Markets likely to open flat; defence related stocks in focus

Defence stocks will be in focus after the announcement of new defence procurement policy from April 2

Markets are likely to open flat on Tuesday with defence stocks in focus on announcement of the new defence procurement policy while state-owned banks may witness profit taking after the sharp rebound in the previous session.

At 8:40am, the early indicator SGX Nifty was up 37 points at 7,211.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in equities to the tune of Rs 1,312 crore on Monday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

Asian markets were trading higher with Chinese shares gaining the most after a subdued session on Monday. The benchmark Shanghai Composite was up 2.3% while Hang Seng was up 1.7%. Nikkei which had surged nearly 7% in the previous session was trading nearly 1% higher while Straits Times was up 0.6%.

European shares ended higher on Monday with bank and telcom shares leading the gains. Bank stocks gained momentum after the ECB's action to purchase lots of Italian bad bank loans. All the major benchmark indices in the region ended over 2% higher with CAC, DAX and FTSE-100 up 2%-2.9% each.

Meanwhile, US markets were closed on Monday on account of President's Day holiday.

STOCKS IN FOCUS

NMDC will be in focus after the company  declared first interim dividend at the rate of Rs. 9.50 per equity share of face value of Rs. 1/- each for the financial year 2015-16.

Defence stocks such as BEL, Astra Microwave, Pipavav Defence, BEML will be in focus

after defence minister Manohar Parrikar said the DPP would give priority to indigenous manufacturers under the Make in India initiative but it wouldn’t be a mandatory condition to award contacts. The new policy would modernise the defence forces.

Bank of Baroda may witness some profit taking after sharp gains in the previous session on the back of management comment that it would return to profitability in the next quarter and would require no capital infusion from the government.

Hyderabad-based power infrastructure services company Power Mech Projects Limited has reported a 31.6% jump in net profit at Rs 20.36 crore for the quarter ended December, 2015 as compared with Rs 15.47 crore in the corresponding quarter previous year.