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Indian markets ended at record closing highs Wednesday led by gains in metals and realty stocks. Today, the start of session is likely to be pessimistic amid weakness in Asian peers. Investors are eyeing the Q1FY22 earnings season which will kick start from today with TCS results, likely to guide the market trajectory. Rising coronavirus cases likely to weight on market sentiments. India recorded a spike of 45,196 new infections, taking the total caseload to 30,708,092, according to Worldometer. The death count increased to 405,054 with 814 new fatalities. Traders will be concerned with ICRA’s report that the high level of overdues in loan books could spike fresh non-performing assets (NPAs) in the first half of the current fiscal ending September 2021 (H1FY22) amid the surge in Covid cases and its economic impact. There will be some cautiousness as Fitch Ratings cut India's growth forecast to 10 per cent for the current fiscal, from 12.8 per cent estimated earlier, due to slowing recovery post second wave of COVID-19, and said rapid vaccination could support a sustainable revival in business and consumer confidence. However, some support may come later in the day as Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal called for a services trade agreement among friendly nations of the Indo-Pacific region as it can help liberalise domestic regulations and build capacity in sectors like e-commerce and IT. Select banking stocks will be in limelight as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) imposed a monetary penalty on 14 banks, including State Bank of India (SBI), Bandhan Bank, IndusInd Bank, Bank of Baroda (BoB), Central Bank for non-compliance with certain provisions of directions issued by them. The penalty ranges from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 2 crore, with SBI being charged Rs 50 lakh and BoB Rs 2 crore. IT industry stocks will be in focus as ratings agency Crisil said the Indian IT industry will stage a strong recovery in 2021-22 with a revenue growth of up to 11 per cent. It said the recovery will be led by increasing outsourcing and accelerating digital transformation services mainly in sectors such as banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), healthcare, retail and manufacturing. There will be some reaction in aviation industry stocks as global airlines body IATA said India's domestic traffic was 71 percent lower in May this year compared to the corresponding period in 2019 amid the emergence of more contagious Delta variant of coronavirus.

The US markets ended higher on Wednesday after minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest meeting largely confirmed market expectations. Asian markets are trading mostly in red on Thursday as the coronavirus situation in parts of the region weighed on investors' sentiment.

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks witnessed volatile trading activity throughout the day and ended in green on Wednesday, bucking the weak trend in global markets, helped by gains in metal and realty stocks. Benchmarks made a cautious start and traded in a narrow range for most part of the day, as traders remained cautious on report that India recorded a spike of 43,957 new infections, taking the total caseload to 30,662,896. Some concern also came as the Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection slipped below Rs 1 lakh crore in June for the first time in eight months as the second wave of the Covid pandemic and the resultant lockdowns hit businesses and the economy. At Rs 92,849 crore, GST collection is the lowest in 10 months since August 2020, when it was Rs 86,449 crore. Traders also remained worried with private report stated that monsoon rainfall across India has turned a deficit for the first time this year, ending a strong start to the season in June, with 30% of the country seeing deficient rainfall since the start of the season. However, markets closed the session in green, as traders found some solace with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s statement that India is coming out of the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic and it will witness a strong economic recovery and contribute to being an engine of growth for the global economy. He said India will be a more dynamic and friendlier business destination and it will be part of more reliable and resilient supply chains that the post-Covid world requires. Some support also came as government brought Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) under the Finance Ministry in order to better control public sector enterprises as it looks to privatize them. Earlier, the DPE came under the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises. It monitors the performance of PSUs, dividend, capex performance, possibility of buyback of shares, and pay packages of the staff, among others. Traders also took a note of another private report stated that India's hiring rate has recovered moderately from 10 per cent in April to 35 per cent in May 2021, but the aftermath of the second COVID-19 wave has left professionals in India increasingly vulnerable to the economic uncertainty. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 193.58 points or 0.37% to 53,054.76, while the CNX Nifty was up by 61.40 points or 0.39% to 15,879.65.

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