Markets to make negative start on Thursday

Indian stock markets edged lower on Wednesday amid fears that rising oil prices and a falling rupee may hurt India's growth prospects. Weak global cues also dented sentiment. Today, the markets are likely to open in red terrain on concerns that rising oil prices may hurt India’s growth prospects. Brent crude oil futures held steady above $74 a barrel on hopes for strong demand growth as well as concerns over supply disruptions in Venezuela and the Middle East. Market participants will also remain concern on private report stating that Reserve Bank of India is expected to hike key policy rates by 25 basis points in June, largely on account of sharp increase in crude oil prices over the last few months. Traders will get some support later in the day with report that India’s global trade increased by 16.32 percent to $767.9 billion in 2017-18, according to the Commerce Department data. In 2016-17, the trade stood at $660.2 billion. Traders will also get some support with report that Indian economy is expected to witness a cyclical recovery driven by investments as well as consumption, and the average GDP growth is expected to rise to 7.8 per cent in the first half of this year. Meanwhile, India has inked a loan agreement of $125 million with World Bank’s investment arm to fund ‘Innovate in India for Inclusiveness’ project. There will be buzz in banking sector stocks on report that Banks’ credit rose 11.52 percent year-on-year to Rs 84,78,459 crore in the fortnight ended April 13. In the same period ended April 14, 2017, banks advances were at Rs 76,01,970 crore. There will be some important earnings announcements too, to keep the markets buzzing.

The US markets ended mostly in green on Wednesday, as traders reacted positively to some of the latest earnings news, though gains remained capped on account of uncertainty about the outlook for the markets amid a continued increase in U.S. treasury yields. Asian markets were exhibiting mixed trend in early deals as gains in technology shares were offset by declines in financials.

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks ended the Wednesday’s trade in red terrain ahead of April month F&O expiry. Markets traded choppy throughout the session amid weak global cues. Traders remained watchful ahead of ongoing corporate earnings for the March 2018 quarter (Q4FY18) and global crude oil prices. Sentiments remained dampened on report that India is likely to face greater pressure to eliminate duties on 90% of goods it trades with China under the mega trade agreement among 16 Asia Pacific countries that is in the works. Markets pared almost all of their losses in noon deals as traders took some solace with Finance Ministry’s proposal of relaxing certain conditions for availing the concessional 10 percent long term capital gains tax. Listing out scenarios wherein individuals need not pay Securities Transaction Tax (STT) at the time of purchase to avail the concessional tax rate, the Finance Ministry invited stakeholder comments on the draft notification by April 30. Investors also get some solace with Union Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu’s statement that the government has finalised a new industrial policy with a major focus on promoting setting up of industrial units in rural areas. Meanwhile, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant has said that India’s eastern states have done remarkably well on ease of doing business index, but he stressed that they need to repeat their progress on the human development index as well. He, however, said several Indian states remain backward on human development indicators because of legacy issues. Selling in last leg of trade mainly played spoil sport for the domestic markets and dragged the key gauges lower as traders turned anxious as rise in global crude oil prices to around $75 per barrel lifted the domestic retail petrol to become dearer by 13 paise to Rs 74.63 per litre from Monday’s cost of Rs 74.50 per litre. Petrol prices climbed to new multi-year highs in other major metro cities -- Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai -- at Rs 77.32, Rs 82.48 and Rs 77.43 per litre respectively on Tuesday. Diesel prices, too, touched record levels in Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai. Finally, the BSE Sensex declined 115.37 points or 0.33% to 34,501.27, while the CNX Nifty was down by 43.80 points or 0.41% to 10,570.55.