Benchmarks likely to make gap-down start amid feeble global cues

Indian markets snapped three sessions of gains and ended lower on Thursday, dragged by losses in metal, financial stocks amid weak global cues as bond yields rose again. Today, markets are likely to make gap-down opening for the second straight session amid feeble global cues as rising US Treasury yields again rattled equity investors. Besides, a jump in crude oil prices may add to the selling pressure. Traders will be concerned as India’s tally of coronavirus cases has risen to 11,173,572, with a daily increase of 16,824 in total cases. Death toll has reached 157,584, with 113 fatalities in a day. India's count of active cases has jumped to 177,967. The country continues to be second-most-affected globally, and ranks 13th among worst-hit nations by active cases. Maharashtra, the most affected state overall, has reported 9,000 new cases. The state has added nearly 80,000 cases in the past 10 days. However, some respite may come later in the day with the government data showing that foreign direct investment (FDI) in India grew 40 percent to $51.47 billion during April-December 2020-21. India has attracted 22 percent higher FDI inflow (including re-invested earnings) of $67.54 billion during the first nine months of the current fiscal as against $55.14 billion in the same period of 2019-20. Some support may also come as the Reserve Bank decided to conduct simultaneous purchase and sale of government securities under OMO, on a review of current liquidity and financial conditions. This will be conducted for an aggregate amount of Rs 20,000 crore under purchase and Rs 15,000 crore under sale on March 10, 2021. Traders may take note of report that Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar hgas said the government is promoting the agriculture sector through reforms in the laws which seeks to bring revolutionary changes. Meanwhile, the Central Board of Trustees (CBT) Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has recommended 8.5 percent annual rate of interest to member accounts for 2020-21. NBFCs, HFCs stocks will be in focus with India Ratings’ report that after a growth moderation in FY21, Non-Bank Finance Companies (NBFCs) are estimated to witness a 9.5 per cent jump in their assets under management in FY22. Housing Finance Companies (HFCs) will post a higher growth at 10 per cent as home sales go up, and maintained its stable outlook on both NBFCs and HFCs for FY22. Besides, agrichemicals manufacturer Heranba Industries is scheduled to list on stock exchanges today. The Rs 625-crore IPO was subscribed 83.29 times during the three-day bidding process. The issue was sold in the range of Rs 626-627 per share.

The US markets ended significantly lower on Thursday amid a rout in tech stocks and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s remarks on rising bond yields. Asian markets are trading in the deep sea of red on Friday primarily due to the sell-off in technology stocks and surge in bond yields overseas.

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks snapped their three-day winning streak and ended lower by over a percent each on Thursday, as another spike in bond yields weighed on the overall global market sentiment. The benchmarks staged a gap down opening, as India’s tally of coronavirus cases has risen to 11,156,748, with a daily increase of 15,000 in total cases. Death toll has reached 157,471, with 110 fatalities in a day. India's count of active cases has jumped to 175,044. The country continues to be second-most-affected globally, and ranks 13th among worst-hit nations by active cases. But markets recovered partially from lower levels in afternoon trading, as traders took some solace with Fitch Solutions’ statement that household spending in India is likely to grow by a real rate of 7.9 percent year-on-year in 2021, marking an improvement from the negative 14 percent contraction in 2020. Some support also came as the income tax department said it has issued over Rs 1.98 lakh crore worth refunds to over 1.95 crore taxpayers so far this fiscal. Of this, personal income tax refunds of Rs 70,572 crore have been issued to over 1.92 crore taxpayers, and corporate tax refunds of Rs 1.27 lakh crore have been issued in 2.19 lakh cases. However, markets failed to hold recovery and settled with heavy losses due to heavy selling in metal, banking, energy and telecom stocks. Market participants took a note of Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that the need of the hour is to reduce logistics cost in the country as India cannot be competitive if this cost remains high. He said the investments in the Sagarmala project will boost the country's maritime infrastructure, expand freight corridors, make freight more cost-effective and bring down the current logistics cost, which is estimated to be about 13-14 percent. Meanwhile, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has asked stock exchanges, clearing corporations and depositories to put in place code of conduct and institutional mechanism to prevent fraud or market abuse by them and their designated persons. Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 598.57 points or 1.16% to 50,846.08, while the CNX Nifty was down by 164.85 points or 1.08% to 15,080.75.