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Indian markets broke their four-session losing run on Friday as emergence of buying in financial, pharma and IT stocks negated losses in metal counters. Today, the start of new week is likely to be firm tracking gains in global markets and ahead of the services PMI to be out later in the day. Sentiments will get a boost as India recorded the highest-ever exports of $95 billion during April-June, up 85 per cent year-on year (YoY) and 18 per cent higher than the first quarter of the fiscal year 2019-20. The merchandise exports grew 47 per cent YoY to $32.46 billion in June, driven by a robust demand of engineering goods, petroleum products, and gems and jewellery in the external markets. Besides, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said India has set a target of $400 billion merchandise exports for 2021-22. Some support will come as the Union government announced fresh guidelines to include wholesale and retail trades as micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in a move that is expected to benefit as many as 25 million traders battered by the Covid-19 pandemic. Additionally, in reversal of a two-month selling trend, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) in June turned out to be net buyers by investing Rs 13,269 crore in Indian markets. However, there may be some cautiousness as India's total tally of Covid-19 cases surged to 30,584,872 on Monday with 40,387 new infections being reported in a day, while 29,692,986 have recovered, according to Worldometer. The death count increased to 402,758 with 743 new fatalities. Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has highlighted the likely issues around big tech's role in the financial services sector and said that concerns such as level playing field with banks and operational risks have intensified lately. There will be some buzz in infrastructure stocks as NHAI said toll collection in June 2021 increased to Rs 2,576.28 crore, 21 per cent higher than Rs 2,125.16 crore collected in May this year, with the easing of lockdown in most states and rise in the traffic movement on the highways. There will be some reaction in oil & gas industry stocks as Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman ruled out any cut in excise duty levied on petroleum products for now. She said that there is no such proposal at the present to reduce prices of petroleum. Auto stocks will be in focus with report that auto companies may soon be asked to manufacture passenger and commercial vehicles that run on multiple fuel configuration aimed at reducing the use of polluting fossil fuels and cutting down harmful emissions. Besides, shares of India Pesticides will make their debut on the stock exchanges today. The initial public offering of the agrochemical firm was subscribed 29 times last month with retail investors bidding for the issue 11.3 times.

The US markets ended higher on Friday with all three major indices at records after a solid jobs report that was not seen as accelerating a monetary policy shift. Asian markets are trading mixed on Monday ahead of key economic data releases in Australia and China.

Back home, snapping their four-session losing run, Indian equity benchmarks ended in green on Friday led by gains in ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, SBI, Titan Company and HDFC. Markets made a cautious start, as India recorded 43,360 infections and 796 fatalities in the last 24 hours. In just over five weeks, from May 23 to July 1, the country reported 100,000 deaths from Covid even as the second wave waned. Sentiments remained in lackluster mood as the Financial Stability Report (FSR) released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that the gross non-performing assets (GNPAs) ratio of banks may increase to 9.8 percent by March 2022 from 7.48 percent in March 2021 under a baseline scenario. Besides, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) stood as net sellers in the capital market as they offloaded shares worth Rs 1,245.29 crore on Thursday, as per provisional exchange data. However, late hour buying helped benchmarks to end the session near intraday high levels as traders found some solace with credit rating agency, Moody's Investors Service assessed the overall economic effect of the second wave to be softer than that during the first wave of pandemic last year, although delivery of and access to vaccines will determine the durability of recovery. Moody's expects the current lockdowns to have less of an adverse impact on economic activity than the nationwide lockdown in April 2020 because the latest restrictions have been more targeted, localised and less stringent. Some support also came with the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement that a special session of the GST Council will be held soon to discuss all compensation-related issues. She also said that the flow of COVID-19 vaccination across the country will be well managed and all states will be taken care of. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 166.07 points or 0.32% to 52,484.67, while the CNX Nifty was up by 42.20 points or 0.27% to 15,722.20.

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