Market LIVE: Sensex up 100 pts, Nifty above 17,300; Paytm rises 1%

Share market LIVE updates: Indian equities opened higher on Wednesday, tracking global cues. At 10am, Sensex was up 172.16 pts at 58,161.46, Nifty rose 51.75 pts at 17,367.25. Asian markets were up on optimism that US Fed's plan to hike interest rates will help bring inflation under control

Bonds are taking the brunt of central-bank calls for tougher action to curb inflation, which has risen to 40-year highs as the war on Ukraine spurs commodity prices. Equity markets appear to be responding to that message, and some investors are leaning into stocks as an inflation hedge.

Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund pauses SIPs in three international schemes

Motilal Oswal Asset Management Co. Ltd on Tuesday said it has temporarily stopped existing investments including, systematic investment plan (SIP) and systematic transfer plan (STP), into its S&P 500 Index Fund, MSCI EAFE Top 100 Select Index Fund and Nasdaq 100 Fund of Fund from 1 April 2022.

The asset management company has taken the decision on account of limitation on industry-wise overseas investment exposure.

Apple services including App Store resume after outage for second straight day

Apple Inc's Apple Music, mobile App Store and Podcasts resumed services on Tuesday, after facing outages for a second consecutive day, according to the company's system status page.

Tuesday's outage also affected Mac App Store, users of Apple Card, Apple Books, iCloud Web Apps and Weather. The outage on Monday affected 11 of Apple's services, including Arcade and Maps.

It was not immediately clear what caused the outages on both days, but Bloomberg News reported on Monday that Apple told staff that the outage stemmed from domain name system, or DNS - an address book of the internet which enables computers to match website addresses with the correct server.

Paytm stock rises; company says business fundamentals remain positive 

One97 Communications Ltd., parent of Paytm, on Wednesday said there was no information to be disclosed which may have a bearing on the price/volume of shares of the company. It added that business fundamentals remain robust. 

BSE had sought clarification from One 97 Communications Ltd. on the steep fall in the company’s shares. On Tuesday, Paytm shares fell 3.8% to ₹543.90 on BSE. They are now down 75% from the issue price of ₹2,150 apiece.

Nifty view: Sameet Chavan, Chief Analyst-Technical and Derivatives, Angel One

For today's session, 17350 followed by 17500 are the levels to watch out for; whereas, on the flip side, 17150 – 17000 are to be considered as intraday supports. On Tuesday, market breadth was extremely positive in the latter half and the broader market did extremely well along with some heavyweights. Hence, traders are advised to remain sanguine and focus on individual stocks in order to identify better trading opportunities.

Novavax says its COVID vaccine gets India authorisation for teens

Novavax Inc said on Tuesday its COVID-19 vaccine has got emergency-use authorization from the Drugs Controller General of India for children aged 12 to 17 years.

The authorisation is a global first for the age group for the vaccine, which is manufactured and marketed in India by the Serum Institute of India under the brand name Covovax.

Demand, inflation woes still haunt HUL stock

Hindustan Unilever Ltd’s (HUL’s) investors are nervous. The relentless rise in costs for fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies has come at a time when demand environment is sombre. Some companies are likely to be more hurt than others, and HUL’s relatively high exposure to raw materials such as palm oil, and crude oil and its derivatives makes it more vulnerable given the surge in prices following the war in Ukraine.

These concerns are reflected in the stock’s performance. HUL’s shares have declined 16% so far in CY22 vis-à-vis a 4% drop in the Nifty FMCG index. The stock is now trading at 40 times estimated FY24 earnings, according to Bloomberg data. Valuations have corrected meaningfully but the scope for significant near-term upsides appears capped.

Hike in fuel, LPG prices sparks inflation worries

State-run fuel retailers raised petrol and diesel prices by 80 paise per litre on Tuesday, the first increase since daily revisions were paused on 4 November before crucial assembly elections. Executives of the fuel retailers said more such hikes are likely as Brent crude prices have surged more than 40% since November.

In the national capital, diesel and petrol were sold at ₹87.47 per litre and ₹96.21 per litre, respectively, on Tuesday. The retailers also raised the prices of non-subsidized cooking gas cylinders by ₹50 after a gap of over five months. This is the first hike since 6 October last year.

