The Indian markets continued moving higher in last session on the back of some good macro data and recovery in monsoon conditions. Today, the start is likely to be in green on supportive global cues and the traders will be reacting to the better than expected earnings of Reliance Industries. The company's standalone net profit for the first quarter stood at Rs 5,649 crore, 5.5 per cent higher from the corresponding period a year ago, backed by lower interest and depreciation costs along with slightly better refining margins. The consolidated net profit rose 13.7 per cent to Rs 5,957 crore. Traders will also be eyeing the companies related with insurance business as the government is likely to issue new norms to address management control, voting rights in insurance FDI. There will be some buzz in the PSU oil marketing companies, as the Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has once again said that cooking gas and kerosene prices will not be hiked, however he said that the petrol prices would move according to the prevalent market price mechanism. There will be some action in telecom sector too, on report that the telecom regulator is likely to propose allowing operators share all kinds of airwaves - including those administratively allotted.
There will be lots of result announcements too to keep the markets buzzing. HDFC, HDFC Bank, Exide Industries, HDIL, Hindustan Zinc, Idea Cellular, Indiabulls Securities, HDIL, Texmaco Rail & Engineering, V Mart Retail, Supreme Industries and Tata Metaliks and WABCO India will announce their numbers.
The US markets made a recovery and ended higher in last session supported by some good earnings announcements. The Asian markets have made mostly a positive start of the new week, coming out of the incident of downing of a passenger jet in Ukraine.
Back home, extending their northward journey fourth day in a row, Indian equity benchmarks ended the session in the green with frontline gauges recapturing their crucial 25,600 (Sensex) and 7,650 (Nifty) bastions, as better-than-expected first quarter earnings from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) sparked a rally in IT stocks and offset global worries over the downing of an airliner in Ukraine. Sentiments also remained up-beat on reports that the foreign direct investment (FDI) flows into the country more than doubled to $3.60 billion in May, the highest in the last eight months. Earlier, barometer gauges made a cautious start tailing weakness in the global markets but indices turned positive after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that India’s economic growth is expected to improve during the current fiscal from 4.7% in 2013-14, helped by a revival in industrial growth, improved fiscal health and external economic situation. However, gains remained capped after the Indian Agriculture Research Institute officials stated that if monsoon remains weak in key States in the next week, then kharif production is likely to be lower by an estimated 10 per cent. Sluggish global cues too limited the gains with European markets making a lower start, while Asian markets ended mostly in the red terrain. Back home, shares of information technology (IT) companies remained on buyers’ radar after TCS reporting better than expected net profit for the quarter ended June 2014 (Q1). The company has reported 45.01% rise in its consolidated net profit at Rs 5567.68 crore for the quarter as compared to Rs 3839.50 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. Total income has increased by 25.50% at Rs 22898.18 crore for quarter under review as compared to Rs 18245.56 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2013. On the flip side, stocks related to power sector remained under pressure on reports that nearly half of the thermal power plants in the country, including over 20,000 MW capacity stations of state-run NTPC, are reeling under coal shortage with stocks to last less than a week. Finally, the BSE Sensex surged by 80.40 points or 0.31%, to 25641.56, while the CNX Nifty gained 23.45 points or 0.31%, to 7,663.90.
