PremiumEyes are now on the release of the closely watched non-farm payrolls figures for December, which could play a major role in the Fed's decision on when and how quickly to lift rates. A figure way above the forecast 447,000 new posts could force officials to take a more hawkish tilt, which would likely weigh on equities
India's benchmark equity indices pared gains but managed to end higher on Friday. European shares and US equity futures as investors bet that Friday’s US jobs data would do little to change the Fed’s path toward faster-than-expected tightening. Investors were also cautious amid rising cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
The Sensex rose 142.81 points or 0.24% end the session at 59,744.65. The benchmark had touched a high of 60,130.18 and low of 59,401.44 during the day. The Nifty ended 66.80 points higher at 17,812.70.
Grasim Industries, ONGC, Hindalco Industries, HDFC Life and Shree Cements were among the top gainers on Nifty, while M&M, Bajaj Finserv, L&T, Bajaj Finance and HDFC fell the most.
Auto, metals, and pharma indices ended in the red, while the rest ended higher. Nifty Bank was among the best performers today.
JSW Steel on Friday said its wholly-owned subsidiary, JSW Vijayanagar Metallics, is undertaking a brownfield expansion at the cost of ₹15,000 crore for a new 5 MTPA (million tonnes per annum) project at JSW Steel Vijayanagar Works integrated steel facility in Ballari, Karnataka.
The project is expected to be completed by FY24.
JSW Steel’s manufacturing unit in Vijayanagar, Karnataka, is the largest single-location integrated steel-making facility in India with current capacity of 12 MTPA.
The brownfield expansion will be spread across 600 acre and includes establishing a 4.5 MTPA blast furnace, two steel melt shops of 350 tonne each and a 5 MTPA hot strip mill along with other allied and auxiliary facilities.
Oberoi Realty is a real-estate company, focusing on the MMR region, with business vertices of residential and commercial real-estate.
It reported a strong set of numbers in Q2FY22, we expect residential real-estate growth momentum to continue for the next couple of quarters as in Q3FY22 company has launched Elysian Tower B in Goregaon along with this upcoming launch of Thane. With a diversified revenue mix, the company owns Oberoi Mall (0.5 msf), Commerz (1.1 msf) and the west in hotel (269 room keys).
We expect occupancy levels to improve in CY2022.
Oberoi Realty has robust launch pipeline in FY23, and expects to launch Thane residential project in Q4FY22 along with this Borivali project.
Europe's stock markets opened on a subdued note on Friday as dealers awaited critical US jobs data and mulled the US Federal Reserve's readiness to hike interest rates aggressively.
London's benchmark FTSE 100 index was only marginally lower at 7,448.68 points, compared with Thursday's closing level.
In the eurozone, Frankfurt's DAX index shed 0.4% to 15,994.09 points and the Paris CAC 40 lost just under 0.1% to 7,245.41.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s decision to allow small-value offline digital payments through digital channels such as cards, wallets and mobile devices may encourage innovative digital payments solutions without internet access, experts said.
On 4 January, the central bank said offline digital payments of up to ₹200 will be allowed without active internet connections. (Read here)
Nifty
Post the gap down opening, the Nifty failed to witness any major recovery in the first half of Thursday, with huge writing observed in 17700 and 17750 strike Calls. However, short covering in BFSI along with few other heavyweights helped the Nifty to recover some of its losses to close only 1% down.
Bank Nifty
Outperformance in the banking space continued where despite the Nifty ending 1% down, the Bank Nifty ended only 0.5% lower. The Bank Nifty remained the major contributor in the Nifty recovery in the second half. Looking the short covering, we feel the current upsides should take the index towards 38000 levels in coming days.
Cement prices have declined in December amid a rise in volumes even as demand remained steady.
As per an analysis of the cement market by Emkay Global Financial Services, average pan-India cement prices declined sharply by 5% month-on-month in December 2021, largely driven by the volume push.
Prices declined 6-7% MoM in the east and south, while prices in other regions fell by 3-4%. The report said industry volumes likely increased by 25% MoM.
All regions are likely to have witnessed 20-30% MoM volume growth. There should be a YoY demand improvement in December across regions, except east, the brokerage said.
