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Indian markets ended on a weak note on Friday as a sell-off in the final hour wiped off their gains and pushed the markets down into the red. Today, the markets are likely to start holiday shortened week in deeply red tracking global sell-off. Traders will be concerned as the government data showed that the production of eight infrastructure sectors slowed down to 4.3 per cent in March against 12.6 per cent in the year-ago period. There will be some cautiousness as the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) report on currency and finance for FY22 stated that it will take nearly 15 years for the Indian economy to make up for the losses it has incurred during the coronavirus pandemic. Besides, RBI data showed the country’s foreign exchange reserves decreased by $3.271 billion to $600.423 billion in the week ended April 22. However, some respite may come later in the day as the Finance Ministry stated that the monthly collection under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) has peaked to an all-time high of Rs 1.68 lakh crore in April 2022. The gross GST collection has crossed the Rs 1.5 lakh crore-mark for the first time in April 2022 and Rs 1 lakh crore-mark for the tenth month in a row. Some support may come as Department for the Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) secretary Anurag Jain said foreign direct investment (equity) inflows into manufacturing surged 78% until February last fiscal to $20 billion, far exceeding the pace of rise in overall FDI, despite the pandemic blues. Meanwhile, according to a notification of the commerce ministry, the government has restricted the imports of certain waste and scrap of precious metals. There will be some buzz in the pharma industry stocks as the commerce ministry said pharma exports have touched Rs 1,83,422 crore in 2021-22 against Rs 90,415 crore in 2013-14. It added the exports in 2021-22 sustained a positive growth despite the global trade disruptions and drop in demand for COVID related medicines. Coal industry stocks will be in focus as coal ministry said public sector miner Coal India has reported an increase of 27.2 per cent in its output in April 2022 as compared to the year-ago period. There will be some reaction in edible oil industry stocks as the government approved the import of around 0.55 million tone (mt) of genetically-modified (GM) soymeal, a key ingredient in poultry feed. Auto stocks will be in limelight reacting to their sales numbers. There will be lots of earnings reaction to keep the markets buzzing.

The US markets ended sharply lower on Friday due to growth concerns, weak earnings and rising inflation. Asian markets are trading in red on Monday amid thin trade, as most markets in the region were shut for Labour Day, with data released over the weekend showing Chinese factory activity contracted in April.

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks pared all of their intraday gains to end lower on Friday due to fag-end selling in heavyweights Axis Bank, Power Grid Corporation and Wipro. Key gauges made optimistic start and stayed in green for most part of the day, as traders found some support with the third quarterly employment survey (QES) by the labour ministry showed that employment in nine select non-farm sectors stood at 31.45 million in the October-December 2021 quarter, 0.39 million more than the July-September period and 0.65 million higher than April-June, 2021. Some optimism also came with stock exchange data showed foreign institutional investors turned net buyers after their continuous selling spree for the past many days, as they bought shares worth Rs 743.22 crore on Thursday. Additionally, with an aim to reduce imports of the country, the commerce ministry has made a case for encouraging domestic manufacturing of 102 items like chemicals, electronic products and insulin injection as their share in the country’s total imports are high. However, key indices reversed the trend and turned sharply lower in the last hour of trade, as traders got cautious with rating agency ICRA stating that capacity utilisation in India is expected to dip in the first quarter of current fiscal and is expected to gradually rise by the third quarter, and indicated that the economic recovery will be hurt by the Russia Ukraine tensions, however it will see recovery by the end of the year. Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has modified norms for banks to claim the amount of interest subvention provided to farmers under the short-term crop loan scheme through Kisan Credit Card (KCC) during 2021-22. Pending claims for the 2021-22 financial year can be submitted by June 30, 2023, and those have to be duly certified by the statutory auditors ‘as true and correct’. Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 460.19 points or 0.80% to 57,060.87 and the CNX Nifty was down by 142.50 points or 0.83% to 17,102.55.

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