Markets to make a cautious start amid mixed regional cues

The Indian markets suffered severe sell-off in the last session and the major benchmarks lost around a percent in aftermath of Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka's resignation. Today, the start is likely to be cautious and some recovery in the pounded Infosys shares can be seen, which can support the overall markets, as the Infosys’ board approved a Rs 13,000-crore share buyback at Rs 1,150 per share, almost 25 percent higher than the Friday’s close. Traders will be eyeing the PM Narendra Modi’s meet with industry leaders for policy inputs to build a ‘New India’. The banking stocks will remain in focus, as the Centre is looking to set up a new mechanism to speed up decisions on possible mergers among PSBs. The new process will be along the lines of the alternative mechanism that's been adopted for strategic disinvestments, which involves a small group of cabinet ministers. Meanwhile, RBI Governor Urjit Patel has said that the central bank is working closely with the government to resolve non performing asset (NPA) problem and considering package of measures. The infra stocks will be buzzing with a flash report by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) stating that as  many as 322 infrastructure projects, each worth Rs150 crore or above, have seen a total cost overrun of Rs1.71 lakh crore by March 2017.

The US markets once again ended in red in the last session following the sell-off seen in the previous one. The trade remained lackluster and the major averages spent much of the session bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line. The Asian markets have made mostly a soft start, eyeing the key meeting of global central bankers at Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Back home, Friday turned out to be a disappointing day of trade for Indian equity benchmarks, as key indices traded sluggish through the session and settled below their crucial 31,600 (Sensex) and 9,850 (nifty) levels. Traders opted to book profits in risky assets after three days of continuous rally amid weak global cues. Heavy selling in IT pack mainly dampened sentiments with Infosys leading the fall on the back of developments in the top management exit. IT major announced that its board of directors has accepted the resignation of Vishal Sikka as the Managing Director and CEO with immediate effect. Some pessimism also crept in with Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian’s statement that  overemphasis on renewable energy would create a 'double whammy' for the government by reducing the viability of thermal power plants and raising bad loans of state-owned banks. Traders shrugged off report by real estate consulting firm CBRE South Asia that India has surpassed China in the global Retail Development Index in 2017, indicating growing prominence of the country as a preferred retail destination for global brands. Traders failed to get any sense of relief with report that the government gave some relief to taxpayers availing of transitional input tax credit under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime by giving them an extra week till 28 August 28 to file tax returns. Finally, the BSE Sensex lost 270.78 points or 0.85% to 31,524.68, while the CNX Nifty was down by 66.75 points or 0.67% to 9,837.40.