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Indian markets ended significantly higher on Friday as strong GDP data for the September quarter as well as encouraging core sector output figures for October raised optimism about India's growth story. Today, markets are likely to extend their previous session’s gains with gap-up opening spurred by the Bhartiya Janta Party's (BJP) resounding win in state elections. The BJP decisively secured victories in three of the four key states - Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh, heightening expectations for regime continuity in 2024. Investors will keep eye on the Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy meeting later this week. There are expectations that the Reserve Bank is likely to maintain the status quo on the short-term interest rate in its monetary policy review, with inflation staying in comfort zone and economic growth moving at an accelerated pace. Some support will come with report that after turning net sellers in the past two months, FPIs again made a comeback in the Indian stock markets in November and pumped in Rs 9,000 crore amid fall in US treasury bond yields and the resilience of the domestic market. Traders will be taking encouragement as the finance ministry said GST collections jumped 15 per cent to nearly Rs 1.68 lakh crore in November on increased domestic activity and festive season buying. Goods and Services Tax (GST) mop-up was over Rs 1.45 lakh crore in November 2022. Besides, the latest data by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed that India's foreign exchange reserves increased by $2.54 billion to $597.94 billion for the week ending November 24. However, some cautiousness may come as Crisil report stated that States' debt will remain elevated at 31-32 per cent of their gross domestic product amid higher capital outlays and moderate revenue growth this fiscal, with overall borrowings likely to rise by 9 per cent to over Rs 87 lakh crore. Meanwhile, markets regulator Sebi has extended the deadline till April 1, 2024 for the implementation of the framework for handling complaints received through the SCORES platform for registered entities and for monitoring such grievances by designated bodies. There will be some buzz in sugar industry stocks as cooperative body NFCSFL said India's sugar production was down by 10.65 per cent at 4.32 million tonne during October-November, the first two months of the ongoing 2023-24 season. Sugar season runs from October to September. The production stood at 4.83 million tonne in the year-ago period.

The US markets ended higher on Friday amid growing optimism the Federal Reserve was done raising US interest rates and could begin to cut them next year as inflation cools. Asian markets are trading mostly in green on Monday amid growing optimism over the outlook for interest rates.

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks ended higher for the fourth consecutive session on Friday and gained over half a percent, driven by favourable macroeconomic data. Most sectors contributed to the move wherein Power, FMCG and Capital Goods were among the top gainers. Markets made a positive start and stayed higher for whole day as the Indian economy grew 7.6 per cent during the July-September quarter of the current financial year 2023-24, remaining the fastest-growing major economy. India’s GDP growth for the April-June quarter grew 7.8 per cent. Some support also came with Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran’s statement that India’s economic growth momentum will continue in the October-December quarter and the economy is poised to comfortably clock a 6.5 per cent growth rate for the full fiscal underpinned by investment and consumer momentum. Besides, foreign fund inflows also supported sentiments. Provisional data from the National Stock Exchange showed that foreign institutional investors net bought shares worth Rs 8,147.85 crore on November 30. Markets extended gains in afternoon deals, as India's manufacturing sector growth improved in the month of November, as strengthening client demand and more favourable input supply boosted production volumes. According to the report, the seasonally adjusted S&P Global India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) grew to 56.0 in November 2023 from 55.5 in October 2023.  Some solace also came as the output of eight core industries posted a growth of 12.1 percent in October 2023 on the back of robust expansion in coal, electricity, cement and steel. Core sector growth was a mere 0.7 percent in October 2022. Adding to the optimism, a labour ministry said retail inflation for industrial workers eased to 4.45 per cent in October from 4.72 per cent in September mainly due to lower prices of certain food items. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 492.75 points or 0.74% to 67,481.19 and the CNX Nifty was up by 134.75 points or 0.67% to 20,267.90.

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