Sensex, Nifty to open on a positive note

Service PMI and composite PMI of August will be in focus. Asian markets are mostly higher. HangSeng is closed. US stocks gained following the Federal Reserve report that calmed nerves regarding possible impact of the slowdown in China on the U.S. The S&P was up 1.83%, Dow rose +1.82% and Nasdaq rallied 2.5%.

The cleansing in the stock market seems to be happening too soon for comfort. Indices are at 13-month lows but India has done significantly better compared to other Ems but has still underperformed global indices by a wide margin of 44% over a 5 year period. India deserves to be treated as a separate asset class. It has delivered much superior returns in the past three years versus other EMs and on par with global indices. More importantly, the outlook for India is much stronger given that it is on the cusp of an economic and earnings recovery.

For the day the attention for now is on what European Central Bank will do in terms of further stimulus. This could trigger some interest in equities temporarily. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book said several district banks “reported increasing wage pressures caused by labor market tightening.” Dollar movement and the drop in oil prices are seen as depressing and this could keep on hold Fed’s much expected move on raising interest rates at its policy meeting in a fortnight.

The outlook is a flat to positive start. Service PMI and composite PMI of August will be in focus. Asian markets are mostly higher. HangSeng is closed. US stocks gained following the Federal Reserve report that calmed nerves regarding possible impact of the slowdown in China on the U.S. The S&P was up 1.83%, Dow rose +1.82%  and Nasdaq rallied 2.5%.

Oil output from OPEC members declined last month due to disruptions to flows from Iraq's northern pipeline, a private survey has revealed. OPEC supply fell in August to 31.71 million barrels per day (bpd) from a revised 31.88 million bpd in July, according to the survey. The decline in OPEC output from July's level was the first since February.

The Coal Ministry has reportedly sought an exemption from forest clearances while prospecting for coal to help boost coal production. The issue was reportedly discussed in a 10th July meeting of Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal.

The tax department's ambitious OTP-based ITR filing system has reportedly verified more than 29 lakh returns till now besides linking similar Aadhaar numbers with the PAN database. By August 31, the official portal of the I-T Department has electronically verified 29,19,726 ITRs while Aadhaar linkages with the Permanent Account Number (PAN) has been done in 29,68,953 cases.

The Union Cabinet approved the proposal of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, to reimburse Rs.113.40 crore of losses on pulses imported between 2006-2011 by the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED), Project and Equipment Corporation (PEC), State Trading Corporation (STC) and Metals and Minerals Trading Corporation (MMTC), apart from losses incurred in the sale of pulses upto six months after closure of the scheme.

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, gave its approval to the Marginal Fields Policy (MFP), for development of hydrocarbon discoveries made by national oil companies; Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd. (OIL). These discoveries could not be monetized for many years due to various reasons such as isolated locations, small size of reserves, high development costs, technological constraints, fiscal regime etc.

Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, has made a personal investment of an undisclosed amount in the leading Indian food-tech startup, Holachef. Launched in September 2014 by Saurabh Saxena and Anil Gelra, Holachef has seen tremendous growth and a rapidly increasing customer base in Mumbai and more recently, Pune.

The Boards of Directors of Jet Airways (India) Limited and Jet Lite (India) Limited, the wholly owned subsidiary of Jet Airways, approved the merger of Jet Lite with Jet Airways. This is subject to compliance with all applicable laws and regulations and the receipt of all corporate, regulatory, governmental, judicial approvals and third party consents.