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Indian equity benchmarks are likely to get a negative start amid lack of directional cues from Wall Street. Some pessimism will come as India’s exports declined for the third month in a row in January by 2.38% to $37.32 billion due to volatility in petroleum prices and global uncertainties. Also, the trade deficit widened to $222.99 billion as imports rose by 10.28% year-on-year to $59.42 billion in January.

Some of the key factors to be watched:

India, Qatar to discuss ways to boost trade, investments: India and Qatar will discuss ways to further promote bilateral trade and investments. The issues will be discussed between Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Faisal bin Thani bin Faisal Al Thani.

India's exports to US up 39%: the commerce ministry data showed that India's exports to the US rose by 39% year-on-year to $8.44 billion in January, while imports grew by 33.46 per cent to $3.57 billion. Cumulatively, the country's exports to the US during April-January grew by 8.95% to $68.46 billion against $62.84 billion in the same period previous fiscal

India will continue to review import duties, aim to be investor friendly: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said reciprocal import duty cuts are a continuous thing and India will periodically review custom duties and anti-dumping duties as its in line with the country's ambition to be an investor friendly country.

Sugar stocks will be in focus: Industry body Isma data showed that India's sugar production fell 12 per cent to 19.7 million tonnes till February 15 of the current marketing year ending September mainly due to lower output in Maharashtra and Karnataka.

Stocks related to gold will be in limelight: Commerce ministry data showed that the country's gold imports in January rose by 40.79 per cent to $2.68 billion on account of increasing domestic demands. Gold imports stood at $1.9 billion in January 2024.

On the global front: The US markets remained closed on Monday for the Presidents Day holiday. Asian markets are trading mostly in green on Tuesday ahead of a Reserve Bank of Australia policy decision, while equities in Hong Kong extended a tech-powered rally.

Back home, snapping eight-days losing run, Indian equity benchmarks ended Monday's trading session in positive territory on the back of value buying in blue-chip stocks such as Bajaj Finserv and Indusind Bank. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 57.65 points or 0.08% to 75,996.86, and the CNX Nifty was up by 30.25 points or 0.13% to 22,959.50.

Some of the important factors in trade:

Impact of U.S. tariff reciprocity on Indian exports likely to be minimal: Sentiments got some support as a report by State Bank of India said that the impact of U.S. tariff reciprocity on Indian exports is expected to be minimal, despite concerns over trade restrictions.

New Income Tax Bill to simplify tax structure, boost MSMEs growth: Traders took a note of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India’s (ICAI) statement that the new Income Tax Bill will simplify the country's six-decade old tax structure as well as help boost growth of MSMEs. 

Significant foreign fund outflows: Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 4,294.69 crore in the capital markets on a net basis on Friday, according to exchange data. The total outflow by FPIs has reached Rs 99,299 crore -- near Rs 1 lakh crore -- in 2025 so far.

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