Positive opening likely for the markets

Indian indices are likely to open with modest gains as trends across the Asian peers are subdued. The SGX Nifty indicates Nifty is likely to open around 10,958, up by 33 points. Many corporates are likely to report earnings today and some of the key names include AU BANK, Federal Bank, Hindustan Unilever, Mastek, Rallis, LTTS and Reliance Industries. The regulator SEBI has now decided to further ease norms for mutual funds to take derivative exposures. SEBI has issued modified rules which allow mutual funds to also write call options under specific conditions.  
  
Subdued trends are seen in the Asian markets on Thursday despite a positive close on the Wall Street overnight and the UK government led by Prime Minister Theresa May survived a vote of no-confidence. China’s Shanghai Composite index is down by 0.25 per cent, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index has shed 0.20 per cent and Hong Kong’s index Hang Seng has lost 0.15.  
  
Back home, benchmark indices had a fabulous start to the day, but thereafter the markets pared the early gains to trade lacklustre for the entire session on Wednesday. The Nifty ended the day with a gain of 0.03 per cent at 10,890 and the BSE Sensex closed almost unchanged at 36,321. The broader indices ended the day mixed as Nifty Mid-cap lost 0.11 per cent and the Nifty Small-cap gained 0.09 per cent. On the sectoral front, Nifty PSU Banks closed as the top gainer, while Nifty Media and Nifty FMCG ended as the top losers.  
  
The US indices extended their upmove on Wednesday, helped by a batch of constructive corporate profit reports from Dow members Goldman Sachs and Bank of America and the news that Prime Minister Theresa May survived a no-confidence vote in parliament. Meanwhile, the worries over the continued government shutdown on the economic front intensified, restricting the gains, as well as somewhat lacklustre Beige Book report. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.59 per cent to 24,207, the S&P 500 index added 0.22 per cent to close at 2,616 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.15 per cent to end at 7,035.  
  
Majority of the European markets ended Wednesday’s session in the positive terrain. The DAX of Germany ended up 0.36 per cent; the CAC of France surged 0.51 per cent, while the FTSE 100 of the UK declined 0.47 per cent.