Markets closed on account of Holi

Indian equity, forex, money and commodity markets will remain closed today on account of Holi.

On Thursday, benchmark share indices ended marginally higher, amid a choppy trading session, helped by a rebound in late trades led by HDFC and HDFC Bank in addition to gains in defensive FMCG and pharma shares.

However, shares of metal companies witnessed profit taking after China, the world's largest consumer of metals, lowered its economic growth forecast for the current year.

The 30-share Sensex gained 68 points to end at 29,449 and the 50-share Nifty rose 15 points to close at 8,938.

Meanwhile, Ortel Communications initial public offer for 12 million shares in a price band of Rs 181-200 per share which

ended on Thursday remained undersubscribed with demand for just 9.68 million shares.

Global Markets

Asian stocks firmed up on Friday after the European Central Bank said it would soon start its bond buying program. Shares in Japan hit fresh 15-year high. Meanwhile, investors are keenly awaiting US jobs data due later today. The benchmark Nikkei was up nearly 1%. China shares also firmed up after retreating on Thursday after its lowered its growth target
for the current year. Straits Times was up 0.6% while Hang Seng was trading marginally lower.

The European Central Bank said that it would begin is 60 billion euros per month government bond buying programme from

March 9. European share also ended higher with CAC-40 and DAX ending nearly 1% higher while FTSE-100
gained 0.6%.

Major US share indices snapped two-day losing streak to end with marginal gains on Thursday even as investors remained cautious ahead of jobs data due later today. The Dow Jones ended up 39 points at 18,135.72, the broader S&P 500 ended up 3 points at 2,101.04 and the tech-laden Nasdaq ended up 16 points at 4,982.81.