Markets to make a positive start tracking firm global cues

The Indian markets ended at record closing highs surging around two percent in last session after IMF, despite lowering global economic growth forecast in 2015, kept its growth forecast unchanged for India at 5.8% for 2014. Today, the start is likely to be in green tracking the momentum of the global markets. Though, traders are expected to book some of their profit later in the session after four sessions of rally. Meanwhile, the government will pitch the Make in India programme to participants at the four-day World Economic Forum summit in Davos from Wednesday. There will be some buzz in the coal and power related sector stocks, as the Centre will kick start the process of offering de-allocated coal blocks to state-owned entities today with Central and State Public Sector Units getting to cherry pick from the 17 assets available in the first round. The NBFC stocks too may see some action after Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) to refinance fresh infrastructure project loans in five-seven year intervals to improve project viability and debt-servicing capacity of their borrowers.

There will be some important result announcements too, to keep the markets ticking. Century Plyboards, ING Vysya Bank, ITC, KPIT Technologies, L&T Finance Holdings, Raymond, TTK Healthcare, TTK Prestige, ZEE Entertainment Enterprises are among the many to report their numbers.

The US markets reversed initial losses to end modestly higher in last session ahead of European Central Bank’s monetary policy announcement on Thursday. The Asian markets have made mostly a positive start as traders looked ahead to the Bank of Japan's announcement of its monetary decision, after a two-day policy meeting.

Boisterous benchmarks showcased an enthusiastic performance, by rallying around two percentage points on Tuesday. Sentiments remained up-beat since start as key bourses made a gap-up opening 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 fourth straight session but also recorded their all time closing high, settling near their crucial 8,700 (Nifty) and 28,800 (Sensex) bastions as investors took to hefty across the board buying. Sentiments remained up-beat on report that foreign institutional investors were net buyers in Indian equities worth Rs 433.72 crore on January 19, as per provisional stock exchange data. Some support also came after finance Minister Arun Jaitley has stated that the government will take special steps to boost public spending on infrastructure and initiate measures to rationalise subsidies. The Minister added that whole PPP model is still under stress and there is a need for stepping up public investments in infrastructure sector to boost economic growth. Rally got extended after United Nations, in its latest World Economic Situation and Prospects 2015 (WESP) report, has highlighted that Indian economy is likely to grow at 5.9% this year and 6.3% in 2016. Markets also drew solace from IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook report, which despite lowering global economic growth forecast in 2015, kept its growth forecast unchanged for India at 5.8% for 2014. Firm opening in European markets too supported the sentiments with CAC, DAX and FTSE were trading in the green in early deals. Back home, there was broad based buying witnessed in the markets and apart from the blue chips, the broader markets too equally participated in the rally. Meanwhile, metal stocks edged higher after China’s economic growth steady at 7.3% in the fourth quarter allayed concerns over a slowdown in Chinese economy. Finally, the BSE Sensex surged by 522.66 points or 1.85%, to 28784.67, while the CNX Nifty soared by 144.90 points or 1.69% to 8,695.60.