Equity indices likely to extend previous session’s gains with positive start

Indian markets ended higher on Monday on gains in IT and financial stocks after positive quarterly results amid supportive global cues. Today, domestic equity indices are likely to extend their previous session’s gains with positive start tracking overnight gains on Wall Street along with optimistic cues from Asian peers. Traders will be taking encouragement as economic think-tank NCAER said business confidence has recovered from the lows of the pre-pandemic (2019-20) and the following two pandemic years. The NCAER-NSE Business Confidence Index (BCI) was higher at 126.6 in the third quarter of 2022-23 than the year-ago level of 124.4. Meanwhile, B20 India Chair N Chandrasekaran said the Business-20 has a unique opportunity and a very important role to play in working out agenda that can be value adding for all G-20 nations and the rest of the world. However, some cautiousness may come as foreign institutional investors (FII) have net-sold shares worth Rs 219.87 crore on January 23, as per provisional data available on the NSE. Traders may be concerned as investment in the Indian capital markets through participatory notes slightly dropped to Rs 96,292 crore at the end of December 2022 from the preceding month on higher valuation of domestic markets. Shares of Gold related businesses are likely to be in focus amid reports that the government is considering bringing the effective duty on Gold to below 12 per cent. Currently, the effective duty on gold is 18.45 per cent, which includes 12.5 per cent import duty, 2.5 per cent agriculture infrastructure development cess and other taxes. There will be some reaction in oil & gas industry stocks with a private report that India's crude oil imports rose to a five-month high in December, as refiners stocked up discounted Russian fuel amid a steady increase in consumption in the country. Market participants continue to look forward for earnings from many cues for directional cues. Cartrade Tech, Colgate Palmolive, HDFC AMC, Maruti Suzuki India, SBI Card, and TVS Motor Company are some of the companies to report their quarterly results today.

The US markets ended higher on Monday fueled by surging technology stocks as investors began an earnings-heavy week with a renewed enthusiasm for market-leading momentum stocks that were battered last year. Asian markets are trading in green on Tuesday as Lunar New Year holidays were observed in most of the region. Markets in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore are closed for a holiday.

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks snapped two day losing streak to end half a percent higher on Monday, as upbeat operating performance by India Inc in the December 2022 quarter supported the market sentiments. Markets opened higher and extended gains, as traders took encouragement with data showing that India’s forex reserves zoomed by $10.417 billion to $572 billion as on January 13, making it one of the biggest weekly jumps in the kitty in recent times. In the previous reporting week, the overall reserves had dropped by $1.268 billion to $561.583 billion. Sentiments remained positive with a labour ministry stating that retail inflation for farm and rural workers sequentially eased to 6.38 per cent and 6.6 per cent, respectively, in December 2022, mainly due to lower prices of certain food items. However, key gauges trimmed some of their initial gains in afternoon deals, as traders got anxious with the latest payroll data showing that fresh formal job creation remained below one million for the second consecutive month in November, signalling pressure in the employment market. Investors also were cautious as foreign investors pulled out a net amount of Rs 15,236 crore this month so far on attractive Chinese markets and concerns about the US economy entering a recession. But, market regained traction to end higher as some optimism remained among traders with a UK Foreign Office minister’s statement that negotiations between Britain and India for an ambitious Free Trade Agreement (FTA) are ‘well advanced’, with the next round of talks set to commence very soon. He also asserted that a strong deal could boost the country's economy. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 319.90 points or 0.53% to 60,941.67 and the CNX Nifty was up by 90.90 points or 0.50% to 18,118.55.