Thursday, 6 April 2017

Nifty Finished 23 Points Lower; But Off The Day Low After “Hawkish Hold” & An Unexpected Hike Of Reverse Repo Coupled With Cut In MSF & Bank Rate By RBI; Permission of REIT Investment For The Banks & No CRR Hike Also Helped The Market Today



Market Wrap: 06/04/2017 (19:00)

NSE-NF (April): 9264 (-23 points; -0.24%)

NSE-BNF (April): 21615 (-69 points; -0.32%)

For 06/04/2017:

Key support for NF: 9225/9195-9115

Key resistance for NF: 9305-9375

Key support for BNF: 21650-21450

Key resistance for BNF: 21775-21875

Time & Price action suggests that, Nifty Fut (Apr) has to sustain over 9325 area for further rally towards 9375-9425 & 9465-9505 by tomorrow / in the short term (under bullish case scenario).

On the other side, sustaining below 9305 area, NF may fall towards 9250-9225/9195 & 9150-9115/9085 area by tomorrow / in the short term (under bear case scenario).

Similarly, BNF has to sustain over 21775 area for further rally towards 21875-21950 & 22050-22150 area by tomorrow / in the near term (under bullish case scenario).

On the other side, sustaining below 21725 area, BNF may fall towards 21650-21500 & 21400-21200 zone by tomorrow / in the near term (under bear case scenario).

Nifty Fut (Apr) today closed around 9264, marginally lower by 0.32% after making a session low of 9231 & high of 9283 in a RBI day of moderate volatility. Indian market today opened in a negative tone following tepid global cues after FOMC minutes revealed Fed’s intention of its balance sheet deleveraging and concern about US stock market bubbles.

As expected, RBI today hold the repo rate (6.25%) with some concern about upside risk of underlying inflation coupled with optimism about growth of the Indian economy. So, in short today’s stance of RBI may be best described as a “hawkish hold” or rather an “owlish hold”. RBI may not cut further in FY-18 due to upside risk in CPI/core inflation as well as the upbeat GVA projection at 7.4% on an average from 6.7% average in FY-17; when an economy is growing around 7-8% (GDP) with a headline CPI of around 4-5%, there is no need for an incremental cut by a central bank to prevent overheating of the economy. Thus, RBI will be in neutral stance, if not hike in H2FY18, considering the growth vs inflation equation.

But, RBI today unexpectedly hiked reverse repo rate (RRR) by 0.25% to 6% and also lowered the MSF & Bank rate by 0.25% to 6.5%; thus effectively narrowed the LAF corridor in its effort to bring the overall excess liquidity position of the banking system to neutral. The hike in reverse repo rate without hiking the corresponding repo rate may be beneficial for the banks to some extent as lending to RBI will fetch more return (+0.25%). Similarly, cut in MSF & Bank rates may be also good for the banks, especially for the new generation Pvt banks (IIB, Yes, Kotak) as they traditionally use this short term borrowing facility from the RBI in case of emergency requirements. But, all these perceptions may be good for theory and may not yield any real push for NIM in practical as the banking system is already flushed with DeMo related excess funds with little incremental demand for credit.

Bank’s interest costs (MCLR) is dependent on various factors & liquidity and repo rate is one of them. After DeMo or even before that, there was no significant crisis of liquidity in the Indian Banking system, except some of the fragile PSBS. Also banks has already transmitted a major portion of the previous rate cuts by the RBI after NAMO’s indirect intervention in his 31st Dec’16  year ending speech to the nation. The problem is now of stressed assets with the banks & lack of quality & eligible healthy borrowers in the system; i.e. issues of twin balance sheet. Unless the problem of NPA is solved and there is visibility of incremental demand, full capacity utilization and private investments, credit growth of the banks may be remained subdued irrespective of the banking liquidity & lending rate factors.

RBI, today again indicated comparatively higher deposit rates for the Indian small savings instruments, which may be a major hurdle for the banks to transmit further rate cuts to the borrowers. Thus, resumption of private investments cycle, NPA resolution & further rate cut transmissions may be all structural issues, which may be best addressed by the Govt under its various reforms measures and eventually, RBI pushed the ball to the Govt’s court.

Some market participants may be also apprehending a CRR hike today by RBI to absorb excess liquidity as SDF facility will take time. But, there was no such CRR hike and moreover, RBI has also permitted the banks to deploy some of its excess funds to the REIT & INVIT (real estate & infrastructure investment fund), which has caused some short covering or rally in real estate stocks. But, such REIT investment benefit may be very limited as it involves only commercial real estate.

In short, today’s RBI policy may be described as:

Hawkish on inflation: Due to probable El Nino effect on monsoon & deficient rainfall this year, GST & 7-CPC arrear effects, external factors such as higher commodity prices despite a strong INR; RBI projected headline CPI at 4.5% & 5% for H1 & H2FY18 and it may even hike repo rate in H2FY18, if there is incremental pressure on inflation.

Bullish on growth: Due to various spending measures in the FY-18 budget (Govt capex), rapid ReMo and end of any spillover effect of DeMo from Q4FY17 & revival in consumer discretionary spending and implementation of GST and private investments.

Careful/owlish about banking liquidity and NPA: RBI will evolve SDF and various effective resolution methods to deal with NPA on a case to case basis; thus no talks of a Govt sponsored/PPP “Super ARC/Bad Bank”.

Now, RBI event is over, market may focus on implementation of GST & Q4FY17 earnings and on various global factors. One of the serious headwinds may be Fed’s plan to taper or deleverage its balance sheet by not reinvesting the proceeds from the QE bonds. Although, the exact methodology is not clear, how Fed will do it, at a glance such unwinding may be bad for USTSY and good for its yields. Thus in that scenario, US bond yields may soar along with USD, even if Fed only goes for a limited 2-3 hike in a year and cost of borrowings may surge for the US economy, which is again not good for the risk assets. So, Fed deleveraging may be a major concern apart from the actual trajectory of Trumponomics not only for US market, but also for the global as well as the Indian market.



SGX-NF



BNF



 SPX-500

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