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Indian markets ended higher on Thursday led by gains in metals and IT stocks amid positive global cues. Today, the markets are likely to open lower following losses in Asian peers. There will be some cautiousness as 3 southern states report spike in new infections. Kerala reported more than 22,000 fresh Covid-19 cases for the third day straight: the spike prompting the state to announce a weekend lockdown. Karnataka and Tamil Nadu recorded a rise in new infections on Thursday as well, taking India’s daily case count to nearly 45,000, the highest in 22 days. A state-backed committee of experts recommended conducting a study on mixing doses of Covishield and Covaxin vaccines for Covid-19. however, traders may take encouragement later in the day with India Ratings and Research’s statement that outbound shipments from India, which have been languishing for quite some time, can benefit from the favourable trade growth outlook of 2021 and consolidate further from the level achieved in the first quarter of this fiscal. Some support may come as Chief Economic Advisor K V Subramanian said headline inflation will come down under the 6 percent mark in July itself but will stay at an elevated level of over 5 percent for some time. Traders may take note of report that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the Factoring Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2021 will expand credit facilities for small businesses, and will help them in accessing funds from 9,500 non-banking financial companies (NBFC). There will be some buzz in the telecom stocks reacting to telecom regulator Trai’s subscribers’ data. Jio added 35.54 lakh mobile users during the month, raising its subscriber base to 43.12 crore. Both Airtel and Vodafone Idea suffered massive subscriber losses in May. Aviation stocks will be in focus as the Lok Sabha passed the Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) Amendment Bill paving the way for privatisation of a small loss making airport by clubbing it with a larger airport. There will be some reaction in oil and gas sector stocks as the government permitted 100 per cent foreign investment under the automatic route in oil and gas PSUs which have received in-principle approval for strategic disinvestment. Meanwhile, some interest is likely in the primary markets as Rolex Rings IPO closes today. The IPO has been subscribed 9.2 times so far.

The US markets ended higher on Thursday helped by strong company earnings and solid economic growth data. Asian markets are trading mostly in red on Friday with a gauge of regional equities set for its biggest monthly drop since the height of global pandemic lockdowns last March.

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks snapped their three-day losing streak and ended higher by around half percent on Thursday led by strong buying interest in Metal, Basic Materials and Realty stocks. Strong global cues also helped the sentiments. The benchmarks staged a gap up opening and held on to gains as futures and option contracts for the month of July expired. Sentiments got a boost as Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) K V Subramanian said that India is expected to hit a growth rate of 6.5-7 percent in 2022-23 and accelerate further to 8 percent in the subsequent years on the back of reforms undertaken by the government. Sentiments remained positive as Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (SEBI) Chairman, Ajay Tyagi asserted that a large part of the non-banking financial intermediation is happening through the capital markets. Going forward, the capital markets are going to play a bigger role in funding the economic growth. Benchmarks continued to trade in green in second half of the session, as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed payment system providers, prepaid card issuers, card networks and white label ATM operators access to its Centralised Payment Systems (CPS), such as real time gross settlement (RTGS) and National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) systems in the first phase of its plan bring non-banks in the same platform.  Some support came after Centre has launched the 'Secured Logistics Document Exchange' along with a Calculator for Green House Gas Emissions, in order to further improve ease of doing business. The Digital initiative is now set to improve logistics efficiency, reduce logistics cost, and promote multi-modality and sustainability in a big way.  However, upside remained capped as some cautiousness prevailed  in the markets with a private report that the Indian economy is expected to face some pressure in the current financial year due to the second wave of the pandemic, coupled with weaker consumer sentiment, but a large capex by the government can be a saving grace for the economy. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 209.36 points or 0.40% to 52,653.07, while the CNX Nifty was up by 69.05 points or 0.44% to 15,778.45.

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