The Indian markets after losing their early momentum traded in a range and ended lower by over half a percent in last session. Today, the start is likely to remain sluggish on weak global cues and traders will largely be concentrating on earnings and development in the parliament for further cues. However, markets may get some support with report of Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into India touched the highest ever mark of $51 billion during the April-February period of last fiscal ended March 31. Meanwhile, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das, pledging a strong focus on the execution of Budget announcements and ensuring that there are no delays in investments by key ministries, said that India plans to further liberalise rules for overseas investors as the government looks to reduce the need for approvals. The realty stocks will be buzzing today with the RBI governor Raghuram Rajan putting the onus on real estate developers, asking them to reduce prices to encourage more people to buy properties. The jewellary and gold stocks too may see some action, as the government has further extended the deadline for jewellers to get their businesses registered with central excise department.
There will be lots of important earnings too, to keep the markets buzzing. Alembic, Maruti Suzuki, IDFC Bank, Axis Bank, IDFC Bank, Syngene International, Biocon, Rallis India etc will be announcing their numbers.
The US markets though recovered from the lows of the day but could not manage a positive close and ended with modest cuts in last session, as traders cashed in on recent gains ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday. The Asian markets have made mostly a lower start ahead of central bank meetings in Tokyo and Washington this week, even though crude oil resumed gains and commodities too advanced.
Back home, Indian equity indices commenced the F&O expiry week on a disturbing note as they went on to extend the declining streak for the second successive session, market participants remained on the sidelines lacking conviction amid slips in crude oil prices and depreciating rupee. Besides, traders remained cautious ahead of the April derivative contracts on Thursday and policy decisions from the Bank of Japan and US FOMC this week. However, investors got some confidence with PHD Chamber of Commerce’s report that India's economy is likely to clock nearly 8 per cent growth in the current fiscal on the back of robust private consumption, which has benefited from lower energy prices and higher real incomes. Some support also came with the report that foreign Direct Investment into India touched the ‘highest ever’ mark of $51 billion during the April-February period of last fiscal ended March 31, 2016. Meanwhile, stocks of Public sector banks (PSBs) came under pressure after the report that the PSBs will not be able to raise funds from the markets and government will have to provide capital support to them in the near term given their weak solvency position. On the global front, most of the Asian markets ended lower on Monday, while the European markets too mirrored similar trends in early deals. Back home, the local benchmark got off to a weak start as investors turn jittery and booked profits ahead of the beginning of the second part of Parliament’s Budget session, as concerns over passage of proposed Bills persisted and focus shifted to key Goods and Services Tax Bill, which is considered as the country’s biggest indirect tax reform since Independence. The frontline indices kept losing steam thereafter and even drifted to the lowest point in the session in late afternoon trades. Though, the bourses recovered from the lows of the day but could not succeed in minimizing the huge losses by the end of trading session. Finally, the BSE Sensex declined by 159.21 points or 0.62% to 25678.93, while the CNX Nifty dropped 44.25 points or 0.56% to 7,855.05.
