Weekly Big Picture : Metal and PSU Banking Stocks Lead the Gains; Ravneet Gill Joined as MD and CEO of Yes Bank

Market Pulse

Rally Attempt

Weekly Action

Benchmark indices closed positive for the second consecutive week. Nifty, +0.7%; Sensex, +0.5%; Nifty Midcap, +2.5%; Nifty Smallcap, +3.7%; Model Portfolio, +0.1%; and MSI Ind 47, +1.3%.

Weekly Market Review

India’s domestic market started the week on a positive note on account of heavy foreign and domestic fund inflows. IT and financial stocks led the Monday’s rally. Tuesday’s session was highly volatile due to geopolitical tensions after a surprise air strike by Indian Air Force on terror camps in Pakistan. The Nifty recovered from the day’s low toward the end and closed 0.4% lower.

The Nifty continued its bear run on Wednesday and closed 0.3% lower, and losses were mainly seen in media, IT, and banking stocks. Continuing its loss for the third consecutive day, the Nifty fell 0.1% on Thursday and failed in its attempt to retake the 200-DMA. India’s GDP growth for the December quarter slowed down to 6.6%, a five-quarter low. This led to revised GDP estimates of 7% for FY 2019 compared to 7.2% pegged earlier.

However, the market opened higher on Friday and halted a three-day decline led by a rally in banking, media, and metal stocks. The gains were even stronger in the broader market as the Nifty Midcap and Smallcap closed 1.4% and 2.7% higher.

On the sectoral front, the Nifty Media (+6.3%) was the top gainer for the week followed by Nifty Metal (+2.8%), Pharma (+2.3%), and PSU Banks (+2.0%). The Nifty Metal posted gains for the second consecutive week amid rising metal prices in the global market.

The market status remained unchanged. After we moved the status to a Rally Attempt, the market failed to give a follow-through day. We will look for a legitimate follow-through day on the Nifty before we upgrade the market to a Confirmed Uptrend. However, we will downgrade the status to a Downtrend if the Nifty breaches 10,583.6 level.

Following events scheduled post market hours can move the market next week:

●     March 5: Nikkei Services PMI (Feb)

●     March 8: FX Reserves

Stocks in News

Yes Bank: The stock ended 2.8% higher today. Ravneet Gill has taken charge as its MD and CEO with immediate effect for a tenure of three years.

Ashok Leyland: The Company reported 0.4% growth in its February sales numbers. It sold 18,245 units in February driven by its light commercial vehicle (LCV) segment. LCV sales increased 11% to 4,594 units. The stock ended 0.1% higher today.

Leaders Up on Volume: N R B Bearings (+11.0%), Aavas Financiers (+7.0%), and Dcb Bank (+6.0%)

Leaders Down on Volume: Vinati Organics (-4.8%), Capri Global Capital (-3.1%), and Aurobindo Pharma (-0.9%)

What do you think? Please email us any questions or comments.

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