Gap-up opening seen as global stocks shine; IT, auto stocks eyed

The early indicator SGX Nifty is up 84 points at 8,044 levels

Markets are likely to open the last day of the truncated week session on a positive note following strength in the global peers amid a dismal quarter. Caution continues to prevail over China Purchasing Managers' Indices capping the upside gains. 

Meanwhile, favourable macro-economic numbers back home is likely to cheer the mood of the investors.

Indian stock markets will remain closed on tomorrow, 2 October 2015, on account of Gandhi Jayanti

KEY MACRO DATA

India's annual infrastructure output growth picked up in August to 2.6% from a year ago, mainly driven by higher cement and electricity generation, government data showed on Wednesday.

India's fiscal deficit for April-August was Rs 3.69 lakh crore, or 66.5 per cent of the full-year target of Rs 5.56 lakh crore. The fiscal deficit was Rs 3.98 lakh crore in the same period a year ago, about 75 per cent of the FY15 target.

STOCKS TO WATCH

The technology pack is likely to remain in focus after IT major HCL Technologies announced that it expects the revenues for the September quarter to be "tepid", impacted by adverse currency movement and issues with a client in the public services vertical. Meanwhile, it will announce its earnings for the July-September 2015 quarter in the fourth week of October.

The auto stocks are likely to hog limelight as the companies start announcing the monthly sales volume data for September 2015 from today.

Oil and Gas majors ONGC and RIL are likely to show some action after the government reduced the price of the locally-produced natural gas by 18% to $3.82 per unit for six months form today tracking a global drop in the commodity prices.

State-run lenders Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda and Oriental Bank of Commerce have trimmed their base or minimum lending rates up to 0.40% in response to RBI's policy rate cut. Punjab National Bank (PNB) cut the base rate by 0.40%, Bank of Baroda (BoB) by 0.25%, while Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) slashed the rate by 0.20%.

Reliance Communications (RCom) will partner with Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries' telecom venture, Reliance Jio, to offer fourth-generation (4G) services through a spectrum sharing and trading route.

Mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corp (HDFC)’s offering simultaneous issue of non-convertible debenture (NCDs) and warrants will open for book building on Thursday. The housing finance company has plans to raise money up to Rs 5,000 crore.

Bharat Electronics has decided to set up a new facility in Andhra, The unit will come up on 900 acres with an estimated cost of Rs 500 crore 

GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals has announced completion of its transaction with Novartis India today where GSK India acquires Novartis' vaccines business and divests its marketed oncology portfolio to Novartis India.

Energy solutions provider Inox Wind bagged a 50 Mw wind power project in Gujarat from a major minerals and lignite mining company GMDC.

GLOBAL STOCKS

Asian stocks rose global equities found respite after posting the worst quarter in four years as worries over China Purchasing Managers' Indices limit gains. Asian peers tracked overnight rally on Wall Street, where the S&P 500 gained 1.3% and the Dow rose 1%.

The official Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) inched up to 49.8 in September from the previous month's reading of 49.7, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics