Markets likely to open with a gap-up on strong global cues

Indian equity markets are poised to extend the rally on Wednesday, following positive trading across Asian markets and a strong close on the Wall Street in overnight trading. The bullish trend in SGX Nifty, which was trading higher by 40 points at 11,064, indicated that domestic bourses may witness a gap-up opening. Bandhan Bank, JK Tyres, JM Financial, Mahindra CIE Automotive, Mastek, Mindtree, NIIT Tech, Reliance Communication, Sasken Technologies and Ultratech Cement are set to declare their results.  

Asian markets are trading in the green on Wednesday after Wall Street ended higher in the overnight trading following cheerful remarks from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell in his semi-annual monetary policy testimony before the Senate Banking Committee. Japan’s Nikkei 225 has surged 0.92%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has risen 0.44% and China’s Shanghai Composite has advanced 0.23%.  

Back home, bulls staged a smart comeback on Tuesday with frontline indices recovering majority of the previous day’s losses and conquering their respective important psychological levels of 11,000 ( Nifty ) and 36,500 ( Sensex). The oil marketing companies cushioned the benchmark indices with three frontliners HPCL, IOC and BPCL grabbing top three positions in Nifty 50 as oil prices continue to decline as fears of rising supply gripped traders. The buying was not restricted to frontline indices as broader indices too witnessed buying interest and they outperformed the frontline indices with Nifty Mid-cap and Small-cap gaining 2.33 per cent and 1.62 per cent, respectively. Among sectoral indices, barring Nifty FMCG, all other sectors closed in the green with Nifty PSU gaining the most by 3.86 per cent.  
  
The US stocks rallied on Tuesday, extending a recent upswing after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell appeared before the Senate Banking Committee. Powell’s testimony was music to investors' ears and this helped the Dow to post its fourth straight gain and the Nasdaq set a new record-closing high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 55 points to close at 25,120, the S&P 500 rose 11 points to finish at 2,810 and the Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 49 points to end at 7,855.  

The stocks in Europe closed in the positive territory on Tuesday. The DAX of Germany jumped 0.80%, CAC 40 of France added 0.24% and UK’s FTSE 100 gained 0.34%.