Markets likely to get a flat start of the special trading session

Indian markets are going to have a special session for live trading today (April 28, 2012) from 11:00 AM to 12:45 PM in Capital Market and F&O segments both, as NSE is upgrading the capacity of Futures and Options trading system hardware and software to the next generation system to improve processing capability and handle increased activities in the market. Today’s short trading session is likely to remain lackluster with FIIs staying out of the trade and flat start can be expected. Sentiments are also likely to be cautious as after the outlook downgrade by the S&P, IMF has lowered India's growth forecast to 6.9 percent for this year. However, the multilateral agency has retained India's growth estimate at 7.3 per cent for 2013.Meanwhile the telecom companies are likely to keep buzzing after they warned that high spectrum costs would lead to a 25-30% hike in call rates. Earlier this week, Trai had proposed that mobile phone companies should pay a minimum Rs 3,622.18 crore for every unit of 2G spectrum in the upcoming auctions, almost 10 times as of 3G.

There will be lots of result announcements along with result impacts of those that were announced after the market hours yesterday. Axis Bank is likely to see some upmove after it beat street estimates. The third largest private sector bank reported a 25% year-on-year jump in its fourth quarter net profit (Jan-March) at Rs 1277 crore on the back of by higher interest income. Today, Maruti Suzuki, Finolex Inds, Kesoram Inds and Indiabulls Power are among the many to announce their numbers.

The US markets continued their gaining streak for one more day on Friday led by gains in technology after stronger-than-expected earnings from Amazon.com and Expedia, setting aside weaker-than-expected first-quarter GDP data and concerns about Spain's intensifying debt crisis for the time being.

Back home, Indian markets despite a positive start could not held up to their gains and lost momentum in the second half, though they managed to cover up in last hour and ended the Friday’s session with token gain. But at one point of time the benchmarks looked losing their important psychological levels of 17000 (Sensex) and 5150 (Nifty). Earlier the start of the day was flat but positive, the global cues were mixed, as while the US markets closed higher overnight, the Asian markets lost steam after a positive start. However, the European markets after a weak start showed sign of recovery and entered the green, helping the local markets to move up. Initially the domestic investors were encouraged with Indian Meteorological Department statement that rains during the June-September season are likely to be 99 percent of the long-term average. Monsoon rains are vital for agricultural output and economic growth, irrigating about 60 percent of country’s farmland. And investors took it as a positive cue, as the normal monsoon will help curbing inflation. But the mixed earnings announcement kept the markets in tizzy and turned the trade volatile, while the ICICI Bank surprised the street with its better than expected numbers, the second largest lender of the country reported 31.1 percent rise in quarterly profit on the back of strong loan growth and higher treasury and fee income. On the same time, Hindustan Construction (HCC) came up with a dismal number, reporting greater than expected net loss for the final quarter, the company reported net loss of Rs 54.17 crore for the quarter. On the sectoral front, the consumer durables (CD) emerged as the top gainer with stocks like Titan Inds and Rajesh Exports moving higher by over 2 percent each, while the Information Technology (IT) too witnessed value buying and snapped the session higher by over a percent. The one sector that despite buzzing throughout the day closed marginally lower was banking, weak performance by some private sector banks along with the sector heavy weight State Bank of India weighed on the overall performance. Axis bank ahead of its numbers remained in jubilant mood garnering gains of over a percent. The central cabinet has cleared banking laws (Amendment Bill 2011). It also approved increase of voting rights from 10% to 26% for private-sector banks. Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 3.58 points or 0.02% to settle at 17,134.25, while the S&P CNX Nifty rose by 1.60 points or 0.03% to close at 5,190.60.