Markets to get a flat-to-positive start of the new week

The Indian markets lost over a quarter percent in the last session, showing a lackluster performance and markets remaining in red through the session. Today, the start is likely to be flat-to-cautious. Traders however may get some support with report that the core sector in the country grew 5% in March, a significant rise from the 1% growth registered in February on account of a favourable base effect. Also, core sector growth for the year ended March hit a five-year high, registering a growth rate of 4.5% over the previous year. Traders will also be getting some support with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's assertion that India was never a more promising investment destination than it is today. He said that today, Indian economy is the fastest growing major economy in the world. In addition to maintaining this pace, our focus is to remove the inefficiencies from the system. Meanwhile, Controller General of Accounts (CGA), Anthony Lianzuala has said that the government is confident of achieving the fiscal deficit target of 3.5 percent for 2016- 17. There will be some buzz in the realty sector stocks, as the Real Estate Regulatory Act (RERA) came into effect from May 1. The Act would bring about a paradigm shift in the way the real estate industry operates and improve the level of transparency and accountability of developers. The auto sector stocks will also be in action, reacting to their monthly sales numbers.

The US markets made a mixed closing in last session on getting some downbeat economic data, while the personal spending was unchanged for the second consecutive month, personal income rose slightly less than expected in the month of March. The Asian markets have made mostly a positive start with, some indices gaining about half a percent coming after a long weekend. Though, the Chinese market was marginally in red after a gauge of April manufacturing fell below estimates.

Back home, Indian stock markets prolonged the weakness for second straight day and finished the session on a dull note, below the neutral lines, as investors booked profits in index heavyweights such as ITC, HDFC, HDFC Bank and Bharti Airtel, after a strong week and ahead of a long weekend. Sentiments remained dismal with the report that private equity investments in the first quarter of this year fell to nearly 3-year low of $2.1 billion in the absence of big ticket deals. According to the report, there was a decline both in terms of value as well as volume of deals and PE investment values dropped to the lowest level in the last 11 quarters. There were 192 PE deals worth $2.1 billion in the January-March quarter, as against 284 such transactions worth $3.02 billion in the year ago period. Leads from the Asian & European counterparts remained highly unsupportive giving no significant direction to the domestic indices, while decline in international crude oil prices too failed to enthuse the local sentiments. Caution also prevailed as market participants were not keen to raise bets at the prevailing record levels despite the start of May F&O series in the derivatives segment. However, losses remained capped with the International Monetary Fund Managing Director's statement that the Goods and Services Tax to be implemented from July 1 would help raise India's medium-term growth to above eight percent, as it will enhance production and the movement of goods and services across Indian states. Meanwhile, people in Uttar Pradesh and in neighboring Uttarakhand are facing a shortage of cash in banks and ATMs, six months after the old currency notes of Rs 1,000 and 500 were demonetised in the country. Finally, the BSE Sensex decreased 111.34 points or 0.37% to 29918.40, while the CNX Nifty was down by 38.10 points or 0.41% to 9,304.05. The Indian markets remained closed on Monday on account of Maharashtra Day.