Flat to positive start likely following mixed global cues

Domestic bourses are likely to make a flat to positive start. The SGX Nifty indicates Nifty is likely to open around the level of 10,965, up by 17 points. The earnings season will continue to garner much of the attention today as a host of companies are reporting their earning today, including ACC, Apollo Tyres, BHEL, CESC, DLF, GAIL, Hind Petro, Marico, PNB, Reliance Iinfra, Tata Global, Tech Mahindra, Torrent Power. In a major development, the Modi government has won a psychological victory as the UK home secretary has approved the extradition of Vijay Mallya to India. 

In the Asian markets, stocks in Japan were muted on Tuesday, while Australian stock surged higher on the back of rally seen in the financial stocks. Now, the market participants will look ahead to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s decision on interest rates due later in the day. The stock markets in China and Hong Kong are closed on account of Lunar New Year.  . 
  
Back home, bourses made a shaky start on Monday and traded in the negative territory for major part of the trading session. However, last hour buying helped the bourses to eke out modest gains after a bumpy ride. The BSE Sensex settled at 36,583, up by 0.31 per cent, and the Nifty closed above the 10,900 mark with a gain of 0.17 per cent. A divergent trend was seen in the broader indices as Nifty Mid-cap and Small-cap lost 0.88 per cent and 1.55 per cent, respectively. On the sectoral front, most of the indices ended in the red, with Nifty Pharma leading the pack of losers, while Nifty Private Banks and Nifty Bank ending as top gainers. 
  
The US stocks got off to a muted start, but as the day progressed, the stocks moved higher. The stocks closed at their best closing levels in two months on Monday. The Dow Jones surged 0.70 per cent to 25,239, the S&P 500 advanced 0.68 per cent to 2,725 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq index jumped 1.15 per cent to 7,348. 
  
European markets exhibited a mixed performance on Monday. In the economic news, December Eurozone producer price fell 0.8 per cent, which was more than expectation, while the Sentix Research Group said its investor sentiment index for Eurozone dropped to –3.7 in February, hitting its lowest level since November 2014 and the UK construction sector eased to its slowest growth in ten months. The DAX of Germany dipped 0.04 per cent and the CAC of France lost 0.38 per cent, while the FTSE 100 of the UK rose 0.20 per cent.