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Indian markets extended their gains for a second straight day on Friday on the back of buying in auto, banking, and energy stocks in line with firm global trends. Today, markets are likely to get gap-up opening tracking firm global cues. Traders will be getting encouragement as Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said India is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world and it is expected to reach $30 trillion in the coming 30 years. He said if India grows at 8 per cent every year on a compounded annual growth basis, the economy will double in about nine years. Some support will come with a private report that India is rapidly emerging as a preferred country for foreign investments as the steps taken by the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the last eight years have borne fruit as is evident from the ever-increasing volumes of FDI inflow setting new records. However, there may be some cautiousness as latest data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed India's foreign exchange reserves declined $5.9 billion to $590.59 billion for the week ended June 17. Traders may take note of Governor Shaktikanta Das’ statement that India's central bank is on course to bring down prices but the retail inflation rate is likely to remain above the top end of its mandated target band until December. Meanwhile, the government has extended the time for levy of GST compensation cess by nearly 4 years till March 31, 2026. Besides, Capital markets regulator Sebi came out with new guidelines for Large Value Fund for accredited investors, pertaining to filing of such schemes and extension of their tenures beyond two years. Power stocks will be in focus as Power Minister RK Singh has said the government will invite bids from states to sell electricity generated from 8,000 megawatt (MW) thermal capacities without PPAs. There will be some reaction in infrastructure industry stocks as Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation said as many as 423 infrastructure projects, each entailing an investment of Rs 150 crore or more, have been hit by cost overruns of more than Rs 4.95 lakh crore.

The US markets ended higher on Friday as oil prices eased, tempering fears of prolonged inflation and the accompanying aggressive Federal Reserve tightening. Asian markets are trading mostly in green on Monday as investors assess recession fears.

Back home, extending gains for second day, Indian equity benchmarks ended higher by nearly a percent on Friday, on the back of buying in telecom, auto, utilities and power stocks amid firm trend in the global market. Key indices made positive start and stayed in green for whole day, as sentiments got a boost with a private report stating that the Indian economy can grow by 7-7.8 per cent this fiscal on the back of better agriculture production and a revitalised rural economy amid global headwinds mainly due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. Traders took some support with another report stated that India’s engineering exports stood at $9.79 billion in May 2022, recording a growth of 13.5 percent over the $8.62 billion reported in the same month a year ago, while the country saw its cumulative engineering exports growing by 16.84 percent at $19.39billion ($16.6 billion) during April-May 2022 period. However, markets trimmed some gains in afternoon deals, as some concern came with private report stated that India's current account deficit (CAD) is expected to widen and be in the range of 2.6 per cent to 2.8 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the current financial year FY23. The high merchandise trade deficit coupled with the fund outflow from financial markets has weakened India's external account or balance of payment position. But, markets soon gained traction to end higher, taking support from a new Nasscom report showing that the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and data utilisation strategy can add $500 billion to India's GDP by 2025. Additional support also came as Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that Mutual cooperation between the BRICS nations could help in global recovery after the coronavirus pandemic. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 462.26 points or 0.88% to 52,727.98 and the CNX Nifty was up by 142.60 points or 0.92% to 15,699.25.

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