US Stocks Gain As Banks, Tech Companies And Retailers Rise-The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

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16 March  2018

Wall stree financial markets (The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions)

U.S. stocks are edging higher Friday morning as technology companies and banks make gains. While retailers are mostly higher, jewelry chain Tiffany and Hibbett Sports are both falling after investors were disappointed with their quarterly reports and forecasts. The S&P 500 has slipped for four days in a row and is down 1 percent this week. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

KEEPING SCORE: The S&P 500 index gained 9 points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,756 as of 10 a.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones industrial average added 79 points, or 0.3 percent, to 24,953. The Nasdaq composite climbed 22 points, or 0.3 percent, to 7,503. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks was unchanged at 1,576. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

LOOKING GOOD: Ulta Beauty climbed $12.42, or 6 percent, to $218.56 after the beauty products retailer's fourth quarter report. Software maker Adobe reported results that beat analysts' forecasts and rose $9.24, or 4.2 percent, to $228.15.

GEM STONED: Tiffany dropped $6.95, or 6.8 percent, to $95.76 after it reported weaker sales than analysts expected. Its forecast for the current year was also below what investors were looking for. Also sinking was Hibbett Sports, which posted a smaller profit than analysts had hoped for and also forecast disappointing sales. The stock gave up $2.37, or 10.7 percent, to $20.13.

OVERSTOCK SINKS: Online discount retailer Overstock.com said profit margins have fallen hard because of competition with Wayfair, and CEO Patrick Byrne said the company will "respond in kind," meaning Overstock will try to ramp up its growth and will be willing to lose money to achieve that goal. The stock dropped $4.55, or 9.4 percent, to $43.65 while Wayfair lost $5.06, or 6 percent, to $78.90. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

INDICATORS: The Federal Reserve said factory output continued to rise as companies in the U.S. produced more cars, computers and furniture. It reported that manufacturing output rose 1.2 percent in February after three months of weak results. Factory output has increased 2.5 percent over the last year.

The Commerce Department said homebuilders started work on fewer apartment buildings in February, and that caused overall housing starts to drop 7 percent. Builders have shifted their efforts to single-family homes recently as the economy has improved. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

OIL: Benchmark U.S. crude was little changed at $61.20 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oils, lost 10 cents to $65 a barrel in London. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

BONDS: Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.85 percent from 2.83 percent. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

CURRENCIES: The dollar declined to 106.04 yen from 106.24 yen. The euro fell to $1.2286 from $1.2303. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

OVERSEAS: The German DAX, Britain's FTSE and the CAC 40 in France all edge up 0.1 percent. Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.6 percent while South Korea's Kospi edged 0.1 percent higher and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index dipped 0.1 percent..The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

Nifty, Sensex Precariously Poised – Thursday closing report-The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

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15 March  2018

I had mentioned in Wednesday’s closing report that Nifty, Sensex might rally. The major indices of the Indian stock markets were volatile on Thursday and closed with small losses over Wednesday’s close. On the NSE, there were 964 advances, 540 declines and 65 unchanged. The trends of the major indices in the course of Thursday’s trading are given in the table below: The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

 

Major Indices (The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions)

The market indices have not been able to break out higher and instead have been under tremendous pressure. It is like that the market would head lower with Nifty heading towards 10,000. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

The Finance Ministry has been asked to lower the existing export duty on sugar to zero in the wake of bumper domestic production this year, Union Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said on Thursday. We have sent our recommendations to the Finance Ministry three weeks ago for reducing duty," Paswan told reporters here. At present, there is 20% duty on export of sugar. According to the industry body Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), sugar production of 295 lakh tonnes is expected this year, which will be over 92 lakh tonnes more than last year. EID Parry India shares closed at Rs298.55, up 1.91% on the NSE.

Global software major Infosys on Thursday said it will soon open a technology and innovation hub in the US state of Connecticut and hire about 1,000 American workers by 2022. The hiring of Americans is seen as a fall-out of US President Donald Trump's executive order on H1-B visas in April 2017, as clients in North America contribute about 60% of the $10.3-billion company's software export revenue annually. Infosys shares closed at Rs1,182.50, up 0.09% on the NSE.

Private airline Jet Airways said it will introduce 144 new weekly flights in the first phase of its upcoming summer schedule. "As part of the new schedule, Jet Airways will strengthen connectivity between the country's capital and the Northeastern region via a bouquet of non-stop services including thrice a week flights to Aizawl and Jorhat and four times a week flights to Silchar from Delhi," it said in a statement. The carrier would also begin a daily, non-stop service between Mumbai and Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, and a new direct service between Tiruchirappalli and Delhi. Among other destinations, Jet Airways will also connect Patna with non-stop flights to Mumbai, it said. Jet Airways India shares closed at Rs721.90, up 0.97% on the NSE.

