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Indian markets snapped two-day losing streak and ended on a positive note on Thursday amid a recovery in global markets and sharp fall in crude oil prices. Today, domestic equity indices are likely to get flat-to-positive start ahead of the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) monetary policy decision. Market participants are widely expecting the central bank to maintain the status quo and keep the repo rate steady at 6.5 per cent, however, governor Shaktikanta Das' commentary and RBI's inflation and growth forecasts will be closely watched. Traders will be taking encouragement as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman reportedly said the inclusion of Indian bonds in JPMorgan’s widely tracked emerging market debt index could bring $23 billion worth inflows into the country. Some support will come as the UAE and India will cooperate more closely in sustainable industrial development following a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed on October 05 at Emirates Palace. Focusing on facilitating industrial investments, technology transfer and enabling the deployment of key technologies in industries, the MoU will benefit both countries through joint industrial and technological developments. Meanwhile, buoyed by strong gains in stock prices, the average assets under management (AUM) for the mutual fund (MF) industry increased 9 per cent during the three-month period ending September 2023. This marked the highest quarterly growth for the industry since September 2021. However, some cautiousness may come as provisional data from the National Stock Exchange (NSE) showed foreign institutional investors (FII) offloaded shares worth Rs 1,864.20 crore on October 5. Investors likely to remain on sidelines ahead of upcoming meeting of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council to review progress in anti-profiteering matters on October 07. As per a private report, the Council will be apprised of the performance report of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for the April-June quarter (first quarter, or Q1) of the current financial year (2023-24), which revealed that not a single case had been resolved during the period. Tourism industry stocks will be in focus as the chief of Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) said the recovery in tourism in the Asia-Pacific region after the COVID-19 pandemic has been ‘strong and robust’ and the numbers have reached about 80 per cent of 2019’s figures.

The US markets ended in red on Thursday as investors looked toward key jobs data on Friday that could determine the next move for interest rates. Asian markets are trading mostly higher on Friday after U.S. Treasury yields eased from 16-year highs.

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks saw a recovery after two days of fall and ended higher by over half percent on Thursday amid stability in global indices following ease in US Bond yields and a fall in crude oil prices from their recent highs. Markets made a gap-up opening and stayed in green for whole day, as traders took encouragement with Finance Secretary T V Somanathan’s statement that India's retail inflation is likely to ease by December as seasonal factors become more favourable. Some support also came in with a private report that the much-awaited India-UK Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is set to be signed by both countries by month-end, with all outstanding issues having been resolved. However, markets trimmed some gains in morning deals, as provisional data from the National Stock Exchange (NSE) showed that foreign institutional investors (FII) offloaded shares worth Rs 4,424.02 crore on October 4. Markets soon regained traction in late morning deals, as sentiments got up-beat with private survey showing that growth in India’s dominant services industry accelerated in September as already robust demand strengthened. It also showed businesses were the most optimistic in over nine years. That bodes well for Asia’s third-largest economy, which is expected to be the fastest-growing major economy this fiscal year, defying a global slowdown trend. S&P Global’s India services purchasing managers’ index rose to 61.0 last month from 60.1 in August. The reading was above the 50-mark separating growth from contraction for a 26th consecutive month. Meanwhile, RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee has kick started its 3-day meeting and is expected to keep key rates on hold when it announces its decision on Friday. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 405.53 points or 0.62% to 65,631.57 and the CNX Nifty was up by 109.65 points or 0.56% to 19,545.75.

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