The Indian markets were in bullish mood throughout the passing week on the back of continued buying interest of the foreign investors in the Indian equities. Today the start is likely to be good tailing the supportive global cues. Traders will be getting some support with the Economic Outlook Survey by the industry chamber Ficci, which has pegged India's economic growth to pick up and reach 5.5 percent in 2014-15, as industrial output will recover to expand at 3.3 percent. The industry body has also pegged the agriculture and services sector growth in the next financial year, at 3.3 percent and 7 percent respectively. However, there will be some cautiousness too in the markets, as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is scheduled to unveil its first bi-monthly monetary policy statement for 2014-15 on April 1. Though, RBI is likely to keep the rate unchanged and continue its close vigil on inflation but India Inc, suffering due to slowing economy and the high cost of credit has urged the RBI to cut the key interest rate in its upcoming monetary policy. Also, there was report that foreign direct investment (FDI) in India dipped by 3 percent to $ 22.03 billion in 2013. There will be some buzz in the banking license hopefuls, as the Election Commission may take a call on allowing the RBI to issue the licenses.
The US markets ended marginally higher in the last trading session on getting report of rise in consumer spending in February at the fastest rate since November. The Asian markets have mostly made a good start. The Japanese market was leading the pack on weakening yen and despite the industrial production unexpectedly falling 2.3 percent in February from January.
Back home, Friday’s session turned out to be a fabulous day of trade for the Indian equity markets, which scaled fresh highs for yet another session. Benchmark indices extended their winning streak and hit fresh record high as pre-election rally dubbed as a ‘hope rally’ continued amid mostly positive Asian counterparts and sustained foreign fund inflow. The Foreign institutional investors (FII), which comprise the largest investor group on Dalal Street, have poured close to $2.5 billion into Indian stocks over the past one month, while they withdrew $2 billion from China and $1billion from Korea. Earlier, markets after a firm start gave-up all their gains and entered into red in afternoon trade as market-men opted to book some profit off the table, but renewed buying in last leg of trade helped markets to regain momentum. Sharp appreciation in Indian rupee mainly aided the sentiments. Global cues too remained up-beat with most of the Asian equity indices ending higher tracking positive data from the US. European markets too aided sentiments with higher start. Back home, there was broad based buying witnessed in the markets and apart from the blue chips, the broader markets too equally participated in the rally. Frontline indices managed to settle at their fresh all time high levels with Sensex surpassing its crucial 22,300 bastion, while Nifty ended just shy of its crucial 6,700 mark. Rally in stocks related to exports and imports too supported the sentiments with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) relaxing some of the restrictions related to hedging of currency risk of probable exposures of exporters and importers. This will give them greater operational flexibility. Meanwhile, banking stocks traded jubilantly after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on March 27, 2014, extended the deadline for banks to fully implement the stringent capital requirements under Basel III by a year due to industry wide concerns over potential bad loans and its impact on profitability. Finally, the BSE Sensex surged by 125.60 points or 0.57% to settle at 22339.97, while the CNX Nifty gained 54.15 points or 0.82% to settle at 6,695.90.
