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Indian markets closed flat with marginal losses on Thursday as fag-end selling wiped out intra-day gains amid weak global trends. Today, markets are likely to get flat-to-negative start amid weakness in global markets. Traders will be concerned as the latest public debt management report showed that the government’s total liabilities rose 3.74 per cent to Rs 133.22 lakh crore in the March quarter from Rs 128.41 lakh crore in the three months ended December 2021. There will be some cautiousness as the Reserve Bank said India's external debt increased by $47.1 billion to $620.7 billion in the financial year ended March 2022. More pessimism may come as retail inflation for industrial workers rose to 6.97 per cent in May from 6.33 per cent in April this year, mainly due to higher prices of certain food items. Besides, the central government’s fiscal deficit at the end of May stood at 12.3 per cent of the annual budget target for 2022-23, mainly due to higher expenditure. However, some respite may come later in the day as the government data showed that the growth of eight core infrastructure sectors expanded by 18.1 per cent in May against 16.4 per cent in the year-ago period and 9.3 per cent in April 2022. Traders may take note of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) statement that the Indian economy is well on the path of recovery even though inflationary pressures and geopolitical risks warrant careful handling and close monitoring of the situation. Besides, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the Indian currency is relatively better placed than other global currencies against the greenback. Meanwhile, with an aim to provide further clarity and transparency in the disclosure of shareholding pattern to investors, Sebi came out with a new format for disclosing shareholding pattern of the public shareholders. There will be some buzz in the coffee industry stocks as Coffee Board said coffee shipments from India, Asia’s third-largest producer and exporter, rose 19 per cent to 2,24,293 tonne in the first half of the current calendar year.  The country had exported 1,88,736 tonnes in the year-ago period. India ships both robusta and Arabica varieties, besides instant coffee. Baking stocks will be in focus as the Reserve Bank of India in its Financial Stability Report for June said that in March 2022, the gross net performing assets' ratio fell to a six-year low of 5.9%. Investors will watch out monthly auto sales figures due later in the day amid hopes of revival from chip crunch and supply disruptions to aid demand.

The US markets ended lower on Thursday after data showed U.S. household spending slowed in May amid historically high inflation and elevated interest rates. Asian markets are trading mostly in red on Friday on recession fears.

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks kept swinging between the red and green zones throughout the choppy session and closed flat with a negative bias on Thursday, amid weak global trends. Key gauges made positive start, as traders took some support with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement that any increase in GST rates under the rate rationalisation exercise is intended to make up for the ‘inefficiencies’ in the value chain.  Some support also came as Prime Minister Narendra Modi stating that his government is taking measures to help micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) increase exports and is framing new policies that will help the sector realize its potential. Traders also took a note of a report released by Washington-based World Federation of Direct Selling Associations (WFDSA) stated that the Indian direct selling industry has reported retail sales of $3.25 billion in 2021 (around Rs 27,650 crore) and maintained its 12th place in the global rankings. However, key gauges soon erased gains and turned volatile, as exchange data showed that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the capital market, as they sold shares worth Rs 851.06 crore on Wednesday. Some concern also came amid reports that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council’s two-day meeting concluded without any decision on extending compensation to states - for revenue loss on account of the regime’s implementation five years ago - beyond June 30. This was despite at least two dozen states raising the issue. Adding to the pessimism, a private report stated that inflationary pressures are likely to continue and force the RBI to further hike interest rates during the course of the current fiscal but the tighter financial conditions can impact growth. The report said there are reasons to be optimistic on the growth front but factors like tighter financial conditions can have an impact on the GDP expansion. Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 8.03 points or 0.02% to 53,018.94 and the CNX Nifty was down by 18.85 points or 0.12% to 15,780.25.

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