Markets likely to open in green on Wednesday

Indian markets ended at a record close for the second session on Tuesday, tracking gains in Asian peers, as progress in coronavirus vaccine raised hopes of a global economic recovery. Today, the markets are likely to get positive start tracking gains in Asian peers. Traders will be taking encouragement as the health ministry said the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 is in conversation with all vaccine manufacturers, including domestic and foreign ones, a day after Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE announced more than 90 per cent efficacy of their potential vaccine for the coronavirus. Some support will come as Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Minister of State Hardeep Singh Puri held a virtual dialogue with their UK counterparts to review the progress towards a post-Brexit Enhanced Trade Partnership with Britain, which could lead to a free trade agreement in the future. Traders may take note that The Centre has released Rs 6,195 crore to 14 states as monthly instalment of post devolution revenue deficit grant. However, traders may be concerned with report that India has reported nearly 44,679 fresh Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours. The total caseload now stands at 8,635,754. The country's death toll has mounted to 127,615. India has conducted the second-highest number of tests for detection of Covid-19 cases in the world at 119.6 million, with rapid antigen tests comprising 49 per cent and RT-PCR 46 per cent of the total tests done till Tuesday, according to the Union health ministry. There may be some cautiousness with ratings agency ICRA’s statement that state government funded infrastructure capital expenditure is expected to remain weak in the near term. Meanwhile, as per a report, ACC, Adani Green, Balkrishna Industries, Ipca Labs, and YES Bank have been included in the MSCI India index along with seven other stocks. On other hand, Bosch, and LIC Housing Finance have been removed from the list. The changes will be effective December 1, 2020. Telecom stocks will be in focus with TRAI data showing that Bharti Airtel added 28.99 lakh users, Reliance Jio added 18.64 lakh users, while Vodafone Idea lost 12.28 lakh users in August. There will be some reaction in sugar stocks with a private report that India has revived a proposal to get sugar mills to export 6 million tonnes of the sweetener by incentivising overseas sales in the 2020/21 season, the third year in a row, as part of efforts to cut surplus stocks and prop up local prices. There will be some important earnings announcements too to keep the markets buzzing.

The US markets ended mostly lower on Tuesday as vaccine optimism led investors away from market leaders and toward cyclical stocks associated with economic recovery. Asian markets are trading mostly in green on Wednesday as hopes for a successful coronavirus vaccine lifted expectations of a swift reopening of the global economy, which would help the region's heavily trade-dependent markets.

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks staged another stellar performance on Tuesday, rallying over one percent each and settled at their fresh record closing highs aided by positive cues in the global market. Both the S&P BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty 50 settled above crucial 43,250 and 12,600 levels, respectively. Key gauges traded on positive note since the beginning, with optimism over Covid-19 vaccine as Pfizer Inc's said its experimental COVID-19 vaccine was more than 90 percent effective based on initial trial results, and they have so far found no serious safety concerns, priming it for possible speedy regulatory approvals. Traders also reacted positively to SBI Research report stated that a number of green shoots are visible in the economy five months after easing restrictions. It also said assuming that India escapes a second wave, the pandemic will subside by February 2021. Local indices added gains in afternoon session, as the street remained buoyed with private report stating that with economic activities gathering pace post easing of lockdowns across the country, hiring activities in most sectors have shown significant recovery in October over the previous month. The momentum in the markets was also buoyed with oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s statement that India has invited global firms to invest in its strategic petroleum reserves (SPRs) as the nation's energy consumption growth would be fastest among large economies in coming decades. Adding more positivity, the country's exports grew 22.47 per cent year-on-year to $6.75 billion in the first week of November, mainly driven by healthy growth in pharmaceuticals, gems and jewellery and engineering sectors. The exports during the first week of November last year was $5.51 billion. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 680.22 points or 1.60% to 43,277.65, while the CNX Nifty was up by 170.05 points or 1.36% to 12,631.10.