Careers, like rockets, don't always take off on time. The trick is to always keep the engine running - Gary Sinise.
Be it careers, market or rockets, the trick remains the same. The first Indian rocket to be powered by a totally indigenous cryogenic engine will blast off today. Hopefully, it will be mark another major milestone for ISRO and India. Talking of milestones, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq crossed 1200 and 2500, respectively. US shares had their best performance in nearly six weeks after Intel and JP Morgan outperformed.
The domestic market engine is set to chug along well, powered by global cues. The positive undertone on Wall Street also rubbed off on Europe. Asian markets are mostly up. Markets in Shanghai are up marginally despite China clocking a better-than-anticipated 11.9% GDP growth in Q1. May be, investors fear a fresh monetary tightening response from the Chinese central bank!
Another hike in CRR and short-term rates is also on the cards by the RBI later this month. Inflation for March will be out today and is most likely to have crossed 10%. This may lead to a temporary blip in sentiment but on the whole things should be fine.
FIIs were net buyers of Rs1.28bn on Tuesday on a provisional basis. Local funds were also net buyers at Rs2.53bn, according to figures published on the NSE's web site. In the F&O segment, the foreign funds were net buyers of Rs1.86bn. On Monday, FIIs were net buyers of Rs2.44bn in the cash segment, as per the SEBI web site.
Investor sentiment in India continues to be the highest amongst the pan-Asia (ex-Japan) markets, according to survey from ING. Climbing further in the ‘very optimistic’ zone, the India Investor Sentiment Index rose to 174 in Q1 2010 from 169 in Q4 2009.
Results Today: Castrol India, CMC and Sanwaria Agro.
Crude oil futures in New York are trading above $86 per barrel following an unexpected decrease in US inventories. In fact, the entire commodity space rallied across the board on a weaker dollar and rising stocks.
The US economy will continue to recover at a moderate pace in coming quarters, bolstered by a return of business and consumer spending, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke told lawmakers. Overall economic activity in the US has increased since mid-March, according to the latest Beige Book survey by the Fed.
US stocks advanced on Wednesday, as investors welcomed quarterly results from JPMorgan Chase and Intel. An encouraging report on retail sales also bolstered the sentiment.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 104 points, or 0.9%, to end at 11,123.11, the highest level since September 2008. Financial and tech shares led the advance.
The S&P 500 index gained 13 points, or 1.1%, to close at 1,210.65, marking the first time the index has closed above the 1,200 mark in almost 19 months.
The Nasdaq added 39 points, or 1.6%, to end at 2,504.86. It was the first time since June 2008 that the index has ended above 2,500.
The dollar fell against its major rivals: the euro, pound and yen.
Oil prices snapped a 5-day losing streak, settling up $1.79 to $85.84 a barrel. The government's weekly report on U.S. crude inventories showed oil supplies fell by 2.2 million barrels last week.
COMEX gold for June delivery settled up $6.20 to $1,159.60 an ounce.
Prices for US Treasurys fell, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year note rising to 3.83%.
Year-to-date, the Dow is up 6.7%, the S&P has gained 8.6% and the Nasdaq has soared 10.4% as of Wednesday's close. The S&P is up 77% from its March 9, 2009 low. However, the index remains 23.5% below the record high set Oct. 9, 2007.
The blue-chip Dow and Nasdaq touched fresh 18-month highs on Tuesday after slight gains.
JPMorgan Chase reported a $3.3 billion profit for the first quarter, though the bank continued to suffer losses in its consumer loan portfolio.
The New York City-based bank said it earned 74 cents a share during the quarter, up 55% from a year earlier. Analysts were expecting earnings of 64 cents a share. Shares of JPMorgan ended more than 4% higher.
After US markets closed on Tuesday, chipmaker Intel reported earnings and revenue that topped Wall Street's estimates. Shares closed 3.3% higher on Wednesday.
The government's monthly retail sales report and a report on consumer inflation were released before the market opened.
Retail sales jumped 1.6% in March, beating estimates from economists. Sales excluding autos rose 0.6%, also topping predictions.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI), a measure of consumer inflation, rose 0.1% in March, in line with predictions. Core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, was unchanged. Economists had forecast a 0.1% jump.
A separate report showed business inventories rose 0.5% in March, slightly higher than the 0.4% jump that was forecast.
Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke testified before a joint session of Congress on the economic outlook, saying private-sector demand will be sufficient to spur moderate recovery in coming months, but more time is needed to recover job losses.
