Markets to get a cautious start of the F&O expiry day

The Indian markets made a flat closing before going for a holiday on Tuesday, PMEAC assertion that economy has bottomed out and India could grow at the rate of 6.4 percent, too was unable to soothe the nerves. Today is the expiry of the April F&O series, so far it has been a very good series, though some volatility is likely to appear in the final hours as the traders will roll-over their positions to next series. Traders will get some support with Finance minister P Chidambaram's statement to reach out to the main opposition BJP and other political parties seeking their support to get crucial legislations approved in the ongoing budget session. He has said that the government is keen to get the insurance, food security and land acquisition legislations approved by Parliament to sustain the reform momentum. There will be some buzz in the Aviation sector as it is being reported that India has agreed to enhance seat entitlements to and from Abu Dhabi multiple times despite political opposition. There will be some action in telecom stocks too, as the JPC meeting will be held today to adopt the draft report on 2G scam.

There will be some important result announcements too. Abbott India, Bata India, Biocon, Delta Corp etc will be reporting their numbers.

The US markets made a flat to negative close on Wednesday, the trade throughout the day remained choppy and traders were weighed down by steeper than expected drop in durable goods orders in the month of March despite some upbeat earnings news. Asian markets have made a mixed start, though the Korean market was trading higher as the economy grew at the fastest pace in 2 years. The Japanese stock market opened on a firm note with investors picking up stocks of exporters following a pause in the dollar's decline, while the Chinese market was down by about a percent.

Back home, key domestic benchmark witnessed consolidation with both the frontline indices finally managing to keep their head above water on Tuesday. Buying which emerged in late trade, largely supported by rally in European markets, helped the domestic equity markets to re-conquer crucial 5,800 (Nifty) and 19,150 (Sensex) levels. Earlier, markets made a shaky start after the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs dropped the proposal to pool prices of imported and domestic coal to make the fuel affordable to new power plants. The frontline gauges traded in the negative terrain for most part of the day on report, that foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country declined by 19% at $1.79 billion in February. But, there was a u-turn in late trade with both the major indices paring losses, after touching their intraday lows, supported by firm opening in European markets. Back home, rapid recovery in the last leg of trade transpired after PM’s economic advisory panel said improvement in performance of agriculture and manufacturing sectors is expected to push the economic growth rate to 6.4 per cent in 2013-14 from 5 per cent in the previous fiscal. Economic growth slipped to decade’s low of 5 per cent in 2012-13 mainly on account of the impact of the global financial woes. Some strength also came in from rally in power and oil & gas sectors after the Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) cleared 25 exploration and production blocks out of the 31 blocks where work had been stalled on account of security restrictions. The panel also approved 13 power projects entailing investments worth Rs 33,000 crore that were stuck due to various reasons. Buying in software and technology stocks, which were butchered brutally in the past couple of sessions, too aided the sentiments. Scrip like HCL Technologies, TCS, Wipro and Infosys all edged higher on renewed buying. Additionally, shares of fertilisers companies viz. Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers (RCF), National Fertilisers, Chambal Fertilisers and Chemicals, Coromandel International and Deepak Fertilisers and Petrochemicals Corporation edged higher on hopes of normal monsoon which will boost demand for fertilisers. Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 9.53 points or 0.05% to settle at 19179.36, while the CNX Nifty rose by 2.50 points or 0.04% to end at 5,836.90.Indian markets remained closed on Wednesday on account of a local holiday.