US indices ended at day’s highs with S&P 500 adding 1.65%, Dow gaining 1.39% and Nasdaq adding 2.27%. Oil futures pared gains and ended down 1.4% at $29.04 a barrel. FIIs remain net sellers and have sold worth nearly Rs 3,000 crore for the week ended February 12.
The joy at the start of the week seemed short-lived as a disturbed street witnessed profit booking in early trade on Tuesday. The selling accentuated bringing down counters across the board. Sentiment was hurt after SBI said that NPAs could rise in the fourth quarter too. The courts have swung into action with the Supreme Court stepping in regarding two issues, banks' bad loans and unviable air routes. RBI has been told by SC to submit details of all defaulters with loans of Rs. 500 crore and above in the past five years. The civil aviation ministry was pulled up by SC for giving lucrative flying routes to private airlines while ignoring unviable routes such as Delhi-Shimla, a report stated.
The outlook is a flat start. The index failed to surpass previous high of 7208 indicating signs of fatigue. Technically, Nifty has formed a bearish engulfing candle pattern. If the index ends below 7037, further selling pressure could emerge in coming days. US indices ended at day’s highs with S&P 500 adding 1.65%, Dow gaining 1.39% and Nasdaq adding 2.27%. Oil futures pared gains and ended down 1.4% at $29.04 a barrel. FIIs remain net sellers and have sold worth nearly Rs 3,000 crore for the week ended February 12.
The Asian markets are trading mixed; Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is trading up by 0.5%, Shanghai index in China gains by half a percent. Kospi and Taiwan index both are trading marginally higher by 0.3%. On the other hand, Nikkei index in Japan is trading lower by 0.2% while Straits Times index is also down by 0.2%.
The Saudi minister, Ali al-Naimi reportedly said that four oil producers agree to freeze output at January levels. The freezing production at January levels was an adequate measure and new steps to stabilise the market may be considered in the next few months.
The government is considering to increase the foreign investment limit in public sector banks to 49% from 20%, according to reports. Report says that the Finance Ministry is looking into the proposal and may be announced in the forthcoming Budget 2016-17.
Bharti Airtel announced top level changes for its Africa operations. To further enhance the level of empowerment and enable faster decision making as well as speed to market, the Company also unveiled a new cluster based organization design. Christian Defaria, MD & CEO, Airtel Africa, has been elevated to the position of Executive Chairman, Airtel Africa. In his new role, he will continue to support the vision of Airtel Africa and lead all matters relating to legal, regulatory affairs, shareholders as well as Mergers & Acquisitions.
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said that it had revised its outlook on Bank of India to negative from stable.