The US dollar traded mixed against other major currencies as investors were sifting through the latest economic data from the country. Advance estimates of US retail and food services sales for February 2018 came in at $492 billion, a decrease of 0.1% from the previous month, missing market consensus of a 0.4% gain, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday. "Retail sales continue to disappoint, especially the biggest ticket auto and furniture components. GDP estimates will be revised down again," said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial, in a note. Meanwhile, the Producer Price Index for final demand advanced 0.2% in February, seasonally adjusted, in line with market estimates, the US Labour Department reported. On an unadjusted basis, the final demand index increased 2.8% for the 12 months ended in February. There are many common factors between the trends in the US dollar and the Foreign institutional investors’ net investment in emerging markets like India and there may be a small pull-out from India, if these trends continue.

The top gainers and top losers of the major indices are given in the table below: The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

 

Top Gainer (The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions)

The closing values of the major Asian indices are given in the table below: The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

Asian Indices (The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions)

February trade deficit narrows to $12 billion, exports show 4.5% growth -The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

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15 March  2018

 

Trade Deficit (The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions)

India's trade deficit for February narrowed to $12 billion compared to $16.3 billion in the previous month. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

Imports for the month of February stood at 37.8 billion dollars, up 10.4% whereas exports for the same month stood at $25.8 billion rising 4.5%. 

The rise in imports was led by higher crude oil prices, data from the commerce ministry said. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

Total imports from April to February stood at $416.8 billion, showing a rise of 21% compared to same period last year. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

Total exports for the April-February period stood at $273.73 billion showing a rise of 11% on year. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

India's trade deficit touched a nearly 56-month-high in January sparked by a rise in import of petroleum, chemicals, silver, pearls and machine tools. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

RBI may start raising interest rates next year, says Fitch-The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

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15 March  2018

 

RBI (The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions)

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expected to start raising interest rates next year as growth gains further traction amidst high inflationary pressures, says a research report. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

In its latest Global Economic Outlook (GEO) report, Fitch Ratings says, "Indian economy continued its bounce-back in the final quarter of 2017, growing 7.2%. The influence of one-off, policy-related factors, which had been dragging down growth, has now waned. The money supply recovered to its pre-demonetisation level in mid-2017 and is now increasing steadily, similar to the previous trend. Meanwhile, disruptions related to the rollout of the goods and services tax in July 2017 have gradually diminished.”

According to the ratings agency, inflation has increased quite sharply in recent months, rising from a 2017 mid-year low of 1.5% to 5.2% last December before easing back slightly to 4.4% in February 2018. Accelerating food prices were the main cause of the pick-up in headline inflation. By contrast, fuel price increases have been contained by the government’s decision to roll back excise duties to keep pump prices stable in the face of rising oil prices. We expect inflation to hover a bit below 5% in 2018 and 2019, in the upper band of the Reserve Bank’s target, Fitch added. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

The budget for FY2018-19, unveiled in February, envisages a slower pace of fiscal consolidation and therefore should support the near-term growth outlook, Fitch says, adding, "It contains measures that will benefit low-income earners such as a minimum price support and free health insurance and support rural demand. The government also plans to ramp up infrastructure outlays, in particular by state-owned enterprises. Those policies come on top of a substantial road construction plans and a bank recapitalisation plan announced late last year, which should also provide some support to growth in the medium term."

"Minimum support price (MSP) scheme for agricultural products and increased customs duties on certain products like electronics, textiles and auto parts will boost prices against a backdrop of accelerating growth," Fitch added.

According to Fitch's GEO, world economy is experiencing boom-like growth conditions and central banks are becoming less cautious as inflation risks rise. The US, Eurozone and China are all likely to grow well above trend in 2018 and global economic growth is set to remain above 3% for three consecutive years until 2019, a performance not achieved since the mid-2000s. 

"The acceleration in private investment, pro-cyclical US fiscal easing and global monetary policies that are still very loose are all boosting growth in the advanced economies, while high commodity prices and the weakening of the dollar have underpinned the emerging market recovery. China is gently touching the brakes but is still prioritising high growth in the near term," Brian Coulton, Chief Economist at Fitch, concluded.The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

US’ move on Indian export subsidies not trade war, says commerce secretary -The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

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15 March  2018

 

Export (The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions)

Contrary to the US’ complaint about India’s various export schemes, the government on Thursday said it doesn’t count these export promotion programmes as export subsidies and the move doesn’t constitute a trade war. 

“It will be an irresponsible statement...because we are interested in selling to each other,” commerce secretary Rita Teaotia said on being asked if the US challenging practically almost the entire of India’s export programmes meant a trade war. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

“Wherever we have difference in positions, we will resolve them,” she said. 

