The Indian markets despite showing some signs of recovery ended lower by about half a percent in the last session on weak global cues. Today, the start is likely to be in green on supportive cues from the global markets, ahead of the European Central Bank's policy meeting, scheduled for today. Traders will be getting some support with a private report stating that economic activity in the country lost some pace amid GST related disruptions but underlying growth momentum remains strong and the country may clock 6.7 percent growth this fiscal. Meanwhile, in a bid to provide a "major" thrust to job creation by enhancing India’s exports, the NITI Aayog has set up a task force to be headed by its Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar. The task force will propose a comprehensive plan of action to generate employment and alleviate under-employment in both goods and services sectors and low wages by boosting India’s exports in key labour-intensive industries. Export oriented stocks will be in focus, as the Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu has said his ministry is looking at certain measures to rev up country's exports in a “shortest possible time” and will also strive to address the issues facing exporters post GST. He added that exports to GDP (gross domestic product) ratio of India has to improve substantially as the outbound shipments have a great ability to generate economic activity.
The US markets bounced back and ended higher following the sell-off seen in the previous session, on report that President Donald Trump agreed to support a measure that would raise the debt ceiling and fund the government for three months. The Asian markets have made mostly a green start taking cues from the US markets and investors weighed a US deal that ensures the funding of its government through mid-December against persistent geopolitical tensions. The Japanese market too was higher, as yen stayed lower after an overnight drop.
Back home, Wednesday turned out to be a disappointing day of trade for Indian equity benchmarks, with frontline gauges ending below their crucial 31,700 (Sensex) and 9,950 (Nifty) levels, as tensions over North Korea’s latest nuclear test showed few signs of abating and continued to spook global investors. Markets started off on pessimistic note as sentiments remained dampened with government saying that names of over 2.09 lakh firms have been struck off from register of companies for failing to comply with regulatory requirements and action has been initiated to restrict operations of their bank accounts. The Centre has also stepped up action against such entities by bringing in restrictions on the operation of their bank accounts by their existing directors and authorised representatives. Besides, cracking the whip, SEBI barred 19 domestic and foreign entities from securities markets for manipulation in issuances of global depository receipts and warned several others including FIIs. However, markets trimmed some of their initial losses in second half of the trade, as market participants took some solace with the new Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu’s statement that the Ministry will soon bring out a policy framework for facilitating access to global markets for the Indian agriculture produce. The recovery proved short lived and was not able to take markets into green, as investors took note of Economic Survey-II saying that demonetization has hurt the informal economy and triggered a rush for distress labour under job guarantee scheme (MGNREGA), though the wages available under the scheme may also have helped contain rural unrest and a political backlash to some extent. Meanwhile, private report said that economic activity in the country lost some pace amid GST related disruptions but underlying growth momentum remains strong and the country may clock 6.7 percent growth this fiscal. Finally, the BSE Sensex lost 147.58 points or 0.46% to 31,661.97, while the CNX Nifty was down by 36.00 points or 0.36% to 9,916.20.
