7350-7490 IS THE IMMEDIATE RANGE

7350-7490 IS THE IMMEDIATE RANGE

WORLD MARKETS                             

S & P 500 and Nasdaq rose 0.1% each while Dow gained half a percent after a choppy session amidst weaker-than-expected earnings and falling oil prices.

After rising more than 3% at session highs, Nymex oil reversed to settle down 56 cents or 1.7% at $31.71 a barrel while Brent slipped 58 cents or 1.6% to $34.46.

U.S. jobless claims rose 8,000 to 285,000 last week, while economists were expecting a total of 280,000. Productivity declined 3% in the fourth quarter, its biggest drop since the first quarter of 2014. Factory orders for December fell 2.9%, worse than the expected 2.6% fall.

After falling more than 1% on Wednesday, Dollar index fell another 0.8% yesterday to hit its lowest level since October 23. Gold climbed $16 to $1158 an ounce.

European markets, except a 0.4% lower DAX and flat CAC, gained 1.1%-1.8% on the back of a rally in mining stocks. European Commission said that the euro zone is expected to grow 1.7% in 2016 and 1.9% in 2017. The 2016 figure was a downward revision from the 1.8% expected in the last forecast in November.

AT HOME

Benchmark indices managed to end higher by about half a percent after an extremely choppy trading session, breaking the three day losing streak. Sensex settled at 24338, up 115 points while Nifty added 42 points to finish at 7404. BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices however lost 0.2% and 0.8% respectively. BSE Metal and Capital Goods indices climbed 2.5% and 1.9% respectively, becoming top gainers among the sectoral indices while Healthcare index tumbled 1.6%, becoming the top loser, followed by 0.3% cut in Realty index.

FIIs net sold stocks worth Rs 195 cr but net bought index futures and stock futures worth Rs 890 cr and 30 cr respectively. DIIs were net buyers to the tune of Rs 476 cr.

Rupee appreciated 53 paise to end at 3-week high of 67.54/$.

Tata Steel reported worse-than-expected consolidated net loss of Rs 2127 cr on revenues of Rs 26821 cr. EBITDA was at Rs 1489 cr with EBITDA margin at 5.3%. Net loss was expected at Rs 1000 cr and margin was expected to be 5.5%.

The Budget session of Parliament will begin on February 23, and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will present the union budget on February 29.

OUTLOOK

Today morning Nikkei is down more than a percent but other Asian markets are trading with modest gains and SGX Nifty is suggesting about 25 points higher opening for our market.

In yesterday's report we had mentioned that "despite a gap up opening, the bias would continue to be negative until immediate hurdle of 7490 is taken out".

The benchmark, after touching a high of 7457 intraday, plunged to 7367 in the noon trade before closing at 7407.

7490 continues to be immediate hurdle, a crossover of which is required to generate a buy on the hourly chart. 7620, where 34-DMA is placed, would be the next target if that happens. 7350, the bottom made on Wednesday is the immediate support, a brach of which can take benchmark back to 7240 bottom made in January.

Lupin and Tata Power will report their quarterly earnings today.

In the US, nonfarm payroll data is expected to show addition of 188000 jobs while unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 5%.