On Wednesday, Washington filed a complaint at the WTO about India’s export subsidy programmes claiming them to harm American workers. These programmes are the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme; Export Oriented Units Scheme and sector specific schemes, including Electronics Hardware Technology Parks Scheme; Special Economic Zones; Export Promotion Capital Goods Scheme; and a duty free imports for exporters programme. 

Teaotia said that there would be no knee jerk reactions to the US’ move and India would understand the assumptions made by the US to arrive at the $7 billion export subsidy number as it doesn’t consider all these as export subsidies. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

Stocks Edge Up After Trump Announces New Economic Adviser-The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

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15 March  2018

Gong Kong financial markets (The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions)

Stocks turned higher on Thursday as investors seemed encouraged by U.S. President Donald Trump's pick for his new economic adviser.

KEEPING SCORE: France's CAC 40 gained 0.2 percent to 5,242 and Germany's DAX climbed 0.2 percent to 12,265. Britain's FTSE 100 edged up less than 0.1 percent to 7,134. Wall Street was poised to open slightly higher. Dow futures were up 0.1 percent but the S&P 500 futures were flat.

TRADE FEARS: Trump named CNBC commentator Larry Kudlow as his top economic aide, replacing Gary Cohn, who quit in opposition to the president's plans for new trade tariffs. Kudlow said he is "in accord" with Trump's agenda, which includes reducing the trade imbalance with China — marking a reversal from his previous pro-free trade stance. He said his team at the White House would help implement policies set by the president, including stiff new tariffs on steel and aluminum. Separately, European Union head Donald Tusk urged Trump to cooperate with the continent instead of slapping tariffs on European goods.

QUOTEWORTHY: "Markets may actually find some comfort in the fact that Mr. Trump decided to give the job to Kudlow, rather than someone with more radical economic beliefs, such as Peter Navarro, who is even more skeptical about the current free trade paradigm," Rabobank analyst Bas van Geffen wrote in a commentary. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

OFFICE MOVE: Shares in Anglo-Dutch consumer giant Unilever were down about 1.5 percent after it said it's basing its headquarters in the Netherlands, ending its longstanding structure of having dual head offices in London and Rotterdam. The company said its part of a restructuring aimed at making it a "more agile and more focused business." The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

ASIAN SCORECARD: Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 edged 0.1 percent higher to 21,803.95, while South Korea's Kospi rose 0.3 percent to 2,492.38. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.3 percent to 31,541.10 while the Shanghai Composite was flat at 3,291.11. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 dipped 0.2 percent to 5,920.80. Shares fell in in Taiwan and were mixed in Southeast Asia.

ENERGY: Oil futures advanced. Benchmark U.S. crude added 37 cent to $61.33 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract gained 25 cents on Wednesday. Brent crude, used to price international oils, rose 29 cents to $65.18 per barrel in London.

CURRENCIES: The dollar fell to 106.00 yen from 106.31 yen in late trading Wednesday. The euro weakened to $1.2348 from $1.2369.The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

Nifty, Sensex May Rally – Wednesday closing report-The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

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14 March  2018

I had mentioned in Tuesday’s closing report that Nifty, Sensex were on course to head higher. The major indices of the Indian stock markets were range-bound on Wednesday and closed with negligible losses over Tuesday’s close. On the NSE, there were 876 advances, 829 declines and 315 unchanged. The trends of the major indices in the course of Wednesday’s trading are given in the table below: The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

 

Major Indices (The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions)

Weak cues from the Asian markets, as well as selling pressure in banking, oil and gas, and auto stocks, pulled the key Indian equity indices lower during the mid-afternoon trade session on Wednesday. Market observers said the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) move to discontinue the system of issuing Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) by banks for availing trade credits for imports into India with immediate effect eroded investors' risk-taking appetite.

Top gainers on the NSE were Tech Mahindra, UltraTech Cement and Ambuja Cement, while on the declines were Infratel, Bharti Airtel and State Bank of India.

Key Indian equity indices, which traded in the negative territory during the day pared some losses to close Wednesday's trade on a flat-to-negative note.

Private lender Yes Bank announced it has acquired more than 17% share in Fortis Healthcare, making the bank the largest shareholder in the healthcare major. In a stock exchange filing, Yes Bank said the 17.31% equity in Fortis has been acquired in lieu of the default in loan repayment by the promoters of the healthcare company. "Yes Bank has acquired 89,781,906 equity shares, constituting 17.31% of the paid-up share capital, having nominal value of Rs10 per share of Fortis Healthcare Ltd, pursuant to invocation of pledge on the said equity shares subsequent to default by promoters group companies in the credit facility provided by the Bank," it said. Yes Bank shares closed at Rs318.90, up 1.85% on the BSE. Fortis Healthcare shares closed at Rs158.75, up 4.10% on the BSE. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

Wholesale price-indexed (WPI) inflation in India softened during February marginally at 2.48% from 2.84% in the previous month, primarily due to lower fuel and food prices, official data showed on Wednesday.

