The Indian equity market is expected to open significantly in the green today. The SGX Nifty, an indicator of the market opening, was trading at 9021.50, up 38.50 points at 7:15am.
The market saw a roller-coaster ride on January series F&O expiry day as traders saw some wild swings before a late recovery helping major indices end the day at record levels.
As the Nifty clocked gains for the 10th straight session, it continued to march towards the 9000-mark. The Nifty scaled the 8950-mark with help from the select pharma and realty stocks. The 50-share index ended up 38.05 points at 8952.35. The Sensex was up 122.59 points at 29681.77.
US markets bounced back from a two-day rout, led by a reverse in the price of crude and strong job market data.
European markets closed mixed on Thursday, with a sharp decline in Shell shares hitting the UK's FTSE 100 index and Asian markets were trading higher in morning trade on a positive US handover.
In other asset classes, the dollar is firm against a basket of major currencies ahead of US Q4 GDP data due later today that may show a solid pace of economic expansion as the Fed had described in its policy statement
In commodities, Nymex Crude held steady around USD 44 dollars per barrel as US jobless data signaled further strength in economy. Brent crude was trading around USD 49.
And precious metal gold edged higher after falling more than 2 percent to a two-week low overnight on concern over a looming increase in US interest rates.
Back home in key earnings from the IT space, HCL Tech may see a flat dollar revenue growth. The margins could be slightly under pressure while cross currency growth is seen at 3.2 percent. Meanwhile, Tech Mahindra’s revenue growth could be higher than peers while EBIT margins may increase by 40- 50 bps.
From the banking space, ICICI Bank will report numbers today. According to a CNBC-TV18 poll, the bank will report a 15 growth in profits at Rs 2923 crores. The margins are expected to be stable. Bank of Baroda is expected to see a 19 percent growth in profits.
And get ready for a "clean India" tax in the Budget. The government is mulling imposing a cess not just on telecom but on all services as it looks to build an arsenal of Rs one lakh crore over 5 years. The money will be used to fund the ambitious "Swacch Bharat Abhiyan." Furthermore, the Centre gears up to sell upto 10 percent stake in Coal India. The floor price for the offer for sale (OFS) is set at Rs 358 per share, a 4.5 percent discount to the current market price.
And telecom major Airtel has tied up with Kotak Mahindra Bank as it embarks in pursuit of a payment bank licence. Kotak will pick up nearly 20 percent in Airtel's mobile commerce business once the RBI waves the green flag.
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