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Indian markets rebounded on Thursday led by a fag-end recovery in oil & gas, financial, IT and FMCG pockets, following four back-to-back sessions of losses. Today, markets are likely to make gap-down opening tracking weakness across global markets. Traders will be concerned as External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said the Russia-Ukraine war has thrown up a crisis of fuel, food and fertiliser that will lead to hunger situations and have a very significant inflationary impact. Some pessimism may come with India Ratings’ report that the country’s current account deficit is likely to hit a three-year high of 1.8 per cent or $43.81 billion in FY22, as against a surplus of 0.9 per cent or $23.91 billion in FY21. There will be some cautiousness as the United Nations said Foreign Direct Investment inflows to India declined $19 billion to $45 billion in 2021 but the country still remained among the top 10 global economies for FDI last year. Besides, Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) continued to be net sellers of domestic equities, pulling out Rs 1,512 crore from stocks on Thursday. However, some respite may come later in the day as Industry body Assocham said the Reserve Bank's decision to raise the benchmark lending rate by 50 basis points to 4.9 per cent will help the Indian economy in the medium term. Some support may come as Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj said tax revenue collections in ongoing fiscal year are expected to be far better than the budget estimates. Last fiscal year, indirect taxes grew at 20 per cent and direct taxes at 49 per cent. Also, he said Gross goods and services tax (GST) revenues may be Rs 1.4-1.5 trillion a month on average in the current financial year, boosting the tax revenues of the government. There will be some reaction in tea industry stocks as Indian Tea Exporters Association Chairman Anshuman Kanoria said buoyed by the encouraging demand scenario in overseas markets, Indian tea exporters are hoping to ship out 220-225 million kg in 2022, and are keen on filling up the vacuum left by crisis-hit Sri Lanka.

The US markets ended lower on Thursday as investors anticipated incoming data to show unabated high levels of consumer prices in May. Asian markets are trading mostly in red on Friday after rate hike guidance from the ECB unnerved investors waiting for key inflation data from the US.

Back home, snapping their four-day losing run, Indian equity benchmarks ended higher by over half percent, led by gains in Telecom, Energy and Oil & Gas stocks. Indices made a weak start and remained volatile for most part of the day, as investors were worried that aggressive policy tightening by central banks could stifle global economic growth. Traders also were concerned as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) pegged India’s FY23 economic growth at 6.9 per cent, the lowest by a major bank or institution, saying the country had been adversely affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Some weakness also prevailed in the markets as foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have net sold Rs 2,484.25 crore worth of shares on June 8, as per provisional data available on the NSE. Adding to the pessimism, India's daily COVID-19 cases rose further, with government data released on Thursday showing daily cases rose 7,240 in the last 24 hours, the highest since March 2. However, in the noon trade, the indices made smart recovery, taking support from Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) Anantha Nageswaran’s statement that the impact of structural reforms, like Goods and Services Tax (GST) and Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), will help boost India's growth once the cloud of the pandemic and geopolitical conflict recedes. Some support also came as the commerce ministry stated that the country’s exports increased 24.18 per cent to $9.39 billion during June 1-7, 2022 on account of healthy growth in sectors like engineering, gems and jewellery and petroleum products. The exports during June 1-7, 2021 stood at $7.56 billion. Some optimism also came after India Meteorological Department said the monsoon is progressing normally and will likely reach Maharashtra in the next two days. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 427.79 points or 0.78% to 55,320.28 and the CNX Nifty was up by 121.85 points or 0.74% to 16,478.10.

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