NIFTY NEARLY ACHIEVES 8700 TARGET

NIFTY NEARLY ACHIEVES 8700 TARGET

WORLD MARKETS                             

After gaining nearly half a percent in the first half, US indices tumbled in last hour or so end with cuts of upto 0.2%.

The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) showed 5.1 million job openings on the last business day of February, the highest since January 2001 but little changed from the prior month, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Tuesday.

Nymex oil gained 3.53% to $53.98 a barrel extending Monday's 6% gain.

European markets on an average gained 1.5%.

AT HOME

After a positive start, benchmark indices plunged more than a percent from the top of the day, but recouped most of the losses in the late noon trade to end flat. Sensex settled at 28517, up 12 points while Nifty was absolutely flat at 8660. BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices gained 0.7% and 1.2% respectively. BSE Metal index soared 2.2%, becoming top gainer among the sectoral indices, followed by 0.9% rise in Power index. Realty index and Bankex were the top losers, giving away 1.6% and 0.7% respectively.

RBI, in its first monetary review of the new financial year, left all the rates viz. Repo, CRR and SLR unchanged. In its monetary policy statement, the RBI said that it would prefer to stand pat in light of recent signs of pick-up in economic activity and comfortable liquidity conditions, and as it awaits transmission of the recent rate cuts into the economy, further data on inflation, shift in the quality of government spending, and for the Federal Reserve’s moves on interest rate in the US.      

RBI also raised the limits for lending by microfinance institutions and also widened the base of borrowers for such companies.

FIIs net bought stocks and stock futures worth Rs 144 cr and 172 cr respectively but net sold index futures worth Rs 88 cr. DIIs were net buyers to the tune of Rs 326 cr.

Rupee depreciated 7 paise to end at 62.25/$.

In the evening, SBI and HDFC Bank cut base rate by 15 bps to 9.85% effective April 10 and April 13 respectively.

Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari yesterday said that the Inland Waterways Bill to convert 101 rivers across the country into transport channels will be introduced in Parliament on April 20.

The government has set a floor price of Rs 315 per share for the offer for sale (OFS) of Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) to be conducted today. The stake sale will help the government raise around Rs 1,500 crore.

The Union Cabinet yesterday approved the Real Estate Development and Regulation Bill aimed at protecting property buyers' interest by bringing in much-needed transparency and accountability into the sector.   

OUTLOOK

Today morning, Hang Seng is up 2%, Shanghai and Nikkei are up about half a percent and SGX Nifty is suggesting about 30 points higher opening for our market.

Just to reiterate, we have been working with the target of 8700, the 34-DMA, since 8510, the immediate hurdle on the hourly chart was taken out. The benchmark touched a high of 8694 yesterday before closing at 8660, nearly achieving this target.

8705, to be precise, is where the 34-DMA is placed, a crossover of which would pave the way for the further upside till about 8800, which is the 61.8% retracement level of the entire 9119-8269 fall.

Immediate support on the hourly chart is placed around 8550, with the stop loss of which long positions should be held on to.