Market may be positive, May's speech eyed; Reliance in focus

The market may continue to see positive trade amidst global investors awaiting UK PM Theresa May's Brexit speech. According to reports, May will lay out plan to exit the European Union that would see Britain lose access to the bloc's single market. The pound is already near 3-month low ahead of the speech. The pound's losses helped take some pressure away from the greenback, which has been burdened by investor uncertainty over the incoming Trump administration's policies.

Asian markets saw a mixed start as investors were cautious ahead of May’s speech. Nikkei was down nearly half a percent, while the Korean market was trading higher by over half a percent.

Back home, equity benchmarks closed at over two-month closing high on Monday. The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 50.11 points at 27288.17 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 12.45 points to 8412.80, extending last week's rally.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) slashed India's growth forecast by as much as a percent. It revised its expectations to 6.6 percent versus the 7.1 forecast by the government, citing demonetisation. Reliance will be in focus today. The flagship company of Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani Group, said profit on standalone basis increased 4.1 percent sequentially to Rs 8,022 crore in the quarter ended December 2016. Bottomline was boosted by other income that grew sharply by 32.7 percent quarter-on-quarter to Rs 3,025 crore despite higher finance cost. Gross refining margin (GRM) increased to USD 10.80 a barrel from USD 10.1 a barrel and Singapore GRM jumped to USD 6.70 a barrel from USD 5.10 a barrel on sequential basis.

Meanwhile, on macro front there was a big breakthrough on the GST front, as the council agreed a horizontal split of tax assesses for dual control. The new agreement on dual control outlined that tax assesses with a turnover above Rs 1.5 crore will be assessed and audited in a 50:50 ratio by the Centre and States. However, states got the right to assess and audit 90 percent of the entities with a turnover below Rs 1.5 crore, with the rest falling under the Centre's jurisdiction.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also announced a delayed roll out of the reform. The deadline for the tax's implementation has been pushed from April 1 to July 1.Among other asset classes, crude prices were trade steady as Saudi Arabia's commitments to reducing production offset a report forecasting US output would again rise this year. Gold continues to hold above 1200 dollars an ounce on Trump uncertainty and Brexit concerns.Disclosure: Reliance Industries owns Network 18 that publishes Moneycontrol.com.