Markets to get a positive-to-cautious start of the F&O expiry week

The Indian markets showed a good comeback in the last session and across the board buying was witnessed after a slew of sluggishness. Today, the start of the new crucial week is likely to be mildely in green. Traders will be eyeing the RBI’s policy announcement to be announced next day, while there will be some F&O series expiry related  volatility too. Marketmen will be getting some confidence with  FICCI’s  prediction that the economy will grow by 6.7 per cent for 2013-14. The chamber has revised its growth forecast upwards from 6.5 percent to 6.7 percent for the next fiscal. There will be some buzz in the power and fertilizers companies, as Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister M Veerappa Moily has said that Power and fertiliser cos will be allowed to swap gas. Though, the service sector will be in a bit somber mood as Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into the services sector declined by about 14 per cent to $ 3.63 billion during the April-November period this fiscal.

Also, there will be lots of important result announcements to keep the markets buzzing. Adani Power, Amara Raja, Bank of India, Financial Technologies, GHCL, ING Vysya Bank, JSW Steel, Neyveli Lignite, Reliance Infra, State Bank of  Mysore, Sterlite Tech, Torrent Power etc are among the many to announce their numbers today.

The US markets ended notably higher on Friday supported by some better than expected earnings numbers, traders even overlooked weak housing data. The Asian markets have made a mixed start and some of the indices are in red. The Chinese market has surged on report that industrial companies’ profits rose in December, however South Korea was not getting any advantage of its consumer confidence climbing to the highest level in eight months in January. The Japanese market too was in a cautious mood after yen trimmed losses.

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks showcased enthusiastic performance on last trading day of the week with frontline indices re-capturing their psychological 6,050 (Nifty) and 20,100 (Sensex) levels in the session. The gains appeared even more prominent as they came on a day when Asian markets, despite Japanese Nikkei exhibited uninspiring trends. Earlier, the local bourses, in the first half, traded range bound with slender gains. Afterwards, there appeared not even an iota of profit booking in the second half of trade as the benchmarks managed to fervently gain from strength to strength after rally in banks and real-estate ahead of key central bank monetary policy review next week. The Reserve Bank of India will unveil its third-quarter policy review on January 29 amid hopes the central bank may cut interest rates to boost growth of Asia’s third-biggest economy. European counters too traded jubilantly in early trade on Friday, with banks on the rise, while investors awaited news from the European Central Bank about long-term loan repayments from banks. Back home, sentiments remained jubilant after Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath emphasized that India has seen a large number of reforms in recent years and the country expects to see about $1 trillion investments in infrastructure in the next five years to boost economic growth. Some strength also came in from over two percent rally in Auto sector supported by stronger-than-expected third quarter result from Maruti Suzuki. The company reported 144-percent surge in its net profit at Rs 501.29 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2012 as compared to Rs 205.62 crore for the same quarter in the previous year on the back of higher sales and good response to new models like Ertiga and Swift DZire. Up-move in metal counters too aided the sentiments as stocks like Tata Steel, Jindal Steel, Sesa Goa, Sterlite Industries and Hindalco all edged higher as manufacturing surveys out from China, Europe and the US on January 24, 2013 pointed to an improvement in the global economy. Even telecom stocks lured sufficient traction for the session. Telecom stocks, namely, Reliance Communication, MTNL gained, however, Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular lost momentum by the end of the trade. Telecom stocks ended the trade on a mixed note after Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on telecom in its meeting on January 24, failed to take a decision on how many blocks an operator should be allowed to bid for in the auction that starts on March 11. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 179.75 points or 0.90% to settle at 20,103.53, while the S&P CNX Nifty gained by 55.30 points or 0.92% to end at 6,074.65.