10176 CONTINUES TO BE IMMEDIATE HURDLE; 9800 IMMEDIATE SUPPORT

10176 CONTINUES TO BE IMMEDIATE HURDLE; 9800 IMMEDIATE SUPPORT

WORLD MARKETS

Dow ended little changed while S & P 500 and Nasdaq fell 0.3% and 0.7%. Indices ended off-the highs touched in initial trade following disappointing jobs data and a late-day sell-off in tech shares.

The Labor Department said 1.877 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, topping estimate of 1.775 million. Continuing jobless claims rose sharply, nearly reaching 21.5 million.

Brent futures rose 6 cents, or 0.2%, to $39.85 a barrel while WTI crude futures gained 12 cents to settle at $37.41 per barrel.

European markets fell 0.2%-0.6%. Comments and forecasts from ECB weighed on the sentiment. ECB President Christine Lagarde said that the euro zone faced an “unprecedented contraction. The central bank updated its forecasts, saying it now expects the economy to contract by 8.7% this year, before rebounding to 5.2% growth in 2021 and 3.3% in 2022.  ECB announced a 600 billion euro ($672 billion) expansion of its Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP), a larger increase than expected, bringing the program’s total to more than 1 trillion euro.

AT HOME

Sensex and Nifty ended lower by 0.4% and 0.3% respectively after a choppy session, snapping six-day winning streak. Sensex settled at 33980, down 128 points while Nifty lost 32 points to finish at 10029. BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices ended marginally in the red. BSE Bankex and Finance indices slipped 2.7% and 2.5% respectively, becoming top losers among the sectoral indices while Telecom and Teck indices were the top gainers, up 3.5% and 2.3% respectively.

FIIs net bought stocks and stock futures worth Rs 2905 cr and 722 cr respectively but net sold index futures worth Rs 1266 cr. DIIs were net sellers to the tune of Rs 847 cr.

Rupee depreciated 12 paise to end at 75.58/$.

OUTLOOK

Today morning, Asian markets are trading with cuts of upto half a percent while SGX Nifty is suggesting around 20 points higher start for our market.

In yesterday's report we had said that 10176, the top made Wednesday, was the immediate hurdle and that immediate support on the hourly chart had moved up to 9800, with the stop-loss of which, trading longs could be held on to.

Nifty slipped to touch a low of 9944 before closing at 10029 and is set to open near 10050 today.

10176, the top made Wednesday, continues to be immediate hurdle, a crossover of which is required for a fresh upmove. If that happens, 10334, the upper end of the gap created by gap-down opening on 12th March, would be the next target to eye.

9800 continues to be immediate support on the hourly chart, with the stop-loss of which, trading longs can be held on to.

SBI and L&T will report their quarterly earnings today.