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ndian markets ended over 2 percent higher on Tuesday, rising for the second straight session boosted mainly by IT, metal and financial stocks. Today, the markets are likely to make negative start on last trading session of financial year 2020-21 (FY21), tracking weakness in global markets. Rising coronavirus cases also likely to weight down on the domestic indices. India has recorded 53,158 cases recorded in the last 24 hours. With the latest addition, the country's tally has soared to 12,148,487, Worldometer showed this morning. With active cases hitting 553,933, India is now the 6th-worst hit country. The death toll from the deadly infection jumped to 162,502. Traders will be concerned as a report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) stated that India's economic output in 2021 is expected to remain below the 2019 level despite roll-out of the vaccine to deal with the menace of the coronavirus pandemic. There will be some cautiousness with Moody's Analytics’ statement that India's inflation is at uncomfortably high level, which is an exception among Asian economies. It said higher fuel prices will keep upward pressure on retail inflation and keep the RBI from offering further rate cuts. However, some support may come later in the day as Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India's quick response in limiting the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and undertaking massive vaccination drives are resulting in a V-shaped recovery. Some optimism may come as the government is expected to further extend the existing foreign trade policy (FTP), which is scheduled to lapse from April 1 this year, for few more months. FTP provide guidelines for enhancing exports to push economic growth and create jobs. Besides, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned net buyer in both equity and debt market on Wednesday. The net investment of equity and debt reported were Rs 395.01 crore and Rs 861.11 crore. Meanwhile, the central government has released Rs 30,000 crore as goods and service tax (GST) compensation to states for FY21. Sugar sector stocks will be in focus with a report that the government has decided not to extend soft loans for at least a year to sugar mills for capacity expansion under the Sugar Development Fund (SDF), which offers financing at 2 percentage points below the prevailing bank rate.

The US markets ended lower on Tuesday as yields weighed on tech shares, financial stocks rose, their gains helped by signs the fallout from the Archegos meltdown would be relatively contained. Asian markets are trading mostly in red on Wednesday as global financial shares retraced some of their recent losses, driven in part by higher bond yields.

Back home, extending the winning momentum for second successive session, Indian equity benchmarks surged more than 2 percent each in Tuesday's session on the back of a broad-based buying frenzy, due to positive cues from the global markets. Nifty ended just shy of its crucial 14,850 mark, while Sensex regained its psychological level of 50,100. After opening in the green, benchmark indices maintained their lead for the whole day. Sentiments got a boost as US Trade Representative Katherine Tai, after meeting Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, said India and the United States will look at ways to expand its trade relations and cooperate on pending bilateral issues. Furthermore, investors’ morale also remained upbeat as Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) K. V. Subramanian asserted that the disinvestment target of Rs 1.75 lakh crore for 2021-22 was ‘eminently achievable’. He said the proposed initial public offering (IPO) by LIC itself could garner Rs 1 lakh crore for the government. He also said targeting of retail inflation by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has helped bring down the volatility and level of inflation. Market participants also got some encouragement as Union Minister Piyush Goyal has said that India will be able to overtake China in its engagement with Bangladesh. He said India has been working relentlessly to build strong relations with all its neighbouring countries. He also said India's ability to add more value to the products and services has helped it expand trade ties with countries like Bangladesh. Meanwhile, the government is unlikely to take zero-coupon bond route to further recapitalise public sector banks after the Reserve Bank expressed some concerns in this regard. The government would resort back to recapitalisation bonds bearing a coupon rate for capital infusion in these banks. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 1128.08 points or 2.30% to 50,136.58, while the CNX Nifty was up by 337.80 points or 2.33% to 14,845.10.

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