity dates
aggregating to Rs 20,000 crore and sell three securities aggregating to Rs
15,000 using the multiple price auction method. Finally, the BSE Sensex fell
440.76 points or 0.87% to 50,405.32, while the CNX Nifty was down by 142.65
points or 0.95% to 14,938.10.
The US markets
ended volatile session significantly higher on Friday as traders continued to
keep a close eye on activity in the bond markets following the recent increase
in yields. Yields spiked early in the session following the release of upbeat
jobs data, contributing to a continued sell-off by stocks in early trading.
However, bond yields gave back ground over the course of the session, with the
yield on the benchmark ten-year note ending the day nearly flat after reaching
a more than one-year high above 1.6 percent. The pullback by yields inspired
traders to pick up stocks at relatively reduced levels following the weakness
seen in recent sessions. The volatility in the markets followed the release of
the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report, which showed much
stronger than expected job growth in the month of February. The Labor
Department said non-farm payroll employment jumped by 379,000 jobs in February
after climbing by an upwardly revised 166,000 jobs in January. Street had
expected employment to increase by 182,000 jobs compared to the uptick of 49,000
jobs originally reported for the previous month. The stronger than expected job
growth was primarily due to a rebound in employment in the leisure and
hospitality industry, which added 355,000 jobs. The report also said the
unemployment rate unexpectedly edged down to 6.2 percent in February from 6.3
percent in January. Street had expected the unemployment rate to remain
unchanged. The modest decrease pulled the unemployment rate down to its lowest
level since hitting 4.4 percent last March, when coronavirus-related lockdowns
began to take effect.
Crude oil futures ended higher
for third straight session on Friday reacting to the decision of the
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies to
maintain their output reduction agreement through end of April. Saudi Arabia
said it will retain its 1 million barrel-a-day voluntary production cut in
order to support crude prices. Also, with the economy showing signs of a quick
recovery, it is widely expected that energy demand will see a significant jump
across the world. According to the report released by Baker Hughes, US energy
firms added oil and natural gas rigs for a second week in a row amid rising
crude prices. The oil and gas rig count in the US rose to 403 this week, an addition
of one rig from a week earlier. Crude oil futures for April rose $2.26 or about
3.5 percent to settle at $66.09 barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. May
Brent crude surged $2.63 or 3.91 percent to settle at $69.37 a barrel on
London's Intercontinental Exchange.
Continuing previous session
losses, Indian rupee depreciated against dollar on Friday as rebound in the US
dollar and downfall in domestic equities weighed on investor sentiment. Traders
shrugged off report of the commerce and industry ministry's latest data stating
that that Foreign direct investment (FDI) in India grew 40 percent to $51.47
billion during April-December 2020-21 as against $36.77 billion in the same
period of 2019-20. Adding pessimism, treasury yields spiked in reaction to the
latest comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell that he expects some
inflationary pressures in the time ahead. On the global front, pound lost
ground against a resurgent dollar on Friday, as currency traders took some risk
off the table amid rising U.S. bond yields. Finally, the rupee ended at 73.02,
19 paise weaker from its previous close of 72.83 on Thursday.
The FIIs as per Friday's data
were net buyer in equity segment, while net seller in debt segment. In equity
segment, the gross buying was of Rs 13265.69 crore against gross selling of Rs
11907.29 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 268.67
crore with gross sales of Rs 428.06 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the
gross buying was of Rs 4.81 crore against gross selling of Rs 14.13 crore.
The US markets ended higher on
Friday after a rollercoaster session, as healthy February employment data
overcame worries of impending inflation, which hit equities earlier in the
week. Asian markets are trading mostly in green on Monday after the US Senate
passage of a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill and a surprisingly strong payrolls
report augured well for a global economic rebound. Indian markets ended lower
on Friday amid weak global cues as rising bond yields spooked investors. Today,
the start of new week is likely to be optimistic tracking positive global cues.
Traders will be taking encouragement as FICCI's Overall Business Confidence
Index has witnessed a decadal high of 74.2 in the current round on account of
improvement in present conditions as well as expectations. Some support will
come with the finance ministry's statement that the Indian economy is likely to
do better than the projection of an 8 per cent shrinkage in the current fiscal
as economic activity gathers pace with mild stiffening of pandemic curve and
the rollout of vaccines. Moreover, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the
production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme would lead to output worth $520
billion in India in the next five years, while industry asked for clarity on
implementation across sectors. However, a spike in crude oil prices may play
spoilsport. Traders may be concerned as the coronavirus cases in India jumped
to 11,229,271 with 18,691 new infections reported across the country, according
to Worldometer. The death toll meanwhile reached 157,890 with 99 fatalities in
the last 24 hours. There may be some cautiousness as the finance ministry
flagged global and domestic inflation as a downside risk to India's growth
momentum. Also, the RBI data showed that India Inc's overseas direct investment
fell by 31 percent to USD 1.85 billion in February this year. There will be
some buzz in IT stocks with the RBI data on performance of private sector
corporate showing that Information technology (IT) sector remained in the
positive terrain throughout the COVID-19 pandemic period and its sales
increased by 5.2 per cent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2020-21.
Financial sector stocks will be in focus as Chief Economic Advisor (CEA)
Krishnamurthy Subramanian said the country's financial sector has not really
grown as fast as it should have and is still very, very small. There will be
some reaction in chemical sector stocks as the government is considering launching
a production linked incentive (PLI) scheme in the chemical sector to boost
domestic manufacturing and exports. Meanwhile, the Rs 510 crore initial public
offer (IPO) of Easy Trip Planners will kick off on Monday. The issue is
entirely an offer for sale (OFS) by two promoters, who are offering Rs 255
crore worth of shares each, in the Rs 186-187 price band.
Support and
Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)
Index
|
Previous close
|
Support
|
Resistance
|
NSE
Nifty
|
14,938.10
|
14,836.01
|
15,066.26
|
BSE
Sensex
|
50,405.32
|
50,081.85
|
50,807.50
|
Nifty Top volumes
Stock
|
Volume
|
Previous close (Rs)
|
Support (Rs)
|
Resistance (Rs)
|
(in Lacs)
|
Tata
Motors
|
867.38
|
325.15
|
317.29
|
335.44
|
State
Bank of India
|
721.79
|
383.65
|
376.16
|
393.06
|
Oil
& Natural Gas Corporation
|
577.56
|
114.95
|
112.89
|
117.64
|
Wipro
|
439.31
|
420.85
|
411.90
|
434.90
|
Indian
Oil Corporation
|
401.45
|
101.45
|
100.59
|
102.59
|
Wipro has signed an agreement to acquire Capco, a global management and technology consultancy providing digital, consulting and technology services to financial institutions in the Americas, Europe and the Asia Pacific.
ICICI Bank has reduced home loan interest rate to 6.70%.
Kotak Mahindra Bank has divested 10 per cent stake in ECA Trading Services to one of its subsidiaries for nearly Rs 2 crore.
Bajaj Auto has launched 115 cc bike Platina 110 in the country priced at Rs 65,920 (ex-showroom).