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Indian markets ended the volatile session in green on Thursday as investors focused on stock-specific action and adjusted their positions amid monthly F&O expiry for May series. Today, benchmark indices are likely to get flat-to-negative start amid mixed moves across global markets as concerns remain about a looming US debt default. There will be some cautiousness with a private report that India's economy will grow about 6% this fiscal year with a small increase in private investment, but lower growth and high inflation were the biggest risks to the outlook. However, continued FII inflows and a sharp fall in oil prices in the U.S. trading session overnight may help limit overall losses to some extent. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs 589.10 crore on May 25, provisional data from the National Stock Exchange showed. Traders may take note of the Service Export Promotion Council’s statement that India’s services exports are expected to overtake merchandise exports in the next five years on the back of above-par growth in emerging areas of service economy. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair NITI Aayog’s eighth Governing Council meeting on May 27, which will deliberate on several issues including, health, skill development, women empowerment and infrastructure development, with an aim to make India a developed nation by 2047. Besides, The Finance Ministry has notified 21 countries, including the US, UK and France, from where non-resident investment in unlisted Indian startups will not attract angel tax. The list, however, excludes investment from countries like Singapore, Netherlands and Mauritius. There will be some buzz in the agriculture related stocks as the third advance estimate released by the agriculture ministry showed that India’s foodgrain production has risen by 5% on year to a new record of 330.5 million tonne (MT) for the 2022-23 crop year (July-June). Banking stocks will be in focus as global rating agency Standard and Poor’s (S&P) said Indian banking is making a strong recovery as asset quality improves and profitability stabilises. It added Indian banks' earnings will likely remain healthy. The sector has improved substantially in the past seven years. Investors await more of financial results from India Inc for domestic cues, with Nifty 50 companies Mahindra & Mahindra, Sun Pharma, ONGC, Grasim Industries due to post their earnings later in the day.

The US markets ended mostly higher on Thursday as investors awaited signs for debt ceiling deal. Asian markets are trading mixed on Friday after Wall Street saw a tech rally led by Nvidia, and U.S. negotiators moved closer to a debt ceiling deal with just a week to go before the government faces a potential default.

Back home, The F&O expiry session on Thursday depicted its true trend and the benchmark indices, despite volatility, managed to end the session above neutral lines as traders went for value buying in last leg of trade. After making a cautious start, key gauges traded choppy for most part of the day as investors remain concerned about the state of the global economy. Deadlock in the US debt ceiling discussion too kept traders on the edge. Sentiments remain dampened since beginning of the trade after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its latest monthly bulletin has said that gross foreign direct investment (FDI) flows to India, for the first time in a decade, declined on an annual basis in 2022-23 to $71 billion mainly due to a slowdown in the global economy. Traders shrugged off Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das’ statement that the growth for 2022-23 is expected to be more than the advance estimate of 7 per cent on the back of economic momentum maintained in the third and fourth quarters of the last fiscal. Market participants also ignored Commerce and industry Minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that India has a strong foreign exchange reserve and the country is in a comfortable position to meet all the requirements even in any worst-case scenario in the next five-six years. India's forex kitty jumped $3.553 billion to $599.529 billion for the week ended May 12, according to the Reserve Bank of India. However, buying which took place in last leg of trade helped markets to end the session in green terrain as traders went for beaten down but fundamentally strong stocks. Meanwhile, global crude oil prices fell after Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak played down the prospect of further OPEC+ production cuts at its meeting next week. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 98.84 points or 0.16% to 61,872.62 and the CNX Nifty was up by 35.75 points or 0.20% to 18,321.15.