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Indian markets reversed its opening gains to end flat with a positive bias on Thursday amid high volatility on the monthly F&O expiry day. Today, the start of session is likely to be weak tracking muted cues from Asian peers coupled with unabated rise in Covid cases and hiccups in vaccination drive. Breaking all records, India reported a massive surge of 386,888 cases, Worldometer showed. The cumulative caseload stands at 18,754,984 and the death toll from the virus has reached 208,313. India now has nearly 3.2 million active cases. India has been reporting over 300,000 cases daily for over a week now. Besides, Mumbai for instance announced halting vaccination programme for three days due to the non-availability of vaccine stock. Such instances may impact on the market participants who are banking on the vaccination drive to pull India out of the Covid crisis. There will be some cautiousness with the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy’s statement that the unemployment rate in India has shot up in the first two weeks of April and the monthly unemployment rate is likely to be close to 8% compared to 6.5% in March with lower absorption of labour in the market. However, some support may come later in the day as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said it will be simultaneously buying and selling Rs 10,000 crore of secondary market bonds under its special open market operations programme. This is the first such Operation Twist this fiscal in which the RBI will purchase long-term bonds and sell-short term bonds maturing this year. Meanwhile, exit poll outcome may also hold sway over market mood. Pollsters have given an edge to the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal, a clean sweep for the DMK-led alliance and CPI(M)-led LDF in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, respectively. BJP is likely to retain Assam and Puducherry. Votes will be counted on May 2. Non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) stocks will be in focus as Care Ratings said in the report said NBFCs are likely to witness higher credit cost during the current financial year due to the disruptions on account of the second wave of COVID-19. Meanwhile, the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech has announced a price of Rs 400 per dose for COVID vaccine supplies to state governments. The company had priced Covaxin at Rs 600 per dose for states and Rs 1,200 per dose for private hospitals. Traders will also be eyeing some important earnings announcement including that of Reliance Industries.

The US markets ended higher on Thursday as investors digested the latest batch of corporate earnings and data that showed the American economy gained steam in the first three months of the year. Asian markets are trading mostly in red on Friday as China’s crackdown on technology firms dented sentiment.

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks managed to end the Thursday’s session tad above their neutral lines as traders took support from firm earnings reports from top Indian companies. Markets started the session on optimistic note as traders took some support with report that the Finance Ministry has waived permissions required from any government departments for customs clearance of COVID-related relief material imported by the Indian Red Cross Society. However, markets soon shaved off all of their gains to enter into red terrain as traders turned cautious amid report that India reported a massive surge of 379,459 cases and 3,647 deaths, thus marking the biggest single-day spike ever, Worldometer showed. Also, there was some cautiousness with ICRA’s report that the ongoing second wave of COVID-19 will dampen the pace of recovery for corporate India and the contact-intensive sectors will be hit the most. Also, traders remain concerned after domestic rating agency -- Icra in its latest report has said the ongoing second wave of COVID-19 will dampen the pace of recovery for corporate India and the contact-intensive sectors will be hit the most. However, it stated the impact of the second wave on many sectors is set to be lower than the first because the lockdowns are less widespread and stringent as of now as against the strong nationwide lockdown last year which brought all economic activities to a grinding halt. Markets traded cautiously throughout the day but in green as traders took note of report that the Reserve Bank announced the launch of the latest round of households' surveys to capture inflation expectations and consumer confidence, which provides useful inputs for its monetary policy. The central bank has been regularly conducting these surveys. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 32.10 points or 0.06% to 49,765.94, while the CNX Nifty was up by 30.35 points or 0.20% to 14,894.90.

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