NIFTY CLOSES ALMOST 100 POINTS HIGHER

  • Despite a weakening rupee and rising oil prices in the Brent market, the Nifty gained almost 100 points. There was a mix of short covering and selective buying in the markets on Monday.
  • The way the markets react to ICICI Bank results will determine the direction of the markets on Tuesday. The bank’s profits halved and Gross NPAs shot up by 100 bps to 8.84%. But market may bet on the bottoming of the NPA cycle.
  • FIIs were net sellers to the tune of Rs.(-635) crores while DFIs bought Rs.1037 crore on Monday. Domestic funds have been seeing a tide of inflows and that has been holding up markets. FPIs have been on caution mode.
  • There were positive sentiments across the US, Europe and most of Asia on Monday. The SGX Nifty is already trading in positive territory and the Asian cues may be the key to the markets today.
  • The spectre of farm loan waivers in Karnataka may bad news for companies like Ujjivan which have a large MFI and last mile exposure to the state of Karnataka. However, the total write off is just about Rs.8000 crore and may not be too bad.
  • DLF could be the dark horse in the market with its plans to get debt free by late this year. The sale of stake to GIC and the turnaround in its residential realty business should also b e positives. Target Rs.300 on the stock in 1 quarter.
  • L&T could be the next big pick of the year after its sale of its E&A business to Schneider and a much bigger potential for its hydrocarbon infrastructure business. We expect the stock to veer towards the Rs.2000 mark during the year.
  • The markets would predicate on ICICI results and the way the markets perceive and react to the same.