Markets to make mildly positive start of the F&O expiry week

The Indian markets before going for a long weekend showed a choppy trade in the last session in the wake of heightened geopolitical tensions and Brexit talks beginning in Brussels, but they managed a modestly positive close. Today, the start of the F&O expiry week, despite sluggish global cues is likely to be a bit positive on some supportive development during the weekend. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said that the firing of three ballistic missiles by North Korea this week was a provocative act, but that the US would continue to seek a peaceful resolution. On the domestic front, Nandan Nilekani returned to Infosys as non-executive chairman, promising to bring back stability to the beleaguered company following the exit of Vishal Sikka as CEO. Traders will be getting some support with industry body Assocham statement that biometric cards have facilitated disbursement of as much as Rs 83,184 crore to beneficiaries of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) schemes without the notorious leakages of the past. Meanwhile, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana and the related Jan Dhan- Aadhaar and Mobile number (JAM) trinity has the potential to link all Indians into one common financial, economic, and digital space. There will be some buzz in the pharma stocks ahead of the draft pharma policy meet during the week later, as the draft's proposal is to do away with loan licensing (except in bio-pharmaceuticals) and bring in the World Health Organisation's Good Manufacturing Practices standards.

The US markets made a mixed closing in the last session, with tech-heavy Nasdaq ending marginally in the red, however there was some upmove in early deals on hopes of tax reforms following comments from President Donald Trump's chief economic adviser Gary Cohn. The Asian markets have made a mixed start as investors weighed the damage from Tropical Storm Harvey on U.S. oil refining centers and as the Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen failed to provide clues on monetary-policy tightening, focusing on the topic of financial stability a decade after the onset of the financial crisis.

Back home, it turned out to be a choppy day of trade for Indian equity benchmarks and key gauges eked out slender gains on Thursday, with Nifty holding their crucial 9,850 level and Sensex ending just shy of 31,600 mark. Markets traded with volatility through the session as traders kept a close eye on a central banking conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which begins on Thursday; where Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi are both due to speak. Domestic bourses traded mostly in green with traders taking support with a private research enlightening that the implementation of the new Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code is expected to give a big push to credit growth as international experience shows that laws to resolves bad assets have helped boost credit growth. Some support also came with report that India’s agricultural sector has potential to double the income of farmers and grow exports to $100 billion by 2022. According to Crop Care Federation of India (CCFI) president Rajju Shroff, now the country ranks second-largest food producer in the world, touching $367 billion in 2014. However, gains remained capped after the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) data showed that India Inc’s overseas direct investment fell over 47 percent to $1.77 billion during July 2017. Indian companies had invested $3.35 billion in the same month of last year. Of the total investments in foreign ventures by Indian companies overseas, $900.66 million was in the form of issuance of guarantee, $513.81 million as loan and $353.55 million was part of equity investment. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 28.05 points or 0.09% to 31,596.06, while the CNX Nifty was up by 4.55 points or 0.05% to 9,857.05. Indian markets remained closed on Friday on account of ‘Ganesh Chaturthi.’