The Indian markets lost their pace completely in the final moments and made a flat closing in last session. Today, the start of the local markets is likely to be firm tracking the gains in the global markets after crude oil prices surged to their three months high. Traders will also be taking some cues from the rupee movement, which rose to a two-month high against the US dollar in last session, after US Fed tempered expectations of further rate hikes. Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India has issued guidelines to trade in currency futures and said that primary dealers or bond houses should have a minimum capital base of Rs 250 crore to participate in the exchange traded currency futures market. There will be some buzz in the markets with the statistics ministry’s plan to include ecommerce in the calculation of the consumer price index (CPI), as more Indians take to shopping online. There will be some concern too in the market related to the passing of the GST Bill in the parliament after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said it's difficult to accept demand of the Congress to cap GST rate in the pending Constitution Amendment Bill, however he remained hopeful that it will get passed in the second half of the current Budget session.
The US markets coming out of their early lackluster performance, turned higher in the last session, taking the major averages to their best closing levels in over two months. Traders reacted to a report from the Philly Fed showing an unexpected expansion in regional manufacturing activity in the month of March. The Asian markets outside Japan have made a good start, as crude oil prices firmed above $40 a barrel, though the Japanese market was down led by exporters as the yen headed for its best week in a month.
Back home, Indian stocks markets showed a volte-face on Thursday as what started on a promising note, ended as a dismal show. The optimism in domestic markets petered out completely by the end of trade and the benchmarks even drifted in to the negative territory despite getting off to a gap-up opening. The sentiments were optimistic in early trade after the US Fed kept key rates unchanged and brought down the anticipated hikes in 2016 to two from its earlier December 2015 forecast of four. Emerging markets, including India, rejoiced as fears of massive exodus of foreign capital should abate with a more modest increase in the US rate trajectory expected over the medium-term. Gains were visible across Asian markets with the Shanghai Composite, Straits Times, Taiwan Weighted and the Hang Seng rallying between 0.5 percent - 1.5 percent. On the domestic front, sentiments also got some support from reports that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) pumped nearly $2 billion in Indian markets, as compared to a withdrawal of nearly $3 billion in the first two months of calendar year 2016. Besides, firm global cues coupled with the appreciation in rupee value against the dollar added to the optimistic sentiments. Indian rupee strengthened by 54 paise to 66.68 against the dollar at the time of equity markets closing on increased selling of the US currency by exporters & banks. However, Investors squared off position in the dying hours of trade as sentiments turned pessimistic on concerns over Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's statement that it is ‘extremely difficult’ to achieve double-digit growth in the current global environment, though there is a scope for improvement from the current rate if reforms are carried on. Apart from this on the global front, sentiments also petered out after European counters made a weak start. Back home, the optimism started showing signs of easing in late hours of trade and profit booking in few sectors and sharp selling in pharma stocks weighed down the local bourses. Finally, the BSE Sensex declined by 5.11 points or 0.02% to 24677.37, while the CNX Nifty rose 13.80 points or 0.18% to 7,512.55.
