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Indian markets ended at record highs for a second straight session on Tuesday as gains from hopes of political stability continued on the bourses. Today, markets likely to continue their gaining spree with optimistic start tracking gains in Asian counterparts coupled with fall in crude oil prices overnight. Foreign fund inflows likely to aid sentiments. Provisional data from the National Stock Exchange (NSE) showed that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs 5,223.51 crore on December 5. Some support will come with report that banks have written off Rs 10.57 lakh crore during the last five financial years, of which Rs 5.52 lakh crore was in respect of loans pertaining to large industries. The scheduled commercial banks have also recovered Rs 7.15 lakh crore of non-performing assets (NPAs) during the five-year period. Traders may take note of report that India and the UK have begun crunch-time talks to secure a landmark free-trade deal, as leaders on both sides seek to resolve outstanding issues before they face election battles next year. Besides, the finance ministry said that the Central government’s debt is estimated to moderate to 57.2% of gross domestic product (GDP) in FY24 from 61.5% in FY21 when pandemic-related spending to provide succour to people and businesses led to a spike in its loan profile. However, some cautiousness may come with report that India's gross foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows dropped almost 16% in the first six months of FY24 from a year before to $33.12 billion, the second straight fall in the first half of a fiscal. The minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary said the inflow have been impacted by the threat of global recession, economic crisis due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, global protectionist measures and decline of real GDP growth rates of Singapore, USA and UK which are the major source countries for FDI. Select telecom stocks will be in focus with a private report that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has asked Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel to provide clear terms and conditions for their unlimited 5G data offerings. There will be some reaction online gaming industry related stocks after the finance ministry said as many as 71 show cause notices have been issued to online gaming companies for alleged GST evasion of over Rs 1.12 lakh crore during financial years 2022-23 and 2023-24.

The US markets ended mostly lower on Tuesday amid fresh employment data bolstered bets that the U.S. Federal Reserve will cut interest rates as soon as March. Asian markets are trading mostly in green on Wednesday as bets firmed for a peak in interest rates among major central banks globally, as bond yields continued to decline.

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks settled at fresh record closing highs on Tuesday amid massive buying in Utilities and Power sector shares. The rally was largely led by strong macroeconomic data and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) massive wins in the recent state elections. Key gauges made a positive start and remained in green for whole day, as provisional data from the National Stock Exchange showed that foreign institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 2,073.21 crore on December 4. Traders took encouragement with Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary’s statement that India will become a $5 trillion economy early in the ‘Amrit Kaal’ on the path to achieve the goal of becoming an advanced economy by 2047. However, markets trimmed some gains in late morning deals, as traders got anxious with private survey showing that India's service sector activity expanded at its lowest pace in November. According to S&P Global, India's services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) in November fell to 56.9 as compared to 58.4 in October. This is the lowest figure in 2023 so far. Before this, services PMI was recorded at 57.2 in January. But markets regained traction in afternoon deals and settled around the day’s high points, as sentiments got a boost with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement that the GST collection has been showing an upward trend on an annual basis since its rollout on July 1, 2017, and the average gross monthly mop-up in the current fiscal so far is Rs 1.66 lakh crore. She said the GST collection crossed Rs 1.50 lakh crore mark in every month of the current fiscal and had touched a record high of Rs 1.87 lakh crore in April 2023. Additional support also came with S&P Global Ratings’ statement that India will become the world's third largest economy by 2030, as it forecast the nation's GDP growth reaching 7 per cent in 2026-27 fiscal year. It expects India will be the fastest growing major economy in the next three years. Some solace came on report that India and the UK have begun crunch-time talks to secure a landmark free-trade deal, as leaders on both sides seek to resolve outstanding issues before they face election battles next year. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 431.02 points or 0.63% to 69,296.14 and the CNX Nifty was up by 168.30 points or 0.81% to 20,855.10.

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