Where is the market headed?
With just one more day to go before the end of the month, the market remained very flat today, absolutely not moving at all. It feels as though there is a wait for a specific cue, but that cue does not seem to be coming. While IT stocks have stabilized, which serves as good news from the market, there is hardly any other news to discuss.
One of the primary topics of discussion is the FII trend. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were continuous sellers throughout the last 15 months. However, as of 26 February, despite two more days of data remaining, they are up by 4300 crores month to date. This represents the highest monthly inflow in 17 months, suggesting a change in FII flows.
Market Overview
Looking at market headings, it was another flat session, acting almost as an inside session to the large candle seen on Tuesday. The Nifty moved 0.06%, while Nifty Junior inched up gradually by 0.33%, showing a nice momentum trend.
Nifty Next 50
Nifty Mid and Small Cap
Mid-caps were up 0.58%, and small-caps were absolutely flat at 0.07%.
Bank Nifty
The Nifty Bank stood at 0.24%, and its lack of movement is not a great sign for those indices.
GOLD
Gold inched up 0.46% today, while silver was down by 2% at 2,70,724.
SILVER
Advance Decline Ratio
The advanced declines stood at 257 to 243, showing an even balance between buyers and sellers.
Heat Maps
The heat map presented a mixed bag. There were good gains in Shriram Finance, State Bank of India, ONGC, Maruti, Adani Ports, and Eicher. Auto stocks are starting to run up as month-end numbers approach, and some pharma stocks also saw gains.
Conversely, Zomato continues to bleed almost daily, and losses were noted in Coal India, HDFC Bank, and Bajaj Finance.
In the Nifty Next 50 heat map, gains were seen in Bank of Baroda, certain capital goods and oil companies, Pidilite, Solar Industries, VBL, and Vedanta. Hindustan Zinc, IRFC, United Spirits, and Enrin lost some ground.
Mover Of The Day
In the mover of the day segment, Tejas Network moved up 16.7% after a long time following a contract signing with NEC. The stock has taken a beating in recent months. KSB Limited also moved up 9.24% to an eight-week high. These were the two big gainers in an otherwise flat market.
Sectoral Overview
Regarding sectoral trends, Defence came back with a 1.48% increase, illustrating how sectors are rotating. Pharma and PSU Banks continued to rise, with the latter up nearly 1%. Oil, gas, and Nifty Auto also moved up.
On the downside were Nifty Media, Tourism, and a trendless FMCG. Capital markets, financial services, and the services sector followed. Over the last month, IT has lost 20% while FMCG is up 0.7%. For the entire year, FMCG is flat at 0.82%. Tourism, media, and real estate have also failed to move, pulling down performance for investors.
The best-performing sectors over the last year have been PSU banks, followed by defense, metals, and capital markets. Strategies aligned with these sectors would have outperformed the benchmark.
Sector of the Day
Nifty India Defence Index
Defense stocks like Data Patterns, Astra, Bharat Dynamics, Solar Industries, and Bharat Electronics all moved up 2 to 5%. As a disclaimer, several of these stocks may be held in company portfolios.
U.S. Market
The US market had a very good previous session, with indices up 0.5% to 1.3%. Big gainers included Intuit, Netflix, Capital One, Citigroup, and Palantir, rising 4% to 6%. Some of these stocks could be part of the Weekend Investing U.S. stock strategy.
The NASDAQ 100 heat map showed a big move from Netflix and a general green screen for other stocks. In the tweet of the day segment, a chart regarding gold ETF flows was discussed.
Tweet Of The Day
The data shows that gold ETF inflows have crossed equity mutual fund inflows this past month. This doesn’t mean money is leaving equity, but rather that gold investment is rising significantly. While equity is often thought of as the larger chunk of household wealth, Indian households actually hold $5 trillion in gold compared to approximately $1.1 trillion in equity.
A remarkable move by SEBI today involves a new circular allowing actively managed equity funds to park more money in gold and silver.
This unshackles fund managers who were previously restricted. For example, a fund mandated to invest 60% in equities can now utilize the remainder in these other asset classes. This indicates a positive undercurrent for gold and responds to fund manager demands to avoid losing out on this hedge, a topic discussed at Weekend Investing for nine years. However, one missing piece is that while mutual funds can now invest in gold ETFs, Alternate Investment Funds (AIFs) are still not allowed to do so. It is hoped this request reaches the right ears.
