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Indian markets ended lower Friday after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept the policy rates unchanged. Today, the markets are likely to make slightly positive start tracking gains in global markets. This week, the specifics on important economic indicators like Industrial Production for June and CPI inflation for July will keep markets on their feet. Both the numbers are slated to be out on August 12. Traders will be taking encouragement as referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's target of $400 billion in exports this year, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) called it attainable, given the current global situation of post-pandemic economic recovery and rising competitiveness of Indian goods. Some support will come as Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said India needs low-cost capital to help domestic entrepreneurs execute global scale projects in areas like green hydrogen, solar energy, electric vehicles and battery manufacturing, and added that there is a need to build a sustainable country. Also, easing more Covid-19 restrictions, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said Mumbai's local trains will be open from August 15 to fully vaccinated people 14 days after their second jab. Besides, seeking incentives from the government, the Services Export Promotion Council (SEPC) said services exports have been recording healthy growth rate consistently and are expected to grow by 28 per cent in 2021-22 to take the exports to nearly $ 266 billion. Traders may take note of Governor Shaktikanta Das’ statement that the Reserve Bank of India has to manage many conflicting objectives while determining monetary policy, and hence its action has to be nuanced and cannot be unidirectional. Power stocks will be in focus as according to power ministry data India's power consumption grew 9.3 per cent in the first week of August to 28.08 billion units (BU) due to improved economic activities after easing of lockdown curbs by states. There will be some buzz in the oil & gas sector as the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas launched the sixth round of bids under the Open Acreage Licensing Programme (OALP). As per the report, 21 blocks, with an area of approximately 35,346 sq km are on offer to investors. There will be some reaction in real estate industry stocks as several industry experts said that the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) decision to keep key interest rates on hold augurs well for the real estate sector as it will further improve consumer sentiment. Meanwhile, Nuvoco Vistas Corporation, part of the Nirma Group, and online auto classified platform CarTrade Tech will launch their initial share-sales on Monday, August 9 while that of Aptus Value Housing Finance and Chemplast Sanmar will be open for public subscription on Tuesday, August 10. Markets will also enter in the last leg of earnings season, with some 1900 companies slated to post their numbers.

The US markets ended mostly higher on Friday amid a positive jobs report. Asian markets are trading mostly in green on Monday amid sharp losses in gold and oil prices, while the dollar held near four-month highs after an upbeat US jobs report lifted bond yields.

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks snapped their three-day winning streak and ended lower on Friday tracking losses in index heavyweights Reliance Industries, Ultratech Cement and SBI amid weak global cues. Markets made slightly positive start, as traders took some support with industry chamber PHDCCI’s statement that the economy is recovering at a fast pace from the recent lows of April and May on the back of declining new coronavirus cases, continued unlocking in various parts of the country and calibrated economic reforms announced by the government. However, the domestic markets soon fell into the red after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept repo rate unchanged for seventh time straight and continued with an accommodative stance, citing the need to support ongoing growth recovery amid continued uncertainty and global financial market volatility. The central kept the repo rate unchanged at 4% and the reverse repo rate, the borrowing rate, unchanged at 3.35%. Markets continued their sluggish trade in late afternoon session, as traders remain worried with Nobel laureate economist Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee apprehended that the impending third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic might adversely impact the GDP, and its growth rate might go down to 7 percent, even below the IMF's recent projection of 9.5 percent. Adding more pessimism, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) stood as net sellers in the capital market as they offloaded shares worth Rs 719.88 crore on Thursday, as per provisional exchange data. However, losses remain capped as some optimism remained among traders with Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj’s statement that Retro tax withdrawal bill  will give confidence to the investor community regarding India's stable tax regime. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced 'The Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021' in the Lok Sabha that seeks to withdraw tax demands made using a 2012 retrospective legislation to tax the indirect transfer of Indian assets. Besides, RBI retained the real GDP growth projection at 9.5 per cent for 2021-22 as domestic economic activity has started normalising with the ebbing of the second wave of the virus and the phased reopening of the economy. In the June monetary policy, the RBI had lowered the growth projection for 2021-22 to 9.5 per cent from 10.5 per cent estimated earlier. Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 215.12 points or 0.39% to 54,277.72, while the CNX Nifty was down by 56.40 points or 0.35% to 16,238.20.

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