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Indian markets snapped a two-day winning run and ended lower as investors remained cautious ahead of the release of US inflation data. Today, markets are likely to get flat-to-positive start ahead of industrial production and retail inflation data to be out later in the day for more directional cues and amid mixed global cues. Foreign fund inflows likely to aid domestic sentiments. Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) continue to buy the Indian equities for the third consecutive week. The equity segment saw an inflow of $919.47 million last week. The month of March has seen a total inflow of $1.42 billion so far. This is a positive signal. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net bought shares worth Rs 4,212.76 crore on March 11, provisional data from the NSE showed. Some support will come as a report by India Ratings and Research said India will join the coveted club of upper-middle income countries by FY36. The ratings agency’s report estimated that by FY47, it will become a $15 trillion economy. Traders may take note of Amish Mehta, CEO of Crisil sating that the Indian economy is expected to show resilience on the back of sustained domestic demand and consumption. He added that the agency expects GDP growth in the upcoming fiscal to moderate to 6.8 per cent. There will be some buzz in the power stocks as the Department of Pharmaceutical announced the revamped Pharmaceuticals Technical Upgradation Assistance (PTUAS) scheme, aiming to provide financial assistance to drug manufacturers for upgrading their technological capabilities and conforming with global standards. Power distribution company’s stocks will be in focus with a private report that as power demand touched record levels during the last financial year, the cost of electricity for the power distribution companies (discoms) escalated, and so did their debt for meeting their working capital needs. Power demand grew at 8.9 per cent between financial year (FY) 2021 and 2023, as against 4.3 per cent between FY14 and FY20. There will be some reaction in insurance industry stocks as non-life insurers posted a nearly 13 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth in gross direct premium underwritten in February 2024. But there was a sequential dip in their revenue. Meanwhile, Bharat Highways InvIT will list today over an issue price of Rs 100 and RK Swamy will debut today against an issue price of Rs 288.

The US markets ended mostly in red on Monday with investors preparing for this week's consumer and producer price data, which they hope will provide a better idea of whether the Federal Reserve can begin cutting interest rates in the coming months. Asian markets are trading mostly in green on Tuesday as Japan's corporate inflation figures for January came in higher than expected.

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks ended Monday's session with sharp losses amid weak trends in Asian markets. After making flat-to-positive start, key gauges slipped into red and continued their downward slide as the trading session progressed as investors remained on sidelines ahead of the India’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation and Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data to be out tomorrow. Some concern also came amid a private report stating that India's headline retail inflation rate in February is not likely to have changed from January's 5.1 percent, extending its stay within the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) tolerance range of 2-6 percent to a sixth consecutive month. Traders overlooked data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showing that foreign exchange reserves rose $6.6 billion to a two-year high of $625.6 billion in the week ended March 1. In the previous week, reserves had risen $3 billion to $619.1 billion. Traders paid no heed towards report that Moody’s Ratings raised India’s GDP growth forecast for FY24 to around 8 per cent from 6.6 per cent on the back of strong domestic consumption and capital expenditure. Investors also ignored Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that the many developed and developing countries including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and nations of the Gulf region are keen to start trade in rupee with India as it would help cut transaction costs for businesses. Traders took note of a report that India and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) signed a landmark trade and economic partnership agreement (TEPA) to open up the EFTA markets for Indian businesses and the Indian markets for the EFTA. As part of the deal, the EFTA countries have committed to invest $100 billion in India over the next 15 years. Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 616.75 points or 0.83% to 73,502.64 and the CNX Nifty was down by 160.90 points or 0.72% to 22,332.65.

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