The Indian markets displayed a choppy trade in last session and closed marginally in red. Today, the start is likely to remain somber and markets will be following the soft global cues, though the trade is likely to remain choppy owing to the F&O series expiry later in the week. Traders will be first reacting to the two big earnings numbers of Reliance Industries and Cairn India, while the former posted a record profit numbers in the fourth quarter, beating estimates; the latter posted its biggest quarterly loss in Q4. Markets may get some support with the PHD Chamber of Commerce’ statement that the Indian economy is likely to grow at nearly 8 percent in the current fiscal, driven by robust private consumption, which has benefited from lower energy prices and higher real incomes. The banking stocks too may see some action, as the Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian has said that Public sector bankers are wary of writing down bad loans for fear of 'referee institutions' like CBI and CVC going after them. There will be some buzz in the gold and jewellary stocks, with the government deciding to set up a high-level sub-committee to look into the issue of excise duty on jewellery. The sub-committee, chaired by former Chief Economic Advisor Ashok Lahiri, will interact with the trade and industry on the issue.
There will be some important earnings announcements too, to keep the markets ticking. ABB, Delta Corp, Indiabulls Real Estate, Indiabulls Housing Finance, Ultratech Cements, State Bank Of Travancore etc will be announcing their numbers.
The US markets made a mixed closing in last session, while there were some earnings disappointments from tech companies that weighed on the Nasdaq, some positive economic data kept the other major averages in green. The Asian markets have made a weak start, with some of the indices trading lower by about a percent in early deals. Traders are focusing on Central bank policy meetings in Japan and the US later in the week for further cues. The Japanese market declined as the yen strengthened against other major currencies.
Back home, it turned out to be a lackadaisical performance from the benchmark indices on Friday as they failed to extend the gaining streak and settled marginally below the neutral line. However, Indian markets rose nearly 1 percent this week and were on the verge of turning positive for the year on hopes the central bank would continue to cut interest rates in view of easing inflation and expectations of good monsoon rains. Rises in Indian markets was also supported by foreign investors, who bought a net $872.22 million worth of Indian shares so far this month, taking this year's inflows to $1.41 billion. However, weak trend in global markets coupled with depreciation in rupee value weighed on sentiment in the last day of the trading week. Further, investors remained cautious as they looked forward to earnings show of blue-chip companies, including Reliance Industries, which is set to release its numbers after trading hours. Meanwhile, banking stocks rose for another session after a report that the central bank had trimmed the list of companies that needed bad loan provisioning. One the other hand, tyre stocks declined on a report that the Natural rubber prices have risen by over 15% in April 2016 so far. On the global front, Asian markets ended mostly in red, while European stocks remained lower in early trade. Back home, after getting weak start, Indian benchmark indices slipped into deeper red in the early moments of trade since investors largely remained influenced by the pessimistic sentiments prevailing in Asian markets. The key indices failed to show any kind of eagerness and oscillated around the neutral line for most part of noon trades and drifted deeper into the red terrain in afternoon session on account of weak European opening, post which the indices found it hard to claw back into the green terrain and eventually settled in the negative zone. Finally, the BSE Sensex declined by 42.24 points or 0.16% to 25838.14, while the CNX Nifty dropped 12.75 points or 0.16% to 7,899.30.
