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Indian markets hit new highs for the second consecutive day on Thursday as the markets wager on aggressive interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve next year. Today, the last trading session of the year 2023 will get a flat-to-positive start tracking positive cues from global peers. Foreign fund inflows likely to aid sentiments. Provisional data from the NSE showed that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs 4,358.99 crore on December 28. Sentiments will get a boost as Assocham said India is likely to remain the fastest-growing major economy in the world in 2024 on the back of strong consumer demand leading to a pick up in investment across sectors such as construction, hospitality and infrastructure including railways and aviation. Some support will come with report that the government is working on boosting domestic manufacturing and increasing exports to $500 billion by 2030 from 10-11 sectors. The 11 sectors are auto components, automobiles (including EVs), capital goods, chemicals, drones, medical devices, aerospace and defence, leather and footwear, textiles, and space. Overall, the ministry is looking at taking the country's goods and services exports to $2 trillion by 2030. Besides, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said the National E-commerce Policy is in final stages of discussion and will be announced soon. There will be some buzz in the banking stocks as the RBI’s Financial Stability Report said that the increase in risk weights for personal loans and loans to non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) may lead to a decline in the capital adequacy ratio of 71 basis points (bps) of the banking system. Oil marketing companies’ stocks will be in focus with a private report that the Petroleum Ministry has prepared a proposal incorporating the cuts on petrol and diesel ahead of general elections of 2024. As per the report, the cuts could be in the range of Rs 4 to Rs 10 per litre. There will be some reaction in stocks related to plastic industry as the Plastic Export Promotion Council (Plexconcil) said plastic exports from India witnessed a yearly decline of 5.6 per cent in November to $892 million mainly due to drop in shipments of miscellaneous products. In November 2022, the total plastic exports stood at $945 million. Meanwhile, Innova Captab shares will debut on the stock exchanges on Friday at an issue price of Rs 448 apiece.

The US markets ended mostly higher on Thursday as Wall Street looks to end a winning year on a high note and possibly a new milestone. Asian markets are trading mixed on Friday with investors assessing prospects of electric vehicle companies after China’s Xiaomi unveiled its first EV.

Back home, in a volatile session, Indian equity benchmarks ended Thursday’s trading session at record closing peaks and also finished higher for the fifth consecutive session, fuelled by a global rally over the optimism that the US central bank would start cutting rates as soon as next March. Markets made a positive start and extended the gains as the day progressed, as traders took support with provisional data from the NSE showing that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned net buyers for the first time in the last seven consecutive sessions, buying shares worth Rs 2,926.05 crore on December 27. Some optimism also came with a report released by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) showing that India is set to become the world's third-largest economy by 2032, and will eventually surpass China and the United States to become the world's largest economic superpower by the end of this century. It added India will sustain robust economic growth, averaging 6.5 percent from 2024 to 2028. Markets extended gains in late afternoon deals, taking support from data showing that investment in the Indian capital markets through participatory notes (P-Note) jumped to Rs 1.31 lakh crore by the end of November 2023, bouncing back from a decline in the previous month, owing to the robust performance of the domestic market. Before registering a decline in October, investments through P-notes have been increasing continuously since March, following the stable Indian economy against an uncertain global macro backdrop. Sentiments remained positive with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s statement that India will begin trade negotiations with the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) bloc of countries for a free trade deal in January. Traders took a note of the Department of Financial Services Secretary Vivek Joshi’s statement that India Inc needs to think 'big and bold', and kickstart a new private sector investment cycle. Joshi also asked banks to include stress testing of cyber risks as part of the risk assessment framework. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 371.95 points or 0.52% to 72,410.38 and the CNX Nifty was up by 123.95 points or 0.57% to 21,778.70.

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