With demand recovering, companies have announced price hikes of ₹10-30/bag across regions for January 2022. However, absorption of the same will be known in the next few days.
Shares of Mumbai-based real estate developer Macrotech Developers Ltd (Lodha) rose around 2% on the NSE in Friday's intraday trade reacting to the company's Q3FY22 operational update.
In a press release, the company said, its sales booking stood at ₹2,608 crore, an increase of 30% sequentially and 40% on a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis and collections rose 11% sequentially and 44% y-o-y to Rs2,127 crore. Further, the company said that it's London properties continued to see healthy sales of Rs1,900 crore with 3QFY22 being the best ever quarter.
"With the underlying consolidation in place and strong momentum witnessed in MMR, Lodha, the dominant player of MMR, is all set to be key beneficiary," analysts at Antique Stock Broking Ltd said in a report on 7 January.
Easy Trip Planners Ltd on Friday said that the company's board of directors will meet on 12 January to consider a proposal for issuing bonus shares.
Q3 total revenue from operations at ₹5.14 billion versus ₹4.09 billion a year ago, the company said in a regulatory filing.
The company has been informed today that Bristlecone Internacional Costa Rica Limited has been incorporated in the Republic of Costa Rica on 4 January, 2022 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bristlecone Limited, Cayman Islands, which is a subsidiary of Mahindra Holdings Limited, which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company.
Alembic Pharmaceuticals today announced that it has received tentative approval from the US Food & Drug Administration (US FDA) for its Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) for Vortioxetine Tablets 5 mg, 10 mg, 15 mg, and 20 mg. The tentatively approved ANDA is therapeutically equivalent to the reference listed drug product (RLD) Trintellix Tablets 5 mg, 10 mg, 15 mg, and 20 mg, of Takeda Pharmaceuticals, USA, lnc.. (Takeda). Vortioxetine Tablets are indicated for the treatment of major depressive disorder (MOD).
Vortioxetine Tablets 5 mg, 10 mg, 15 mg, and 20 mg have an estimated market size of US$ 1249 million for twelve months ended September 2021, according to IQVIA. Alembic is currently in litigation with H.Lundbeck in Court of Appeals
for the Federal Circuit and launch of the product will depend on litigation outcome.
IndusInd Bank on Friday announced the closure of its first set of structured derivative transactions with its corporate clients in India after the Reserve Bank of India permitted complex derivative products, effective 3 January 2022.
The bank undertook Swaption and Forex Barrier Options trades with a large corporate client and a large diamond client. The hedges were for Forex and Interest Rate risk management by the clients.
Speaking about the development, Siddharth Banerjee, Head – Global Markets Group, IndusInd Bank said, “The RBI has revised the extant derivatives guidelines with the objective of promoting efficient access to derivatives while ensuring high standards of governance. This is a step in the right direction and will deepen Indian financial markets. Bank treasuries will play an active role in ensuring governance and in educating clients on the use for structured products as a risk management strategy. Going forward, we anticipate the demand for structured products to grow as clients start using structured derivatives".
IndusInd Bank has been a front runner in the derivatives space in India and was amongst the first 4 banks who undertook INR Swaptions in the institutional inter dealer market on August 17, 2021. It was also amongst the first set of banks who undertook Modified MIFOR trades in INR on December 20, 2021. The Bank has also undertaken Non Deliverable INR Forex Option hedges with its International corporate client base via its IFSC Banking Unit (IBU) located at the GIFT City SEZ.
India’s capital markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), has started a drive to recruit 120 senior executives as it beefs up headcount ahead of the initial share sale by Life Insurance Corp. of India, in what will be the nation’s biggest public issue.
Sebi will be recruiting experienced officials across legal, information technology, research, general and official language departments over the next four months, the regulator said in a recruitment notice on its website on Wednesday. Its overall headcount stands at about 850 now. The hirings follow Sebi processing a record number of applications for IPOs last year. Over 110 companies listed their shares in Mumbai and raised almost $18 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. In 2021, Indian stock exchanges ranked seventh in terms of number of IPOs and eighth in IPO proceeds globally, Sebi chairman Ajay Tyagi said recently
The Centre is close to finalizing the revised foreign direct investment (FDI) policy, which will facilitate the divestment of Life Insurance Corp. of India, Anurag Jain, secretary, department for promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT), said on Thursday.
