Benchmarks likely to get slightly positive start

Indian markets ended higher with modest gains on Wednesday, led by gains in IT and auto stocks. Today, the markets are likely to make slightly positive start following firm global cues. Investors will also be looking ahead to the assembly election results for Maharashtra and Haryana. Traders will be getting some encouragement as India jumped 14 places to the 63rd position on the World Bank’s ease of doing business ranking, riding high on the government’s flagship Make in India scheme and other reforms attracting foreign investment. The country also figured among the top 10 performers on the list for the third time in a row. Some support will also come with the Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister Bibek Debroy’s statement that India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is hovering around 5 percent is expected to inch up to 7 percent in the next financial year. Though, some cautiousness may come with the Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) statement that India is not likely to benefit from the US-China trade tensions largely owing to existing policy barriers to large-scale production, strict labour laws and difficult land-acquisition process. IT stocks will be in limelight with Former NASSCOM President R Chandrashekhar’s statement that a hard Brexit would benefit India's information technology (IT) services companies to strengthen partnerships in the UK with anticipated easing of flow of high-skilled manpower. There will be some buzz in the financial stocks with S&P Global Ratings’ report that the Indian financial sector is facing rising risk of contagion and failure of any large finance company will adversely impact economic growth. There will be some reaction in aviation stocks with a private report that a bitter fare war coupled with increase in expenses will push several Indian airlines into losses in the second quarter. Agriculture stocks will be in focus as the government increased the minimum support price (MSP) for wheat by Rs 85 to Rs 1,925 a quintal and for pulses by up to Rs 325 per quintal. There will be some important result reactions too, to keep the markets in action.

The US markets ended marginally higher on Wednesday after investors digested a slew of earnings reports from some of America’s largest companies. Asian markets are trading mostly in green on Thursday, though the upside remained capped by concerns surrounding the Sino-US trade war and Brexit uncertainties.

Back home, last hour recovery helped Indian equity markets to close with marginal gains on Wednesday. The start of the day was on cautious note, amid a report stating that corporate India's merger and acquisition activity in the July-September quarter witnessed a downtrend with total deal value falling by more than half over the last year, largely owing to a slump in economic activity and lack of big ticket deals. Key indices traded near their neutral lines during the day, as India Ratings & Research (Ind-Ra) believes that aggregate states’ fiscal deficit slippage to 2.9% of GDP in FY19 revised estimate (RE), from 2.6% in FY19 budget estimate (BE) (Ind-Ra forecast: 2.8%) is mainly due to an expansionary fiscal policy followed by the state governments. Despite flat trade, bourses managed to keep their heads above water for the most part of the session, supported by a report that the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) is planning to set up a single window system to support foreign investors, who want to invest in India. The single-window system may have representatives from both the Centre & state governments. The system will help in getting all relevant approvals and clearances required by foreign investors. Some relief also came, after the International Monetary Fund sees Indian economic growth rebounding to around 7 per cent in the next financial year, supported by measures like monetary policy stimulus & corporate income tax cuts. Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 94.99 points or 0.24% to 39,058.83, while the CNX Nifty was up by 15.75 points or 0.14% to 11,604.10.