Buoyed by global optimism Indian markets are likely to add gains

The Indian markets got a smart pull back rally in last session and indices recovered a major portion what they lost a day ago. Today, the mood is expected to remain sanguine and the markets are likely to add gains on global optimism. Though, the core sector growth has slowed to 0.5% in January, compared to 6.4% registered in the same month year-ago, that may weigh on the investors sentiments, also the Q3 GDP numbers will be announced today, however it will be released after the market hours but the expectation of GDP growth rates remaining in the range of 6.4-6.7%, too will dampen the mood in latter part of the day. The first quarter of 2011-12 saw the economy growing by 7.7%, while the figure was 6.9% in the second quarter, thus delivering a 7.3% economic expansion in the first half. Advance estimates pegged the economic growth at 6.9 per cent for the entire FY12.

Also, the oil marketing companies are keen to hike petrol prices as Indian basket of crude oil imports shot past the $ 123 a barrel mark. There will be some scrip specific movements too ONGC stake auction has been fixed at March 1, the offering and the floor price for the issue has been set at Rs 290 a share. The Kingfisher Airlines management will meet their lenders' consortium led by the State Bank of India today, to convince them to put additional capital in the troubled airline.

The US markets surged on Tuesday and the Dow closed over psychological 13000 level for the first time since May 2008. The markets benefited from Europe's approval of another bailout agreement for Greece and from the new European Central Bank governor's efforts to provide financing for European banks.

On Wednesday, the European Central Bank will launch its second long-term refinancing operation, which will provide an estimated $630 billion in cheap loans to the region's financial system.  Investors also cheered a better-than-expected report of consumer confidence and overlooked weak home price data and durable goods orders. The Asian markets have made a mostly green start on better than expected industrial production numbers in Japan and South Korea.

Back home, after being brutally butchered by around five percentage points in the last four sessions, the domestic benchmark equity indices regained the firepower to go all guns blazing on Tuesday. The key indices vivaciously rallied well over one and half a percent in the session as many investors, smarting from huge losses took up reverse positions, vowing to avenge the next day. The local markets, which suffered the humiliation of comprehensively underperforming the global markets on Monday, went on to outclass all the equity indices across Asia and Europe in the session as the plunge in international crude oil prices buttressed the chances of a rebound for the domestic bourses which were reeling under the pressure of spiraling crude oil prices for four consecutive days. Market participants relentlessly added positions in the rate sensitive counters like the high beta - Realty, Bankex and Auto a day ahead of the release of important third quarter GDP growth numbers by the government. Auto sector stocks also got a lift after union heavy industries minister Praful Patel batting for the auto manufacturers on the diesel duty proposal opined that dual diesel pricing is not feasible right now and government has not pitched for hike in duty for diesel vehicles. The Capital Goods pocket too settled with handsome gains as majors like L&T and BHEL rallied sharply after the severe pounding in previous session. However, the information technology counter shrugged the sanguine sentiments prevailing largely across the board and slipped by over half a percent after heavyweights like TCS, Wipro and Infosys settled in the red. Also the defensive FMCG counter settled on a flat note with a negative bias on the back of close to a percentage point drop in bellwether ITC. The position build up was far more prominent in broader markets as the indices recovered almost all the ground lost in the previous session and settled with around three percent gains, outperforming their larger peers by a fat margin. Finally, the BSE Sensex climbed by 285.37 points or 1.64% to settle at 17,731.12, while the S&P CNX Nifty jumped 94.30 points or 1.79% to close at 5,375.50.