The Indian markets rally mood extended in the last session and benchmarks surged for yet another day, with Nifty making history by closing above the 10000 mark for the first time. Today, the start of the F&O series expiry day is likely to be in green, as the US Fed maintained status quo on the policy rate, though it signalled that the balance sheet reduction process would begin 'relatively soon.' Traders will be getting some support with news that retirement fund body the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation plans to pump in Rs 22,500 crore in exchange traded funds in 2017-18 following approval from the central board of trustees to increase the equity investment from 10 per cent to 15 per cent. Meanwhile, the government has said that the ongoing consolidation among telecom operators will result in efficient use of spectrum for better services, and six players in each service area will have adequate competition. The banking sector stocks will be buzzing as the government has said that a combined 5,076 cases of active banking frauds involving Rs 1 lakh or more causing losses of Rs 16,78,853 lakh were reported by 76 banks during 2016-17. Meanwhile, Reserve Bank deputy governor SS Mundra, with some large stressed firms challenging RBI's directives to banks to initiate proceedings against them under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) in high courts, has said that nobody can be prevented from approaching the judiciary. The Infra sector will be under pressure on a Global Infrastructure Outlook report that India is underperforming in terms of spending needs (in relation to GDP) in several infrastructure segments, within its peer group. There will be lots of important earnings too to keep the markets in action.
The US markets extended their gains in last session, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average to a new record high on some good earnings, though the Federal Reserve failed to offer specifics about its plan to unwind its bloated balance sheet. The Asian markets have made mostly a positive start after FOMC voted to maintain its key interest rate at a 1.00 to 1.25 percent range, and on optimism about corporate earnings.
Back home, Wednesday turned out to be a historic day of trade for Indian equity benchmarks, with Nifty settling above magical five-digit mark of 10,000 for the first time ever on the back of positive sentiments flow among the market participants during the ongoing corporate earnings season. Sentiments remained up-beat since morning, as markets started the session in green with report that the government approved an addition of 7.47 lakh new registration applications under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime. Traders also took some encouragement with private report that Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) pumped in over $25.4 billion into the Indian equity and debt market segments thus far in calendar year 2017 (CY17). The flows have come in on expectation of a revival in India's economic growth and recent government-backed reforms, especially in the banking sector. It was the last leg of trade where markets extended its northward journey and ended above the all time closing high levels, with traders taking support with report stating that a team of officers, led by the commerce secretary, is holding detailed consultations with states to clear the bottlenecks that are hampering exports. Traders shrugged off private brokerage firm report which highlighted that retail inflation in India is expected to rise noticeably from trough in June to 4.4 percent in the second half of this year, driven mostly by food prices and the base effect. The report added that although inflation has bottomed, in the medium term it is expected to see a significant uptrend and rise above the RBI's target. Finally, the BSE Sensex surged 154.19 points or 0.48% to 32,382.46, while the CNX Nifty was up by 56.10 points or 0.56% to 10,020.65.
