Markets to make a strong start of the F&O expiry week

The Indian markets posted good gains in a steady session of trade on Friday, though benchmarks paring some gains in final hours closed just shy of their crucial psychological levels. Today, the start of the volatile F&O series expiry week is likely to be jubilant and the NSE Nifty may reclaim the 8350 levels in early deals. However, there will be some cautiousness too, as an Assocham study has said that inflation may have dropped significantly from last year, but most Indians still find prices of goods and services consumed on a daily basis growing beyond their comfort level. The infra stocks will be in action, as the Finance Ministry has called a meeting to discuss with stakeholders various regulatory and financing issues facing the infrastructure sector in the country. There will be buzz in the capital goods stocks, as the government has released the draft of a National Capital Goods Policy that envisages increasing the share of capital goods from 12% to 20% of total value manufacturing by 2025.  Banking stocks too will be in action, as the RBI governor Raghuram Rajan has urged banks to use technology to cut costs and asked them to make sure that more customers use newer technology-based products.

There will be lots of important result reactions too, to keep the markets buzzing. Advanta, Asian Paints, Bharti Airtel, Aptech, BlueStar, HDFC, Inox Wind, State Bank of Mysore and Taj GVK will be among many to announce their numbers today.

The US markets rallied on Friday that lifted the major averages to their best closing levels in at least two months. The rally was mainly induced by good earnings from tech companies and as People's Bank of China cut both the one-year lending rate and the deposit rate by a quarter-point. The Asian markets have made a strong start, extending the global rally on unexpected interest rate cut decision by China.

Back home, buoyed by firm global cues, Indian equity benchmarks ended the session with a gain of over half a percent on Friday. Sentiments remained up-beat since morning and markets after a gap-up opening managed to trade in tight-band till end after European Central Bank said that it is studying new stimulus measures that could be unveiled as soon as December. Future, some support also came in with a Moody’s Investors Service’s report stating that India will clock the highest growth rate of 7-7.5 per cent among G20 economies in 2015 and 2016. It has said that India is less exposed to global risks because of its more resilient economic growth and the impact of positive policy reforms momentum. Also, the Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR), a quarterly global survey has stated that India Inc is the second most optimistic in terms of business optimism globally. Traders drew some encouragement with report that the government is likely to meet its fiscal deficit target this year despite risks of shortfall in tax collection and disinvestment proceeds, as it may go for a small reduction in public spending.  Global cues too remained supportive with European counters making a firm start, while the Asian markets rallied. Back home, appreciation in Indian rupee too supported the sentiments. Buying in banking counter too aided sentiments as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued guidelines for the Gold Monetisation Scheme that allow banks to fix their own interest rates on gold deposits. On the flip side, shares of software companies struggled today after Wipro gave a muted guidance for the third quarter. Wipro expects revenues from the IT services business to be in the range of $1,841 million to $1,878 million, a growth of 0.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent from the September quarter. Finally, the BSE Sensex surged by 183.15 points or 0.67% to 27470.81, while the CNX Nifty gained 43.75 points or 0.53% to 8295.45.