BOOK SOME PROFIT AS 7512-7540 RESISTANCE AREA APPROACHES

BOOK SOME PROFIT AS 7512-7540 RESISTANCE AREA APPROACHES

WORLD MARKETS                             

After falling about half a percent in the first hour or so, US indices saw a sustained northward move through rest of the session to end with gains of 0.1%-0.3% ahead of Friday's non-farm payroll data.

The ISM non-manufacturing survey for February came in at 53.4, above expectations but a touch below January's 53.5 read. Final February Markit services PMI was 49.7, down from January's final 53.2 print and the lowest since October 2013. January factory orders rose 1.6%. Durable goods orders were revised slightly lower to show a rise of 4.7%, versus the prior 4.9% increase. Weekly jobless claims came in at 278,000. Revised fourth-quarter productivity declined 2.2%, while unit labor costs rose 3.3%.

Nymex oil fell 0.26% to $34.57 a barrel while Brent lost 0.4% to settle at $37.07 a barrel.

Dollar index fell about half a percent. Gold April future climbed 1.3% to $1258 an ounce.

Key European markets ended modestly lower. Healthcare sector ended 2.4% lower after credit rating agency, Moody's cut its outlook on the global pharmaceuticals industry from "positive" to "stable". Basic resources stocks however continued to advance helped by a solid rise in the price of metals.

AT HOME

Fanatic Bull Run extended to third straight day as benchmark indices soared a percent and half to close at the highest level in nearly a month. Sensex settled at 24607, up 364 points while Nifty climbed 107 points to finish at 7476. BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices gained 0.6% and 1.4% respectively. Except a 0.2% cut in BSE FMCG index, all the sectoral indices ended in green with Capital Goods and Metal indices leading the tally, up 4.1% each.

FIIs net bought stock, index futures and stock futures worth Rs 912 cr, 260 cr and 256 cr respectively. DIIs were net sellers to the tune of Rs 465 cr.

Rupee appreciated 20 paise to end at 6-week high of 67.34/$.

India's Services PMI for February came in at a 3-month low of 51.4, down from 54.3 in January.

OUTLOOK

Today morning Asian markets are trading mixed with modest changes and SGX Nifty is suggesting about 30 points higher opening for our market.

At the risk of repeating, we had advised going long on Nifty ever since 7094, the high made on budget day, was crossed. After the initial target of 7252 was achieved, we have been working with next major target area of 7512-7540.

The benchmark yesterday touched a high of 7484 before closing at 7476, coming in very close to target area mentioned above.

Looking at the steep run-up over past three sessions, traders would do well to book some profits in long positions as 7512-7540 resistance area approaches.

7380, the gap created by yesterday's gap up opening, would now act as the immediate support, which should serve as the stop loss in remaining positions.

Key data to watch out today would be US nonfarm payroll data for February which is expected to show an addition of 190,000 jobs while unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 4.9%.