Market may open higher

Indian main stock indexes continued their record closing streak on Wednesday. Nifty gained 30 points to close at 9,816, while Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index Sensex advanced 58 points to settle at 31,805.

The European markets ended Wednesday’s session with significant gains. The CAC 40 of France emerged as the top gainer and ended the day with gains of 1.56 per cent followed by the DAX of Germany which rose 1.50 per cent and the FTSE 100 of the UK surged 1.18 per cent.

Wall Street ended the Wednesday session with robust gains, the strength on Wall Street came as traders reacted positively to Federal Reserve Chairperson Janet Yellen remarks. Yellen emphasised the central bank’s gradual approach to normalising monetary policy and expressed optimism about the economy in congressional testimony. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 123 points to finish at 21,352. The S&P 500 surged 18 points to close at 2,443. The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 68 points to 6,261.

Asian equities were trading higher in early trade on Thursday after a strong close in US markets overnight. Hong Kong Hang Seng has gained about 240 points followed by Japan’s Nikkei 225 which has advanced 31 points and China’s Shanghai Composite which is trading at 3,201 up by 3 points.

Domestic indices are likely to open with a gap-up opening tracking strong close on Wall Street and optimistic sentiments prevailing in the Asian markets. The SGX Nifty, which was also trading higher at 9,876 up by 40 points, hinting at the possibility of a gap-up start for Indian equities. IT bellwether TCS will be in limelight today as it is set to report its Q1 earnings.