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Indian markets ended with minor losses on Wednesday amid foreign portfolio investor (FPI) selling. This came amid concerns over corporate earnings and uncertainty regarding possible policy shifts after Donald Trump takes over as US President again. Today, markets are likely to get flat-to-negative start amid weak global cues. FIIs also continued their selling spree, offloading shares worth Rs 3,362.18 crore on January 8. All eyes will be on the Q3FY25 earnings of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), to be out later in the day. Also, IREDA, Tata Elxsi, and GTPL Hathway will announce their October-December quarter (Q3FY25) results today. However, some support may come with a private report that after a poor showing in the first two quarters of 2024-25, the corporate sector could report a modest recovery in revenue and earnings growth for the October-December quarter (Q3FY25). Traders may take note of report that the government has revised gold import data, bringing down numbers for November by $5 billion to $9.84 billion, possibly to rectify double accounting of inbound shipments. According to revised data of the commerce ministry arm Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCIS), gold import numbers have been slashed since April 2024, revealing excess imports of about $11.7 billion during the first eight months of 2024-25. After the revision, the trade deficit - difference between imports and exports - for November is expected to be revised downwards to $32.84 billion. Besides, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) announced plans to expand its colocation facility by adding around 2,000 new racks within its existing premises, signaling its commitment to enhancing infrastructure and capacity. There will be some buzz in solar sector stocks with a private report that India’s solar sector is poised for exponential growth over the next decade, as the country aims to reach 500GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030. The report said India’s solar energy capacity will reach 214 GW by 2030 from 82GW now.  consumer goods sector stocks will be in focus with a private report that growth in consumer goods space is set to be muted for yet another quarter (October-December 2024), due to sluggish urban demand, a gradual recovery in rural demand and price hikes taken across product categories. There will be some reaction in metal stocks with CRISIL in a report stating that steel prices in 2025 would be much higher if the proposed safeguard duty on steel imports is imposed. It added that the impact was expected to be more prominent in the first half.

The US markets ended mostly in green on Wednesday as investors digested the impact of two conflicting sets of jobs data and a report that said President-elect Donald Trump was mulling a national economic emergency declaration on inflation. Asian markets are trading mostly lower on Thursday following a volatile session on Wall Street. China's consumer prices in December edged up 0.1 per cent year-on-year, in line with expectations.

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks staged a late-hour recovery to end flat with negative bias on Wednesday led by gains in Oil & Gas, Energy and TECK stocks. Markets made a slightly positive start but failed to build the gains and traded lower for most part of the session as traders were concerned as the First Advance Estimates released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) estimated that Indian economy to slow to a four-year low of 6.4 per cent in FY25, falling short of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) projection of 6.6 per cent. In FY24, gross domestic product (GDP) had grown at 8.2 per cent. Separately, driven by a slowdown in government capital expenditure and sluggish private investments, growth in infrastructure investment is expected to moderate in the current financial year (FY25) compared to FY24. Besides, unabated foreign fund outflows weighed on sentiments. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers, offloading equities worth Rs 1,491.46 crore on January 7. The total FII outflow for 2024 has now crossed Rs 3,06,000 crore. Markets extended losses in afternoon deals, as the State Bank of India (SBI) sees India's GDP growth in FY25 to be 6.3 per cent with a ‘downward bias’ due to several challenges affecting economic growth. The projection is also below the National Statistical Office's (NSO) latest estimate of 6.4 per cent growth seen in this fiscal year, which is a four-year low. Some pessimism also came amid a private report stating that exporters and freight agencies raised the issue of high terminal handling charges at ports and low usage of dry ports or inland container depots, which add to the overall logistics costs. However, a sharp rebound in late afternoon deals helped the Indian benchmark indices to erase most of the intraday losses to end nearly flat, owing to an accumulation of beaten-down blue-chip stocks and in expectation of government reforms in the upcoming budget to lift the tepid economy. Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 50.62 points or 0.06% to 78,148.49, and the CNX Nifty was down by 18.95 points or 0.08% to 23,688.95.

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