Markets to make optimistic start on Monday

Indian equity markets ended higher by around a percent after U.S. government debt yields fell from multiyear highs, helping ease investor worries over inflation and interest rates. Today, the start of holiday-shortened week is likely to be on optimistic note following firm global cues. Back on domestic turf, the investors will remain watchful for Q4 GDP estimate and manufacturing PMI data to be announced later in the week. Traders will be getting some support with Union Minister Parshottam Rupala’s statement that the Centre was making concerted efforts to double the income of farmers by 2022 and asked scientists, and others concerned to tackle the challenges being faced by the agriculture sector. He opined that scientists, environmental and agricultural experts must have a global outlook and local approach to combat the challenges in agricultural and environmental sectors. There will be buzz in infrastructure related stocks after railway and coal minister Piyush Goyal said that the government is thinking of 360 degree solutions in terms of setting things in order for infrastructure sector. He added that the government has moved the needle from century old railway to connect with the most modern technology but also look into future. Mining will remain in focus after the government opened up the coal sector to private players. Stocks related to IT space will also be buzzing after the Trump administration made the H-1B visa-approval process even harder for Indian techies.

The US markets rallied on Friday as interest rates slipped further from a four-year high, pushing the major indexes higher for the week. Asian markets were trading mostly in green in early deals after U.S. stock indexes notched gains of more than a percent in the last session. Japanese Nikkei edged higher as major exporters gained on a weaker yen.

Back home, Friday turned out to be a remarkable day of trade for Indian equity benchmarks where bulls made come back on Dalal Street, with Sensex recapturing its crucial 34,100 mark, while Nifty end just shy of 10,500 mark. The markets’ mood remained up-beat throughout the day and benchmarks fervently gained from strength to strength, as investors continued hunt for fundamentally strong stocks. Key gauges made a gap-up opening as traders took some encouragement with Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar’s statement that India will emerge as a model for the rest of the world once it completes economic, political and social transitions. He highlighted India’s development process, outlined country’s experiences since Independence and laid out a future vision for achieving a New India by 2022. Some support also came with private report stating that exports of India-made retail and lifestyle products clocked a 16% growth in 2017, over the same period last year. It further noted that in terms of growth, India has surpassed China which traditionally led from the region, and now stands at number 3. Buying got accelerated in second half of the trade with market participants getting some support with CRISIL’s report stating that asset quality of microfinance institutions (MFIs), including small finance banks, has come out of the impact of demonetisation and stabilised since June 2017. The report added that asset quality has improved, as evidenced by reducing portfolio delinquencies and cumulative collection efficiencies have risen to over 99 percent for disbursements since April 2017. Traders ignored private report that America’s bilateral trade deficit with four major countries, including India, narrowed in the first three quarters of 2017 as compared to the previous year. According to the report, India’s growth has slowed due to the effects of its structural economic reforms. Finally, the BSE Sensex surged 322.65 points or 0.95% to 34,142.15, while the CNX Nifty was up by 108.35 points or 1.04% to 10,491.05.