Separately, the Fed released its Beige Book report, which said economic activity expanded "somewhat" in 11 of the central bank's 12 districts.
European shares closed higher, led by gains in the technology and banking sectors following strong earnings from Intel and JP Morgan Chase.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index rose 1.75 points, or 0.7% to finish at 270.44, its first gain of the week.
The UK FTSE 100 index was up 0.6% at 5,796.25, the German DAX index settled 0.8% higher at 6,278.40 and the French CAC-40 index rose 0.6% to close at 4,057.70.
The Indian market extended losses into the second straight trading session on Tuesday as global markets turned jittery and investors chose to remain cautious ahead of the earnings deluge. The BSE Sensex has lost over 100 points and the NSE Nifty nearly 40 points in two days. "IT bellwether Infosys came out with Q4 results and guidance that beat street estimates, but failed to bring any cheer to the broader market", says Amar Ambani VP Research IIFL.
The stock didn’t react much in opening trades but as the day progressed, it managed to stage a smart come back. Other IT heavyweights like Wipro, TCS and HCL Tech too did well in anticipation of strong earnings. Finally, the BSE Sensex slipped 31 points to end at 17,822 and NSE Nifty lost 17 points to close at 5,323. Among the 30 components of Sensex, 20 ended in the negative terrain and 10 were in the green.
Markets in Asia also ended in the red; the Nikkei in Japan lost 0.8%, Australia's S&P/ASX edged lower by 0.7%. Shanghai SE Composite ended lower by 0.5% and Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was down 0.2%.
European indices also were in the red, the DAX in Germany was down 0.4, the CAC 40 index in France was down 0.3and the FTSE in the UK was down 0.4%.
Coming back to India, among the BSE sectoral indices, the BSE Auto index was top loser, the index lost 1.3%, followed by BSE Banking index down 0.9% and Oil & Gas index down 0.6%.
Among the top gainers were, BSE IT index up 3% and BSE Teck index up 2%.
Outside the frontline indices, the big losers in the broader market were P&G, IDFC, India Cement and Jai Corp. On the other hand, gainers included Balrampur Chini, HCL Tech, Rolta and REI Agro.
Shares of Infosys ended surged 3.7% to end at Rs2782 after the company beat street estimates reporting a consolidated net profit after tax of Rs16.17bn for the fiscal fourth quarter ended March 31, 2010 as against Rs15.82bn reported in the third quarter. This translates into a sequential quarter-on-quarter growth of 2.2%.
Shares of SAIL slipped by 3% to end at Rs229 after reports stated that the company may sell shares at 5% less than the market price to small investors and employees, Steel secretary Atul Chaturvedi was quoted as saying. The scrip opened at Rs236 it touched an intra-day high of Rs236 and a low of Rs228 and recorded volumes of over 1.3mn shares on BSE.
Shares of Rolta gained by 3% to end at Rs197 after the company announced the acquisition of OneGIS, Inc. It is an exceptional consulting, development and system integration firm with an excellent track record of implementing geospatial and IT solutions.
Subhash Projects & Marketing announced that it has received two awards for Ex-Works Supply and Service Contract towards entrusting the work of 'Substation Package-A for 132 KV (New / Extn) Substations for transmission System associated with Consultancy services to Orissa Power Transmission Corporporation Limited' from Power Grid Corporation of India Limited, New Delhi for an amount aggregating to Rs631.9mn.
Shares of Subhash Project gained by 1% to end at Rs154. The scrip opened at Rs151 it touched an intra-day high of Rs155 and a low of Rs150 and recorded volumes of over 61,000 shares on BSE.
Shares of Shiva Fertilizers were locked at 10% upper circuit at Rs53.90 after the board of directors announced that they will meet on April 19, 2010, to consider and discuss to raise funds by way of Preferential Issue of Shares, Right Issue, QIP Placement, Issue of warrant. The scrip opened at Rs53.9 it touched an intra-day high of Rs53.9 and a low of Rs53.9 and has recorded volumes of over 5,000 shares on BSE.
Shares of Rana Sugars further gained by 4.4% to end at Rs13.60 after the company reported a profit of Rs309.3mn in the second quarter, compared with a loss of Rs37.1mn a year earlier. The scrip opened at Rs13.2 it touched an intra-day high of Rs13.99and a low of Rs13.20 and recorded volumes of over 1.9mn shares on BSE.