Markets likely to get cautious start amid mixed Asian cues

Indian markets ended higher Thursday led by gains in broad-based buying in metal, energy, and banking stocks amid positive global cues. Today, the markets are likely to get cautious start tracking mixed Asian cues. There will be some cautiousness with report that India has reported nearly 50,000 fresh Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours. The total caseload now stands at 8,411,034. The country's death toll has mounted to 124,354. Besides, the RBI has urged the Supreme Court to lift its interim order, which held that accounts not declared as non-performing assets till August 31 this year are not to be declared NPAs till further orders, saying it is facing difficulty due to the directive. However, some encouragement may come later in the day as the RBI said it will continue to conduct open market operation (OMO) purchase auctions of Rs 20,000 crore, as well as OMOs in State Development Loans (SDLs) to support market sentiment and assure adequate liquidity. Some support may also come as calling global investors to invest in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the government has an ambitious plan to invest $1.5 trillion under the National Infrastructure Pipeline. Traders may take note of report that markets regulator SEBI has enhanced the foreign investment limit for individual fund houses to $600 million from $300 million at present. Meanwhile, the government has announced simplified guidelines for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and IT Enabled Services (ITES) players to reduce the compliance burden for the industry and facilitate Work from Home and Work from Anywhere. There will be some buzz in aviation stocks with the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s (MOCA) statement that the cap on the number of domestic flights Indian airlines are permitted to operate would be increased to 70-75 per cent of their pre-Covid levels as the passenger traffic surges. Financial stocks will be in focus after the RBI allowed banks to co-lend with all registered NBFCs, which include housing finance companies. There will be some reaction in real estate industry stocks with ICRA’s report that housing sales may fall by 35-40 per cent in the ongoing fiscal year even as demand improved during the September quarter. There will be lots of important earnings announcements too, to keep the markets in action.

The US markets ended higher on Thursday as investors bet Republicans would hold onto the Senate and prevent changes under a possible Joe Biden White House that would crimp corporate profits. Asian markets are trading mixed on Friday as investors await the results of the US elections.

Back home, Indian equity markets ended higher for the fourth straight session with gains of over one and half percent each, on the back of a broad-based buying interest amid a strong trend in the global markets. The benchmarks staged a gap up opening and traded in fine fettle throughout the day, as traders were taking encouragement with the finance ministry’s statement that the economy has been recovering at a fast pace and would likely to reach pre-Covid-19 levels by the end of the current fiscal year. Some support also came in with Director General of Foreign Trade -- Amit Yadav stating that while October data looked promising for exports, the situation will improve further in the coming months due to collaborative efforts of all the stakeholders. Key indices extended their upside in second half of the session, taking support from union minister Prakash Javadekar’s statement that the pandemic-hit economy is coming back on rails at more speed than expected. He also said that an increase in rail freight collection, higher goods and services tax mop-up, rise in power demand and improved FDI inflows indicate that the economy was doing better in the second quarter of the current financial year. Domestic sentiments were positive, as banks have started refunding borrowers the compound interest charged on specified loan accounts during the moratorium period. Last week, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had asked all lending institutions, including non-banking financial companies, to ensure that the scheme of waiver of interest on interest for loans up to Rs 2 crore for the six-month moratorium period is implemented by November 5. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 724.02 points or 1.78% to 41,340.16, while the CNX Nifty was up by 211.80 points or 1.78% to 12,120.30.