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Indian markets closed a volatile session on Thursday on a lower note, though recovering most of their intraday losses. Today, the markets are likely to get pessimistic start amid weakness across global markets after Ukraine-Russia tensions resurfaced. However, some support may come later in the day as rating agency Icra said the government's ambitious production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme will look to unlock manufacturing capacity as well as support in attracting about Rs 4 lakh crore of capital expenditure over the next five years. Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman pitched for expeditious and equitable distribution of vaccines to aid global recovery. Also, she exhorted multilateral financial institutions to step up funding to low and middle-income countries to bolster their preparedness to deal with any pandemic in the future. Such nations, the minister stressed, have inadequate resources to ward off large-scale health emergencies and, therefore, require greater global assistance. There will be some buzz in telecom companies stocks reaching to their subscribers’ data. Trai data showed that the mobile user count in India fell by 1.28 crore in December 2021 compared to the previous month, with Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea suffering subscriber losses, even as Bharti Airtel added customers. Banking sector stocks will be in focus as India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) revised the outlook on the Indian banking sector from stable to improving for FY23 as its health is at its best in decades. The improving health trend that began in FY20 is likely to continue into the next financial year (FY23). There will be some reaction is energy stocks as the government allowed free inter-state wheeling of renewable energy used in the production of green hydrogen and ammonia as it seeks to boost usage of the carbon-free fuel and make India an export hub. Unveiling the first part of the much-awaited National Hydrogen Policy, Power and New and Renewable Energy Minister Raj Kumar Singh said the government is targeting production of 5 million tonnes of green hydrogen by 2030. Housing finance industry stocks will be in lime light as Crisil Ratings in the report said since the introduction of new asset quality norms last November that brought in shadow banks and housing financiers on par with banks, housing finance companies' gross bad loans have gone up by 70 basis points (bps) even as their portfolio quality has improved. The bad loan pile is expected to stabilise by the end of this quarter. Besides, as many as four companies, including three state-owned, put in 10 bids for the eight oil and gas blocks on offer in India's latest round of bidding for exploration acreage, according to the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH).

The US markets ended lower on Thursday as investors remained anxious over the possibility Russia could invade Ukraine. Asian markets are trading mostly in red on Friday following deep losses on Wall Street overnight.

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks fluctuated between gains and losses throughout the session and ended marginally lower on Thursday, led by losses in banking, healthcare and telecom stocks. Investors also turned cautious weighing on geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Indices started session on a fairly positive note, as traders took some support with finance ministry’s statement that with the muted impact of the third wave of the pandemic on economic activity, the Indian economy may undergo an economic reset by end of the year, clocking 9 per cent growth in 2021-22 (FY22) and around 8 per cent in 2022-23 (FY23). However, markets turned volatile soon and traded with losses in morning deal as traders got anxious with Acuite Ratings & Research said India’s FY22 current account deficit faces mild upside risk from high commodity prices. The wider merchandise trade deficits pulled India's Q2FY22 current account into the negative territory. Key gauges one again entered into green terrain in the noon session, taking support from the income tax department’s statement that more than 4.50 crore tax returns have been processed so far, of the total 6.26 crore ITR filed for the financial year 2020-21. Further, more than 5.41 crore income tax returns (ITRs) filed have been verified and 1.58 crore refunds amounting to Rs 31,857 crore for AY 2021-22 (2020-21 fiscal) have been issued. Some optimism also came after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman pitched for expeditious and equitable distribution of vaccines to aid global recovery. She shared insights on India’s policy response to pandemic and suggested that recovery measures have to be built around a long-term vision. But, markets failed to hold the gains end ended lower, as some pessimism remained among traders with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) article stating that the manufacturing sector will need continued policy support for smoother and faster recovery to attain the long-term trend path. It said although the sector may soon attain its pre-COVID level, the process of attaining the long-term trend levels may take some time. It said that just when the manufacturers' outlook started looking up, the COVID-19-induced lockdown measures slowed down the revival process. Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 104.67 points or 0.18% to 57,892.01 and the CNX Nifty was down by 17.60 points or 0.10% to 17,304.60.

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