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Indian markets tumbled on Friday as Adani group shares and several bank stocks fell sharply on sustained selling right through the day's session. Today, markets are likely to get positive start on firm global cues. Investor will be eyeing the Union Budget to be presented later in the week. Some support will come as latest data showed that the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) foreign exchange reserves climbed $1.7 billion to $573.73 billion in the week ended January 20.  The rise was on account of an increase in the RBI’s foreign currency assets as well as its gold holdings. Traders may take note of report that Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal called for creation of an international network of mentors, investors and entrepreneurs to strengthen the global startup ecosystem. However, there may be some cautiousness with report that foreign investors have pulled out a net of over Rs 17,000 crore this month so far due to the attractiveness of the Chinese markets and the cautious stance adopted by them ahead of the Union Budget and US Federal Reserve meeting. Meanwhile, the Commerce Ministry has the recommended imposition of anti-dumping duty on vinyl tiles coming from China and Taiwan for five years to guard domestic players from cheap imports from these countries. There will be some buzz in the pharma sector stocks with a private report that strong domestic demand and exports to semi-regulated markets are expected to drive revenue growth for the pharmaceuticals sector in the current fiscal year (FY23), though export demand from regulated markets is expected to remain moderate owing to high pricing pressure amid intense competition. Oil industry stocks will be in focus with provisional government data showing that Indian refiners' crude oil processing in December rose about 4% from a year earlier, in line with elevated demand in the world's third-biggest oil importer and consumer. There will be some reaction in banking stocks as latest data released by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed after a slight moderation in growth in the previous fortnight, bank credit growth picked up in the fortnight ended January 13, 2023, with 16.5 per cent YoY growth to Rs 132.81 trillion. Also, investors will be eyeing results from many companies including Larsen & Toubro, Tech Mahindra, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Bajaj Finserv, Exide Industries, GAIL (India), Punjab National Bank, REC, SRF, Trident, and Welspun India later in the day for more cues. Besides, newsflow around the Adani-Hindenburg case will further drive the sentiment.

The US markets ended higher on Friday as a slew of economic data boosted optimism about the overall health of the world's largest economy. Asian markets are trading mostly in green on Monday as investors looked ahead to the interest rate decisions from the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England this week.

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks witnessed steep selling pressure on Friday dragged down by Utilities, Power and Oil & Gas shares. Headline indices made a gap down opening and remained under pressure throughout the session amid continuous foreign fund outflows. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded shares worth Rs 2,393.94 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data. Sentiments were down-beat with a United Nations’ report stating that global economic growth is projected to slow to 1.9% this year from an estimated 3% in 2022. The report blamed the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia's war in Ukraine, high inflation and the climate crisis. It said this would mark one of the lowest growth rates in recent decades. Investors also turned cautious ahead of the Union Budget 2023, which will be presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1. Markets extended fall in afternoon deals, as traders were anxious with a private report stating that private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) investments in Asia-Pacific excluding Japan continued their downward trajectory when 2022 closed. According to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, deals totaled $5.39 billion across 42 announced and completed transactions in the fourth quarter of 2022, compared to $20.07 billion across 79 transactions in the same period in 2021. Traders also took a note of a study by market regulator SEBI showing that nine out of 10 individual traders in the equity F&O segment incurred net losses during both the years FY 2018-19 and FY 2021-22. There has been a significant increase of over 500 per cent in the number of individual traders in the equity F&O segment in FY 2021-22, as compared to FY 2018-19. Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 874.16 points or 1.45% to 59,330.90 and the CNX Nifty was down by 287.60 points or 1.61% to 17,604.35.

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