The Indian markets surged around one and a half percent in last session taking cues from the global markets. Today, the start is likely to be on the positive side amid firm global cues and all eyes will be on the Infosys Q3 numbers, which will kick start the official earnings season. There is general expectation that the IT bellwether will report a marginal profit growth of 1.9% for the quarter as quarterly performance of the company may be impacted by seasonal weakness and cross currency headwinds. Moreover, the company is likely to revise downwards its annual guidance, currently set at 7-9 per cent for the full fiscal year 2014-15. Investors will also be getting some support from Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that significant downward trend in inflation has been recorded in the second and third quarter of 2014-15. The external environment has also largely turned in India’s favour. Meanwhile, Sebi has proposed electronic-IPO (e-IPO) to eliminate printing application form and reduce the overall cost of public issuance. The regulator said this will reduce the post issue timelines from 12 days to 6 days. Consumer Durables stocks will be in action, as most of the company’s in the sector are increasing prices of their products by up to 5% following the withdrawal of excise duty sops, coupled with high input costs.
The US markets ended higher in on Thursday. The continued strength on Wall Street partly reflected optimism about the outlook for monetary policy following release of the minutes of the latest Federal Reserve meeting. The Asian markets have made mostly a positive start with strong cues overnight from Wall Street and Europe as well as steady oil prices boosting investor sentiment.
Back home, boisterous benchmarks showcased an enthusiastic performance on Thursday, by rallying around one and a half percentage points amid strong global cues. Sentiments remained up-beat since start as key bourses opened with huge gap on upside 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 hunt for fundamentally strong stocks. Frontline indices not only ended the session near intraday high levels but also recaptured their crucial 8,200 (Nifty) and 27,250 (Sensex) bastions as investors took to hefty across the board buying. Sentiments got bolstered after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that the ongoing global slow growth is an opportunity for the country as investors are eyeing this market. The union minister said investments would trigger economic activity which will in turn boost growth and lead to job creation. Buying got extended after European markets made a firm start and were trading higher in early deals tracking gains in the United States and Asia, as retail stocks rallied and the minutes from the Fed’s recent meeting reassured investors that it was not in a hurry to start raising rates. 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. Appreciation in Indian rupee too supported the sentiments. The partially convertible rupee was trading at 62.66 per dollar at the time of equity market closing against the Wednesday’s close of 63.17 on the Interbank Foreign Exchange. Meanwhile, software and technology stocks remained on buyers’ radar on positive jobs data from US, with Infosys concluding higher ahead of its Q3 results, January 9, 2015. United States is the world’s biggest outsourcing market for Indian IT firms. Banking stocks too edged higher on hopes of rate cut by RBI in its upcoming monetary policy review in February. Additionally, hospitality firms advanced after latest data showed that Foreign Tourist Arrivals to India increased 6.8% to 8.77 lakh in December 2014 over December 2013. Finally, the BSE Sensex surged by 365.89 points or 1.36%, to 27274.71, while the CNX Nifty soared by 132.50 points or 1.64% to 8,234.60.
