Market may edge lower in early trade

The market may edge lower in early trade as most Asian stocks declined. Trading of CNX Nifty futures on the Singapore stock exchange indicates that the Nifty could fall 14 points at the opening bell.

NMDC said after market hours on Thursday, 3 April 2014 that for the first time in history it has produced more than 30 million tonnes in a single year. NMDC has registered iron ore production of around 30.18 million tonnes which is approximately 11% more than last year. The iron ore sales of the company stood at 30.50 million tonnes which is approximately 16% more than last year.

 

The production of diamonds from India's only Diamond Mine being operated by NMDC in Panna, Madhya Pradesh also registered a remarkable growth of 17% at 37,047 carats compared to 31,533 carats during CPLY.

Pursuing its capital investment schemes, as against an envisaged target of Rs 2720 crore for the year 2013-14, the Company has incurred Rs 2518 crore for its various expansion and diversification projects which is 57% more than CPLY.The projects of development of two new mines viz. Deposit-11B Iron Ore Project and Kumaraswamy Iron Ore Mine, as part of its expansion programme and the installation of 3 MTPA steel plan t at Nagarnar in Chhattisgarh, as part of NMDC's forward integration programme and value addition, are in various stages of execution.

Incidentally, Chairman, NMDC Mr. C.S.Verma received the Most Efficient Navratna award for the company from Mr. T.K.A.Nair, Advisor to the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India on 2nd April 2014. It is pertinent to mention that NMDC is one of the lowest cost producers of iron ore in the world with very high EBITDA margins.

Shri C.S. Verma, CMD commended the performance of the Company and congratulated the employees for surpassing the 30 MT mark in iron ore production and sales and urged them to grow exponentially to cope up with demand of the steel industry. NMDC collective deserves appreciation for the commendable results inspite of evacuation and other problems

On the political front, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday, 3 April 2014, said that the party will release its poll manifesto on 7 April 2014, the day the 9-phase Lok Sabha election begins. The party on Thursday, 3 April 2014, issued its manifesto for the North East region, wherein it stated that it will develop the area as a BPO hub if voted to power. The BJP has already released a Delhi-specific manifesto wherein it has made an array of promises like granting full statehood, reducing power tariff by 30% and controlling price rise within one month if BJP is voted to power. The party, which had lost all the seats in the national capital to Congress in 2009 Lok Sabha polls, said it will set up a helpline for the national capital to receive complaints of corruption. It also promised to bring police, DDA and other land-owning agencies under one roof to streamline governance in the national capital.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) next undertakes monetary policy review on 3 June 2014. The RBI left its main lending rate viz. the repo rate unchanged at 8% after a monetary policy review on Tuesday, 1 April 2014.

The next major trigger for the stock market is Q4 March 2014 and year ended 31 March 2014 (FY 2014) corporate earnings. Investors and analysts will closely watch the management commentary that would accompany the results to see if there is any revision in their future earnings forecast of the company for the year ending 31 March 2015 (FY 2015) and/or for the year ending 31 March 2016 (FY 2016). Indian companies will start reporting their Q4 and full year results from mid-April 2014. The result season will conclude in end-May 2014.

A major near term trigger for the stock market is the outcome of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Lok Sabha elections will be held between 7 April 2014 and 12 May 2014 in nine phases. The counting of votes will take place on 16 May 2014. The term of the current Lok Sabha expires on June 1 and the new House has to be constituted by May 31. Along with the Lok Sabha election, Andhra Pradesh (AP), including the regions comprising Telangana, Odisha and Sikkim will go to polls to elect new assemblies. AP, Odisha and Sikkim assemblies come to end on June 2, June 7 and May 7 respectively.

Key benchmark indices reversed direction after scaling record high on Thursday, 3 April 2014 after the result of a survey showed that business activity in the Indian private sector fell in March 2014, after a fractional increase in February 2014. The S&P BSE Sensex was down 42.42 points or 0.19% to 22,509.07 on that day, its lowest closing level since 1 April 2014.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 717.39 crore on Thursday, 3 April 2014, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.

Business activity across emerging markets fell for the fourth straight month in March, with output contracting in three of the four biggest economies, a survey showed on Friday. HSBC's composite emerging markets index of manufacturing and services purchasing managers' surveys slipped to 50.3 from 51.1 in February, teetering on the 50 threshold that marks the difference between expansion and contraction.

Most Asian stocks declined on Friday as investors await data on US jobs growth later in the global day today. Key benchmark indices in South Korea, Taiwan Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Singapore were down 0.03% to 0.53%. Key benchmark indices in China and Japan were up 0.12% to 0.13%.

US stocks slipped on Thursday, as investors turned cautious ahead of Friday's monthly jobs report.

On the economic front, the US trade deficit unexpectedly widened in February to $42.3 billion as exports hit a five-month low, suggesting that first-quarter growth could be much weaker than initially expected.

A bright spot came from the services sector, where growth accelerated in March after being hampered by unusually cold weather, according to the Institute for Supply Management's services-sector index.

The influential US non-farms payroll data for March 2014 will be released today, 4 April 2014.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) next undertakes monetary policy review at a two-day meeting on 29-30 April 2014. The Federal Reserve on 19 March 2014 said after the conclusion of a monetary policy review that it will trim its monthly bond purchases by $10 billion to $55 billion. The Federal Reserve will end its bond-buying program before the end of the year with an interest-rate increase likely to follow in "around six months," Chair Janet Yellen said on 19 March 2014. Quarterly Fed forecasts on 19 March 2014 showed more officials predicting that the benchmark interest rate, now close to zero, will rise to at least 1% by the end of 2015 and 2.25% a year later.

In Europe, the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) decided that the interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will remain unchanged at 0.25%, 0.75% and 0.00% respectively.

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