Flat start seen for Indian markets

Indian shares are likely to open on a flat note as the global cues look mixed with SGX Nifty trading 10.50 points higher.

Headlines for the day:

  • Cairn India announces 58% cut in FY16 capex projection to $ 500 million

  • Adani Power, Usha Martin bag mines in 2nd leg of coal auction

  • SBI’s up to Rs15,000-cr share sale likely by April-end

Indian Indices:

Indian shares are likely to open on a flat note as the global cues look mixed with SGX Nifty trading 10.50 points higher.

Indian shares fell on Wednesday, retreating from record highs hit earlier in the session, as the initial surge after an unexpected rate cut by the central bank was offset by profit-taking and on speculation foreign investors sold blue-chips. The S&P BSE Se nsex and CNX Nifty ended 0.72%-0.82% lower each.

On the macro-economic front, the HSBC services PMI rose to an eight-month high of 53.9 in February up from 52.4 in January indicating strong expansion in output across the sector. Respondents cited robust growth of new business as the principle factor for the increase in activity.

The biggest ever auction of spectrum by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) started on Wednesday in the morning where government expects to garner Rs 80,000-1lakh crore from the sale of spectrum.

A day after signing an agreement with Finance Ministry on inflation targeting, RBI surprised the markets with an early post-budget repo rate cut of 25 bps (basis points) to 7.5% from 7.75% which was again outside of central bank’s scheduled policy review meetings as the earlier rate cut effected on January 15.

Intra-day, Se nsex reached the all-time high mark of 30,024.74 while Nifty touched the life-time high level of 9,119.20 on Wednesday.

On Wednesday (March 04, 2015), the 30-share Se nsex  ended down 213 points at 29,380 and the 50-share Nifty closed down 74 points at 8,922.

Global Indices:

Asian stocks slipped on Thursday after Wall Street continued to pull back from record highs ahead of Friday’s closely-watched U.S. jobs data, while the nervous euro languished at an 11-year low prior to the European Central Bank’s policy meeting.

U.S. stocks closed down on Wednesday for the second day in a row as investors stepped back after a recent rally ahead of jobs data due later in the week.

European shares rallied in late trading on Wednesday and closed just below multi-year highs, with export-oriented stocks getting a boost following a sharp decline in the euro to an 11-1/2-year low against the dollar after U.S. services data.