7487 CONTINUES TO BE IMMEDIATE HURDLE; 7360 IMMEDIATE SUPPORT

7487 CONTINUES TO BE IMMEDIATE HURDLE; 7360 IMMEDIATE SUPPORT

WORLD MARKETS                             

US indices, supported by rise in oil and surge in Facebook share, gained 0.5%-0.9% yesterday.

On speculation that major producers may cooperate to cut production, Nymex oil rose 92 cents or 2.85% to $33.22 a barrel for its first three-day win streak of 2016. Brent gained $1.14 to $34.24. Russian Energy Minister said that Saudi Arabia had proposed to cut oil production by up to 5% by each country in order to support weak oil prices

Facebook soared 15.5% after reporting better-than-expected earnings, with the firm beating the $1 billion mark in quarterly net income for the first time ever. Caterpillar gained 4.7% after profit beat estimates.

Durable goods fell 5.1% in December, far more than expectations for a less-than 1% decline. Weekly jobless claims came in at 278,000. Pending home sales rose just 0.1% in December from a downwardly revised November print.

European markets, weighed down by a raft of weak earnings, tumbled 1%-3.5%.

AT HOME

Benchmark indices ended modestly lower after a rangebound but choppy trading session on the expiry day of the January derivative series. Sensex settled at 24470, down 23 points while Nifty lost 13 points to finish at 7425. BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices lost 0.4% and 0.04% respectively. BSE Telecom and Capital Goods indices tumbled 2.4% and 1.7% respectively, becoming top losers among the sectoral indices while FMCG and Energy indices were the top gainers, up 1.5% and 1.2% respectively.

FIIs net sold stocks and index futures worth Rs 962 cr and 1598 respectively but net bought stock futures worth Rs 387 cr. DIIs were net buyers to the tune of Rs 394 cr.

Rupee depreciated 19 paise to end at 68.23/$, marking a 29-month low.

Bharti Airtel's third quarter consolidated net profit fell 27% q-o-q to Rs 1170 cr, impacted by exceptional loss of Rs 340 cr. Revenue rose 1% to Rs 24066 cr. Operating profit rose 2.5% to Rs 8479 cr and margin expanded by 50 bps to 35.2% which were better-than-estimates.

Maruti reported lower-than-expected 27% growth in net profit at Rs 1019 cr. Revenue rose at better-than-expected 20% to Rs 15082 cr. Operating profit rose 36.2% (expectation 55%) to Rs 2170 cr and margin expanded by 180 bps (expectation 390 bps) to 14.4%.

ICICI Bank reported slightly lower-than-estimated 4.5% growth in December quarter net profit at Rs 3018 cr. NII came in better-than-estimated at Rs 5453 cr, up 13%.  Provisions for bad loans shot up 190% y-o-y and 202% q-o-q to Rs 2844 cr. Gross NPA ratio worsened to 4.72% from 3.77% q-o-q and Net NPA ratio increased to 2.28% from 1.65%.

OUTLOOK

Today morning Asian markets are trading mixed with modest changes and SGX Nifty is suggesting about 25 points lower opening for our market.

For past three sessions, Nifty has been struggling to get past 7487 top made on Monday. A crossover of this hurdle is required for a fresh upmove and 7605-7620 would be the next target area in that case.

7360 continues to be be immediate support on the hourly chart with the stop loss of which trading longs can be held on to.

LT will report its quarterly earnings today.