Markets to get a cautious-to -soft start after a day of break

The Indian markets ended higher in last session snapping the April series on an extremely jubilant note. Today, the start of the new series is likely to be slightly cautious and markets may show some softness in early deals, as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted below normal June-September rains at 95% of the long period average due to El Nino. IMD said there was a 56% probability of below normal to deficient rains, as compared to a 44% chance of rains being normal or better. There will some weakness in pharma stocks too, on report that India's pharmaceutical exports registered slowest growth in at least 15 years at 1.2 percent to $ 14.84 billion last fiscal. However, the oil and gas stocks may see some upmove , as it has been reported that India's natural gas demand is likely to jump by over 55 percent to 378 million standard cubic meters a day by 2016-17. There will be lots of important result announcements too, to keep the markets buzzing. Axis Bank, Bosch, Exide Inds, Maruti Suzuki, Siemens are among the many to announce their numbers today. The US markets ended mostly higher with Dow closing flat for the first time in many years. Though, there was some cautiousness with the disappointing numbers of General Motors. The Asian markets have made a mixed start with some of the indices trading in red. Back home, Wednesday's session turned out to be a fabulous day of trade for the Indian equity markets, which scaled fresh all time closing highs for yet another session as pre-election rally dubbed as a 'hope rally' continued amid sustained foreign fund inflow. The markets, on the April F&O expiry day, remained remarkably steady with Sensex confining itself to a range of around 100 points. Though, some volatility was witnessed in last leg of trade but frontline gauges managed to log their new all time closing highs. Extensive buying by funds and retail investors, thanks to encouraging Q4 earnings by blue-chip companies helped domestic bourses to continue their record-breaking spree. However, gains remained capped up-to certain extent as rupee weakened past the key 61 per dollar mark on Wednesday to hit a one-month low, tracking losses in regional currencies and hurt by good demand for the greenback from oil importers. Global cues remained sluggish with European counters edging lower in early deals after three days of gains, while Asian markets too ended mostly in the red after Chinese preliminary manufacturing data signaled persisting weakness in the world's second-largest economy. 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. Stocks related to banking space remained on buyers' radar after YES Bank reported 18.79% rise in its net profit at Rs 430.21 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2014 as compared to Rs 362.15 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. Total income of the bank has increased by 13% at Rs 3013.57 crore for quarter under review as compared to Rs 2667.03 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2013. The railway stocks too edged higher for the third day in a row as investors increased exposure in anticipation of a stable government at the centre post the elections in May. Titagarh Wagons, Kalindee Rail Nirman, Kernex Microsystems, Hind Rectifiers and Texmaco Rail and Engineering all edged higher between 5% and 10% each. Finally, the BSE Sensex surged by 118.17 points or 0.52%, to 22876.54, while the CNX Nifty gained 25.45 points or 0.37% to 6,840.80.