Nifty ends rangebound session in red ahead of FO expiry, Q2 GDP data, OPEC meet
It was a dull session for the market on Wednesday as the Nifty ended in the red amid rangebound trade ahead of expiry of November futures & options contracts. Investors are now awaiting second quarter GDP data and the outcome of OPEC meeting, both due on Thursday.
The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 15.83 points at 33,602.76 and the 50-share NSE Nifty slipped 9 points to 10,361.30 as a missile launch by North Korea weighed on investor sentiment.
“While the underlying sentiments remain positive, some consolidation cannot be ruled out after the recent smart upmove,” Jayant Manglik, President of Retail Sales at Religare Securities, said while advising investors to accumulate fundamentally sound stocks on dips.
Being F&O expiry day, volatility will continue to remain high on Thursday, he feels.
He said that RBI Monetary Policy, macro data (Q2FY18 GDP numbers) and global developments will be tracked keenly by market participants.
Broader market indices also performed broadly in line with the benchmark. The Nifty Midcap index lost 0.3 percent. About 844 shares declined against 697 advancing shares on the NSE.
The sectoral indices showed mixed performance with Nifty Auto, FMCG, Pharma and Realty indices being the gainers, whereas Bank, IT and Metal were among the losers.
Meanwhile, the July-September quarter GDP data is the most important event to watch out for as experts want to see the impact of GST implementation (from July 1) on economy during the quarter. It will become base for analysts to make estimates for second half of FY18 and FY19.
Global financial services major Morgan Stanley in its latest report said the country’s GDP growth will accelerate to 7.5 percent in the next financial year.
Six ministers from OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers including Saudi Arabia and Russia will gather in Vienna on Wednesday – one day ahead of a full OPEC meeting – to review recommendations by their delegates. CNBC reports indicated that the current deal between OPEC and non-OPEC producers including Russia, which is set to expire in March, is widely expected to be extended until the end of 2018.
Wipro gained 1.3 percent as its buyback worth Rs 11,000 crore opened on Wednesday.
Coal India rose 0.7 percent. Global research house Macquarie upgraded the stock to outperform from neutral and hiked price target to Rs 310 from Rs 280 per share. Supply tightness makes risk-reward favourable, it said.
Siemens fell 1.4 percent. Deutsche Bank retained sell call on the stock and slashed target price to Rs 1,030 from Rs 1,100 per share. FY17 orders are strong, but outlook is still concerning, it feels.
Dr Reddy’s Labs was down 0.6 percent as the firm has been served a securities class action lawsuit in the US for alleged violations of federal securities laws.
HDFC, Axis Bank, Vedanta, TCS, SBI and Asian Paints among others were down 1-2 percent whereas HDFC Bank, IOC, Bharti Infratel, ICICI Bank, L&T, Reliance Industries and ITC gained 0.3-1.7 percent.
Kakatiya Cement rallied 8 percent as its second quarter profit jumped over four-fold YoY to Rs 8.2 crore on strong operational performance. Jet Airways gained 1.9 percent as the company and Air France-KLM signed an enhanced cooperation agreement.
Power Mech Projects gained 6 percent on bagging orders worth Rs 357 crore under ‘Make In India’ scheme. Parsvnath Developers rose 5 percent on winning arbitration claim of Rs 1,034 crore.
On the global front, Asian markets ended mixed as investors shrugged off the latest missile launch by North Korea. European stocks were mixed at the time of writing this article.
