Markets to get a flat-to-mildly positive start

The Indian markets after trading in a tight range ended marginally lower in the last session. Today, the start is likely to be flat-to-cautious, as traders will be a bit concerned with a survey report by Credit Suisse in partnership with global market research firm Nielsen that confidence among emerging market consumers has deteriorated during the last year. The survey revealed that optimism level in India has also slipped four percentage points over last year and India was ranked fifth in the list. There will be some buzz in the power sector as the Union Power Ministry has sought a subsidy of Rs 5,000 crore over two years to support gas-based plants which would have to pay double for natural gas prices from April 1. The power ministry has also sought financial restructuring for the power plants which are stranded for lack of natural gas in the country. The telecom stocks are likely to remain under pressure over concerns of higher outflows on account of aggressive bidding being seen for 900-MHz frequency in the ongoing spectrum auction. Indian pharma companies too may see some action, as the Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma putting their points to US FDA Commissioner said that the authority was not giving enough opportunity to Indian pharmaceutical companies to explain and in some cases the authority has imposed disproportionately strong penalties.

There will be some important result announcements too, Aditya Birla Chemical, Aditya Birla Nuvo,  D B Realty, Dr Reddys Lab, GMR Infra, Hind Rectifiers, HPCL, Indian Hotels, JK Tyre, MOIL, Opto Circuits and Tata Steel among many will be announcing their numbers today.

The US markets ended marginally in green after choppy session, as traders continued to digest last Friday's monthly jobs report amid a lack of new US economic data. Traders also remained on sidelines ahead of remarks from new Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, scheduled to testify before the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday. The Asian markets have made an all green start, while the Japanese market is not trading, others have made good gains in early deals on hopes of a dovish tone by Janet Yellen in her first testimony on monetary policy.

Back home, the Indian markets lacked vigor on Monday and the major indices traded in a tight range, coming in and out of the red zone throughout the day. The initial enthusiasm that was generated by the gains in global market faded in the very first hour and mood of the markets turned cautious with HSBC’s composite emerging markets index of manufacturing and services purchasing managers’ surveys slipping for the second straight month to 51.4 in January, the slowest pace in four months. There was no serious attempt of taking the markets higher and benchmarks after a good surge in the last session totally looked in a defensive mood. The global cues mostly remained good, as majority of the Asian markets ended in green, while the European markets too made a good start. Back home, the market mood after remaining in a tight range faltered during the final hours, taking the benchmarks lower by around a quarter percent. The Indian markets that had held their neutral levels whole day supported by weak US jobs data and as government estimated GDP to grow at 4.9% in the fiscal year ending 31 March against 4.5% a year earlier, lost their way and benchmarks ended near their psychological levels of 20300 (Sensex) and 6050 (Nifty).The decline in the market was also induced by the weakness in domestic currency, which after a good start turned soft in latter part of the day. Also, there was concern of foreign fund outflow as the provisional data showed that overseas investors sold Rs 267 crore worth of Indian shares on Friday, extending their selling streak to a seventh day. Sectorally the day remained of realty, led by the surge in heavyweight DLF that moved up by around 3 percent  after reporting that DLF Global Hospitality (DGHL) completed the sale of 100% equity stake in Silverlink Resorts (SRL), the owner of Aman resorts to Aman Resorts Group. On the other hand banking stocks turned up to be one of the worst performers after Standard & Poor's Ratings Services in its latest report stated that growth, profitability, and asset quality of Indian banks are likely to remain subdued for the next 12 months, despite a likely uptick in economic growth. Telecom stocks too came under pressure on reports of intense bidding by the telecom companies crossing and total bid of Rs. 56000 crore mark. Traders are now eyeing inflation and industrial output data due later in the week for further direction. Finally, the BSE Sensex declined by 42.29 points or 0.21%, to settle at 20,334.27, while the CNX Nifty lost 9.75 points or 0.16% to settle at 6,053.45.