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Indian markets closed in the red for the second straight session following a gap down opening Wednesday, tracking weaknesses from global markets. Today, markets are likely to extend their fall to a third day in a row on account of monthly F&O expiry. Traders will be concerned as India recorded a spike of 23,139 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours. The country also witnessed 309 deaths, taking the death toll to 448,090. So far, India has recorded 33,738,188 corona cases in total. Delhi reported 41 Covid-19 cases and no fatality. Kerala recorded 12,161 new Covid-19 cases and Maharashtra 3,187 cases. However, traders may take some encouragement as Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) K V Subramanian on Wednesday said India will clock over 7 per cent annual growth during this decade on the back of strong economic fundamentals. During the current fiscal, he said, growth would be in double-digits and it could moderate to 6.5 - 7 per cent in the next financial year. He added growth will be aided by various structural reforms, including labour and farm laws, undertaken by the government. Some support may come as in order to increase utilisation of the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) and provide support to small businesses ahead of the festive season and economic upturn, the government has expanded the scheme by increasing the borrowing limit for availing loans. Meanwhile, SEBI decided to introduce a swing pricing mechanism for open-ended debt mutual fund schemes, a move that will discourage large investors from sudden redemptions. There will be some reaction in real industry sector stocks with a private report that housing sales have jumped over two-fold during July-September period at 62,800 units across seven major cities on better demand driven by low mortgage rates and hiring in IT/ITeS sector. In the primary market, the initial public offer of Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC will enter its second day. So far, the issue has been subscribed nearly 50 per cent.

The US markets ended mostly higher on Wednesday with remarks from U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and the ongoing debt ceiling debate keeping a lid on gains. Asian markets are trading mostly in green on Thursday as investors reacted to the release of Chinese factory activity data for September.

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks fell for second straight session on Wednesday dragged by losses in Finance, FMCG and Banking shares amid weaknesses from global markets. Markets made gap-down opening and traded in red for most part of the session, as traders remained cautious with Rating agency Crisil’s statement that States' indebtedness will remain high this fiscal at 33 per cent, which is only a notch below the record high of 34 per cent of their gross domestic products in FY21, as tax buoyancy will be offset by higher revenue expenditure and capital outlays. Traders took note of commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that measures to reduce compliance burden by simplifying and decriminalising several laws can have a multiplier effect on ease of doing business. However, the market witnessed some positive movements in late hour of trading session but failed to hold gains and ended lower, even as rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) statement that high-frequency indicators suggest a strong rebound during the July-September quarter after a steep contraction in activity in the previous three months on the back of a severe Covid-19 wave. The agency retained India’s economic growth projection at 9.5 per cent for the current fiscal year. Traders also overlooked as Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya’s statement that India and the US are global partners and need to work collaboratively in reforming the global health architecture, whose fault lines have become amply visible during the current pandemic. Meanwhile, the government has again extended the existing foreign trade policy (FTP) for another six months till March 31 next year. Earlier, it had extended the FTP (2015-20) until September 30 this year due to the COVID-19 crisis. Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 254.33 points or 0.43% to 59,413.27 and the CNX Nifty was down by 37.30 points or 0.21% to 17,711.30.

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