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Indian markets suffered sharp losses on Thursday, falling for the third day in a row, amid weakness across global markets as investors worried over surging inflation. Today, the start of session is likely to be optimistic tracking gains in global peers. Investors will be eyeing the industrial and manufacturing production data along with inflation numbers for the further direction. Traders will be taking encouragement as Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar said Indian economy is expected to grow by more than 10 per cent in the current fiscal supported by a record kharif crop and bright rabi prospects. According to Kumar, significant increase in exports will also boost economic growth and employment generation. Traders may take note of report that Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said India is looking at reciprocal and equitable access to foreign markets through free trade agreements, which the country is negotiating with its trading partners. India is, at present, negotiating free trade agreements (FTAs) with countries like UAE, the UK, and Australia. However,  there may be some cautiousness as Fitch Solutions cautioned that policymaking could become slightly more challenging in the months ahead in India due to higher inflationary pressures, stronger growth, and still-wide fiscal deficits. It added Inflation, growth and fiscal deficit make life slightly more difficult for policymakers, resulting in possible policy trade-offs. Traders may be concerned with a private report that India’s widening current account deficit (CAD), driven by the massive spike in commodity prices led by crude oil, is set to put pressure on the fragile recovery. Meanwhile, markets regulator Sebi has amended rules to introduce silver exchange traded funds, a move that will expand the options available for investing in commodities through stock exchanges. There will be some reaction in power stocks with ICRA’s report that the power generation performance of the ICRA-monitored wind power portfolio of 3.2 gigawatt (GW) was adversely impacted during the financial year 2020-21 (FY21) primarily because of lower wind speeds. Meanwhile, Latent View Analytics was subscribed 23x at the end of Day 2 of the issue, with the retail quota getting subscribed 70x. Meanwhile, Sapphire Foods IPO closed with a total subscription of 6.6x.

The US markets ended mostly higher on Thursday as some traders looked to pick up stocks at somewhat reduced levels after the drop seen on Tuesday and Wednesday. Asian markets are trading in green on Friday following the mostly positive cues overnight from Wall Street, as traders are bargain hunting after the recent losses.

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks witnessed bearish trend on Thursday with frontline gauges ending below their crucial 60,000 (Sensex) and 17,900 (Nifty) levels amid broad-based selling pressure as traders remain concerned over sustained foreign fund outflow. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market, as they offloaded shares worth Rs 469.50 crore on November 10, 2021. Sentiments remained weak since morning with key gauges making a negative start as traders remained on sidelines looking forward to the last leg of quarterly numbers from India Inc for further cues. Traders shrugged off Finance Ministry’s latest economic report stating that India’s economic recovery has continued to trend upwards even as global economic recovery remains hamstrung. Markets extended losses on report that India’s widening current account deficit (CAD), driven by the massive spike in commodity prices led by crude oil, is set to put pressure on the fragile recovery, warns a brokerage report that has revised upwards its CAD forecast to USD 45 billion or 1.4 percent of GDP by March. Traders also remained anxious after RBI’s governor Shaktikanta Das said monetary policy normalisation or unwinding is not as simple as rolling back a carpet but a much more complex and long-term process. Shaktikanta Das exuded confidence in the economy clipping at the projected 9.5 per cent growth this fiscal, stating that growth impulses and the fast-moving economic indicators are strong. Traders overlooked a finance ministry report said that armed with necessary macro and micro growth drivers, India is on its way to becoming the fastest growing major economy in the world. Also, market participants overlooked report that India’s GDP will rise by $406 billion by 2050 and more than 43 million jobs will be created, as the Asia’s third-largest economy leaps towards a net-zero target. Finally, the BSE Sensex declined 433.13 points or 0.72% to 59,919.69 and the CNX Nifty was down by 143.60 points or 0.80% to 17,873.60.

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