The Indian markets moved higher in last session and the Sensex closed at record high on expectations of strong corporate earnings and rate cut by the Reserve Bank. Today, the mood is likely to remain firm and the markets may get a positive start coming off the overhang of Urjit Patel committee report and taking cues from some good earnings announcement. There will be some support with finance minister P Chidambaram’s assurance to global investors that India is prepared to face the impact of the US Fed tapering and the country is poised to clock 5% growth in 2013-14 and over 6% in 2014-15. Traders may also get some support with a Moody’s Analytics report that the Indian economy has started to turn the corner and the worst may be over for the Indian economy. It further said that a Narendra Modi-led BJP government, if elected, should offer a more business-friendly policy that will further support confidence and investment. There will be some buzz in the PSU oil marketing companies after the government approved inter-company number portability throughout the country. The portability option of the LPG dealers or service providers would be available in 480 districts of the country.
There will be some important result announcements too, to keep the markets ticking. Amara Raja, Cairn India, Dish TV India, Essar Ports, Indian Bank, L&T Finance Holdings, Mastek are among the many to report their numbers.
The US markets extending their trend, made a mixed closing in last session amid a quiet day on the US economic data front and traders concentrated on earnings news. The Asian markets have mostly made a soft start, reacting to the flash manufacturing PMI data of China, which fell more than estimated in January to a six-month low.
Back home, Indian equity benchmarks, coming out from their consolidation mood, snapped the session near intraday highs, with Sensex and Nifty coming close to their psychological 21,350 and 6,350 levels respectively, led by buying in select blue-chip stocks. Buying which emerged in late trade helped the markets close at 2014 record high levels. Earlier, markets made a negative start and traders remained concerned about the report that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 43.74 crore on January 21, 2014. Some pessimism also came in from Urjit Patel committee’s report, which suggested that inflation should be the nominal anchor as far as the policy framework is concerned. The committee suggested that the RBI should adopt the new CPI (consumer price index) as the measure of the nominal anchor for policy communication and the target for inflation should be set at 4 percent with a band of +/- 2 percent around it. However, the later half turned out to be a game changer for Indian markets, with market-participants drawing some positive cues from the Asian share markets, which pared their initial losses and ended mostly in the green, though, European counter exhibited mixed trade in early deals. Back home, some strength to the bourses came after Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) announce good set of third quarter numbers. The mortgage lender reported 12.07% rise in its net profit at Rs 1277.71 crore for the quarter as compared to Rs 1140.10 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. Total income from operations of the company increased by 14.87% at Rs 6030.93 crore for quarter under review as compared to Rs 5250.40 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2012. Rally in metal stocks too supported the sentiments with stocks like Tata Steel, Hindalco Industries, Sesa Sterlite, Hindustan Zinc etc. edging higher for the second day in a row after China’s central bank on January 21, 2014, said it provided emergency funding support for commercial banks as they gear up to meet demands for cash ahead of the Lunar New Year. Finally, the BSE Sensex surged by 86.55 points or 0.41%, to settle at 21337.67, while the CNX Nifty gained 25.15 points or 0.40% to settle at 6,338.95.
