Domestic shares tracked firmness in other Asian stock markets as President Donald Trump's plans to gradually re-open the US economy offset record slump in China GDP.
The broader market was in line with benchmark index. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 1.19% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 1.79%.
The market breadth was titled in the favour of bulls. On the BSE, 1498 shares rose and 706 shares fell. A total of 148 shares were unchanged. In Nifty 50 index, 34 stocks advanced while 16 stocks declined.
Derivatives:
The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, declined 3.86% to 44.3125. The Nifty April 2020 futures were trading at 9,135.85, a premium of 17.15 points compared with the spot at 9,118.70.
On the options front, the Nifty option chain for 30 April 2020 expiry showed maximum call open interest (OI) of 16.71 lakh contracts at the 10,000 strike price. Maximum put OI of 24.97 lakh contracts was seen at 8,000 strike price.
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Stocks in Spotlight:
Oberoi Realty spurted 13.13% to Rs 386.95 after the real estate firm informed that it has prepaid 125 listed non-convertible debentures (NCDs) worth Rs 125 crore. The scheduled date of repayment was 23 April 2020. The announcement was made after trading hours yesterday, 16 April 2020.
Tata Motors was up 0.27% at Rs 74.85 on BSE. Fitch Ratings has downgraded the long-term issuer default rating (IDR) of Tata Motors (TML) to 'B' from 'BB-' and placed 'negative' outlook on the same. The downgrade reflects Fitch's significantly lower expectations for TML's profitability and cash flow over the next few years due to the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on demand and disruption to TML's Indian operations as well as to key auto markets globally that are served through its fully owned UK-based subsidiary, Jaguar Land Rover Automotive.
Sudarshan Chemical Industries gained 3.11% to Rs 423.25 after the firm restarted its facility at Roha in Maharashtra on receiving approval from the appropriate authority. On Thursday, 26 March 2020, Sudarshan Chemical Industries had intimated that the manufacturing facilities at Roha and Mahad along with its offices had been under temporarily suspension due to pandemic of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
RBI Governor's address:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das addressed the media at 10:00 am today, 17 April. This was his second press briefing since the COVID-19 outbreak began in India.
Das said macro economic situation has deteriorated. IMF says global economy may plunge into worst recession since great depression. India is estimated to have highest growth among G20 countries as per IMF. India is expected to show a sharp turnaround post the COVID-19 crisis. The country is expected to post a sharp turnaround in FY22 with 7.4% growth as per IMF, Shaktikanta Das added.
Among fresh liquidity measures, RBI announced targeted long-term repo operations (TLTRO) 2.0 to conduct long-term repo operations--Rs 50,000 crore to begin with--in tranches of appropriate sizes. The move will boost the liquidity in the market.
In addition, it also announced Rs 50,000 crore to national financial institutions such as NABARD, SIDBI and NHB to enable them to meet sectoral credit needs. This will comprise Rs 25,000 crore to NABARD for refinancing regional rural banks (RRBs), cooperative banks and micro finance institutions (MFIs); Rs 15,000 crore to SIDBI for on-lending/refinancing; and Rs 10,000 crore to NHB for supporting housing finance companies (HFCs).
The central bank slashed reverse repo rate by 25 basis points to 3.75%. Reverse repo rate is the rate at which the RBI borrows from the banks. However, the policy repo rate remains unchanged at 4.40%, and the marginal standing facility rate and the bank rate remain unchanged at 4.65%.
The RBI governor also said that the 90-day NPA norm would now not apply on moratorium granted on existing loans by banks. The loans given by NBFCs to real estate companies will also get similar benefit as given by scheduled commercial banks.
The central bank has also asked all banks to not make any further dividend payout in view of the financial difficulties arising from the Covid-19 crisis.
In order to support banks, their liquidity capital ratio (LCR) requirements have been brought down to 80% from 100%. This will be restored in phases by April next year.
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