Thursday, 2 March 2017

Nifty Plunged By More Than 100 Points From The Day High Amid A Wave Of Selling/Long Unwinding Following Abrupt Fall In Indian G-SEC Bond Yield By 1.28%



Market Wrap: 02/03/2017 (19:00)


Bond Market May Be Discounting No Rate Cut In FY-18 Amid “Excellent” GDP Coupled With A Hawkish RBI, Which May Also Talk About Rate Hikes In The Coming Months

Time & Price action suggests that, Nifty Fut (March @8912) has to sustain over 8995 area for further rally towards 9035-9075* & 9125-9195 in the short term (under bullish case scenario).

On the other side, sustaining below 8975 zone, NF may fall towards 8935-8875* & 8840-8790 area in the near term (under bear case scenario).

Similarly, BNF (LTP: 20623) has to sustain over 20950 area for further rally towards 21050-21150* & 21350-21500 area in the near term (under bullish case scenario).

On the other side, sustaining below 20900 area, BNF may fall towards 20750-20500 & 20400*-20250 zone in the near term (under bear case scenario).

Nifty Fut (March) today closed around 8912 (-64 points), down by 0.71% after a dramatic fall from the opening session day high of 9018 to a closing session low of 8898. Indian market today opened in a positive tone following another overnight rally & another record high of US market, which is a “new normal” now-a-days, especially after “Trumpism”. But after breaching the big hurdle zone of 9000, NF could not sustain the fresh 6 months high as suddenly a selling wave creeps in.

Technically, it may be a combination of long unwinding (profit booking) & fresh shorting by smart money as market has rallied quite relentlessly by more than 1100 points (+14%) in the last few months after DeMo led Dec’16 low and also extremely overbought; but market might also noted that after sudden change of RBI stance from being always accommodative to neutral in Feb’17 and subsequent upper trajectory of core inflation and upbeat Q3FY17 GDP number (7%) despite DeMo blues, Indian G-SEC bond yields are finally moving down quite sharply.

Fall of 10Y G-SEC bond yield may also indicate that the bond market is not expecting a RBI rate cut in the near term (FY-18) as Indian GDP is “galloping” quite smartly despite all the DeMo concerns. Certainly, an economy, which is projected to grow around 7.5-8% year on year, does not need further incremental rate cuts, where core inflation trajectory is still higher at around 5%. Thus, a combination of hawkish RBI, hawkish Fed and “brighter” outlook of Indian economy may have made the bond market to convince that RBI will not cut further in FY-18. As bond yield & EQ market move conversely, investors may be booking some profits at around record high of index level and smart money may also be flowing from expensive risky EQ to the safety of bonds (G-SEC).

A falling bond yield; i.e. higher bond prices may be good for Bank’s bond trading portfolio as almost 20.5% of net NDTL (deposits) has to be parked in G-SECS to maintain required SLR, but it may be overall bad for EQ markets. An incremental G-SEC inflow may be also good for the Govt to fund its fiscal deficit borrowings.

Although, incremental flow by FPIS into the bond as well as the EQ market may be supporting the INR at this stage despite an unusual hawkish Fed and a looming threat of a March rate hike, USDINR may also get strength in the coming days on the back of attraction of better real bond yields in US coupled with a stronger USD/hawkish Fed and attraction of Trumponomics (if implemented as par plan!!). Incidentally, Govt has already breached the fiscal deficit target in Jan’17 (105.7%); although that may be covered in Feb-March’17 on the back of increased tax revenues, Govt may also not be in a position for any incremental capex during this period due increasing fiscal strain.

Apart from bond market issue, Indian market may be also cautious about actual outcome of state poll results next week; although as par bookies, BJP/NDA may win in all the poll bound states including UP quite convincingly; but Punjab may be an exception. It also appeared that a large part of BJP’s likely win may have discounted by the market and in the event of actual win by BJP, market may rally by another 100-200 points to reach near the all time high in Nifty around 9120 from he present level of around 8900; i.e. around 3-5% rally; but on the event of any unexpected bad result of BJP, Nifty may also correct quite significantly by around 8-10% as market will be then concerned about pace of reforms and fate of NAMO in 2019 general election as a fallout of DeMo and other issues like employment.

Market may be also concerned about fate of GST bill passage in the forthcoming Parliament session amid various political issues and controversies. Also, states and moreover administration & business circles are quite concerned about a hurried roll out of GST from July’17 with so much regulations & complexities. Such faulty designed GST may do more harm than any benefit and may bring another wave of economic disruption after DeMo.

As par reports, Govt may be planning to charge banking cash transactions after certain limit and may also define limit of maximum cash transactions at Rs.3 lakh with overall cash in hand limit at Rs.15 lakhs (??) in its ongoing “war against black money”. GST may be another such weapon, designed to eliminate informal economy and forced them to be formal & pay tax (??); Govt may also empower the tax officials to cross check or question the unregistered (GST) small business. Thus, GST may be another form of harassment for the small business, which can’t be afford to be formal as compliance cost will make their business model unviable. Also, Govt/BJP may be concerned of any immediate adverse effect of GST on the inflation & its poll prospect itself.

Considering all these, BJP/Govt may also not want to take further political risks after DeMo and thus may create an atmosphere of Political controversy, so that opposition will bound to disrupt the Parliament and ultimately the GST bill will not be passed in the forthcoming Parliament session and will be not implemented in 2017 too; in that scenario, after further discussions with the stakeholders, GST may be implemented only after 2019 general election with revised design and less regulation & complexities and no one can also blame the Govt/BJP for further delay in GST; all blames will be on the opposition (INC/UPA).

Although, a hurried implementation of a faulty designed GST may not be good for Indian economy and also for the market, investors can react quite negatively if GST is further delayed to 2018 or 2019 and rating agencies may not be also very amused for this GST politics.

Globally, all the market was stable/slight positive today except China, which fall some extent. There was a report of production cot for low quality steels & other metals due to growing environmental concerns. Also, today’s tepid AUD trade balance data indicates sluggish mineral exports from Australia to China and this there may be renewed concern about health of Chinese economy. All eyes will be on the annual meeting of Chinese Communist Party this weekend, where they can set a GDP growth target for the Govt.  

As almost all the near term probable triggers (rhetoric) by Trump has been completed, US bond yield may also reverse the present upwards course and we may see incremental flow from expensive & risky EQ to the safety of USTSY bonds in the coming days and US as well as global market may also correct. India, being a part & parcel of the same global community, may also correct proportionately despite some visible “green shoots”. An investor may also wait patiently for some dips to accumulate again good quality stocks and take this volatility as an opportunity.




SGX-NF


 BNF

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