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Indian markets fell sharply on Wednesday, mirroring weak cues from global markets as data showing a slowdown in global manufacturing activity in July. Today, markets are likely to start session in green amid despite negative moves across global markets. Investors will be eyeing Services PMI data to be out later in the day. Some support will come as keeping in view India's vision of becoming Atmanirbhar, production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes for 14 key sectors have been announced with an outlay of Rs 1.97 trillion to enhance India's manufacturing capabilities and exports. Traders will be taking encouragement with report that India and the UK are close to concluding negotiations for a proposed free trade agreement (FTA), chief negotiators of both countries will hold the 12th round of talks from August 7. Both sides are looking at concluding the talks before the end of the year. Besides, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) could soften its previous proposal of imposing a standard investor fee on mutual funds. The market regulator is considering a revised discussion paper, which is likely to be released in the coming weeks, with two options. There will be some buzz in gaming industry stocks as softening its stance, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council has decided to implement a 28 per cent tax on electronic gaming, casinos, and horse racing, but this would be applied on the initial amount paid upon entry, and not on the total value of each bet placed. The proposed amendments are likely to be introduced from October 1, with a comprehensive review to be conducted six months after implementation. Sugar stocks will be in focus as the industry body ISMA said the country's sugar production is pegged lower by 3.41 per cent to 316.80 lakh tonnes in the new season that will begin from October 2023, due to more diversion of cane for ethanol production. There will be some reaction in edible oil industry stocks with a private report that India's edible oil imports in July rose to a record 1.76 million metric tonnes as refiners built up stocks for upcoming festivals given uncertainty over supplies from the Black Sea. Meanwhile, India Inc's April-June quarterly results will hog limelight. Companies like Sun Pharma, Adani Enterprises, Bharti Airtel, Lupin, and Zomato are some of the prominent names that will report the June quarter results.

The US markets ended lower on Wednesday as investors sentiment remained muted post the Fitch credit rating downgrade. Asian markets are trading mostly in red on Thursday following overnight losses on Wall Street.

Back home, Indian equity markets roiled under global pressure on Wednesday and lost over a percent as rating agency Fitch downgraded credit rating of the US to AA+ from AAA. Markets made a gap down opening and continued to drift lower throughout the day as traders were concerned amid foreign fund outflows. According to the provisional data available on the NSE, foreign institutional investors (FII) sold shares worth net Rs 92.85 crore on August 1. Sentiments remained down-beat with report stating that India’s services trade surplus fell to $36.4 billion in the April-June quarter of 2023-24, the lowest in three quarters, as services export growth slowed down amid the economic downturn in developed economies.  Anxiety remained among traders with reports that the central government's debt stood at Rs 155.6 lakh crore or 57.1 per cent of the GDP at the end of March 2023. However, key indices managed to trim some losses in late afternoon deals, as traders took some support with the finance ministry’s statement that Gross Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection rose 11 per cent to over Rs 1.65 lakh crore in July 2023 compared to the same month last year, crossing the Rs 1.6 lakh crore mark for the fifth time since the rollout of the indirect tax regime. Some support also came with Union Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Kisanrao Karad’s statement that the growth of deposits and advances of public sector banks (PSBs) has improved from 8.2% and 9.8% in FY2021-22 to 9.3% and 15.8% in FY2022-23, respectively. He stated that the PSBs take all commercial and business-related decisions as per their board approved policies. Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 676.53 points or 1.02% to 65,782.78 and the CNX Nifty was down by 207.00 points or 1.05% to 19,526.55.

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