7770-7670 CONTINUE TO BE LEVELS TO EYE; US JOBS DATA IN FOCUS

7770-7670 CONTINUE TO BE LEVELS TO EYE; US JOBS DATA IN FOCUS

WORLD MARKETS                             

While Nasdaq closed flat, Dow and S & P 500 fell 0.2% each yesterday, the final trading day of the quarter, ahead of the monthly non-farm payroll report due today.

Initial jobless claims came in at 276,000. Chicago PMI rose to 53.6 in March from 47.6 in February.

US dollar index closed off the day low after falling 0.4% to hit its lowest since October. Gold rose $7 to $1236 an ounce.

Nymex oil closed off the day high, up 2 cents at $38.34 a barrel. Brent rose 0.8% or 34 cents to $39.60 a barrel.

European markets tumbled 05%-1.7% with Banking and Telecom stocks leading the declines.

AT HOME

Benchmark indices ended almost flat after the usual last hour expiry day volatility. Sensex settled at 25342, up 3 points while Nifty added 3 points to finish at 7738. BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices gained 0.7% and 0.5% respectively. BSE Consumer Durable and Power indices climbed 1.2% and 0.8% respectively, becoming top gainers among the sectoral indices while Metal and Oil & Gas indices fell 0.8% and 0.6% respectively, becoming top losers.

FIIs net bought stocks and index futures worth Rs 4057 cr and 3194 cr respectively but net sold stock futures worth Rs 658 cr. DIIs were net sellers to the tune of Rs 2891 cr.

Rupee appreciated 12 paise to end at 66.25/$.

For the month, Nifty gained 10.8%, marking the largest monthly gain since January 2012.

OUTLOOK

China's official manufacturing PMI for March has come in at 50.2, well above a forecast of 49.3 and up from 49 in February. The Caixin manufacturing PMI has rise to 49.7 from February's 48 level.

Nikkei is down about 2% following Bank of Japan's Tanken survey which showed big manufacturers' business sentiment at its lowest in nearly three years. Other Asian markets are trading with modest cuts and SGX Nifty is suggesting about 10 points lower opening for our market.

In yesterday's report we had mentioned that after Wednesday's big upmove, Nifty was back in the vicinity of 34-week moving average hurdle placed around 7770, a crossover of which is required for the fresh upmove. We had also advised holding on to trading longs with the stop loss of 7670, which is the immediate support on the hourly chart.

The benchmark, after touching a high of 7777, plunged to 7702 before recovering to close at 7738.

7770 continues to be important hurdle to eye, a crossover of which is required for fresh upmove. On the way down 7670 continues to be immediate support, which should serve as the stop loss for trading longs.

Automobile companies will report their March sales figures today.

Aurobindo Pharma, Bharti Infratel, Eicher Motors and Tata Motors DVR willl start trading in derivative segment of NSE from today.

Key data to watch out today would be the US non-farm payroll for March where addition of 205000 jobs is expected as against 242000 the previous month.