Monday turned out to be a remarkable day of trade for Indian equity benchmarks where bulls tightened their grip on Dalal Street, with Nifty and Sensex recapturing their crucial 10,550 and 34,400 levels, respectively. The markets' mood remained up-beat throughout the day and benchmarks fervently gained from strength to strength, as investors continued hunt for fundamentally strong stocks. Key gauges made a gap-up opening on a private poll showing that India's economy grew at its fastest pace in a year in the October-December quarter as consumers, businesses and the government stepped up spending. This suggests that disruptions from a shock ban on high-value currency notes in November 2016 and the chaotic launch of a goods and services tax (GST) in July are fading. The markets also got boost with the report that Commerce and industry ministry has appointed four institutes, including IIFT and ICAI, to interact with stakeholders and suggest measures to push India's ranking in ease of doing business index. Markets extended rally in second half of trade to end near intraday high levels, as some support came with Union Minister Parshottam Rupala's statement that the Centre was making concerted efforts to double the income of farmers by 2022 and asked scientists, and others concerned to tackle the challenges being faced by the agriculture sector. He opined that scientists, environmental and agricultural experts must have a global outlook and local approach to combat the challenges in agricultural and environmental sectors. Adding to the optimism, a private report highlighting that focus on investments, productivity will lead to sustainable growth rate. According to the report, India needs to industrialize further and target 25 per cent of GDP pie for manufacturing sector by 2025 in order to achieve double-digit investment growth and create jobs for its swelling labour force. Finally, the BSE Sensex surged 303.60 points or 0.89% to 34,445.75, while the CNX Nifty was up by 91.55 points or 0.87% to 10,582.60.

The US markets closed higher on Monday, with Dow and S&P 500 rose for a third session in a broad-based rally led by technology shares on the back of rotational buying. Investors are also bracing for a busy week that will feature several Federal Reserve speakers, including the new Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's appearance in front of Congress. On the economy front, a measure of the US economy calculated at the Chicago Federal Reserve ticked lower in January from December owed largely to a factory slowdown. The Chicago Fed's index of national economic activity eased to a positive 0.12 last month from a downwardly revised positive 0.14 in December. The index has moved in a narrow band over recent months. October's reading of an upwardly revised positive 0.91 was the highest for the volatile index since positive 0.94 in December 2006. The index's less-volatile, three-month moving average fell to positive 0.12 in January from positive 0.26 in December. Meanwhile, new-home sales ran at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 593,000 in January. Sales of newly-constructed homes tumbled unexpectedly at the start of the year. January's selling pace was 7.8% lower than in December, although that month was revised upward. It was 1% lower than January 2017, as well. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 399.28 points or 1.58 percent to 25,709.27, Nasdaq was up by 84.074 points or 1.15 percent to 7,421.46 and S&P 500 gained 32.3 points or 1.18 percent to 2,779.60.

Crude oil prices edged higher on Monday, extending gains made last week on the back of halted production at a Libyan oil field and an unexpected drop in U.S. crude stockpiles. Libya's National Oil Co. on Friday declared force majeure on exports from the el-Feel oil field in the south of the country. The 60,000 barrel-a-day field was shut down and evacuated following a violent protest by a unit of local guards. Prices rose despite reports that Saudi Arabia wants to end their supply quota plan by 2019. Saudi Arabian oil minister Khalid al-Falih said, “A study is taking place and once we know exactly what balancing the market will entail we will announce what is the next step. The next step may be easing of the production constraints”. Benchmark crude oil futures for April delivery surged 36 cents or 0.6 percent at $63.91 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. April Brent crude declined 19 cents or 0.3 percent to settle at $67.50 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.

Indian rupee ended marginally weaker against the American currency on Monday, due to fresh dollar demand from banks and importers. Sentiments remained down-beat with report that overseas investment by Indian companies fell by nearly 70 per cent to $866 million in January this year. Investors even overlooked a private report stating that India's economic recovery is expected to have gathered momentum and GDP growth is likely to grow at its fastest pace at 7 per cent in the December quarter as consumers, businesses and the government stepped up spending. However, persistent foreign capital inflows into equity market along with dollar losing sheen against other currencies overseas restricted further losses. On the global front, dollar turned lower against a currency basket on Monday, giving back some of the previous week's gains, with investors cautious ahead of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's first congressional testimony later in the week. Finally, the rupee ended at 64.79, 6 paise weaker from its previous close of 64.73 on Friday.

The FIIs as per Monday's data were net buyers in equity segment, while they were net sellers in debt segment, in equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 6993.66 crore against gross selling of Rs 6142.06 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 1546.12 crore with gross sales of Rs 2814.70 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was of Rs 0.05 crore against gross selling of Rs 0.38 crore.

The U.S. stocks rose sharply on Monday, as treasury yields pulled back further partly in reaction to dovish comments by St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard warning against aggressive interest rate hikes not supported by incoming data. Asian stocks held near three-week highs in morning deals, thanks to higher oil prices and easing U.S. borrowing costs. The Japanese stock market is notably higher on Tuesday, extending gains from the previous session as yen weakened. Indian equity markets edged higher for a second straight session on Monday, as investors looked ahead to key macroeconomic data due this week for direction. Today, the start is likely to be on positive side as investors keep an eye on the GDP data for December quarter due on Wednesday. Traders will get some support with report that India's economic recovery is expected to have gathered momentum as economists expect India's GDP to grow 6.9 percent in the December quarter, the fastest pace in a year and up from 6.3 percent in July-September quarter, on the back of increased spending by consumers, businesses and the government.  Investors will also get some encouragement with economic think-tank NCAER's report that the Indian economy is projected to grow at 6.7 per cent in the current financial year and 7.5 per cent in 2018-19. The figures are in line with the growth projections in this year's Economic Survey, which said India is likely to clock 7-7.5 per cent growth in 2018-19, up from 6.75 per cent in the current fiscal. Some support may also come with report that the government plans to cut red tape and ease rules for foreign portfolio investors (FPI), as it seeks to attract more investments into Asia's third-largest economy. However, some concern may come later in the trade on report that investments in the domestic capital market through participatory notes (P-notes) plunged to a nearly eight-and-a-half-year low of Rs 1.19 lakh crore in January-end amid stringent norms put in place by regulator SEBI to check misuse.

Support and Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)

Nifty Top volumes

• Reliance Industries' JV - India Gas Solutions has signed an agreement with Andhra Pradesh government to invest in creating marketing infrastructure for natural gas from KG basin.
• Dr. Reddy's Laboratories has received the EIR from the USFDA for its formulations facility at Srikakulam in the state of Andhra Pradesh.
• Tata Motors has launched lifestyle SUV -- Tata NEXON -- in Nepal on February 22, 2018. 
• Lupin has launched Testosterone Topical Solution, 30 mg per actuation having received an approval from the USFDA earlier.