MARKET WRAP: Sensex slips 1,375 pts, financials hit; Nifty ends at 8,281

All that happened in markets today

1:15 PM

BROKERAGE VIEW :: Investment strategies by ICICI Securities

In the current milieu, some of the large and best managed companies are available at attractive valuations on a historical basis. Hence, in our view, one should venture out and accumulate companies (depending on their risk appetite and time horizon), which have gone through such challenging cycles and have come out much stronger when such events subside.

 

Top Picks in the large cap space are HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Titan, Dabur Bharti Airtel, Avenue Supermarts and SBI Life

 

Top Picks in midcap space are Bata, Tata Consumer Products (erstwhile Tata Global Beverages), Trent.

1:10 PM

BROKERAGE VIEW :: Anand Rathi on Indian Economy

Major slowdown, but short of recession

>> Q1 FY21 growth to be negative. In all likelihood, Q1 FY21 growth will be negative. The extent of contraction could be up to 4%. GDP growth in Q2 FY21 may also be contained (but positive) due to the combined effect of the longer-than-expected period (three weeks) of shutdown, a slow pick-up of activities after the shutdown is lifted, constrained consumer, business and investor sentiment. We expect a marked pick-up in economic activities during H2 FY21.

>> Before the Covid-19-driven shutdown, we expected India’s GDP growth during FY21 to be 5.5%. Under the now altered scenario, we expect a growth rate of around 3%, excluding the impact of the stimulus. Depending on the size and content of the stimulus, India’s FY21 growth could step up to 4.5%.

12:59 PM

Rupee near day's low

12:52 PM

NEWS ALERT | GST Collections for Feb, recorded in March to be around Rs 1 trillion: CNBC TV18

12:49 PM

MARKET CHECK :: Indices slip again

12:43 PM

Most active stocks by volume

COMPANY	PRICE(rs)	CHG(%)
VODAFONE IDEA	3.17	-1.55
TV18 BROADCAST	14.75	7.27
SUZLON ENERGY	1.93	3.21
RELIANCE POWER	1.12	-0.88
INDBULL.REALEST.	41.20	2.87

12:42 PM

NEWS ALERT :: India Ratings cuts FY21 GDP forecast to 3.6% from 5.5%

>> The key reasons are the spread of COVID-19 and the resultant nation-wide lockdown imposed till 14 April 2020, crippling most economic and commercial activities. The revision is based on the assumption of lockdown continuing till end-April 2020 (full or partial) and gradual restoration of economic activities May 2020 onwards.

>> Ind-Ra has even revised the FY20 GDP forecast downward to 4.7% (9MFY20: 5.1%) from The National Statistical Office’s advance estimate of 5.0%

>> Ind-Ra expects the GDP growth to come in at 3.6% in 4QFY20 and 2.3% in 1QFY21

12:32 PM

Indian economy can contract 2.6%; US over 11% in worst case in 2020: Nomura

“We now expect GDP growth to slide from 4.7 per cent y-o-y in Q4 2019 to 3.1 per cent in Q1 and plunge to -6.1 per cent in Q2, when both domestic and external demand will weaken. We are building in a sequential pickup in the second half of 2020, but the pace of recovery is likely to be much weaker given some lasting damage to potential output,” wrote Sonal Varma, managing director and chief India economist at Nomura in a co-authored report with Aurodeep Nandi titled 'COVID-19’s impact on the world economy'. READ MORE

12:28 PM

NEWS ALERT | April-June average temperature seen above normal in parts of India: IMD

>> Frequency of heatwave seen slightly above normal in April-June

 

12:20 PM

Nifty sectoral indices at this hour

12:06 PM

MARKET CHECK | Top 5 losers on the BSE at this hour

12:00 PM

Moratorium on loans will defer but not remove the asset-quality risk: Emkay Global Fin Services

The RBI has allowed lenders to extend 3-month moratorium on Term Loan (TL) instalments (including retail, agri and corporate) and also on interest on working capital loans, falling due between March 1 and May 31, 2020, without being classified as NPA. The loan repayment moratorium would limit the hit on asset quality for lenders in the interim, subject to timely containment of the virus and return to normalcy in business well before the moratorium ends (May 31, 2020). The moratorium extension on TL (assuming 100% usage) can optically inflate FY21 loan book by ~4%, but also depress margins. We believe that an asset classification forbearance, instead of a blanket moratorium on repayment that raises the risk of disrupting credit discipline, would have been a preferred route. Some PSBs have already granted blanket moratorium to borrowers apart from adhoc credit facilities, but hope that the move by select private players would be more measured and on a need basis.  

11:55 AM

Coronavirus lockdown will hit asset-backed securities' performance: Moody's

Rating agency Moody's Investors Service says the nationwide lockdown in India will adversely impact the performance of the commercial vehicle and small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) loans in asset-backed securities (ABS). Asset-backed securities are a kind of instrument where the underlying loan pool and income stream are packaged and often rated for strength. Most assets in rated Indian ABS are commercial vehicle and SME loans. READ MORE

11:46 AM

NEWS ALERT | Trades undertaken today to be settled on April 3: TV reports

>> Trades undertaken tomorrow will be settled on April 7

>> Trades undertaken on April 1 to be settled on April 7

>> Banks, Exchanges push settlement due to year closing

11:40 AM

NEWS ALERT | Don't expect significant impact of Covid-19 on operations: HCL Tech

(Source: BSE filing)