Markets likely to get a cautious start of the new series

The Indian equity markets managed a positive close in last session after a series of declines; the F&O expiry led the traders cover lots of shorts, taking the markets higher and Nifty ended the series above 5300 mark. Today is the big day for the markets, as lots of important developments are scheduled on the local as well as global front and the indices are likely to get a cautious start. First quarter GDP numbers will be announced later in the day, the general expectation is that the GDP grew slightly lower by 5.2 per cent in the Q12013 against 5.3 per cent in the previous quarter, anything coming better than expected may move the markets higher, however a surprise on lower side may derail the momentum as well. The PSU oil marketing companies are likely to remain under pressure on buzz that diesel and LPG prices are unlikely to be hiked even after the end of the monsoon session of Parliament. On the same time the cable TV related stocks are likely to remain in upbeat mood, as the government has ruled out any extension for digitization of cable services.

The US markets once again slipped into red ahead of the Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke's speech on Friday at a symposium of central bankers. Economic news too was not encouraging, jobless claims remained unchanged in the last week against expectation of ticking lower. Asian markets too are not looking confident and most of the indices have extended their fall with a soft start, with Chinese shares heading for their longest monthly losing streak since 2004.While, the Japanese and South Korean markets were trading lower after reporting lower industrial output numbers.

Back home, the August series futures and options expiry session turned out to be a bolt from the blue for the domestic frontline indices as they staged a surprise intraday come-back in the last leg of trade recapturing the psychological 5,300 (Nifty) and 17,500 (Sensex) levels. Moreover, the gauges gained a massive over five percent gains in the August F&O series as traders were keen to roll-over their position to fresh month F&O contract despite mounting worries over policy paralysis in the wake of the parliamentary logjam over controversial CAG report on coal blocks. However, the markets traded lower for the entire day as investors remained on the safer side ahead of first quarter GDP numbers scheduled to be announced on Aug 31, also the RBI’s governor stating that high inflation and wrecked government finances leave little room for either the central bank or the government to throw policy lifeline, pressurized the market sentiments. The indices, although, witnessed an unexpected recovery in the final half an hour of trade and clocked gains of over half a percent led by recovery in Banking, Auto and software stocks. Realty space emerged as a strong pillar of strength for the bourses garnering over a gain of about two percent as short covering was seen in the counter after few days of continues fall. Global cues too remained unsupportive as uncertainty over central banks’ action to fight slower global growth sent world shares and industrial commodity prices lower on Thursday. Back home, media shares surged on renewed buying ahead of the October 31, 2012 deadline for cable TV digitization in four metro cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. The Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Amendment Act, 2011 has made it mandatory for switchover of the existing analogue Cable TV networks to Digital Addressable System (DAS) by December 2014 in the entire country in four phases. Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 50.83 points or 0.29% to settle at 17,541.64, while the S&P CNX Nifty rose by 27.25 points or 0.52% to close at 5,315.05.