10440 ACHIEVED; TRAIL STOP-LOSS TO 10220

10440 ACHIEVED; TRAIL STOP-LOSS TO 10220

WORLD MARKETS

Dow and S & P 500 gained 1.1% each while Nasdaq climbed 1.8%, extending the winning streak to third straight day, after comments from Trump indicated potential progress in U.S.-China trade relations.

Trump said in a tweet Thursday that he had a "long and very good conversation" with Chinese President Xi Jinping on trade. He also said meetings between the two at the upcoming G-20 summit are being scheduled.

US crude tumbled 2.5% or $1.62 to 7-month low of $63.69 a barrel while Brent was down $2.07 or 2.8% at $72.97.

DowDuPont surged 8% after posting better-than-forecast earnings.

Initial U.S. weekly jobless claims fell to 214,000 last week while continuing claims remained at their lowest levels since 1973.

Dollar index plunged nearly 0.9% to 96.30 as sterling surged.

European market ended mixed with modest changes.  Sterling jumped 1.6% to hit a high of $1.297 on the news that U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May had agreed on terms with Brussels that would give British financial services firms continued access to European markets post-Brexit. Sterling's rally was also aided after the Bank of England announced it would keep interest rates unchanged.

AT HOME

Benchmark indices ended little changed after trading in a narrow range through the session. Sensex settled at 34431, down 10 points while Nifty lost 6 points to finish at 10380. BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices however soared 1.1% each, extending the winning streak to fourth straight day. BSE Capital Goods and Realty indices climbed 2.3% each, becoming top gainers among the sectoral indices while IT and Teck indices were the top losers, down 1.8% and 1.6% respectively.

FIIs net bought stocks and stock futures worth Rs 349 cr and 957 cr respectively but net sold index futures worth Rs 263 cr. DIIs were net sellers to the tune of Rs 509 cr.

Rupee appreciated 50 paise to end at 73.45/$.

India's October Nikkei manufacturing PMI rose to 53.1 from 52.2 in September.

October GST collection stood at Rs. 100710 cr., a growth of 6% over September figure.

HDFC reported in-line with estimated net profit and stable asset quality but NII was a miss. NII grew 16% to Rs 2649 cr. AUM growth stood at 16.9%. Gross NPA ratio improved to 1.13% from 1.18% q-o-q. NIMs were flat at 3.5%.

TVS Motor’s October sales rose 25% to 3.84 lakh units. Eicher Motor reported 1% rise in Royal Enfield sales at 70451 units. Escorts posted 28.8% y-o-y rise in October sales at 12867 units. Maruti's sales dip 0.2% to 1.47 lakh units. Ashok Leyland posted 17% growth at 15149 units. Atul auto sales surged 57% to 5473 units. M & M posted 14% growth at 58416 units.

OUTLOOK

Today morning, Asian markets are trading with gains of 1%-2.3% and SGX Nifty is suggesting about 70 points higher start for our market.

Readers would recall that after Nifty took out 10275 hurdle, we had given target zone of 10408-10440 where 10408 is the top made last week and 10440 is the 61.8% retracement level of the 10710-1004 fall.

Yesterday, Nifty, after touching a high of 10441, retreated to close at 10380, vindicating our view.

The benchmark is set to open around yesterday's high, 10440 today. Above 10440, 10480, the two-third retracement level of the 10710-10004 fall, would be the next immediate hurdle to eye. Upon crossover of 10480, 10710, the top made in mid-October, would be the next crucial hurdle.

Immediate support on the hourly chart has moved up to 10220, with the stop-loss of which, trading longs can be held on to.

AXIS Bank, IOC and Hindalco, NTPC and Godrej Consumer will report their quarterly earnings today.