NIFTY TAKES OUT 8700 HURDLE; SBI EARNINGS IN FOCUS TODAY

NIFTY TAKES OUT 8700 HURDLE; SBI EARNINGS IN FOCUS TODAY

WORLD MARKETS

US indices climbed between 0.6%-1.2% on the back of a cease-fire agreement between Russia and Ukraine, firming oil prices and strong earnings reports.

Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed that he had agreed a peace deal with Ukraine. Speaking on Russian TV, Putin said the agreement would mean the removal of heavy weapons and a full ceasefire would be in place from midnight on February 15.

Cisco surge 9.4% on better-than-expected earnings to lead gains in the Dow.

US retail sales for January came in weaker than expected, down 0.8% and near December's 0.9% decline. Jobless claims were 304,000 last week, more than expected and an increase of 25,000 from last week.

Nymex oil surged 4.9% or $2.37 to $51.21 a barrel; Brent gained $2 to $57.

In Europe, except a marginally higher FTSE, other markets saw big gains ranging from 1%-2.1%.

                                                             

AT HOME

After a weakish morning trade, benchmark indices shot up nearly a percent and quarter from the bottom of the day in the noon trade to end higher by nearly a percent, registering the largest single day gain since 20th January and extending the winning streak to third straight day. Sensex settled at 28805, up 271 points while Nifty finished at 8712, up 84 points. BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices gained 1.1% and 1.3% respectively. Except a 0.2% cut in BSE FMCG index, all other sectoral indices ended in green with Power and Capital Goods indices leading the tally, putting on 2.5% and 2.3% respectively.

FIIs net sold stocks, index futures and stock futures worth Rs 406 cr, 619 cr and 214 cr respectively. DIIs were net buyers to the tune of Rs 706 cr.

Rupee depreciated 5 paise to end at 62.305/$.

Consumer price inflation for January, as measured by a new methodology, inched up to 5.11% y-o-y compared to 4.28% (also on new methodology) in December. Core inflation, calculated by taking out volatile food and fuel prices, moved down to 3.9% from 5.2%.

IIP for December stood at 1.7%, compared to 3.9% in November.

OUTLOOK

Today morning, barring a half a percent lower Nikkei, other Asian markets are trading with modest gains and SGX Nifty is suggesting about 30 points higher opening for our market.

Nifty yesterday crossed the 8650-8700 resistance area, generating a buy on the hourly chart. 8800, the 61.8% retracement level of the recent 8997-8470 fall, would be the immediate target to eye on the way up.

Immediate support on the hourly chart is placed at 8620, with the stop loss of which trading longs should be held on to.

SBI and M & M will report their quarterly earnings today.