BOE, ECB decision on rates crucial: Baccardax

The Nifty and Sensex saw a late bout of selloffs over the last hour and half. Many may believe that the genesis of the same lay in the European markets which saw a slew of corporate earning that did not meet analysts expectations. Martin Baccardax, News Editor, CNBC Europe said that the momentum there is that of cautions optimism.  Today’s numbers are a collective mixed bag, some positive, some negative and some mixed, he added.

He said that for today, they are focused on two critical Central Bank decisions, one from the Bank of England which is expected to reduce interest rates by 25 bps to 5.5% and one from the European Central Bank which is expected to keep its central rates on hold at 4% for now.

Excerpts of CNBC-TV18’s exclusive interview with Martin Baccardax:

Q: The markets are down about half to one percent, what are you picking up at this point?

A: At the moment it’s more cautious optimism. We’ve had a slew of corporate earnings in the European space today. Many of them are positive, many are negative and some of them are mixed, it’s really been a collective bag.

Surprisingly, a good set of numbers turned out from Deutsche bank, they surprised the market by not having any further write-downs related to sub prime assets in the US. That’s given a boost to some of the banking shares.

There are numbers from Unilever, one of the biggest consumer products groups in the world, but slightly poor number from BT group, one of the biggest telecom in world. So one can see that there are mixed results across the board.

What we are focused upon today though is the two critical Central Bank decisions. At about midday London time, we will get a decision from the Bank of England, they are fully expected to reduce interest rates by one quarter of percentage point to 5.5%. The European Central Bank, about 45 minutes after that, is fully expected to keep its central rate on hold at 4% for now.