The Indian markets picked up pace in the final hours of last session, after remaining range bound for most part of the day and ended with decent gains. There was broad based buying and traders lapped up stocks at lower valuation. Today, the start is likely to be in green and markets will be extending their gains ahead of the macro data release of IIP and CPI inflation after the market hours. Traders will be getting some support with World bank’s report that India's GDP will grow at 7.7% in 2017 and 7.5% in 2016, not only this driven by India's GDP growth, the World Bank forecasted gradual acceleration in South Asia's economic growth from 7.1 percent in 2016 to 7.3 percent in 2017. Also, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has reported that foreign direct investment in the country increased to $42 billion during April-February in 2015-16, up by 27.45 percent from the inflows in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. Meanwhile, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has advised states to stick to fiscal discipline, spend on infrastructure and development activities and to use Aadhaar for transferring benefits to people. There will be some buzz in the oil companies, as the Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan offered investors in the United Arab Emirates investment opportunities worth between $1.5-1.8 billion in projects of state-owned firms.
The US markets ended modestly lower in the last session as traders expressed concerns that companies will report disappointing first quarter results, with the Aluminum giant Alcoa releasing its first quarter results after the close of trading. The Asian markets have made mostly a positive start led by the rebound in the Japanese market as the yen snapped its longest rally since 2012.
Back home, Indian benchmark equity indices staged a blockbuster performance on the first day of the week by strongly rallying close to one and half percentage points in the session and re-conquering their psychological levels. Investor sentiment was buoyed by a strong trading in the European markets and higher expectations of a strong performance from Big IT companies in the forthcoming earnings season. Besides, fresh buying was also witnessed in the mid-cap and small-cap space as traders purchased the beaten down stocks at attractive valuations. Sentiments got some support with Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das’ statement that a Parliamentary panel is expected to submit its report on the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Code on April 29 and government would push for the passage of the bill in the second leg of the Budget session. Also, Naushad Forbes, the new President of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said that Indian industry is ready to grant greater market access to European Union firms in areas such as automobiles, wines and spirits in return for gains in garments, automobiles, automobile components and services sector in a bid to end a deadlock on the proposed EU Free Trade Agreement. On the global front, Asian markets struggled for direction on Monday; however a sharp rebound in European stocks suggested a pent-up appetite for risk. Back home, after getting positive start, Indian benchmark indices slipped into negative territory in early session and traded near neutral line for most part of the session as investors adopted cautious approach, ahead of key economic data -- industrial production (IIP) for February and consumer price index (CPI) data for March -- to be released tomorrow. However, good gains in banking stocks and a rebound in index heavyweight like Infosys aided intraday rebound for the two key benchmark indices in late trade. The bourses further capitalized on the momentum and spurted in final hour of trades on the back of broad based bottom fishing in undervalued stocks. Finally, the BSE Sensex surged 348.32 points or 1.41% to 25022.16, while the CNX Nifty rallied 116.20 points or 1.54% to 7,671.40.
