Nifty Closes Below 9,200 On Geopolitical Woes; Financials Drag

Gaurang Shah, head investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services expects fourth-quarter earnings of Indian corporates to recover compared to the previous quarter, as markets gear up for the busy results season starting with Infosys on April 13.

“For Indian markets, its all about earnings now and that will decide the future trend. U.S. data such as the jobs report will not have that much of a bearing than cues domestically. For longer term investors, it’s a buy on dip opportunity but one needs to be very careful in terms of stock picking,” said Shah.

Shah is positive on sectors such as auto, banks, pharmaceuticals, consumer durables and fast moving consumer goods on the back of earnings momentum.

India’s broader Nifty index closed lower for a second session on Friday, paring weekly gains, as investors turned jittery following U.S. missile strike on Syria.

The S&P BSE Sensex closed lower 0.74 percent at 29,706.61, while the NSE Nifty fell 0.69 percent to end at 9,198. Both the indices, however, posted a gain of about 0.2 percent each for the week.

The market breadth was in the favour of losers, with about 5 stocks declined to every 4 stocks that advanced.

The India NSE Volatility Index, a benchmark gauge of options prices on the Nifty gauge, closed higher by 3.6 percent after rising as much as 4.6 percent earlier in the session.

Among the sectoral indices, BSE Bankex and BSE Metal index fell 0.96 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively. BSE Oil & Gas index was the only index to end higher with gains of 0.48 percent.

Indian rupee strengthened to as much as 64.69 per dollar, its highest since August 2015, after the Reserve Bank of India held its tight monetary policy stance citing inflationary concerns. It was last trading at 64.22 compared with Thursday's close of 64.52.

Bonds extended falls, with sentiment also hit after the central bank said it would start curbing excess liquidity after the government’s move to withdraw high denomination currency.

The benchmark 10-year bond yield rose 5 basis points to 6.82 percent after rising 12 basis points on Thursday.

Shares of drugmaker fell as much as 3 percent to Rs 666.30, lowest since February 16.

U.S. Food & Health Administration inspectors found storage, logistics lapses at company’s Dadra plant on the first day of audit, news channel ET Now reported citing unidentified sources.

Volume 2.4 times its 30-day average: Bloomberg data.

Shares of Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum climbed between 3-4 percent.

State-run oil refiners plan to review prices daily to align them more closely with international rates, the Economic Times reported citing unidentified company officials.

• Indian Oil Corp. (+3.5%)
• Hindustan Petroleum Corp. (+2.9%)
• Bharat Petroleum Corp. (+4.4%)
• S&P BSE Oil & Gas index (+1.1%)

Simplex Infrastructure Gains Most In Eight Years

• Simplex Infrastructure hit the 20% upper circuit for the first time since May 19, 2009. Stock trading near its highest level in almost two years.
• Relative strength index above 70, which indicates that the stock is in the overbought zone.
• Trading volumes more than 5.7 times its 20-day average.
• Simplex Infrastructures, which undertakes civil and structural construction projects, has a market capitalisation of more than Rs 1,800 crore.
• Stock trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.5 times its 12-month trailing earnings per share and 29 times its estimates for the coming year.

Intrasoft Technologies’ 7-Session Winning Streak

• Intrasoft Technologies rose as much as 6.7%, extending its winning streak to seven sessions.
• Stock gained around 23% in this period.
• Volumes at 2.5 times its 20-day average volume.
• Intrasoft provides back-end information technology enabled services.
• The company, which runs U.S.-focused e-gifting venture 123Greetings.com, has a market capitalization of around Rs 552.95 crore.

For the complete story, click HERE

Shares of pharmaceutical firm recovered earlier losses to trade higher by 2.56 percent at Rs 635.

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration approved Alembic’s fluoxetine hydrochloride tablets used for the treatment of obsessive–compulsive disorder.

Fluoxetine hydrochloride tablets have an estimated market size of $120 million for 12 months ended December 2015, the company said in a regulatory filing.

• S&P BSE Midcap Index (+0.20%)
• S&P BSE Smallcap Index (+0.39%)
• S&P BSE Sensex (-0.25%)

Excerpts From CLSA Report

• Co-investment platform with CPPIB boosts long-term growth outlook
• Platform expects to substantially deploy money within three years
• CPPIB deal should reset benchmark cap rate valuations for Phoenix
• Raises target price to Rs 539; rating buy

• Kajaria Ceramics has 25 lakh shares changed hands
• Bharat Heavy Electricals has 13 lakh shares changed hands
• Sobha has 37.7 lakh shares changed hands

Shares of Reliance Industries fell as much as 1.76 percent to Rs 1,413.15, most since March 27.