The departments of divestment and financial services will decide on the percentage of foreign investment in LIC, before the changes are sent to the Union cabinet.
“The way our FDI policy reads as of now, it will cause a lot of issues for prospective investors, due to which it would be difficult to proceed with the disinvestment. We have had rounds of discussion and now we are all on the same page. So, we are in the process of drafting those changes in the FDI policy. Once we get cabinet approval, it will be known to all," he told reporters during a virtual press briefing. (Read here)
Oil prices edged up on Friday, heading for their biggest weekly gains since mid-December, fuelled by supply worries amid escalating unrest in Kazakhstan and outages in Libya.
Brent crude futures climbed 57 cents, or 0.7%, to $82.56 a barrel in Asian deals, after a 1.5% jump in the previous session. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 67 cents, or 0.84%, to $80.13 a barrel, extending a 2.1% gain in the previous session.
Brent and WTI were on track for a more than 6% gain in the first week of the year, with prices at their highest since late November, as supply concerns overtook worries that the rapid spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant might hurt demand.
Commercial banks in India have written off a whopping ₹9.54 trillion worth of bad loans in the last five years, of which more than ₹7 trillion was by public sector banks. The amount banks have written off is more than double the sum recovered during the period, according to a media report.
According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data, the amount recovered in the last five years through various channels such as lok adalats, debt recovery tribunals, the SARFAESI Act, and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) was ₹4.14 trillion.
Gold steadied on Friday, ahead of U.S. jobs data due later in the day, although the metal was set for its biggest weekly drop since late-November, weighed by firmer bond yields as traders braced for sooner rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.
Spot gold was up 0.1% at $1,790.90 per ounce after two straight sessions of falls, cutting its weekly fall to about 2%. U.S. gold futures were up 0.2% to $1,792.60.
Tata group firm Titan Company on Thursday said it has witnessed "strong demand" across its consumer businesses and clocked 36% growth over the festive quarter last year.
The company reported "buoyancy" in jewellery demand driven by festive purchases in October and November which helped the division achieve a 37% growth for the quarter, Titan said in its quarterly update for Q3/FY 22.
While ticket sizes in the jewellery segment were "stable" and 15 per cent higher than pre-pandemic levels. The contribution from tier-1 towns continued to improve and was close to pre-pandemic levels, it added.
Bharti Airtel’s African arm has completed the first part of its $176 million telecom tower sale deal in Tanzania. The sale is part of its overall deleveraging strategy, which netted over $800 million through fund raise and asset sales in 2021.
Airtel Africa’s tower assets in Tanzania have been acquired by a joint venture company owned by SBA Communications Corporation and Paradigm Infrastructure Ltd.
Under the terms of the transaction, Airtel’s business unit in Tanzania will continue to develop, maintain and operate its equipment on the towers under separate lease agreements.
The central government has approached the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), seeking relaxation in promoter shareholding cap for the new buyer of IDBI Bank. The Centre has sought relaxing the 26% cap for new promoters of IDBI Bank, as it looks to initiate a strategic divestment of the lender, according to a media report.
The RBI is considering the Centre’s proposal, as the government plans to come up with an expression of interest (EoI) and preliminary information memorandum for the bank's sale.
Despite opening down with a gap, the index was quick to bounce from the lows. Until we do not break 17200, the short term trend of the market is positive. Intra day corrections can be utilized to accumulate long positions for a target of 18050-18100. A closing below 17200 would be the stop.
Tata group firm Titan said it has witnessed "strong demand" across its consumer businesses and clocked 36% growth over the festive quarter last year.
The company has witnessed a "buoyancy" in jewellery demand driven by festive purchases in October and November which helped the division achieve a 37 per cent growth for the quarter, Titan said in its Quarterly Update for Q3/FY 22.
While ticket sizes in the jewellery segment were "stable" and 15 per cent higher than pre-pandemic levels. The contribution from tier-1 towns continued to improve and was close to pre-pandemic levels, it added.
