Gap-up opening likely as Asia rallies

Smart gains across overseas markets will set the mood for a gap-up opening on Indian bourses Thursday. However, given that the market will be shut on Friday on account of public holiday and a truncated week of trade ahead, traders may want to keep their positions light.  “The near term technical signals from the MACD and Parabolic-SAR are quite strongly bullish still but the fast MACD is showing signs of turning down so one must watch that closely for signs of a potential cross. Also, the Parabolic-SAR will turn negative if we have a down day on Thursday but that is looking unlikely given Wall Street's performance overnight,” said a Reuters technical analysis note.  India's annual inflation data is expected later Thursday. The wholesale price index is forecast to have dropped closer to zero in the third week of March. Analysts expect a 0.18 per cent rise in the wholesale price index in the 12 months to March 21, below the 0.27 per cent rise the previous week.  Meanwhile, US stocks rose on Wednesday as factory and home sales data raised hopes the economic downturn is moderating, sparking a broad advance.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 152.68 points, or 2.01 per cent, to end at 7,761.60. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 13.21 points, or 1.66 per cent, to 811.08 and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 23.01 points, or 1.51 per cent, to 1,551.60.  Stocks across the Asia-Pacific region rallied after encouraging US home and factory sales data sparked optimism about the world's largest economy. The Nikkei surged 3 per cent and Topix advanced 3.34 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 4 per cent, Singapore’s Straits Times climbed 2.67 per cent and South Korea’s Kospi Index jumped 2.9 per cent.  Back home, the new financial year commenced on a strong footing with the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex surging nearly two per cent on fag-end buying sparked by firming trends in the Asian region.  The BSE Sensex closed at 9,901.99, higher by 193.49 points or 1.99 per cent from the previous close. Intraday, the 30-share index moved between 9,921.96 and 9,546.29 - a band of around 375.67 points.  The Nifty ended at 3060.35, up 39.4 points or 1.3 per cent over Tuesday's close. The NSE benchmark saw a high of 3069.30 and low of 2965.70 during the day.  After pulling back nearly Rs 1,266 crore in the last three trading sessions, foreign institutional investors Wednesday emerged as buyers and invested a net Rs 173.73 crore in equities. Domestic institutional investors were also seen in investing mood and were the net purchaser of stocks worth Rs 11.60 crore. Source: ET