The market hit a fresh six-month high and closed the March series expiry day on a strong note on March 28. The Nifty50 crossed its recent swing high and moved closer to 11,600 levels while the Bank Nifty ends at record closing high on hope of rate cut in April policy meeting and recapitalisation of PSU banks.
The BSE Sensex rallied 412.84 or 1.08 percent to 38,545.72 while the Nifty50 climbed 125 points or 1.09 percent to 11,570 and formed bullish candle on daily charts. In March series, BSE Sensex surged 7.5 percent and Nifty50 jumped 7.2 percent, the biggest gains in a series since January 2015.
According to the Pivot charts, the key support level is placed at 11,485.5, followed by 11,401. If the index starts moving upward, key resistance levels to watch out are 11,621.5 and 11,673.
The Nifty Bank index closed at 30,420.55, up 400.75 points on March 28. The important Pivot level, which will act as crucial support for the index, is placed at 30,094.43, followed by 29,768.27. On the upside, key resistance levels are placed at 30,621.43, followed by 30,822.27.
Stay tuned to Moneycontrol to find out what happens in currency and equity markets today. We have collated a list of important headlines from across news agencies.
Wall Street ends up as yields, trade optimism rise
US stocks climbed on Thursday as Treasury yields rose off 15-month lows, with investors optimistic about the latest round of US-China trade talks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 91.87 points, or 0.36 percent, to 25,717.46, the S&P 500 gained 10.07 points, or 0.36 percent, to 2,815.44 and the Nasdaq Composite added 25.79 points, or 0.34 percent, to 7,669.17.
Asian stocks inch higher on hopes of progress in US-China talks
Asian shares posted narrow gains on Friday on revived hopes of progress in US-China trade talks, while global bond yields moved higher after a prolonged slide on worries about the economic outlook.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged up 0.1 percent while Japan’s Nikkei rose 1.0 percent.
Trends on SGX Nifty indicate a negative opening for the broader index in India, a fall of 29 points or 0.25 percent. Nifty futures were trading around 11,641-level on the Singaporean Exchange.
Oil prices rise amid OPEC’s ongoing supply cuts, US sanctions
Oil prices rose on Friday, pushed up by ongoing supply cuts led by producer club OPEC and US sanctions against Iran and Venezuela, which have given crude markets the biggest first quarter price push since 2009.
US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were at $59.54 per barrel at 0100 GMT, up 24 cents, or 0.4 percent, from their last settlement.
Rupee plunges 42 paise to 69.30/USD
The rupee slumped 42 paise to end at 69.30 against the US dollar on Thursday, its second straight session of decline, in line with other Asian currencies amid strengthening of the greenback. Most Asian currencies struggled amid expectations of dovish monetary policy stance by central banks following a deteriorating global economic outlook.
At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (forex) market, the rupee opened weak at 69.04 and fell further to touch the day’s low of 69.35. It finally finished at 69.30 per dollar, down by 42 paise against its previous close.
Trump presses OPEC to boost output to cool oil prices
US President Donald Trump on Thursday called on OPEC to boost oil output following a fairly steady rise in crude prices in 2019. “Very important that OPEC increase the flow of Oil. World Markets are fragile, price of Oil getting too high. Thank you!” Trump said on Twitter at around 1230 GMT.
Oil prices took a brief, sharp turn downward after the statement before recovering somewhat. Since becoming president, Trump has periodically put pressure the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to open the taps to add more supply to the market and lower prices.
Skymet expects normal monsoon in 2019, says probability of El Nino is 50-60%
Country’s only private weather forecasting agency, Skymet on Thursday said that monsoon rains in India are expected to be normal in 2019 and probability of El Nino is 50-60 percent.
In an interview to CNBC-TV18, GP Sharma, president of meteorology & climate change, said, “El Nino probability is on the rise now. According to our earlier projection, it was reaching the peak in the month of December and early January and thereafter, the projections were likely to decline and it did decline also. Then from the last week of February and almost the entire March so far, it is on the rise.”
South Korea’s factory output contracts sharply to 2-year low as exports sag
South Korea’s February industrial production contracted sharply to a two-year low and missed forecasts by a large margin on shrinking output of cars and other key sectors, piling pressure on Asia’s fourth-largest economy as external demand wanes.
The industrial output index fell by a seasonally adjusted 2.6 percent from a month before to mark the biggest on-month fall since February 2017, and failing to sustain a recovery seen in the previous month.
Commodity slump set to halve Q4 operating profits, toplines: Crisil
The slump in commodities prices will have the revenue realization of India Inc in March quarter revenue at 8-9 percent, crimping their operating margins to 7 percent, says a report.
While growth in operating profit is expected to nearly halve to 7 percent from 13 percent average in the preceding three quarters, topline growth will also halve to 8-9 percent from the average 16.5 percent in the past three quarters, a Crisil report said Thursday.
However, the expected softening in prices of most of the common commodities and crude oil on year-on-year basis is expected to limit margin erosion as end-use sectors will benefit from lower input prices, it said.
Rail Vikas Nigam IPO to open today
State-owned miniratna company Rail Vikas Nigam is set to launch its initial public offering for subscription on March 29. The dilution of stake by the Ministry of Railways is part of the divestment target set by the government every year. The government has already surpassed its FY19 divestment target of Rs 80,000 crore.
Yes Securities (India), Elara Capital (India) and IDBI Capital Markets & Securities are the book running lead managers for the issue, while Alankit Assignments is the registrar to the issue. Equity shares after the issue are proposed to be listed on BSE and National Stock Exchange of India.
