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Indian markets staged a stellar comeback on Tuesday, after suffering their worst losses in a year in the previous session, as bargain hunters piled into energy, finance and IT stocks amid signs of easing Russia-Ukraine tensions. Today, domestic indices are likely to make optimistic start tracking gains in US markets overnight and strong Asian markets. Some support will come as India’s exports in January rose 25.28 per cent to $34.50 billion on account of healthy performance by sectors such as engineering, petroleum and gems and jewellery. Additionally, an SBI research report stated that India can add $20 billion to its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) if the country can reduce by 50 per cent the dependence on imports from China by leveraging the production linked incentive schemes. However, there will be some cautiousness as government data showed exports from special economic zones (SEZs) grew at a slower pace as compared to the growth of overall outbound shipments from the country during the first eight months of the current fiscal year. Traders may take note of a private report expects RBI to leave key policy rates unchanged throughout the first half of 2022, despite retail inflation rising to 6.01 per cent in January, and likely to remain elevated till April. Meanwhile, the World Bank has called on developing countries to improve the health of their financial sectors, warning that risks created by the COVID-19 pandemic had led to certain fragilities from what it called non-transparent debt. NBFCs sector stocks will be in focus as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has given finance companies extra time till September 30, 2022 to have systems ready to implement rule wherein bad loans can be upgraded as standard asset only when entire arrears of interest and principal are paid. In November 2021, RBI had given time till March 31, 2022 to implement the rule. Shares of the Manyavar-brand owned company to debut on the bourses today. The issue was subscribed 2.57 times, and the final issue price was fixed at Rs 866 per share.

The US markets ended higher on Tuesday amid signs of de-escalating tensions along the Russia-Ukraine border. Asian markets are trading mostly in green on Wednesday as fears of a Russian invasion of the Ukraine dissipated after Moscow indicated it was returning some troops to base from exercises, delivering investors a measure of relief.

Back home, Bulls made a strong comeback on Dalal Street as Indian equity markets snapped the two-day losing streak and ended higher with gains of over three percent on Tuesday, led by buying across the sectors amid easing Ukraine Russia-tensions. Report stated that some Russian troops in military districts adjacent to Ukraine are returning to their bases after completing drills, a move that could de-escalate frictions between Moscow and the West. Markets started trade on a positive note but soon pared some of their opening gains, as traders got anxious with data showing that retail inflation soared to a seven-month high of 6.01 per cent in January, breaching the upper tolerance level of the Reserve Bank, driven by rising prices certain food items. The inflation in the food basket was 5.43 per cent in January 2022 as against 4.05 per cent in the preceding month. But, key gauges regained traction in the afternoon session, taking support from report that in an effort to tame food inflation, the government has reduced import duty on lentils to nil for Australia and Canada origins and cut it to 22%, from 30%, for those originating in the US. Buying further crept in with a report stated that India and the UAE are likely to sign a free trade agreement (FTA) on February 18, under which both the countries could give duty-free access to a number of products from different sectors. Additional support also came after India’s overall exports (Merchandise and Services combined) in January 2022 are estimated to be $61.41 billion, exhibiting a positive growth of 36.76 per cent over the same period last year and a positive growth of 38.90 per cent over January 2020. Traders also took note of report stated that the outstanding portfolio of the microfinance industry registered a 2 per cent quarter-and-quarter growth to around Rs 2,26,000 crore as of September 2021. The same stood at Rs 2,22,060 crore during the three months ended June 2021. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 1736.21 points or 3.08% to 58,142.05 and the CNX Nifty was up by 509.65 points or 3.03% to 17,352.45.

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