Benchmarks likely to get gap-down opening ahead of WPI data

Indian markets ended higher on Tuesday thanks to sustained inflows from foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) and positive global cues. Today, markets are likely to make gap-down opening tracking sell-off in global markets. Investors will closely track the WPI inflation reading for August. There will be some cautiousness with a private report that investments by private equity and venture capital funds plummeted 80 per cent to $2.2 billion in August, a 19-month low. Traders will be concerned as OECD said India’s gross domestic product (GDP) in the June quarter contracted 1.4 per cent quarter-on-quarter, when adjusted for seasonality, and was the second worst performance among the G20 countries - the first being China. However, some support may come later in the day as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said many countries have evinced interest for bilateral trade in the rupee after the RBI announced a mechanism recently. She said this along with other steps taken by the government is towards full capital account convertibility. Traders may take note of report that Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran said India is not defending the rupee and the Reserve Bank of India is taking necessary steps to ensure that the movement of the rupee is gradual and in line with market trends. Besides, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net bought Indian equities worth Rs 1,956.98 crore on September 13, as per data available on the NSE. Meanwhile, the borrowing cost for the states fell for the fourth consecutive week as the weighted average cut-off eased 6 basis points (bps) to 7.46 per cent at the weekly auctions on Tuesday. Fertilizer industry stocks will be in focus as Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said there is no shortage of crop nutrients in the country and asserted that there will be no hike in the prices of non-urea products. The minister also said that Nutrient Based Policy (NBS) for Phosphatic and Potassic (P&K) fertilisers for the Rabi season (October 2022 to March 2023) will be announced shortly. There will be some reaction in insurance companies stocks as easing compliance burden for insurers, regulator Irdai rationalised health insurance business returns reporting norm by reducing the number of returns that need to be filed in a year. Besides, the initial public offering (IPO) of Harsha Engineers International, opens today. The precision bearing cages manufacturer has set a price band of Rs 314-330 per share for its maiden public issue which will remain open for subscription till Friday, September 16. The company plans to raise Rs 755 crore through this IPO.

The US markets ended sharply lower on Tuesday after the latest inflation data in the world's largest economy showed a less-than-expected moderation in the price-rise index that's at a multi-decade high. Asian markets are trading in red on Wednesday as a white-hot US inflation report dashed hopes for a peak in inflation and fuelled interest rate hike bets.

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks extended their winning streak to the fourth straight session and ended with gains of more than half percent on Tuesday as bulls took control amid the brighter mood in global markets. Equities opened on a strong note and maintained gain throughout the day, as sentiments got a boost with commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that Indian rupee has shown more resilience than most of the other currencies in recent years and the compounded average growth rate of depreciation is lower as compared to pre-2014. Some optimism also came in as India's agricultural and processed food products exports rose by 30% to $9.6 billion during April-July this fiscal. Besides, foreign fund inflows aided sentiments in markets. As per data available on the NSE, FIIs net bought shares worth Rs 2,049.65 crore on September 12. Key gauges extended gains in late afternoon deals, taking support from the Finance Ministry has attributed the rise in inflation to base effect and increase in food and fuel prices, and stressed that initiatives taken by the government to curb price rise will be felt more significantly in the coming months. Additional support came with country's chief economic adviser, V. Anantha Nageswaran stated that ‘India does not need to defend the rupee because its economic fundamentals are such that the currency can take care of itself’. Sentiments remained upbeat even after India’s retail inflation rate rose to 7% from 6.7% in the previous month, driven by a surge in food prices. Also, India’s industrial production growth decelerated to a four-month low of 2.4% in July, mainly due to poor showing by manufacturing, power and mining sectors. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 455.95 points or 0.76% to 60,571.08 and the CNX Nifty was up by 133.70 points or 0.75% to 18,070.05.