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Indian markets tumbled more than two percent each to four-month closing lows on Monday, tracking a global sell-off amid rising cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19. Today, the start of session is likely to optimistic tracking gains in other Asian counterparts. Traders will be taking encouragement as a Commerce Ministry official said Indian exports showed a turnaround after December last year and are still going strong. Some support will come as Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured India Inc that the government would focus on reducing the compliance burden while exhorting the top companies to make full use of the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme. During the pre-Budget deliberations with corporate leaders, he said the government is fully committed to taking initiatives with a view to give impetus to the economic progress of the country. Additionally, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide $350 million loan to improve access to urban services in India by accelerating policy actions and reforms to enhance service delivery and promote performance-based central fiscal transfers to urban local bodies (ULBs). However, traders may be concerned as Amit Mitra, West Bengal's former finance minister and current chief advisor to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, said he fears India may be heading towards stagflation. He added India is already suffering from rising inflation and unemployment simultaneously. Some cautiousness may be come with report that Formal job creation in the country slowed down in October with 1.27 million new jobs added under the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation. This is the lowest after July when 1.23 million subscribers were added. Net new additions under EPFO stood at 1.36 million in August and 1.54 million in September. Traders may take note of report that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released the model rules, paving the way for the roll out of the new global tax regime that will subject multinational corporations to a minimum tax of 15% from 2023. Edible oil industry stocks will be in focus as the government extended by one year the free import policy for refined bleached deodorised palm oil, and refined bleached deodorised palmolein to December 31, 2022 but retained a clause that the import is not permitted through any port in Kerala. Besides, Shares of CE Info Systems (MapMyIndia) will list on the stock exchanges today.

The US markets ended lower on Monday pressured lower by surging Omicron coronavirus cases and a possible fatal blow to a $1.75 trillion U.S. domestic spending bill. Asian markets are trading in green on Tuesday as investors assessed the impact of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 on the world economy. 

Back home, Monday turned out to be a nightmarish session of trade for Indian equity benchmarks where frontline gauges shaved off over two percentage point to end below their crucial 55,900 and 16,650 levels as concerns over rising Omicron cases spooked investors’ sentiment. India's Omicron Coronavirus (Covid-19) count rose to 151 on December 19 after Maharashtra recently reported six more cases. Markets extended losses as sentiments remain dented on continuous foreign fund outflow. Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have pulled out Rs 17,696 crore from the Indian markets in December so far amid uncertainty due to a new coronavirus strain, Omicron, and expectations of faster tapering by the US Federal Reserve. Sentiments remain dampened as a private report estimated 6.3 per cent real GDP expansion in FY23, among the lowest within the analyst community and stated that there is uncertainty on the growth trajectory. Also, RBI data showed declining for the third consecutive week, India’s forex reserves dipped by $77 million to reach $635.828 billion for the week ended December 10. Markets staged some recovery in last leg of trade, although ended with deep cut, after the Retailers Association of India (RAI) in its latest report has showed that retail sales in India in November grew by 9 per cent over the pre-pandemic levels of the same month in November 2019. The industry body RAI further said that West India signaled 11 per cent increase, followed by East and South India at 9 per cent while North India indicated a growth of 6 per cent each as compared to sales levels in November 2019. Meanwhile, advance tax collection increased by 53.50 per cent to Rs 4,59,917.1 crore as on December 16, 2021 for the first, second and third quarter of 2021-22, against advance tax collections of Rs 2,99,620.5 crore for the corresponding period of 2020-21. Besides, dues on the listing fees against a company are 'regulatory dues' in nature and cannot be recovered under 'operational debt' through insolvency proceedings, said the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) while dismissing an appeal by stock exchange BSE. Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 1189.73 points or 2.09% to 55,822.01 and the CNX Nifty was down by 371.00 points or 2.18% to 16,614.20

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