Markets to start the new series on a positive note

The Indian markets surged to their fresh all time highs in last session, backed by some value buying and expiry related short covering. Today, the start of the new series is likely to be in green on positive global cues. Markets will be getting some support with government’s announced austerity drive. The Finance Ministry in wake of lower revenue realisation till date, has issued new austerity measures, including 10 per cent cut in non-Plan expenditure and ban on creation of new posts. Also, the government has said that it is committed to improving the savings rate and plans to launch new products to achieve the objective. Meanwhile traders will be eyeing the movement of rupee, which dropped to two week low after US Federal Reserve kept in place its plans to maintain record low interest rate for some more time.

There will be lots of result reactions to keep the markets buzzing. GAIL, Hatsun Agro, IDBI, ITC, JK Paper, Karnataka Bank, M&M, NMDC and NTPC are among many to announce their numbers today.

The US markets ended higher in last session after getting upbeat economic data. Though US GDP increased by 3.5 percent in the third quarter compared to the 4.6 percent growth seen in the second quarter, but was much better than expected. The Asian markets have made mostly a positive start tailing good cues from the US markets. Japanese market was in most jubilant mood on report that Japan’s $1.2 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund will increase holdings of equities.

Back home, boisterous benchmarks once again showcased an enthusiastic performance, by rallying around a percentage point in October F&O expiry session. After a cautious start sentiments turned jubilant and there appeared not even an iota of profit booking in the session as the benchmarks managed to fervently gain from strength to strength, as investors continued their hunt for fundamentally strong stocks. Frontline indices not only extended their rally for third straight session but also recorded their all time closing high, settling comfortably above their crucial 8,150 (Nifty) and 27,300 (Sensex) bastions as investors took to hefty across the board buying. Sentiments also got some support after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that India has the capacity to grow at 8-9 per cent and good governance would make economic expansion ‘more exuberant’. On the global front, Asian stocks ended mixed, while European bourses opened higher, helped by encouraging corporate earnings, but quickly turned negative. Back home, there was broad based buying witnessed in the markets and apart from the blue chips, the broader markets too participated strongly in the rally. Moreover, better-than-expected earnings from ACC, Maruti Suzuki, Yes Bank and ICICI Bank too soothed the sentiments. ACC registered 69.57% jump in its net profit at Rs 204.91 crore for the September quarter, while Maruti Suzuki India’s net profit rose 28.69% to Rs 862.54 crore on 18.24% growth in total income to Rs 12497.03 crore in Q2 September 2014 over Q2 September 2013. Meanwhile, Yes Bank posted a rise of 30.01% in its net profit at Rs 482.54 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2014, while ICICI Bank has reported a rise of 15.18% in its net profit at Rs 2709.01 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2014. Finally, the BSE Sensex surged by 248.16 points or 0.92%, to 27346.33, while the CNX Nifty soared by 78.75 points or 0.97% to 8,169.20.