Markets to make a muted start on weak global cues

The Indian markets outperformed the global peers and surged in last session close to a percent, despite geo-political worries. Today, the start is likely to be cautious and some consolidation can appear tailing the weak global cues. Marketmen will be eyeing the macro economic data of industrial production and consumer price inflation to be released after the market hours. Traders will however be getting some support with Niti Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya’s statement that he Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime should be implemented as scheduled despite all challenges as progress will take place only after we move ahead in this regard. Meanwhile, GST-Network , the firm which is building the IT backbone of the Goods and Services Tax regime has assured stakeholders that all their data will be stored in an encrypted form and only the taxpayer and the assessing officer will have access to the information.  The export oriented stocks will remain under pressure with rise in rupee; EEPC India too has expressed apprehensions regarding the debilitating impact that the sharp rise in rupee against dollar can have on exports.

The US markets closed marginally in red in the last session, though the major averages recovered from the early lows and were well off their worst levels of the day, but the mood reflected geopolitical concerns on the heels of President Donald Trump's decision to launch a missile strike at an airbase in Syria. The Asian markets have made a mixed start and many of the indices are in red, led by the Japanese market which is down by over a percent after the yen jumped to the highest since November, as investors avoided riskier assets amid lingering geopolitical concerns.

Back home, a session after displaying a pitiful performance, Indian equity indices have managed to pull through a brilliant performance by gaining over half percent on Tuesday, thanks to the hefty buying by funds and retail investors ahead of March quarter earnings, which begin later this week. Sentiments got boost after Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that some new measures for NPAs are being contemplated and the government is making all conscious efforts to tackle bad loans. Besides, optimistic buying in blue-chip stocks ahead of industrial production (IIP) data for February and retail inflation for March tomorrow also kept markets on course. Some support also came with the report that India's oil consumption fell for the third straight month in March as the demand growth in diesel, petrol and other products came to a crawl. The oil demand fell by 0.65% in March to 17,358 thousand metric tonnes (TMT). However, gains remained capped with the report that India's inflation is seen climbing to within touching distance of the central bank's 4% medium-term target in March, driven by higher food costs. According to the report, having sunk to its lowest level for at least five years in January, consumer price inflation is expected to have risen to 3.98% last month from February's 3.65%. Furthermore, leading exporters' body EEPC India has raised a red flag against the debilitating impact of sharp rise in rupee against dollar in the last three months on exports, which may slip off from the recovery path, if the situation persists further. Since the first week of January, rupee has gained by close to six per cent, eroding significantly the exporters' margins and more importantly the competitive edge against India's trade rivals in the international markets. Meanwhile, shares of private electricity generation companies, Adani Power and Tata Power Company, came under sharp selling pressure on reports that the Supreme Court has disallowed compensatory tariff to both the companies. Finally, the BSE Sensex surged 212.61 points or 0.72% to 29788.35, while the CNX Nifty was up by 55.55 points or 0.61% to 9,237.00.