Nifty view: Nagaraj Shetti, Technical Research Analyst at HDFC Securities said

Nifty bounced back sharply after a small downward correction. The overall chart pattern indicate next upside of around 17,500 for NSE Nifty in the short term and one may expect further upside targets of around 17,800 to 18,000 levels in the near term.

Market view: Sameet Chavan, Chief Analyst-Technical and Derivatives, Angel One

Similar to Monday’s session, we had a soft opening on Tuesday as indicated by the SGX Nifty. In the initial hours, the weakness extended as we witnessed some decent correction in the financial space. As a result, Nifty gradually approached its psychological level of 17000 in the first half. However, all of a sudden the buying re-emerged from nowhere and within a blink of an eye, markets were off significantly from day’s low. The buying momentum accelerated towards the fag end to not only erased all losses but also to close above 17300 with more than a percent gains.

During the first half of Tuesday, we witnessed extension of Monday's profit booking mode but as we approached the sacrosanct support of 17000 – 16900, the bulls got activated all of a sudden. Since there was no unfavorable trigger on the domestic as well as global front, the bulls grabbed this opportunity with both hands. Initially, Reliance and IT pack was providing some helping hand and banking was sulking; but the moment market reversed, the banks came back in the driver’s seat to lift the overall sentiments of the market participants. With reference to our previous commentary, we were pretty clear that this is just a profit booking phase and the buying is likely to attract around 17000 – 16900. Markets perfectly moved as per the script and has now closed at an interesting juncture. For the coming session, 17350 followed by 17500 are the levels to watch out for; whereas on the flipside, 17150 – 17000 are to be considered as intraday supports.

On Tuesday, market breadth was extremely positive in the latter half and broader market did extremely well along with some heavyweights. Hence, traders are advised to remain sanguine and focus on individual stocks in order to identify better trading opportunities.

Petrol, diesel prices raised by 80 paise/litre each

Oil marketing companies raised pump prices of petrol and diesel prices for the second consecutive day on Wednesday by 80 paise a litre each.

Petrol in Delhi will now cost ₹97.01 per litre as against ₹96.21 earlier, while diesel will sell for ₹88.27, up from ₹87.47.

A record 137-day hiatus in rate revision ended on 22 Marchwith an 80 paise per litre increase in rates. Prices had been on a freeze since 4 November ahead of the assembly elections in states like Uttar Pradesh and Punjab - a period during which the cost of crude oil soared by $30 per barrel. 

Oil prices resume climb after U.S. stockpiles drop in tight market

Oil prices turned higher on Wednesday, erasing losses from the previous session, after industry data showed U.S. crude stocks fell last week, underlining how tight global supplies are amid the hit to Russian output from economic sanctions on Moscow.

Brent crude futures climbed $1.06, or 0.9%, to $116.54 a barrel, after falling 14 cents in the previous session.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 87 cents, or 0.8%, to $110.14 a barrel, after losing 36 cents on Tuesday.

SGX Nifty futures trade higher

Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange traded 69 points higher at 17,441, hinting at a higher start for Indian benchmarks.

SGX Nifty up; Asian share markets rise tracking US stocks

Asian equity markets gained on Wednesday as investors expanded their search for hedges as bonds extended steep losses on the Federal Reserve’s strengthened resolve to clamp down on inflation.

An MSCI Inc. gauge of Asia Pacific shares rose for a second day, led by Japan. U.S. contracts fluctuated after the S&P 500 advanced for the fifth session in six. The index has now recovered halfway from the rout that started in January. Treasuries added to losses triggered Monday by signals from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell that a half-point interest-rate hike is possible at the central bank’s next meeting.

S&P 500 futures were steady and Nasdaq 100 futures were little changed. 

Topix index added 1.9%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index gained 0.4%, Kospi index added 0.7%, Hang Seng Index rose 0.5%, and Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.2%

US stocks ended higher on Tuesday, led by a 2% gain in the Nasdaq, as shares of technology and other big growth names rebounded from recent losses and Nike rose after it reported upbeat results. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 254.47 points, or 0.74%, to 34,807.46, the S&P 500 gained 50.43 points, or 1.13%, to 4,511.61 and the Nasdaq Composite added 270.36 points, or 1.95%, to 14,108.82.

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