Thursday, 2 November 2017

Nifty May Consolidate Tracking Subdued Global Cues As USD Goes Lower On Fed Chair & US Tax Reform Suspense Despite A “Hawkish Hold” By Fed Yesterday; News Of A China Corp Default May Be Also Affecting Asian Market Sentiment



Market Mantra: 02/11/2017 (09:00)

SGX-NF: 10460 (-13)

For the Day: updated at 11:45

Key support for NF: 10450-10400/10375

Key resistance for NF: 10505/10525-10575

Key support for BNF: 25225-25050

Key resistance for BNF: 25575-25775

Trading Idea (Positional):

Technically, NF has to sustain over 10525 area for further rally towards 10575-10625 & 10675-10825 zone in the short term (under bullish case scenario). 

On the flip side, sustaining below 10505 area, NF may fall towards 10450-10400/10375 & 10310-10195 zone in the short term (under bear case scenario).

Technically, BNF has to sustain over 25625 area for further rally towards 25775-25935 & 26100-26325 zone in the near term (under bullish case scenario).

On the flip side, sustaining below 25575 area, BNF may fall towards 25450-25225 & 25050-24850 area in the near term (under bear case scenario).

As par early SGX indication, Nifty Fut (Nov) may open around 10460, edged down by around 13 points tracking subdued global/Asian cues as USD goes lower on Fed chair & US tax cut suspense despite a fairly “hawkish hold” stance from Fed yesterday; as a Dec’17 rate hike by Fed is almost discounted, market may be now concerned over credibility of Fed’s 2018 dot-lots (3 hikes) under new leadership and US tax reform squabbling. A lower USD is not good for export savvy Asian & EU market.

Also, some news that after the grand Party Conclave, Chinese corporates now beginning to report their sets of “bad news” and today a debt-laden Chinese port management co (Ding Dong) has defaulted on a 1 bln Yuan bond scheduled for repayment on Monday. As China “sneezes”, global market gets “cold”, which often converts to “pneumonia”.

Recently China bond yields has soared for ongoing deleveraging drive by the Govt and bond prices plummeted; as par some reports, bonds worth nearly 1 tln Yuan are set to mature shortly and thus market may be concerned over more such defaults. Also, surging bond yields are creating problem for SMES in China, who rely heavily on the bond market for their financing need rather than banks.

As highly expected, Fed holds yesterday with a hawkish stance, thus paving the way clearer for the Dec’17 rate hike (except some terrible economic news or some geo-political developments in the meanwhile). FFR is now showing a probability of almost 92% for the same and market may be already discounted for that also; even if Fed hikes in Dec’17, USD may not break the 115 zone until new leadership confirms about Fed’s projection for 2018 policy trajectory.


Some of the changes from the last Fed statement in Sep are:

Economic activity rising at "solid rate" despite storms  (earlier "rising moderately”);.Inflation remains soft even though gasoline price rises after hurricanes boosted inflation; Measures of longer-term inflation expectations little changed; Balance sheet taper continuing; Household spending has been expanding at a moderate rate; Growth in business fixed investment has picked up in recent quarters”.

Thus, overall Fed is quite optimistic about US growth & employment, but clearly confused by US inflation “mystery” and thus although a Dec’17 rate hike is now almost guaranteed, the same may not be true for its 2018 projections of 3 more hikes; Fed has to keep its actual rate hikes in tandem with US core inflation to keep the real rate of interest (neutral rate) at an appropriate level.

Again, US or global inflation, wage growth may be now a structural issue of automation, globalization and ongoing currency war and thus monetary policy model of 1980’s can’t fix it unless, we see some structural reforms.

Overnight US market closed mixed on lower USD (favourable for US stocks) and some muted earnings coupled with overall optimism about US economy as expressed by Fed yesterday (“solid growth”); it’s like a goldilocks situation for US market. Although real wage growth is decent, it’s fair enough for a moderate US consumption push as inflation is also lower. The same perception holds good for the EU market also. But concerns of higher borrowing costs remains as Fed is gradually hiking with BS/QE tapering (dual QT).

US small cap stocks were under pressure yesterday for ongoing confusion about gradual cut of corp tax rather than at one go as highly expected earlier. 

DJ-30 closed higher by almost 0.25%, S&P-500 edged higher by 0.16% to close around 2579, while NQ-100 dropped by almost 0.17% on muted report card by Tesla; but FB soared after market hours on upbeat results (slight beat in revenue). Market will focus on earnings from Apple & Alibaba report card later in the day today. Overall, yesterday US market was dragged by techs & biotechs on poor earnings.

So far, out of 500 cos in S&P-500, almost 326 has reported their results and out of that around 73% has beat the market estimates; Q3 EPS is set to grow by around 7% on YOY basis.

US stock future (SPX-500) is now trading around 2569, down by almost 0.20% on muted Asian/China cues ahead of EU market opening amid concern of US corp tax cut mechanism.

EU stocks closed upbeat yesterday helped by metals/miners (basic resources) tracking moderate China Mfg PMI data coupled with prospect for a less hawkish Fed chief in the form of Powell rather than Taylor, a known hawk. EU market was also boosted by automakers yesterday after upbeat auto sales figure from US. Also signs of Catalan peace and a relatively higher USD yesterday ahead of Fed may have helped the overall market sentiment, but mixed results also capped the upside.

FTSE-100 was under pressure as GBP gone higher on upbeat Mfg PMI coupled with high expectations for a BOE rate hike today. Also muted report card from Next & Stanc has affected the overall UK market sentiment yesterday, but metals/miners gave some support to the market.

Back to home, Indian market (Nifty/India-50) is now trading around 10465, almost flat (-0.11%) as the market is consolidating its gain ahead of EU market opening amid muted Asian cues. Apart from “ease of doing business” boost, market will also focus on FM’s plan for PSBS consolidation move; market may be also hopeful about a rating upgrade next year, if NPA situation in Indian banks improves considerably along with deleveraging of stressed corporates.

But, recaps (bail out) of PSBS is not a new phenomenon; it was happened many times before and in every instances, PSBS and even some private banks again indulged in reckless corporate lending and thus overall corporate governance and lending quality should be improved first before putting more funds into the ailing banks.

Govt may be also thinking in that line and thus consolidate weak banks with the stronger ones before putting more money into it. Thus, recaps of PSBS may be very selective and will come with several caveats. 

Apart from corporate debt, overall household debts in India is also rising alarmingly and a significant portion of that is unsecured like in pre 2007-08 recession (personal loan/credit cards) and with increasing un/under employment & US/EU nationalism (anti-immigration/outsourcing), Indian banks may also face significant headwinds from retail loans in future. 



  
 

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