Indian Market Likely To Open In Positive

Indian equities indices continued their upward march for the fourth straight session yesterday after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that India would be the fastest growing economy and would outpace China’s economic growth in 2016.

The BSE Sensex surged as much as 1.96%, or 567 points, intraday to hit a high of 28,829.29, while the Nifty touched the milestone level of 8,700. The Sensex closed at 28,784.67 points, up 1.85%, and the NSE Nifty ended 1.7% up at 8,695.6. The Sensex gains to more than 5% since last Thursday, when the Reserve Bank of India announced a surprise 0.25% cut in its repo rate.

Tracking the momentum, as much as 197 stocks surged to hit their fresh 52-week high, which include names like Axis Bank, BOSCH, HDFC Bank, HDFC, ICICI Bank, MRF, Tata Motors, United Spirits, Yes Bank, Shree Cements etc.

According to IMF forecasts, India is projected to grow at 6.5% in 2016 whereas China’s growth is expected to slow down to 6.3%. Moreover, a sharp bounce back in overseas equities and hopes of more reforms in the forthcoming budget also triggered fresh buying in index heavyweights.

U.S. stocks ended Tuesday’s choppy session with marginal gains, as technology stocks led advances. The main benchmarks turned big early losses into gains, only to end roughly where they started the session. The S&P 500 index inched up 3.13 points, or 0.2%, to finish at 2,022.55. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 3.66 points to 17,515.23, and the Nasdaq rose 20.46 points, or 0.4%, to 4,654.85.

European stock markets were modestly higher amid mounting expectations that the ECB will launch a government bond-buying program at its meeting on Thursday, in a bid to stave off the threat of deflation in the euro area. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.4%. France's CAC 40 gained 1.1%, while Germany's DAX gained 0.8%.

Oil prices are tumbling again after the IMF cut its forecast for global economic growth in 2015. US WTI futures plunged 1.26 dollar to trade at USD 47.43 a barrel and Brent crude oil futures plunged 1.39 dollar to trade at USD 48.78.

Asian stocks mixed ahead of a Bank of Japan statement on monetary policy. Japan’s Topix index sank 0.45%. South Korea’s Kospi index plunged 0.41%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index jumped 1.27%. New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index climbed 0.70%. China’s stocks rose for a second day. The Shanghai Composite Index climbed 1.56% to 3,222.

SGX Nifty is trading in positive and higher by 32 points. Today, Indian market is expected to open positive. Century Plyboards (India), ING Vysya Bank, ITC, L&T Finance Holdings, Raymond, and Tata Elxsi would be reporting third quarter earnings today.