Distributor federations said Thursday they have suspended their movement against oral-care maker Colgate-Palmolive, ending a long-standing conflict over pricing parity between trade channels.
“The movement against Colgate NSE -0.63 % is postponed till further notice; company executives have assured us they will take decisions on how to protect interests of distributors," Prasad Zanwar, media convenor at All India Consumer Products Distribution Federation (AICPDF) said.
Colgate-Palmolive had said late Wednesday it met with distributor federations to address concerns regarding pricing parity between traditional distributors and organised business-to-business platforms.
Two domestic ratings firms on Thursday cut their projections on India's fiscal 2022 economic growth to 8.5-9.3% from 9.4-10% estimated earlier, citing a possible impact of the third wave of Covid-19 led by a more infectious Omicron variant, according to a media report.
Brickwork Ratings revised its estimate on India's GDP to 8.5-9% from 10%, while India Ratings & Research cut its forecast to 9.3% from 9.4%.
Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd (BPCL) plans to spend ₹25,000 crore to build a renewable energy capacity of 10 gigawatts (GW) comprising a mix of solar, wind, small hydro and biomass, a senior company official said on Thursday.
“We have aspiration to reach 1 gigawatt of renewable energy in the short term (by 2025) and a 10 gigawatt portfolio, say, by 2040 or earlier," Amit Garg, executive director, renewable energy, BPCL said.
The capacity being built in the short term would be to meet the state-run company’s captive demand, primarily from refineries and a proposed petrochemicals unit. BPCL could also sign power purchase agreements with buyers, the company said.
BPCL’s planned renewable energy portfolio would comprise solar (800 MW), wind (100 MW), small hydro (60 MW), and biomass (40 MW). Hydrogen could also be included in the portfolio at a later stage. (Read here)
Shares of RIL, BPCL, Dish TV, Yes Bank, HDFC Life, banks, among others, will be in focus today.
Indian shares snapped a four-day rally on Thursday, joining other equity markets in the Asia-Pacific in a sell-off, after the minutes of a meeting of the US Federal Reserve hinted at a faster-than-expected rise in interest rates owing to concerns about persistent inflation. It marked the first decline of Indian equities in 2022. Growing concerns over rising covid cases in India, leading to partial restrictions on mobility, has also weighed on investor sentiment.
The BSE Sensex fell 621.31 points, or 1.03%, ending at 59,601.84. The Nifty slipped 179.35 points, or 1%, to 17,745.90.
Both Asian and European markets fell after Wall Street’s tech-heavy Nasdaq plunged more than 3% on Wednesday and 2- and 5-year treasury yields, key drivers of the global borrowing costs, surged to post-pandemic highs. Japan’s Nikkei declined 2.88%, while South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.13%.
U.S. futures edged higher and Asian stocks were mixed Friday as investor focus turned to upcoming data from the American labor market. Treasuries steadied after declining all week.
Shares climbed in Hong Kong and South Korea but slipped in Japan. S&P 500 futures saw modest gains. The U.S. benchmark closed little changed after attempting to rebound from a near 2% drop Wednesday sparked by Federal Reserve meeting minutes that suggested the central bank is ready to raise rates sooner and higher than previously expected. Ten-year Treasury yields dipped to 1.71%, still set for their biggest weekly jump since 2020.
Comments by regional Fed presidents provided some additional insight Thursday as traders attempted to predict a possible schedule for tightening. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, a more hawkish policy maker, said in a speech the central bank could raise its target interest rate as soon as March. Meanwhile, San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly said at a virtual event that trimming the Fed balance sheet would come after normalizing the Fed funds rate.
S&P 500 futures rose 0.2%.
Japan’s Topix Index fell 0.6%, S&P/ASX 200 climbed 1.2%, Korea’s Kospi Index rose 1%, Hang Seng Index rose 0.6% and the CSI 300 Index rose 0.4%.
Overnight, Wall Street stocks finished modestly lower after a choppy session as markets digested mixed economic data and amid concerns over tightening Federal Reserve monetary policy.
After Wednesday's rout, stocks attempted to rally during the session, but bargain hunting efforts were not sustained.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 0.5% at 36,236.47. The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.1% to end 4,696.05, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index also declined 0.1% to 15,080.86.
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