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Indian markets rallied for the eighth day running on Thursday, ending at fresh record closing highs, amid firm global market trends and continuous foreign fund inflows. Today, markets are likely to get negative start amid weakness in global markets. Traders will be concerned as data by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) showed that the country's unemployment rate rose to a three-month high at 8 per cent during November. The unemployment rate in urban India was higher at 8.96 per cent, while in rural areas, it was at 7.55 per cent. There will be some cautiousness as data from the central bank showed that India's services exports and imports in October fell from the previous month. Services exports in October stood at $25.38 billion, down from $28.03 billion in September. Services imports in October slipped to $13.49 billion from $16.12 billion a month earlier. Besides, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net sold shares worth Rs 1,565.93 crore on December 01, according to the provisional data available on the NSE. However, some respite may come late in the day as Sanjeev Sanyal, a member of the prime minister's economic advisory council, said the Indian economy is likely to grow 6.5% to 7% next fiscal year if the global environment does not worsen. Some support may come as the Finance Ministry said Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenues rose by 11 per cent to about Rs 1.46 lakh crore in November over the year-ago period. This is the ninth straight month when collections from GST has remained above Rs 1.40 lakh crore. Aviation industry stocks will be in limelight as Jet fuel (ATF) price was reduced by 2.3 per cent, reflecting softening international oil prices but petrol and diesel rates remained on freeze for a record eighth month in running. There will be some buzz in power stocks as government data showed that India's power consumption logged a double-digit growth of 13.6 per cent to 112.81 billion units in November 2022 compared to the year-ago period. Oil & gas industry stocks will be in focus as preliminary industry data showed petrol and diesel sales in India saw a double-digit year-on-year growth in November as increased demand from the agriculture sector helped build on the momentum generated by the festive season. Separately, the government has slashed to less than half the windfall profit tax on domestically produced crude oil and also reduced the levy on diesel. There will be some reaction in solar industry related stocks with a private report that installation of open access solar capacity in India increased by 91 per cent to 596 megawatt (MW) during the July-September period.

The US markets ended mostly in red on Thursday as investors digested economic data following a big rally in the previous session. Asian markets are trading mostly lower on Friday following a near flat line close on Wall Street.

Back home, extending gains for the eighth session in a row, Indian equity benchmarks continued to hit fresh record closing highs on Thursday in spite of some volatility due to weekly expiry day. Markets made positive start and stayed in green for whole day amid firm global market trends and continuous foreign fund inflows. Traders got encouragement as the government data showed that retail inflation for industrial workers rose to 6.08 per cent in October from 6.49 per cent in September 2022 mainly due to lower prices of certain food items. Some optimism came in as Chief Economic Advsior V Anantha Nageswaran said the Indian economy is on track to achieve a 6.8-7 per cent GDP growth in the current fiscal. He said the economic recovery momentum is continuing and the GDP is averaging the 2019-20 level. Sentiments remained up-beat after  a private survey showed India's factory activity expanded at its fastest pace in three months in November, signalling resilient demand despite deteriorating global economic conditions as input cost inflation fell to a two-year low. The Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index, compiled by S&P Global, rose to 55.7 last month compared with 55.3 in October, marking the seventeenth successive month of expansion in manufacturing production across India. Additional support came as investment in the Indian capital markets through participatory notes rose to Rs 97,784 crore at the end of October, the highest in a year. This was also the third consecutive monthly increase in investments through such a route. However, markets trimmed some gains in late afternoon deals as some concern came with data showing that growth in production by eight infrastructure industries, which comprise the core sector, slowed down sharply to a 20-month low of 0.1 per cent in October, owing to a high base effect and weak activity. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 184.54 points or 0.29% to 63,284.19 and the CNX Nifty was up by 54.15 points or 0.29% to 18,812.50.

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