ALL EYES ON KARNATAKA ELECTION RESULTS

ALL EYES ON KARNATAKA ELECTION RESULTS

WORLD MARKETS

Dow added 0.3% while S & P 500 and Nasdaq rose 0.1% each with the Dow extending the winning streak to eighth straight day as US-China trade concerns abated.

Trump, in a Sunday tweet, pledged to help Chinese technology firm ZTE Corp to "get back into business, fast" after a U.S. ban had significantly hampered the Asian company.

Trump's tweet on comes ahead of the second round of trade talks between the U.S. and China this week. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Rosssaid he hoped good relations between Trump and Xi would help to bring an agreement on trade matters, although he also acknowledged that the gap between the countries "remains wide."

US crude rose 26 cents to $70.96 after an OPEC report showed the global oil glut was virtually eliminated. Brent crude surged $1.11 to $78.44, taking the Brent-WTI gap to more than $7, its highest in nearly five months.

European markets, except 0.3% higher Italy, lost upto 0.2%.

AT HOME

It was a day of consolidation as benchmark indices ended little changed after trading in about half a percent range through the session. Sensex settled at 35557, up 21 points while Nifty ended absolutely flat at 10807. BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices however tumbled 0.9% and 1% respectively. BSE Consumer Durable and Telecom indices were the top losers among sectoral indices, down 2.5% and 1.1% respectively while Bankex and Oil & Gas indices gained 0.2% each, becoming top gainers.

FIIs net bought stocks, index futures and stock futures worth Rs 718 cr, 201 cr and 118 cr respectively. DIIs were net buyers to the tune of Rs 687 cr.

Rupee depreciated 22 paise to end at fresh 15-month low. The 10-year bond yield hit a 27-month high at 7.825%.

Retail inflation rose to 4.58% in April from 4.28% in March, overturning a three month slide from its peak. Core CPI rose 30 bps y-o-y to 5.8%. Wholesale inflation grew 3.18% in April, up from 2.47% in March and hitting a 4-month high as prices of some vegetables as well as petrol, diesel soared.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday temporarily assigned charge of the ministries of finance and corporate affairs to railway minister Piyush Goyal till Arun Jaitley recovers from a kidney transplant, while removing the controversy-scarred Smriti Irani from the high-profile I&B ministry, which will now be handled by Rajyavardhan Rathore.

HUL earnings beat estimates on all the counts. Net profit rose 14.2% to Rs 1351 cr and sales rose 12% to Rs 9097 cr. EBIDTA rose 30% to Rs 2148 cr and operating margin expanded to 23.4% from 21.5%. Volume growth stood at 11%.

OUTLOOK

Big event to watch out today would be Karnataka assembly election results. 113 seats are needed for a simple majority in 225 seat assembly.

Today morning, Nikkei and Shanghai are little changed but Hang Seng is down about half a percent. SGX Nifty is suggesting a marginally lower start for our market. After Nifty crossed the 10785 hurdle on Friday, we have been working with next target area of 10950-10970. Nifty, yesterday, after touching a high of 10835, closed at 10806 and is set to open below 10800 today.

10950-10970 continues to be upside target area. Immediate support on the hourly chart has moved up to 10730, with the stop-loss of which, trading longs should be held on to.

Lupin, Britannia and PNB will report their quarterly earnings today.