According to a Commerce Ministry release, the WPI inflation in February 2017 was more than double at 5.1%. Wednesday's wholesale inflation data follows the retail inflation figures for February released earlier this week, which showed a slight cooling in the consumer price-indexed (CPI) inflation at 4.4% on the back of lower food and fuel prices. Retail inflation had climbed over 5% in January. With inflation figures favourable, the long term bullish trend of the Indian stock markets is intact. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

HDFC Bank has disallowed its customers from buying Bitcoins, cryptocurrencies and virtual currencies through the bank's credit, debit and prepaid cards. HDFC Bank shares closed at Rs1,865.25, up 0.29% on the BSE.

Two-wheeler major Hero MotoCorp launched the new Passion PRO and Passion XPRO and announced the commencement of retail sales of both models across the country. Hero MotoCorp shares closed at Rs3,635.45, down 1.78% on the BSE. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

Reliance Mutual Fund (MF) has regained its position in the top three mutual fund companies in February, data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) showed. There is a shake-up in mutual funds industry as the value of the underlying stocks has eroded in the recent PNB large-scale fraud. All the major indices have fallen and the bigger mutual fund houses are doing better than the smaller ones. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

The top gainers and top losers of the major indices are given in the table below:

 

Top Gainer (The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions)

The closing values of the major Asian indices are given in the table below:The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

Asian Indices (The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions)

Lok Sabha passes Finance Bill 2018 with 21 amendments and 3 new clauses-The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

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14 March  2018

 

Lok Sabha (The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions)

The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed the Finance Bill 2018 with as many as 21 amendments and three new clauses. There was no discussion and the Bill was passed with a voice vote amid noisy protests by members of opposition parties.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley moved the Finance Bill 2018, as well as the Appropriation Bill amid the din, which were passed by voice vote.

The Lower House has been witnessing protests over a number of issues, including the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud, special economic status to Andhra Pradesh, and setting up of the Cauvery Water Management Board.

The same issues rocked the House on Wednesday right from the moment it met.

Amid protests, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar requested Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to take up the financial business at 12pm, to which she agreed.

"Keeping in view the urgency involved in financial business, we cannot defer the same any longer hence guillotine in respect of demand for grant 2018-19 which is scheduled for 5pm, will not be taken up immediately after laying of papers," the Speaker said. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

When the House met at 12pm, members from the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), YSR Congress, AIADMK and the Samajwadi Party (SP) trooped near the Speaker's podium and started raising slogans.

While the TDP and YSR Congress are demanding a special economic status for Andhra Pradesh, the AIADMK is demanding a board for management of the Cauvery river water. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

The Samajwadi Party (SP) has been protesting against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led government in Uttar Pradesh, urging Mahajan to "save democracy", after Gorakhpur District Magistrate Rajeev Routela refused entry to journalists at the counting centre and no poll leads were given out after the first round.

Members from the Congress, Trinamool Congress and the Left parties, who have been protesting over the PNB fraud case, were seen standing at their seats, as the Speaker went ahead with the different bills related to passing the demands for grants and the finance bill. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

As the Speaker went ahead with the process, the members standing near the Speaker's podium continued to raise slogans, while the Congress, TMC, Left and other MPs protested against the manner in which the bills were passed.

The Congress and the Trinamool members staged a walkout later, calling it a "murder of parliamentary democracy".

Members from the Communist Party of India (Marxist), including party leader Mohammad Salim, AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi, Bhagwant Mann of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and some other members were seen joining the chorus with SP members who were near the Speaker's podium, shouting slogans alleging murder of democracy. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

On Tuesday, members from the opposition parties, including the Congress, Left, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and some other parties had written to Mahajan protesting against the listing of guillotining of bills related to demands for grants, which was mentioned in the List of Business on Tuesday as well. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

As per the usual practice, Parliament debates demands for grants for some selected ministries, before all demands for grants are passed together, which is called the process of guillotine.

Once the demands for grants were passed through voice vote, members in the treasury benches were seen thumping their desks to welcome it.

The passage of the Finance Bill and the Appropriation Bill completes the budget exercise in the Lok Sabha. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions

While the two Bills will now go to the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House does not have a say in passing Finance Bills, and can only return the bills within 14 days.

If the bills are not returned to the Lok Sabha in this time frame, they are considered returned.The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions