Markets to make a flat-to-cautious start after a long weekend

The Indian markets showed a lackluster trade in last session with no any major cues from either the local or global front. Today, the start is likely to remain flat-to-cautious, as the global traders will still be on holiday and the Asian markets are not very supportive. Also, there will be some pressure with the industry body Ficci stating that the revival prospects for India's manufacturing sector in the October-December quarter seem to be weakening mainly due to a sluggish exports scenario. Based on expectations in different sectors, Ficci in its latest survey pointed out that ten out of twelve sectors were likely to witness low to moderate growth. However, traders will be getting some support with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stating that structural reforms including GST, rationalising direct taxes and ease of doing business are among top priorities for New Year.  The oil and gas stocks will be in action, as the  Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramaniam has said that even after GST, petrol and other petroleum products would continue to be taxed the way now both by the Centre and states. There will be some buzz in the telecom stocks too, as the telecom arm of RIL, Reliance Jio, announced the launch of 4G service for its employees under Jio brand name which will be available from today.

The US markets made a mixed closing in last session before going for a long weekend, as traders remained in a holiday mood and preferred to be on sidelines. The Asian markets have made mostly a positive start and the Japanese market has moved higher with the decline in yen, on report that Japan’s retail sales and industrial production weakened more than estimated in November. On the other hand the markets in mainland China are trading marginally lower.

Back home, It turned out to be a lackadaisical day of trade by the benchmark indices on Thursday, as they failed to end in green territory, settling marginally below the neutral line. The frontline gauges took a breather, a session after showcasing a scintillating performance, as investors chose to remain on the sidelines ahead of the Christmas holiday. Sentiments remained down-beat with minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha’s statement that 2016-17 would be a challenging term with headwinds from low farm sector growth, the global slowdown, and implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission report and the One Rank One Pension. Besides, lack of investors' participation, coupled with the ongoing political turmoil and delay in the passage of a key economic legislation, also weighed on equity markets. However, investors got some comfort with Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya’s statement that the Indian economy will grow over 8 percent this fiscal. He also added that in the first half of the current fiscal, the GDP growth stood at around 7.2 percent and is expected to cross the 8 percent-mark in 2015-16. Some support also came with the report that a Parliamentary panel has suggested several steps such as urgent requirement to reduce procedures and time period for registration of a company in order to improve India's ranking in ease of doing business. On the global front, Asian equity markets ended mixed on Thursday, as regional gains were tempered by losses in mainland China and Japan. Back home, the benchmark got off to a positive start in the morning trade as investors were largely influenced by the supportive leads from global markets. However, the indices dropped into the red terrain sooner than later, lacking any significant upside cues. The indices moved only sideways thereafter and touched intraday lows in the late afternoon session. However, the frontline gauges managed to pare the losses and rose above the neutral line in the dying hours of trade, but still settled in the negative zone. Finally, the BSE Sensex declined by 11.59 points or 0.04% to 25838.71, while the CNX Nifty lost 4.90  points or 0.06% to 7,861.05.