Market mood to remain cautious on the last trading day of week

The Indian markets showing a lackluster trade ended marginally in red in the last session. Today, the start is likely to remain cautious and traders will be eyeing the major global developments following the mixed cues after an exit poll suggested British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative party not getting majority.  On the domestic front traders will be getting some support with UN trade report that despite stagnant foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow of $ 44 billion in 2016, India will most likely remain most favoured destination due to its attractiveness among MNCs for cross-border mergers and acquisitions. Meanwhile, Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian has expressed concern over growing protectionism in global markets and felt that India needs open markets to grow at 8-10%. He said that the biggest beneficiaries of the open market policy or globalisation have been middle income countries and the continuation of this is in their interest. There will be some buzz in the power and coal stocks on report that India’s coal imports in May declined 6 per cent due to lacklustre demand from the power sector and sufficient supply of domestic fuel.

The US markets managed a modestly positive close in last session despite choppy trade, traders remained reluctant to make longer bets, as they kept an eye on developments on Capitol Hill, focusing on former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee. The Asian markets have made a mixed start, with some indices trading in red as a note of caution spread across financial markets after an exit poll showed the UK faces a hung parliament. The Japanese market though was trading up by around a percent, as yen weakened against the dollar.

Back home, it turned out to be a lethargic performance from Indian benchmark indices on Thursday, as they failed to snap the session in the green territory and settled marginally below the neutral line. Today’s session largely remained characterized by choppiness, as the aimless indices moved only sideways in a tight band for most part of the day, as investors and foreign funds were adopting a cautious approach, ahead of key political and economic events in the U.S. and Europe. Sentiments remained subdued after Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised concerns over the possibility of fiscal slippages due to the farm loan waivers. RBI Governor Urjit Patel said unless that state governments' budgets allow that fiscal space to go in for a loan waiver, it would be risky to tread on that path.  RBI also cut the economic growth projection to 7.3% for the current fiscal from 7.4% earlier. The central bank, however, used a less hawkish tone and reduced the Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) in its second bi-monthly monetary policy for financial year 2017-18. Traders turned anxious after chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian expressed his unhappiness over the Reserve Bank's inflexibility on interest rates. He warned that real policy rates are becoming tighter and rising at a time of low inflation and slowing growth. However, losses remained capped with UNCTAD’s latest report that India would be the top prospective foreign direct investment (FDI) destination globally after the US and China. It also said that an improved economic outlook in major Asian economies such as India, China is likely to lift investor confidence and help boost FDI inflows by about 15 percent in 2017. Finally, the BSE Sensex declined 57.92 points or 0.19 % to 31213.36, while the CNX Nifty was down by 16.65 points or 0.17% to 9,647.25.