Markets to make slightly positive start ahead of GDP figures

Indian markets ended higher on Thursday led by a sharp surge in metals, banking and financial stocks. Today, the markets are likely to make slightly positive start ahead of GDP figures for the second quarter which is scheduled to be released today post market hours. The union ministry of statistics and programme implementation (MoSPI) on November 27 will announce the gross domestic product (GDP) numbers for the second quarter (July-September 2020) of current financial year (FY 2020-21). SBI Research in its latest report said India’s GDP likely contracted 10.7% in the second quarter, with a further recovery likely in the third quarter, citing improvements in economic indicators over October and November. Traders will be taking encouragement with Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant’s statement that digital infrastructure has become indispensable to the functioning of society and India can create $1 trillion of economic value using digital technology by 2025. Some support will come as the government said it has extended the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) to the health sector and 26 other sectors identified by the Kamath Committee. Traders may take note of Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das’ statement that the Indian economy has exhibited stronger pick up in momentum of recovery than expected. However, there may be some cautiousness as on Thursday, India reported 43,174 fresh Covid-19 cases, taking its tally to 9,309,871. The country's death toll mounted to 135,752. At 1,802,365, Maharashtra has the highest number of coronavirus cases, followed by Karnataka 879,560, Andhra Pradesh 865,000, Tamil Nadu 776,174 and Kerala 583,000. FMCG stocks may come under the spotlight after market research agency Nielsen said that India's FMCG market will contract by 1-3 per cent in the 2020 calendar year, as headwinds such as commodity inflation outweigh tailwinds. Meanwhile, India has slashed import tax on crude palm oil to 27.5 percent from 37.5 percent.

The US markets remained closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday. Asian markets are trading mostly lower on Friday pulling back from a record high hit earlier this week, amid renewed doubts about a highly-anticipated coronavirus vaccine and concern about the economic impact from the pandemic.

Back home, in an extremely volatile trading session, Indian equity benchmarks staged a recovery, recouping previous losses, to end the day higher on Thursday, led by robust gains in Metal, Basic Materials, Finance and Telecom stocks amid largely positive cues from global markets. The benchmarks staged a positive opening but soon slipped into red terrain in morning deals, owing to expiry of November future and option contracts. Investors’ sentiment remain dented with the 'Quarterly Statistics on Deposits and Credit of Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs), September 2020' - released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has indicated that bank credit growth decelerated to 5.8 percent in Q2 (July- September) of FY21 from 8.9 percent in the year-ago period. It also said aggregate deposits of banks rose 11 percent year-on-year in the July-September period as compared to 10.1 percent growth a year ago. Traders also took a note of report that the Finance Ministry has asked ministries and departments to restrict their expenditure for the remaining months of the current fiscal as per the Revised Estimates (RE) target, amid moderating revenues due to the COVID-19 crisis. However, market indices reversed trend and closed majorly positive, as some optimism remained among traders with a private report stating that the Indian economy is likely to have improved in the second quarter with GDP printing in at -7.8 percent as against 24 percent contraction in the June quarter. Traders took note of report that in a bid to push infrastructure creation in the country, the Union Cabinet has approved Rs.6000 crore capital infusion in National Investment and Infrastructure Fund's (NIIF) debt platform over the next two years. Separately, IT industry body Nasscom said that Indian tech start-ups are witnessing a gradual recovery with revenue acceleration and funding improving their cash availability and giving them longer runway to operate. Nasscom had conducted a 'Start-up Pulse Survey II' to understand what has changed and what the next six months look like for the tech start-up ecosystem in the country. The first survey was conducted in April-May this year. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 431.64 points or 0.98% to 44,259.74, while the CNX Nifty was up by 128.60 points or 1.00% to 12,987.00.