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Indian markets jumped over 1 percent each on Wednesday on the back of lower crude oil prices and a subdued dollar in international markets. Today, markets are likely to continue their bull run with positive start on firm global cues. Some support will come as rating agency ICRA said that profitability of sugar, fertiliser and dairy sectors will remain stable in FY22, with only three months left to close the financial year 21-22. Besides, the I-T department said income tax refunds of over Rs 1.44 lakh crore have been issued to 1.38 crore taxpayers so far this fiscal. This includes 99.75 lakh refunds of Assessment Year (AY) 2021-22 (fiscal ended March 31, 2021) amounting to Rs 20,451.95 crore. Traders may take note of MPC minutes released by the central bank showing that RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das pitched for continued policy support to nurture revival in sectors especially those which are exposed to the evolving headwinds in the wake of spread of Omicron variant of Covid. Meanwhile, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has pitched for simplicity while formulating measures to improve ease of living, doing business and reduce the compliance burden. However, volatility cannot be ruled out on account of potential risk from Omicron variant. India has so far recorded close to 250 cases of Omicron across 15 states and union territories even though at least 90 of the infected people have either recovered or migrated. Amid fresh concerns caused by the Omicron variant, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a meeting on the Coronavirus (Covid-19) situation in the country today. There may be some cautiousness with a private report that Indian Consumer Price Index could rise as much as 150 basis points putting pressure on the central bank, if the GST council chooses to raise rates for many goods in line with the recommendations of the finance commission. There will be some buzz in the IT industry stocks with a private report that the US government has withdrawn the Donald Trump era proposal to change the process of granting H-1B visa from the current lottery system to a wage-based system, a move that could cheer the Indian IT companies. Agriculture industry stocks will be in focus with report that the year 2022 will be momentous for agriculture, as the issue of a legal guarantee of minimum support price (MSP) for crops is expected to be finally decided. There will be some reaction in telecom industry stocks as Indian telecom companies (telcos) are set to see a 40 per cent boost in their operating profits next fiscal, which will give them some room to invest in rolling out their 5G services. Moreover, Medplus Health Services shares will start trading on the stock exchanges today. Shares of Medplus Health Services were offered to investors in a fixed price band of Rs 780-796 per share.

The US markets ended higher on Wednesday adding to the gains ahead of Christmas holiday. Asian markets are trading mostly in green on Thursday following Wall Street’s overnight rally.

Back home, extending previous session’s jubilation, Indian equity benchmarks ended the Wednesday’s trade with a gain of over a percent with frontline gauges recapturing their crucial 56,900 (Sensex) and 16,950 (Nifty) levels amid a positive rebound in the global market. Markets started the session on an optimistic note as traders took encouragement with the Finance Ministry’s report stating that the government has initiated various measures to provide relief and financial support to various sectors of the Covid-19 hit economy, at the same time, fiscal consolidation is also under focus. Traders also took note of newly-elected president of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) Sanjiv Mehta’s statement that high inflation has impacted consumption and market volumes have gone down, especially in the rural economy, but it is likely to start easing from mid-2022 as it is largely due to supply side constraints or speculation. However, gains remained capped as traders remained watchful with report showing that India's production of crude oil, which is refined to produce petrol and diesel, continued to decline in November, with lower output from state-owned firms leading to an over 2 per cent drop. Crude oil production in November was 2.43 million tonnes, down from 2.48 million tonnes a year back and 2.5 million tonnes in October 2021. Key gauges added some more gains in last leg of trade as traders took support with the ratings agency ICRA’s statement that domestic IT services companies are expected to log a dollar revenue growth of 9-12 per cent in FY2022, driven by accelerated demand for digital technologies from enterprises globally and partly on account of low base of last year due to the COVID-19 impact. Meanwhile, the GST Council has not recommended bringing petroleum products under the reformed taxation regime even as certain representations have been made to the government to include petrol and diesel in GST. Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 611.55 points or 1.09% to 56,930.56 and the CNX Nifty was up by 184.60 points or 1.10% to 16,955.45

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