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Indian markets snapped a two-day losing streak on Tuesday tracking a rebound in other Asian markets. Gains across most sectors, led by IT, metal, healthcare and consumer stocks, pushed the headline indices higher. Today, the start of session is likely to be positive mirroring firm global cues. Some support will come as the Finance Ministry in a report said the government has initiated various measures to provide relief and financial support to various sectors of the Covid-19 hit economy, at the same time, fiscal consolidation is also under focus. Traders may take note of newly-elected president of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) Sanjiv Mehta’s statement that high inflation has impacted consumption and market volumes have gone down, especially in the rural economy, but it is likely to start easing from mid-2022 as it is largely due to supply side constraints or speculation. However, there may be some concern as foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) remained net sellers of debt worth $587.01 million so far in December, on weak sentiments due to rising cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19, ahead of the Federal Reserve’s tapering and rate hikes. There may be some cautiousness with report showing that India's production of crude oil, which is refined to produce petrol and diesel, continued to decline in November, with lower output from state-owned firms leading to an over 2 per cent drop. Crude oil production in November was 2.43 million tonnes, down from 2.48 million tonnes a year back and 2.5 million tonnes in October 2021. Meanwhile, the GST Council has not recommended bringing petroleum products under the reformed taxation regime even as certain representations have been made to the government to include petrol and diesel in GST. IT and auto stocks will be in limelight as the Government notified the semiconductor policy which was cleared by the Cabinet last week. According to the gazette notification, the government will provide up to 50% of Project cost for two semiconductor and two display fabs in the country. Gem, jewellery industry stocks will be in focus as the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) said India’s overall gem and jewellery exports in November declined by 4.21 per cent to Rs 17,784.92 crore (USD 2,384 million) compared to the same month last year due to break in manufacturing activity during Diwali. There will be some reaction in power stocks with a private report that India's rooftop solar capacity addition tripled to 1.3 GW during January-September 2021 as compared to the same period a year ago. Metro Brands shares will start trading on the stock exchanges today.

The US markets ended higher on Tuesday following strong earnings by Nike and Micron. Asian markets are trading in green on Wednesday tracking overnight gains on Wall Street, despite the increasing number of Omicron cases around the globe.

Back home, snapping two day losing streak, Indian equity benchmarks ended the Monday’s trade with a gain of around a percent, setline above their crucial 56,300 (Sensex) and 16,750 (Nifty) levels, as traders went for bargain hunting after a worldwide slump for financial markets spurred by worries about how badly the omicron variant, inflation and other forces will hit the world economy. Markets started the day on an optimistic note as sentiments remained up-beat as a Commerce Ministry official said Indian exports showed a turnaround after December last year and are still going strong. Traders also took some support 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. Markets extended gains as additional optimism came with report that 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, market participants booked half of their early gains in last leg of trade as traders remained watchful amid report that India has recorded 200 cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant across 12 states, mostly in the western state of Maharashtra and the nation's capital New Delhi. Some cautiousness came 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. Despite profit booking in later part of the day, local bourses managed to end with a decent gains as traders continued looking for beaten down but fundamentally strong stocks. Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 497.00 points or 0.89% to 56,319.01 and the CNX Nifty was up by 156.65 points or 0.94% to 16,770.85

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