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Indian markets ended with marginal gains and extended the winning run for the ninth consecutive session on Thursday. Markets remained closed on Friday on account of Holiday. Today, markets are likely to get negative start following weakness in global peers. Lower-than-expected set of earning from index heavyweights Infosys and HDFC Bank, likely to dampen sentiments in the markets. Investors will be looking ahead to the wholesale price index (WPI) data to be out later in the day. Traders will be taking encouragement as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Indian economy will stay on course and is likely to grow at 7 per cent in 2022-23. Sitharaman highlighted that a conducive domestic policy environment, along with the government’s focus on structural reforms, has kept domestic economic activity in India robust. Besides, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) member Sanjeev Sanyal has said Indian economy will grow at around 6.5 per cent in the current fiscal and will continue to be the fastest-growing major economy in the world, notwithstanding a modest cut in growth projections by multilateral lending agencies. Sanyal further said that given the uncertainties in the global economy, India's performance is clearly far ahead of any other comparable economy. Foreign fund inflows likely to aid sentiments.  Foreign institutional investors (FII) bought shares worth Rs 221.85 crore on April 13, National Stock Exchange's provisional data showed. Some support will come as the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) stated that signing of free trade agreement between India and the European Union would help promote economic ties between the region and New Delhi. Vice President CII and Chairman and Managing Director, Sanjiv Puri, emphasised that signing of India-EU free trade agreement could be a catalyst for further enhancing India-Italy relationship. Meanwhile, Piyush Goyal stated that India will prioritize safeguarding the interests of its farmers and dairy sector in the proposed free trade agreement with the European Union. Besides, India’s foreign currency reserves rose by $6.3 billion to $584.75 billion in the week ended April 7, the highest level during the past nine months or so. The reserves were higher, at $588 billion, in the week ended July 1, 2022. There will be some reaction in edible oil industry stocks with industry body SEA’s statement that eible oil imports rose 8 per cent year-on-year in March to 11.35 lakh tonnes, and demanded that the duty difference between crude palm oil and refined palm oil should be increased to protect domestic refineries. The Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA) said edible oil imports rose to 11,35,600 tonnes in March from 10,51,698 tonnes in the year-ago period.

The US markets ended lower on Friday as a barrage of mixed economic data appeared to affirm another Federal Reserve interest rate hike, dampening investor enthusiasm after a series of big U.S. bank earnings launched first-quarter earnings season. Asian markets are trading mostly in red on Monday following a lower close on Wall Street.

Back home, late hour recovery helped Indian equity benchmarks to end in green terrain on Thursday, with both Sensex and Nifty closing marginally higher. After a negative start, markets remained lower for the most part of the trading session, tracking weakness across global peers after the FOMC minutes showed that officials expect a mild recession in the US later this year. Continued rise in oil prices also dampened the sentiments in the domestic markets. Traders were concerned over the growth prospects as the UN Trade and Development Conference (UNCTAD) in its latest Trade and Development Report Update stated that India's economic growth is projected to decelerate to 6 per cent in 2023 from 6.6 per cent in 2022. Market participants paid no heed towards easing retail inflation and growth of industrial production. CPI-based retail inflation in India eased further and fell to a 15-month low of 5.66% in March on an annual basis as food inflation moderated on account of falling vegetable prices. Also, India's industrial output rose to 5.6 per cent in February from 5.5 per cent in January 2023, mainly due to good performance of the power, mining and manufacturing sectors. Besides, National Stock Exchange's provisional data showed that foreign institutional investors (FII) bought shares worth Rs 1,907.95 crore on April 12. Losses got intensified during afternoon deals, as investors remained cautious after Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that India remains concerned about the global economic outlook and geopolitical environment, despite this year's projected growth rate of over six percent for the country's economy. However, in the last leg of the trade, following positive European markets, key indices staged sharp recovery to settle its heads above water for the ninth straight session, buoyed by fag-end buying in banking, Auto and realty stocks. Some relief came with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that the country's exports rose by about 6 per cent to a record $447 billion during 2022-23 on account of healthy growth in the outbound shipments of sectors such as petroleum, pharma and chemicals and marine. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 38.23 points or 0.06% to 60,431.00 and the CNX Nifty was up by 15.60 points or 0.09% to 17,828.00.

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