Markets to get a cautious start of the new series

The Indian markets went for brutal battering in last session with both the benchmarks slipping to their almost three months low. The March F&O series expiry was tumultuous and the major indices lost around 4% for the series. Today, the start of the new series is likely to remain cautious as the global cues are not very supportive, while the Middle East crisis is still looming large. The telecom stocks are likely to remain in action after Supreme Court allowed the government to conclude the auction of telecom airwaves and collect initial payments from operators. Government will get upfront payment of Rs 28,872 crore from spectrum auction. Meanwhile, global rating agency Moody's has termed the high bids received in spectrum auction as “credit positive” for India and has said that proceeds from the sale of airwaves will help the government meet its fiscal deficit target. There will be some buzz in the aviation stocks too, as the Minister of State for civil aviation Mahesh Sharma has said that  the government is likely to finalise the new civil aviation policy soon.

The US markets continued their bearish trend and ended lower in last session, though the major averages managed to come off the worst levels, they ended in red. The geopolitical concerns erupting from Middle East kept weighing on the sentiments. The Asian markets have made a mixed start with some of the indices trading in red, heading towards the weekly retreat. Japanese market was trading up by around half a percent in early deals as the nation’s core consumer prices rose 2 percent from a year earlier in February.

Back home, prolonging their southward journey for seventh straight session, Indian equity markets witnessed blood bath on F&O expiry session with both the major indices losing over one and a half percentage points and ending below their crucial 8,350 (Nifty) and 27,500 (Sensex) levels amid feeble global cues. Selling was both brutal and wide-based as none of sectoral indices, barring Capital Goods, on BSE were spared. Counters, which featured in the list of worst performers, include realty, oil and gas, capital goods and public sector undertaking. Sentiments weighed down on worries that foreign investors may trim positions on risk aversion after Saudi Arabia launched air strikes in Yemen. Overseas funds sold index futures worth Rs 1,386 crore ($221.2 million) on Wednesday ahead of monthly derivative expiry and end of the fiscal year. On the political front, the NDA government may have to let the Land ordinance lapse and wait for the second half of parliament's budget session that starts from April 20 to introduce the Land Acquisition and GST Bill. Meanwhile, the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA) led by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi approval of the plan to use regassified LNG to restart stalled gas-based power projects in India is likely to add to the profits of gas and power companies such as GAIL, Reliance Power among others. Selling got intensified after European counters made a weak start, while the Asian markets too ended mostly in the red. Back home, depreciation in Indian rupee dampened the sentiments. Selling in software and technology counters too dampened the sentiments on account of soft economic data in US, which is the biggest outsourcing market for Indian IT services firms. In economic data, US business investment spending plans fell for a sixth straight month in February weighed down by a strengthening dollar, weak global demand and restrained activity due to poor weather. On the flip side, telecom stocks edged higher after the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology said that the auction of spectrum in 2100 MHz, 1800 MHz, 900 MHz and 800 MHz bands came to an end. Finally, the BSE Sensex plunged by 654.25 points or 2.33% to 27457.58, while the CNX Nifty dropped by 188.65 points or 2.21% to 8,342.15.