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Indian markets took a big knock on Thursday their worst single-day loss in more than two months mirroring a sell-off across global markets coupled with persistent foreign fund outflows. Today, markets are likely to get positive start, after previous session’s sell-off, tracking gains in Asian counterparts. Traders will be taking encouragement with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement that India's economic growth is likely to be robust at 8.9 percent in the current financial year, reflecting the country's strong resilience and speedy recovery. Sitharaman also expressed confidence that India will continue to achieve a high growth rate in the next financial year as well. Some support will come as RBI data showed bank credit grew by 10.82 per cent to Rs 120.46 lakh crore and deposits by 9.71 per cent to Rs 166.95 lakh crore in the fortnight ended May 6, 2022. In the fortnight ended May 7, 2021, bank advances stood at Rs 108.70 lakh crore and deposits at Rs 152.16 lakh crore. Meanwhile, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant has said it is the private sector's job to create wealth and the government should focus on laying down public policy framework. Sugar industry stocks will be in focus as Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) said that sugar exports have risen by 64 per cent to 71 lakh tonnes during October 2021-April 2022 period as compared to 43.19 lakh tonnes of sugar exported during the corresponding period of the last year. There will be some reaction in agriculture industry related stocks as the third advance estimate released by the agriculture ministry showed that India’s foodgrain production will rise 1.2% on year to a new record of 314.51 million tonne (MT) for the 2021-22 crop year (July-June). Besides, the IPO (initial public offering) of eMudhra, the largest licensed certified authority (CA) in the digital signature certificates market in India, is to open today. The price band for eMudhra’s IPO has been fixed between Rs 243 and Rs 256 per share for Rs 413 crore IPO raise.

The US markets ended lower on Thursday with Cisco Systems slumping after giving a dismal outlook, while investors fretted about inflation and rising interest rates. Asian markets are trading on green on Friday after China cut a key lending benchmark to support a slowing economy.

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks extended their fall for the second straight session on Thursday and ended with losses of over two and half percent as fears over slower economic growth due to rising inflation dented investor sentiment. Markets made a gap-down opening and stayed in red for whole day, as traders were anxious as the United Nations said India is expected to grow 6.4% in 2022, well below the 8.8% growth in 2021, as higher inflationary pressures and uneven recovery of the labour market are likely to curb private consumption and investment. Some pessimism also came as India Ratings and Research said the average headline inflation is set to accelerate to a nine-year high at 6.9 per cent in FY23, and the Reserve Bank may go for more rate hikes during the fiscal. It added that the RBI will hike rates by another 75 basis points and possibly up to 125 basis points (1.25 percentage point) as well if the turn of events and data are very adverse. Trading sentiments remained subdued in the late trade with a private report stated that equity investors became poorer by over Rs 5 lakh crore in early trade on Thursday as domestic benchmark indices tumbled mirroring weak trends in global equities. Traders were cautious after cooking gas LPG price hiked by Rs 3.50 per cylinder, the second increase in rate this month following the firming of international energy rates. Non-subsidised LPG now costs Rs 1,003 per 14.2-kg cylinder in the national capital, up from Rs 999.50 previously. That apart, selling by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) also added to the pessimism in the markets. FIIs have been net sellers for eight straight months, and have dumped equities worth nearly Rs 38,000 crore in the month of May so far. Traders overlooked Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) V Anantha Nageswaran’s statement that amid global uncertainties caused by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, India is still better placed among the large economies because of an improved financial system and a robust corporate health. He said India has already taken a host of reforms in banking and other sectors and is now focussing on stepping up public investment. Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 1416.30 points or 2.61% to 52,792.23 and the CNX Nifty was down by 430.90 points or 2.65% to 15,809.40.  

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