Dalal Street may witness a gap up opening on Thursday tracking a positive trend across most Asian markets and a strong finish at Wall Street overnight as optimism over a Greek debt deal bolsters investor appetite for risky assets. While rising bets of an interest rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) next week may continue to support sentiment, tepid corporate earnings numbers may limit the gains at key domestic equity benchmarks. However, volatility may heighten at Dalal Street as traders roll over their positions ahead of the expiry of the May Futures & Options (F&O) contracts today. Shares of state-run energy giant ONGC, coal major Coal India, BPCL, Spicejet and Bank of India will be in focus today as they unveil their March quarter earnings report card today. Slim gains in the SGX CNX Nifty Index futures for May delivery which rose 0.05 per cent at 8,341 at 10:41 am Singapore time, coupled with a bullish trend across most Asian equities signals a positive opening at Dalal Street on Thursday. Asian markets were boosted by hopes of a Greek deal as the country urged that an agreement to unlock fresh aid with creditors is near, but those claims were contradicted by the EU which said that a deal isn’t done yet. China’s Shanghai Composite rose amid gains in power and commodity stocks, but Hang Seng fell while Japanese markets were lifted by a weaker yen which boosted the appeal of exporter stocks. Investors across the globe will focus on the weekly US jobless claims numbers and pending home sales data to be unveiled today that may signal the health of the world’s biggest economy and probably have a bearing on the timing for a maiden US interest rate hike since 2006. The Sensex, on Wednesday snapped a two-day losing streak, advancing 33.25 points or by 0.12 per cent to close at 27,564.66.