Telecom regulator ordered unit Reliance Jio Infocomm to withdraw its three-month complementary offer.

Stock snapped its 6-day winning streak in which it gained nearly 16 percent; Relative strength index is 80, indicating that the stock may be overbought: Bloomberg data.

Rivals Gain

• Bharti Airtel (2%)
• Idea Cellular (2.9%)

Also Read: Reliance Jio Withdraws Summer Surprise Offer After TRAI’s Order

The rupee weakened by 13 paise to 64.65 against the U.S. dollar due to appreciation of the American currency overseas.

Besides, a lower opening in the domestic equity market also weighed on the rupee, dealers said.

The rupee had closed Thursday at a near 20-month high of 64.52, firming up by 35 paise against the U.S. dollar on massive unwinding of the American currency by exporters amid buoyant growth outlook by the Reserve Bank.

• Adani Ports (-2%): Cut to neutral from buy at Goldman Sachs
• Ramco Cements (+0.8%): Cut to hold from buy at Sharekhan
• Sun TV Network (-0.8%): Cut to reduce from hold at HSBC

Indian shares opened lower on Friday following a selloff in the global markets as geopolitical worries escalated after U.S. launched airstrike against Syria.

The S&P BSE Sensex declined 0.47 percent to 29,784, while the NSE Nifty fell 0.50 percent to trade at 9,216.

The market breadth was in the favour of losers, with about 6 stocks declined to every 4 stocks that advanced.

All the sectoral indices, barring consumer durables index, fell with BSE Bankex and BSE Capital Goods index shedding nearly 0.40 percent each.

• Reliance Industries: Unit Reliance Jio withdraws its three months complementary offer.
• Gammon Infrastructure: Buys 24 percent stake in Indira Container Terminal for Rs 15 crore.
• Somany Ceramics: Issues commercial paper worth Rs 40 crore.
• GE Power: Gets a contract worth Rs 237.6 crore by GE Power AG.
• Deepak Fertilizers and Petrochemicals: Unit Smartchem Technologies to buy 76 percent stake in Performance Chemiserve.

For a complete list of stocks to watch, click HERE

The Indian rupee is likely to weaken against the dollar amid risk-off sentiment as U.S. launched a missile attack against Syria. Investors were seen buying haven assets in the immediate aftermath of the move, the first such military strike undertaken by the Trump administration.

Sovereign bonds, on the other hand, are seen posting their first weekly loss in three after a panel led by RBI Governor Urjit Patel surprisingly raised the reverse repo rate, a move that no economist predicted in the Bloomberg survey.

Later today, the government will kick start its borrowing program for the new fiscal year and sell 150 billion rupees of bonds.

• U.S. launches missile strike on Syria in response to gas attack
• India parliament approves 4 bills to support GST rollout
• India GST Council to take final decision on rates in May: Finance Minister
• RBI to issue corrective actions framework for banks by mid-April
• Reliance Jio asked by TRAI to withdraw complimentary offer
• India could win from a U.S.-China trade row, BJP says
• India continuing talks with Australia on sourcing Uranium
• India sugar prices to remain firm on falling inventory: CRISIL
• Global funds buy Rs 143 crore of local stocks; domestic funds sell Rs 206 crore on Thursday yesterday: Provisional data

Also Read: Trump Hails `Friendship' With China's Xi on First Day of Summit

Good Morning!

The Singapore traded SGX Nifty, an early indicator of Nifty’s performance in India, fell 0.67 percent to 9,205.

Asian shares pared most of their gains while S&P 500 futures fell after the U.S. launched an air strike on Syria.

Safe haven assets such as the yen and gold spiked as investors shed riskier assets in the wake of the first such military strike undertaken by the Trump administration.

The U.S. executed the cruise-missile attack two days after Bashar al-Assad’s regime used poison gas to kill scores of civilians, an act that drew international condemnation and that President Donald Trump called “‘an affront to humanity, Bloomberg reported.

The yen rose 0.4 percent to 110.38 per dollar as of 10:41 a.m. in Tokyo, wiping out an earlier decline of 0.2 percent while gold jumped 0.8 percent to $1,261.09, following two days of declines.

Japan’s Topix index was up 0.07 percent, paring an earlier rally of as much as 1.2 percent. Futures on the S&P 500 slipped 0.5 percent.

West Texas Intermediate crude jumped 1.9 percent to $52.68, for a fourth day of gains.