The week in a nutshell (22nd-26th March)

Technical Talks

 NIFTY opened the week on 22nd March at 14,736 and closed on 26th March at 14,507, it made a weekly loss of 1.5%. The index is trading below its 10DMA of 14,680, which might act as a resistance. On the downside, 100DMA of 14,053 might act as a support. The short-term moving average is cutting longer-term moving from above which might lead to further correction in the index.                                                           

Weekly highlights

• Loan moratorium case: The Supreme Court directed that no compound or penal interest shall be charged from borrowers for the six-month loan moratorium period, which was announced last year amid the COVID19 pandemic. The amount already charged shall be refunded, credited, or adjusted. The apex court refused to interfere with the Centre’s and Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) decision to not extend the loan moratorium beyond August 31 last year. Banks can start declaring their bad loans (loans which have not been repaid for 90 days or more), with the Supreme Court vacating the relief granted earlier not to declare the accounts of borrowers as NPA.
• SEBI on AT-1 Bonds: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) amended the norms for valuing perpetual bonds. Now the maturity would be 10 years until March 31, 2022, and would be increased to 20 and 30 years over the subsequent 6-month period. From April 2023 onwards, the residual maturity of AT1 bonds will be 100 years from the date of issuance of the bond. As per estimates, banks have issued AT1 and tier 2 bonds worth ₹ 3.5 tn. A fifth of these bonds are held by Mutual funds. This move by SEBI provides much-needed relief to the MF industry. (Source- Business Standard edition 23 March 21)
• Oil: A container ship blocking the Suez Canal created a new setback for global trade as officials stopped all ships entering the channel. A ship ran aground in the Suez Canal is blocking transit in both directions through one of the world’s busiest shipping channels for oil and grain and other trade linking Asia and Europe. Officials suggest it might take weeks to clear the blockage, which will impact ~30 percent of the world’s shipping container volume daily and ~12 percent of the total global trade of all goods. Oil prices jumped about 6 percent on Wednesday after this incident.
• The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) suspension which ended on Wednesday, March 24 has not been extended by the Government. This is a welcome move by the banking sector as it will help reduce the burden of Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) on their balance sheets.
• The institutions swapped their strategy from the last week, with FIIs outflow for the week totaling Rs 67,013 mn. The DIIs turned net buyers to the tune of Rs 50,181 mn.

                        Things to watch out

• The Auto Companies will be reporting their monthly volume data for March. The non-availability of chips may impact sales this month. A Business Standard report suggested an average delay of ~6months for Maruti Suzuki’s Ertiga CNG variant delivery and 1.5-2 months for all other models. The delay could be as long as 8-10 months for Mahindra & Mahindra’s All-New Thar and 1.5-2 months for its Scorpio, and Bolero. This suggests that despite the demand, Companies are facing problems with supplying sufficient stocks due to the global semiconductor shortage.