Markets likely to get a positive start

The Indian markets surged around half a percent in last session as encouraging corporate earnings and strong pick-up in oil prices mainly buoyed the trading sentiment. Today, the start is likely to be good and the markets may extend their northward journey. Some support will come with one of the leading global research firm predicting a surplus for the first time in more than seven years as falling crude oil prices and lesser gold imports would ease the pressure on the India’s trade balances. Meanwhile, the government has cleared a proposal for auctioning Phase III of FM channels, which is expected to fetch revenue of Rs 550 crore to the exchequer. There will be some action in the Infrastructure sector stocks, as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the government will take special steps to boost public spending on infrastructure and initiate measures to rationalise subsidies. The telecom stocks too may see some action after the Telecom Commission (TC) approved a base price of Rs 3,705 crore for each MHz of 2,100-MHz spectrum to be auctioned on February 25. This price is 36 per cent higher than the Rs 2,720 crore suggested by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

There will be some important result announcements too, to keep the markets ticking. Kotak Bank, Jindal Saw, BASF, Praj Industries, Rallis India, Rasoi, Shemaroo Entertainment, South Indian Bank are among the many to report their numbers.

The US markets remained closed on Monday on account of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, unable to give any cues to the other global markets. The Asian markets have made mostly a positive start as investors awaited data from China on gross domestic product, factory output and retail sales. Though, data expected to show China’s economy grew at the slowest pace in 24 years last quarter, adding to the case for more stimulus measures both at home and abroad.

Extending their winning streak for third day in a row, Indian equity benchmarks ended the session with a gain of around half a percent. Barometer gauges, after a firm opening, traded in tight band throughout the session with frontline gauges ending above their crucial 28,250 (Sensex) and 8,550 (Nifty) levels. Encouraging corporate earnings and strong pick-up in oil prices mainly buoyed the trading sentiment. Some support also came on report that the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) for April-November period of the ongoing fiscal, grew by 22% to $ 18.88 billion as against $15.45 billion in the same period a fiscal before. Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net buyers in Indian equities worth Rs 1,100 crore on January 16, 2015, as per provisional stock exchange data. Supportive cues from US markets provided the much needed support to local markets initially. European shares were trading higher in early deals, adding to last week’s strong gains, helped by mounting expectations the European Central Bank is about to embark into a bond-buying programme to support the euro zone economy. Back home, appreciation in Indian rupee too supported the sentiments. Meanwhile, select stocks from software and technology pack edged higher after Wipro reported better than expected numbers for Q3FY15. The company’s net profit after taxes, minority interest and share of profit / (loss) of associates rose 8.84% to Rs 2192.80 crore for the Q3 FY15 as compared to Rs 2014.70 crore in Q3 FY14. Banking stocks too remained on buyers’ radar on hopes that lower interest rates would help revive loan growth. Finally, the BSE Sensex surged by 140.12 points or 0.50%, to 28262.01, while the CNX Nifty gained 36.90 points or 0.43% to 8,550.70.