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Indian markets ended higher on Wednesday following gains in IT, oil and banking stocks amid mixed global trends. Today, domestic indices are likely to open higher amid positive global cues. Traders will be taking encouragement with Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement that the effort of the government over the years has been to increase public expenditure with a view to promote growth. Foreign fund inflows likely to aid domestic sentiments. Foreign institutional investors (FII) bought shares worth Rs 432.15 crore on February 15, NSE's provisional data showed. Some support will come as India’s trade deficit in January hit its lowest in a year at $17.75 billion, as both merchandise exports and imports contracted for the second consecutive month amid tepid external demand and a sharp decline in gold imports. Merchandise exports dropped 6.5 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to $32.91 billion last month, while Imports contracted 3.6 per cent YoY to $50.66 billion. However, there may be some cautiousness as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that Indian exporters may be hit by a likely slowdown in advanced economies and a constant dialogue with the government is likely to help them overcome the challenges. Sugar industry stocks will be in focus as Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra said the government will take a call next month on increasing the sugar export quota from the present 60 lakh tonnes for the current marketing year after assessing the domestic production. There will be some reaction in edible oil industry stocks as industry body SEA said India's edible oil imports rose 33 per cent in January to 16.61 lakh tonnes, the highest since September 2021, driven by higher imports of sunflower oil. Besides, Nestle India, and Schaeffler India will report the October-December quarter (Q3FY23) results on later today.

The US markets ended higher on Wednesday as US retail sales jumped 3 per cent in January, biggest gain since 2021. Asian markets are trading mostly in green on Thursday as investors digested Japan’s record trade deficit of $26 billion according to Refinitiv data that dates back to March 2006.

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks staged a smart recovery in late afternoon deals and ended with steady gains on Wednesday, as investors mostly resorted to selective buying. Markets made a negative start, tracking weak cues from the Asian peers, as a hotter-than-expected inflation in the US raised fears of more rate hikes. However, benchmarks soon wiped-out losses but remained volatile for the most part of the session, as traders were anxious with the data shared by the ministry of finance showing that the outstanding liabilities of 28 states are projected to rise 43 percent in the three years from March 2020 to March 2023. In all, the outstanding liabilities of all these states are forecasted to reach Rs 75 lakh crore by the end of the current financial year, up from Rs 52 lakh crore in March 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic had forced a nationwide lockdown in India. However, fag-end buying helped the markets to end higher. Traders got support with the provisional data available with NSE showing that foreign institutional investors (FII) bought shares worth Rs 1,305.30 crore on February 14, 2023. Some support also came as India's foodgrain production is estimated at an all-time high of 323.55 million tonnes in the current crop year ending June, driven by the projection of a record output of rice, wheat and pulses. Traders took a note of Vivek Johri, CBIC Chairman’s statement that the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) will use the data of electric meters and property tax to increase the base of goods and services tax (GST). Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 242.83 points or 0.40% to 61,275.09 and the CNX Nifty was up by 86.00 points or 0.48% to 18,015.85.

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