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Indian markets closed in red for a third straight day on Tuesday amid weakness across global peers. Today, start of the session is likely to be flat-to-positive amid falling crude oil prices, but persistent worries over economic growth-inflation dynamics and renewed geopolitical tensions following attacks by Russia on major Ukrainian cities may limit upside. Some support will come as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman exuded confidence on India's relative and absolute growth performance in the rest of the decade and forecast the country's growth rate to be around 7 per cent this financial year, amidst reports of a global recession and downgrading of growth rates of almost all major economies. However, traders may be concerned as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its annual World Economic Outlook report said outlook for India is growth of 6.8 per cent in 2022 - a 0.6 percentage point downgrade since the July forecast, reflecting a weaker-than-expected outturn in the second quarter and more subdued external demand. Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, Chief Economist of the IMF said India's economy is doing fairly well, but additional monetary tightening is required. Also, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned net sellers to the tune of Rs 4,612.67 crore on October 11, as per provisional data available on the NSE. Meanwhile, traders will be eyeing in industrial growth and retail inflation data to be out later in the day for more cues. As per a private report, India’s retail inflation for September is likely to stay elevated. Railways related stocks will be in focus with a private report that the railways' passenger revenue in the period between April 1 and October 8 was around Rs 33,476 crore, an increase of 92 per cent over the corresponding period last year. The Indian Railways' passenger revenue on originating basis during the April 1-October 8 period last year was Rs 17,394 crore. There will be some reaction in aviation industry stocks as global airlines' grouping IATA said India is a key aviation market for the Asia Pacific region as well as the rest of the world and is expected to see robust air travel demand, amid the country's domestic air passenger traffic inching towards pre-COVID levels. Moreover, Investors awaited quarterly results of IT majors Wipro and HCL Tech due later in the day for domestic cues.

The US markets ended mostly lower on Tuesday with indications from the Bank of England that it would support the country's bond market for just three more days adding to market jitters late in the session. Asian markets are trading mostly in red on Wednesday amid concerns over the global economy and ahead of the Bank of Korea’s rate decision.

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks ended the sluggish day of trade with losses of around one and half percent on Tuesday, following weakness in global peers and amid rising geopolitical tensions in Europe. Markets started the session on pessimistic note and gradually drifted lower as the session progressed amid subdued foreign flows. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned net sellers to the tune of Rs 2,139.02 crore on October 10, as per provisional data available on the NSE. Traders remained cautious with a private report that India's retail inflation accelerated to a five month high of 7.30% in September due to surging food prices, staying well above the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) upper tolerance band for a ninth month. Sentiments also weighed on by a private report stating that a number of rating agencies, domestic banks, and groups have pared the forecast for India’s economic growth. Key gauges witnessed heavy selling pressure in late afternoon session as market participants awaited September's retail inflation data, due to be released on Wednesday. Traders overlooked Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that inflation in the country is much lower than that in developed countries. He said ‘Compared to developed countries, inflation is quite low, for example the British are witnessing the worst inflation in the last 50 years, Americans are facing highest inflation of the last 45 years, interest rates are very high... compared to those countries, the nation's inflation is low because buoyant economy, our country's economy is very vibrant.' Even better-than-expected Q2 performance from TCS, and a proposed share buyback plan by Infosys failed to cheer investor sentiment. Meanwhile, the government is planning to launch 7-8 production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes in the next round soon in a bid to further expand the coverage across critical manufacturing sectors, stimulate economic growth and spur job creation. Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 843.79 points or 1.46% to 57,147.32 and the CNX Nifty was down by 257.45 points or 1.49% to 16,983.55.

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