Market Bizzz

Indian markets closed on a positive note with S&P BSE Sensex up by 300 points on Monday, while the Nifty50 closed below 18400 levels. The realty, FMCG, telecom, and public sectors were buying while power, utilities, and oil & gas witnessed some selling. Zensar Technologies is said to face a short-term decline, Max Healthcare is suggested to be bought on dips and DLF’s stock has bullish long-term and medium-term technical indicators, with recommended fresh long positions to be initiated at the present level and on dips.

Berkshire Hathaway has revealed its latest investments in a regulatory filing, cutting exposure to equities as it devoted more resources elsewhere. The financial services giant exited investments in Bank of New York Mellon, Taiwanese chip manufacturer TSMC, US Bancorp and furniture chain RH. However, it also revealed a new $41.3m stake in Diageo and an investment in Capital One Financial, which led shares of the bank to rise 5.7% in after-hours trading. The company ended March with $130.6bn in cash and equivalents.

​​In the pharmaceutical sector, fewer incidents of regulatory breaches and attractive valuations drove fund managers to add stocks such as Alkem Laboratories, Ajanta Pharma, and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories.

Oil prices have fallen due to concerns over fuel demand in the US and China despite tighter supplies due to OPEC+ cuts and US buying for reserves. Brent crude futures dropped 0.6% to $73.74 a barrel and US West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.5% to $69.67. The dip follows a fourth consecutive week of decline for both benchmarks on fears of a US recession and historic default. Despite the oil supply shortage, market sentiment towards oil remains weak given economic reopening setbacks in China and concerns of a US growth slowdown.

Gold prices remained steady despite wider economic risks and expectations that the Federal Reserve might pause its interest rate-hike cycle as the U.S. dollar edged higher. The greenback-prices of gold fell 0.2% and were listless at $2,011.04 per ounce. U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to meet with congressional leaders on Tuesday to raise the nation’s debt limit and avoid a catastrophic default. Safe-haven bullion tends to gain during economic or financial uncertainty, but higher interest rates tend to dim non-yielding gold’s appeal.

According to Rahul Shah, VP-Equity Advisory, MOFSL, there could be a stock specific market from here onwards which is what is happening in spite of the straight 11 days and the FIIs buying.

Rajesh Palviya of Axis Securities says that automobiles can continue further upward momentum as most of the stocks have displayed a breakout on the daily as well as on the weekly time frame. From the automobile space, one can look at Mahindra & Mahindra. Stock has shown good recovery in the last couple of weeks and looking at the overall setup, we believe that M&M can continue further upward momentum.

The Congress party’s unexpected victory in Karnataka’s state election was down to a strong anti-incumbency sentiment towards the BJP, according to analysts. It added that the result was notable because Karnataka was usually politically balanced, with a traditional anti-incumbency outlook.