NIFTY (3679) SUP 3643 RES 3719
BUY NAGARCONST (160.5)
SL 155 T 169, 171
BUY INFOTECENT (380)
SL 375 T 390, 392
BUY NICHOLASPIR (249)
SL 244 T 258, 261
SELL HINDALC0 (128.5)
@ 130 SL 133 T 122, 120
SELL BRFL (159.2)
@ 162 SL 166 T 151, 149
Bulls hope for an encore!
The most difficult part of attaining perfection is finding something to do for an encore.
Like the bulls, the men in blue, shrugged off their blues and launched a scathing attack. On record, wow. It's a world record. But come to think of it, they knocked up a stunning 413 against Bermuda, eventually winning by a record margin of 257 runs. The bulls on the other hand left the sun outage behind and emerged triumphant, though with lower volumes. There is no guarantee of an encore from either of them. For Rahul Dravid & Co. the next big hurdle is Sri Lanka, while for the bulls there are a few issues to be sorted out. The biggest among them is the lack of confidence and conviction as the rally didn't have the kind of punch that could have signaled some revival in sentiment.
Rallies in a weak market are often more of a trap. While the main indices could be rising, the broader market is clearly under-performing the big boys. That shows the fragility of the market and any fresh bad news might crack the market further. Having said that, for long-term investors this remains an ideal time for snapping up battered and bruised stocks. Today, we expect a healthy start but the key indexes could struggle to hold on to the gains by the end of the day. Cement stocks could see some revival in sentiment following reports of some tax benefits for adding new capacities. Here again, the devil is in the details so remain cautious.
Maruti is one stock to keep an eye on, as it has jacked up the price of its diesel Swift. Torrent Pharma is also likely to see some action as a financial daily reports that it is also in the race for buying the generic business of Germany's Merck. SAIL, BHEL, PNB, PFC and Unitech could gain amid reports that they have paid much higher advance tax for the October-December quarter compared to last year.
Diamond Cables's Board will meet on March 20, to consider acquisition of company / companies engaged in the business of manufacturing of Power Transformers.
FIIs were net sellers at Rs50mn (provisional) in the cash segment. In the F&O segment they pumped in Rs4.74bn. On Friday, they were net buyers to the tune of Rs185mn. Mutual Funds offloaded stocks worth Rs2.06bn on the same day.
US stocks rallied on Monday with the Dow Jones Industrial Average surging by over 100 points. The second-biggest gain of the year was helped by $17bn in M&As and expectations that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates on hold when it concludes its two-day meet on Wednesday.
However, options traders have started to bet that Fed policy makers will lower interest rates to counter the effects of falling real-estate prices and fuel more acquisitions as the year progresses.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 15.11 points, or 1.1%, to 1402.06 as all 10 of the benchmark's industry groups advanced. The Dow rose 115.76 points, or 1%, to 12,226.17. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 21.75 points, or 0.9%, to 2394.41.
US light crude oil for April delivery fell 52 cents to settle at $56.59 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Treasury prices slipped, raising the yield on the 10-year note to about 4.56% from 4.54% late on Friday. In currency trading, the dollar rose versus the euro and the yen. COMEX gold rose 40 cents to settle at $654.30 an ounce.
European shares started the week on a positive note. The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index rose 1.5% to 364.45. ABN Amro led the sector, rising 9.5% amid press speculation that it was in line for an 81bn-pound ($157bn) bid from Britain's Barclays.
The UK's FTSE 100 closed up 1% to 6,189.40, the German DAX Xetra 30 rose 1.4% to 6,671.41 and the French CAC-40 climbed 1.4% to 5,458.95.
Asian stocks climbed for a second day, led by Japanese exporters after the yen extended a slide against the dollar and euro.
The Morgan Stanley Capital International Asia-Pacific Index added 0.6% to 143.09 as of 10:46 a.m. in Tokyo. Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 1% to 17,180.27. New Zealand's key stock index was the only benchmark to decline among markets open for trading.
BHP Billiton and Mitsubishi Materials climbed after the price of copper reached a three-month high. Toyota and Honda led the advance among the exporters.
Latin American equities rose, following the lead of higher performances in stock markets worldwide and as Brazilian investors turned their attention to a $4bn merger deal involving Petrobras in the oil and gas sector.
Brazil's benchmark Bovespa index climbed 2.3% to finish at 43,712.55. Argentina's Merval rose 2.3% to 2,030.60 and Chile's IPSA gained 1.4% to close at 2,958.65. Mexican markets were closed for a national holiday in observance of former president Benito Juarez's birthday.