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Indian markets climbed higher on Monday amid volatility, snapping a 3-day losing streak, as shares in Asian markets largely remained positive. Today, the markets are likely to make optimistic start tracking overnight sharp fall in crude oil prices. Also, Markets will keenly watch Russia-Ukraine talks in Turkey today for any cues on de-escalation of the conflict. Traders will be taking encouragement as Commerce and industry Minister Piyush Goyal said the free trade agreement between India and the UAE has opened huge opportunities and businesses of both countries should look at taking the bilateral trade to $250 billion by 2030. Some support will come as Sumant Sinha, the newly elected president of Assocham, said that India needs a strong contract-enforcement agency, a simple GST regime and simplified taxation process along with a stable policy environment to significantly improve ease of doing business. Traders may take note of S&P Global Ratings’ statement that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would be compelled to signal a neutral policy stance in the Monetary Policy Committee’s review meeting in April as average consumer inflation is likely to stay firm at 5.4 per cent in FY23. It added the RBI will likely raise the repo rate by at least 50-75 basis points through fiscal year 2023, and by another 50 basis points in fiscal 2024. However, there may be some cautiousness as the latest public debt management report showed that the government’s total liabilities rose to Rs 128.41 lakh crore in December quarter from Rs 125.71 lakh crore in the three months ended September 2021. The increase reflects a quarter-on-quarter increase of 2.15 per cent in October-December 2021-22. Coal industry stocks will be in focus as ICRA said the price of imported coal is poised to rise by 45-55 per cent in the first quarter of FY23 as markets face supply disruption following the Russia-Ukraine conflict and it would severely impact domestic users of imported dry fuel. There will be some reaction in aviation industry stocks as Minister of State for Civil Aviation V K Singh said airports across India will see 33.81 crore passengers in 2022-23, 69.35 per cent more than the current financial year. Defence industry stocks will be in limelight as the government said that a total of Rs 3,343 crore has been received as foreign direct investment (FDI) in the defence sector since 2014. Besides, Veranda Learning Solutions’ Rs 200-crore IPO will open for subscription on Tuesday, at a price band of Rs 130-137 per equity share.

The US markets ended higher on Monday led by sharp gains in Tesla after the latter announced plans for stock split. Asian markets are trading mostly in green on Tuesday following a tumble in oil prices overnight.

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks were trading lower but staged a comeback to end with gains of around half percent on Monday amid renewed buying in Oil & Gas, Banking and Energy shares. Besides, a fall in crude oil prices, and stability in global markets on hopes of fresh round of talks between Russia and Ukraine supported the sentiment. Both the indices had opened marginally lower earlier in the day and extended losses in the morning trade, as some cautiousness crept in as Petrol and diesel prices were hiked by 80 paise a litre each on March 26, the fourth increase in five days as oil firms passed on to consumers the spike in cost of raw material. Sentiments remained down-beat with depositories data showed that overseas investors have pulled out a net Rs 1,14,855.97 crore from the Indian markets in the current year so far, amid heightened geopolitical tensions and inflation concerns. Foreign portfolio investors have sold domestic equities worth Rs 48,261.65 crore so far this month, taking the year-to-date tally this year to a massive Rs 1,14,855.97 crore. Some concern also came with report that as many as 421 infrastructure projects, each entailing investment of Rs 150 crore or more, have been hit by cost overruns of more than Rs 4.73 lakh crore. However, key gauges erased their losses and turned positive towards the afternoon, as traders found support with Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar’s statement that the country can double its economy in about 7-8 years if it grows at the rate of 8 per cent, which is feasible as the country has sustained a growth rate of 8.5 per cent earlier for a long time. Some support also came as Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw stating that Indian economy can grow consistently at 8 per cent for the next 20 years leading to the generation of up to 1.5 crore new jobs and bringing out 3.5 crore people out of the poverty every year on the basis of the capital investment strategy of the government. Adding to the optimism, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said that the free trade agreement between India and the UAE is likely to come into effect from May 1, 2022, under which domestic exporters of as many as 6,090 goods from sectors like textiles, agriculture, dry fruits, gem and jewellery would get duty-free access to the UAE market. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 231.29 points or 0.40% to 57,593.49 and the CNX Nifty was up by 69.00 points or 0.40% to 17,222.00.

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