IGI Logo

Indian markets ended higher on Thursday reflecting the global trend as the US Federal Reserve kept key rates unchanged and indicated that it could be the end of the rate hike cycle. Today, the markets are likely to continue their bull run and make gap-up opening tracking firm trade in global markets. Investors will be eyeing Services PMI data to be out later in the day for more directional cues.  Some support will come as Union Labour Secretary Arti Ahuja said maintaining high industrial safety standards is necessary as these are influencing free trade agreements and their non-compliance can lead to trade barriers affecting India's economic growth. Ahuja underscored the pivotal role of robust industrial safety standards in safeguarding India's trajectory towards becoming the third-largest global economy. Traders may take note of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement that India will work closely with Sri Lanka to deepen their civilisational ties, with connectivity as a new focus area. India, the Finance Minister said, continues to work closely with the government of Sri Lanka on debt restructuring discussions as well as on its path of economic recovery. However, some cautiousness may come amid foreign fund outflows. Provisional data from the National Stock Exchange showed that foreign institutional investors offloaded shares worth Rs 1,261.19 crore on November 2. Stocks related to gaming industry will be in focus with a private report that the Indian gaming market, currently valued at $3.1 billion, is expected to hit the $7.5 billion valuation mark by financial year 2028 (FY28). The report added that the industry is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 20 per cent, driven by increasing in-app purchases and advertising revenues in casual and mid-core games. Among individual stocks, Chambal Fertilisers, Crompton Greaves, Escorts, Godfrey Phillips, IDFC, IndiGo, Krsnaa Diagnostics, MRF, Shipping Corporation of India, Sundaram Fasteners, Thermax, Titan, TTK Healthcare, Uco Bank and Whirlpool will be in focus ahead of results today. Meanwhile, ESAF Small Finance Bank IPO opens for subscription today in the price band of Rs 57 - Rs 60 per share.

The US markets ended higher on Thursday on hopes that the U.S. Federal Reserve has reached the end of its interest rate hiking campaign and a batch of upbeat quarterly financial updates added to the bullish mood. Asian markets are trading in green on Friday with investors awaiting a fresh round of data for more clues on the health of services activity through the region.

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks erased previous two-session losses and ended higher with gains of over half a percent on Thursday amid strong global cues and broad-based sectoral participation. Markets made gap-up start and stayed in green for whole day as traders took encouragement with data showing that India's goods and services tax (GST) collections in October grew 13 per cent over a year earlier to Rs 1.72 trillion, mainly on account of stricter anti-evasion measures and higher festival-season consumer spending. This was the second-highest monthly figure ever, next only to the Rs 1.87 trillion collected in April this year. Some optimism also came as data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed India’s services trade surplus bounced back in the September quarter of 2023-24 (FY24), growing 26.6 per cent after falling to a three-quarter low in June. Sentiments remained positive with a private report that Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation wave is likely to create a need to reskill and upskill 16.2 million workers in India in the next five years. According to report, the rise of emerging technologies such as AI may create around 4.7 million new technology jobs in India. Traders took a note of report that India and Sri Lanka have resumed talks for an economic and technology cooperation agreement (ETCA), after a gap of nearly five years. Traders overlooked private report stating that India’s unemployment rate climbed to the highest in more than two years in October as joblessness in rural areas increased. The overall rate rose to 10.05% last month from 7.09% in September. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 489.57 points or 0.77% to 64,080.90 and the CNX Nifty was up by 144.10 points or 0.76% to 19,133.25.

Above views are of the author and not of the website kindly read disclaimer