Bulls back on Dalal Street or will bears fight back today? 5 things to know before opening bell Domestic markets marked the return of bulls on Monday as Sensex and Nifty zoomed nearly 2% higher each. S&P BSE Sensex rose 1.9% or 1,041 points to end the day at 55,925 while the NSE Nifty 50 index jumped 308.95 points or 1.89% to settle at 16,661. India VIX, the volatility index, has slipped below 20 levels, tanking almost 7% on Monday. Entering Tuesday’s trade, SGX Nifty was down with marginal losses, suggesting a weak opening for indices. Global cues were negative with most Asian stock markets down with losses. Global watch: US Stock Markets were shut on Monday owing to memorial day. Asian markets were largely down in red during the early hours of trade on Tuesday. Shanghai Composite, Hang Seng, Nikkei 225, and TOPIX were trading with losses. KOSPI and KOSDAQ were up with gains. Levels to watch out for: Support for the Nifty 50 index is now in the 16500-16370 range, said Ruchit Jain, Lead Research, 5paisa.com. “On the flipside, the 200 DEMA at 16750, the previous support zone of 16825-16900 are the immediate levels to watch,’” he added. Meanwhile, Nagaraj Shetti said that chart formations point towards a probable bottom reversal for the Nifty at the swing low of 15735-12th May. “As per this pattern, any downward corrections from here is going to be short-lived and could be a buy on dips opportunity for the near term. The next upside levels to be watched at 16900-17000 levels,” he added. FII and DII trades: After weeks of continuous selling, Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) were seen buying domestic stocks. FII pumped in Rs 502 crore into Dalal Street on Monday. Domestic Institutional Investors (DII) were net buyers as well, putting in Rs 1,524 crore. Call and Put OI: For the June series, Call Open Interest (OI) is the highest at 17000 strike with 20.9 lakh contracts, followed by 17500 strike. Put OI is the most at 16000 strike and at 15500 strike.
Retail inflation in milk was reported at 8.85% in May 2023. The milk inflation has remained elevated at over 6% since August 2022. Despite India being the largest milk producer since 1998, the commodity has been the second biggest factor after cereals such as rice and wheat in driving up retail inflation in the last fiscal.
Milk has the second highest weight in the food and beverages basket of the consumer price index at 6.61%, a notch lower than cereals and products with a 9.67% weight. Organised players, including Mother Dairy and Amul, hiked prices multiple times in the last one year citing higher fodder cost, robust demand and some impact due to reports of lumpy skin disease.
Industry sources said feed cost, which has a share of more than 65% in the cost of production of milk, has increased to Rs 20/kg from Rs 8 a year ago. The finance ministry in April had attributed the elevated milk inflation to a demand supply mismatch and said it could be one of the factors apart from volatile international crude oil prices and constrained supplies of milk would influence the country’s inflation trajectory.
“Milk production has been impacted by a lumpy skin disease infecting millions of cattle in late 2022,” the ministry said in the monthly economic review, adding that the vaccination drive against the disease is expected to curb the spread and immune the cattle against the skin disease.
According to official data, currently India is the world’s largest milk producer, and has a share of 23% in global milk production. For the first time in decades, the country’s milk production is likely to have stagnated in 2022-23 due to Lumpy Skin Disease in cattle across several states and the lagged effect of Covid-19 in the form of stunting of the animals, a senior official with department of animal husbandry and dairying recently had stated. The milk production was estimated at 221 million tonne in 2021-22.