9350 BELOW 9418

9350 BELOW 9418

WORLD MARKETS                             

US indices gained 0.3%-0.7% yesterday after suffering their worst fall of 2017 on Wednesday.

Brent and WTI oil gained 0.2% each to settle at $52.61 and $49.46 a barrel respectively.

Weekly jobless claims totaled 232,000, below the expected 240,000. The Philadelphia Federal Reserve business index rose to 38.8 in May from 22.0 in April.

Dollar index gained about 0.4% to 97.88. The benchmark 10-year note yield rose to 2.23% and the short-term two-year note yield advanced to 1.266%.

European markets, except a marginally higher Italy, lost 0.3%-0.9%. UK retail sales jumped 2.3% in April, sending Sterling beyond $1.30 for the first time in nearly eight months.

AT HOME

Sensex and Nifty plunged 0.7% and 1% respectively, marking the worst fall since 5th May and 22 March respectively.  Sensex slipped 224 points to settle at 30435 while Nifty finished at 9429, down 96 points. BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices tumbled 2.2% and 2% respectively. Except a 1.2% and 0.6% higher IT and Teck indices respectively, all the BSE sectoral indices ended in red with Realty and Metal indices leading the tally, down 3.1% and 2.8% respectively.

FIIs net sold stocks, index futures and stock futures worth Rs 361 cr, 141 cr and 1124 cr respectively. DIIs were net buyers to the tune of Rs 898 cr.

Rupee depreciated 69 paise to end at 64.84/$, marking the biggest single day fall since August 24, 2015.

Bajaj Auto posted 13.4% drop in March quarter net profit at Rs 862 cr. Revenue fell 7% to Rs 5212 cr. EBIDTA margin was maintained at 21.2%. Stand-alone volumes dipped by 10% to 787,627 units.

BoB posted a profit of Rs 155 cr for March quarter compared to a loss of Rs 3230 cr in the same quarter last year. NII rose 7.5% to Rs 3582 cr. Asset quality stabilised with gross NPA ratio fell to 10.46% from 11.4% q-o-q. Net NPA ratio fell to 4.7% from 5.43%. Fresh slippages stood at Rs 3561 cr.

GST Council fixing tax rates on of 1211 items, most of which will likely become cheaper as the new rates will be lower than the current effective levies. 14% of the 1211 items will attract a GST rate of 5%, another 17% will be taxed at 12%, 19% of the items will be taxed at 28%, while 7% will be on the exempt list.

HCC, Kajaria Ceramics, NALCO, RBL Bank and Ramco Cement will be included in derivative segment from 26th May.

OUTLOOK

Today morning, Asian markets are trading flat to modestly higher and SGX Nifty is suggesting a marginally higher start for our market.

Nifty yesterday touched a low of 9418 and closed at 9429, breaking the immediate support of 9430. A breach of 9418, the low made yesterday, would confirm a sell on the hourly chart and 20-DMA, placed around 9350, would be the next support to eye if that happens.

Traders are advised to cut long positions below 9418.

SBI will report its quarterly earnings today.