Benchmarks likely to open in green on Friday

Indian markets ended Thursday’s choppy trading session almost flat amid mixed global peers and spurt in crude oil prices. Today, the markets are likely to make a positive start following firm trade in Asian peers tracking improved global sentiment after UK lawmakers voted to delay Brexit. Traders will be taking encouragement with a private report that the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) $5 billion plan to swap rupees for dollars with domestic banks will help achieve its twin objectives of pushing interest rates down while also preventing a sharp appreciation in the rupee. Traders may take note of the RBI’s statement that financial sector regulators discussed ways to address challenges pertaining to the quality of credit ratings and other issues concerning the economy. It added that the sub-committee reviewed the major developments on the global and domestic fronts that impinge on the financial stability of the country. Meanwhile, Niti Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar has underlined the need to mobilise funds from all sources especially corporates to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Kumar further said the focus should be on conscious capitalism wherein corporates go beyond chasing bottomline and focus on ensuring maximum social return. Besides,  investors will be eyeing Balance of Trade data to be released later in the day. There will be some buzz in the banking sector stocks with ICRA’s report that after four years of consecutive losses, the state run banks are likely to report a profit of Rs 23,000-37,000 crore in the next financial year, with their gross non performing loans declining to 8.1-8.4 percent by March 2020. There will be some reaction in insurance industry stocks with IRDAI data showing that India’s life insurance industry witnessed a rise of 32.7 per cent in its collective new premium income at Rs 18,209.50 crore during February 2019. There will be some buzz in the power sector stocks with report that fresh capacity addition in thermal power has fallen woefully short of the targets. Only 2129.75 Mw capacity has been added during April-January of this fiscal, denoting only 44 per cent of the actual capacity of 4850 envisaged for the period.

The US markets ended mostly lower on Thursday as investors continued to weigh global trade tensions and concerns about slowing economic growth. Asian markets are trading in green on Friday as investors digested new developments on the US-China trade front and reacted to a vote from lawmakers that could potentially delay the U.K.’s exit from the European Union.

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks ended the volatile day of trade with slender gains on Thursday. Markets started the session on an optimistic note with the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) statement that it will inject long-term liquidity worth $5 billion into the system through foreign exchange swap arrangement with banks for three years, in order to meet the durable liquidity needs of the system. Some support also came with report that the private companies in manufacturing sector posted a 24.9% growth in net profit in the October-December quarter of the current fiscal on annual basis, benefitting from lower tax provisions. Traders also took some comfort with report that the RBI has relaxed norms for imports of capital and non-capital goods by raising the trade credit limit to $150 million under the automatic route. Providing some support to the markets, ICRA in its report stated that Small finance banks (SFBS) are likely to grow at 25-30 percent over the medium-term and if they can arrange additional external capital of Rs 4,000-6,000 crore till FY23. However, markets lost momentum and parted all of their initial gains to end almost flat with Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) report that private corporate investment plans have fallen for the seventh year in a row on account of economic slowdown, poor project appraisals and huge corporate leveraging. Sentiments also remain dampened with report that India's annual wholesale price inflation (WPI) in the month of February surged to 2.93 percent, on account of rise in the prices of food and fuel products, after falling to a 10-month low of 2.76 percent in January. Traders also took a note of the chairman of RBI Committee on Digital Payments, Nandan Nilekani’s statements that India is still very far away from being a less-cash economy and security issues around digital payments system needed to be addressed to make the mode more acceptable. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 2.72 points or 0.01% to 37,754.89, while the CNX Nifty was up by 1.55 points or 0.01% to 11,343.25.