Asian share markets are higher today as traders awaited President-elect Donald Trump's cabinet selection and sought to gauge the outlook for Fed easing.

In US markets, Wall Street's main indexes showed mixed performance on Monday as investors awaited Nvidia's third-quarter earnings after last week's sell-off driven by concerns over Donald Trump's cabinet appointments and central bank policy.

Nvidia, whose stock has nearly tripled this year, is set to report its earnings on Wednesday, with its results critical for assessing whether the AI-driven market rally can continue.

Back home, Indian share markets are trading on a strong note.

Benchmark indices staged a smart rebound after yesterday's decline.

Today, index heavyweight stocks Reliance, HDFC Bank, Infosys, and TCS are driving the gains.

Market participants are also tracking shares of Bharti Airtel after Bharti Global, the international investment arm of Bharti Enterprises, completed the acquisition of a 24.5% stake in UK-based BT Group for $4 billion. This marks Bharti's second major international move, following its expansion into Africa in 2010.

At present, the BSE Sensex is trading higher by 795 points, while the NSE Nifty is trading around 23,700 levels, up 242 points.

M&M, Trent, and Adani Ports are among the top gainers today.

Bajaj Finserv and HUL, on the other hand, are among the top losers today.

Broader markets are trading on a positive note. The BSE Mid Cap index rose 1.5% while the BSE Small Cap index advanced 1.8%.

All sectoral indices are trading in green with stocks in the IT sector, power sector and auto sector witnessing most of the buying.

Shares of Mastek, Indo Tech Trans, and Jindal Poly Invest hit their 52-week high today.

The rupee is trading at Rs 84.40 against the US dollar.

In commodity markets, gold prices are trading at Rs 75,375 per 10 grams today.

Oil prices are down today after the previous day's rally driven by halted production at Norway's Johan Sverdrup oilfield, but investors remained cautious amid fears of a potential escalation in the Russia-Ukraine war.
 

A Major Shipbuilding Reform...

In latest developments from the shipbuilding sector, according to reports, the government is expected to soon set up a Rs 30,000 crore Maritime Development Fund to support shipbuilding and repair clusters.

This move will supplement the Rs 1.5 lakh crore upgrade plan for the ports sector for the next five years, which includes development of six deep draft ports, two transshipment hubs as well as green and smart ports.

Note that India plans to be the world leader in ship recycling by 2030.

Experts are of the view that India is in a pivotal position to shape global maritime policies and trade.

Shipbuilding acts as a catalyst for overall industrial growth due to spin-offs to other industries, including steel, engineering equipment, port infrastructure, trade, and shipping.

With its immense direct and indirect linkages with many other leading industries, the shipbuilding industry has the potential to strengthen the mission of an 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat'.

However, there are plenty of checks that need to be undertaken before considering the above stocks involved in shipbuilding ecosystem to be investment worthy.
 

Tweaks for more PLI...

The government is examining tweaking its public procurement norms to aid manufacturers under the production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes.

According to reports, the government is assessing the idea to offer the benefit of deemed local supplier status to a company that gets an item manufactured by its contract manufacturer, who is a beneficiary under the PLI schemes.

India has put in place PLI schemes for 14 sectors to increase local production of mobiles, automobiles, electronics components and pharmaceuticals among others.

There are around 755 beneficiaries of the PLI schemes and around Rs 1.5 lakh crore incremental investments of the targeted Rs 3 lakh crore have already come in.

 

Worst Over for IT?

Moving on, in latest developments from the IT space, India's US$250 billion outsourcing industry saw a pickup in deal momentum in the quarter to September with almost 60 deals.

Industry experts said the increase in deals, from 47 in the previous quarter, marked a gradual revival, although it partly resulted from the seasonal demand.

In September alone, 26 deals were signed by key IT services players, including six each by domestic firm Infosys and global player Accenture while Cognizant grabbed three deals.

The optimism has improved with the revival of the key banking and financial sector, especially in North America. The upcoming cycle has also moved toward more certainty with the tamed US inflation, interest rate cuts and a likely stronger dollar following the US presidential election.

However, investors should be careful as we move into December and March quarters as these quarters are usually soft due to holiday season.

Here's a simple chart showing the five forces that determine the IT sector -

The management commentary in the September quarter from most IT companies was upbeat with deal activity returning going forward, amid retreat of employee additions, after a fall of seven quarters.

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