NIFTY HOLDS 8500 ONCE AGAIN; US NONFARM PAYROLL IN FOCUS

NIFTY HOLDS 8500 ONCE AGAIN; US NONFARM PAYROLL IN FOCUS

WORLD MARKETS                             

US indices ended marginally lower after ECB refrained from announcing quantitative easing and markets awaited the US monthly jobs report.

Weekly jobless claims fell by 17,000 to 297,000.

European markets plunged between 0.6%-2.8%, with Italy and Spain leading the tally, after the ECB dramatically cut economic growth and inflation forecasts but threw cold water on hopes of beginning a program of sovereign-debt purchases called quantitative easing. Draghi said the bank would review measures early next year—and stressed that "early" did not necessarily mean it would act immediately after its January meeting. The central bank held interest rates at a record low.

Nymex oil fell 57 cents to $66.81 a barrel.

AT HOME

After a big gap up opening with Nifty touching a fresh record high, benchmark indices soon slipped into the red but rebounded again in the noon trade to end higher by about a third of a percent. Sensex gained 120 points to settle at 28563 while Nifty finished at 8564, up 27 points. BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices gained 0.2% and 0.3% respectively. BSE FMCG index soared 3%, becoming top gainer among the sectoral indices, followed by 0.8% rise in Bankex. Teck and Consumer Durable indices lost 0.6% and 0.5% respectively.

ITC surged more than 5% on reports that the government is unlikely to ban sale of loose cigarettes in near-term.

FIIs net bought stocks and stock futures worth Rs 474 cr and 17 cr respectively but net sold index futures worth Rs 757 cr. DIIs were net sellers to the tune of Rs 586 cr.

Rupee depreciated 2 paise to end at 61.925/$.

Defense related stocks like Pipavav Defence, Punj Lloyd, BEL, BEML and Alstom surged after Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) granted industrial licence proposals to several companies which were stuck since 2012.

The floor price for disinvestment in Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) has been set at Rs 83 a share which is expected to garner Rs 1700 cr. There would be a five per cent discount for retail investors.

OUTLOOK

Today morning, Shanghai and Hang Seng are up nearly a percent, other Asian markets are trading mixed with modest changes and SGX Nifty is suggesting about 10 points higher opening for our market.

After Nifty nearly achieved 8640 target on Monday, we had asked to trail the stop loss in long positions to 8500. Nifty has been honouring this support for past three sessions.

8500 continues to be the immediate support, a sustained trading below which would generate a sell on the hourly chart and would pave the way for the further correction till about 8430 and then to 8350.

8640 continues to be immediate target above which 8730 would be the next level to eye.

Key data to watch out today would be US November nonfarm payroll number, which is expected to show an addition of 230000 jobs, which would be 10th straight month of 2 lac plus job addition. Unemployment rate is likely to hold steady at 5.8%.