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Indian markets ended Saturday’s special trading session on a positive note, backed by strong gains in metal stocks. Today, markets are likely to get flat-to-positive start tracking mixed cues from Asian counterparts. Some support will come with a private report that Inflation in goods and services other than fuel and food is likely to remain low, around 3% in the near term, owing to weak rural demand, softness in housing inflation and lower input cost pressures. Traders will be taking encouragement as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showed that sales of listed private non-financial companies grew 5.5 per cent in the three months ended December 2023 from 4.4 per cent expansion in the previous quarter. Traders may take note of Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that the outcome of the 13th ministerial conference of the WTO was good and India is completely satisfied as the country continues to retain its full policy space to protect the interests of farmers and fishermen in every respect. Market participants continue to take support with the finance ministry’s statement that India collected Rs 1.68 lakh crore in goods and services tax (GST) in February, 12.5 percent more than the year-ago period. The latest GST figure, which has come in above the Rs 1.5-lakh-crore mark for the 12th month in a row, takes the average monthly collection in 2023-24 to Rs 1.67 lakh crore. However, upside may remain capped amid foreign fund outflows. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net sold shares worth Rs 81.87 crore on March 2, provisional data from the NSE showed. Some cautiousness may come as oil prices slightly rose in Asian trade on Monday after the OPEC+ maintained its current pace of production cuts until the second quarter. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance said Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be inaugurating the national conference of Goods and Services Tax enforcement chiefs. The one-day national conference will be held aiming to strengthen the enforcement mechanism in GST. Stocks related to semiconductor industry will be in focus as IT and Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said India will, in next five years, join the high-stake global stage of semiconductor manufacturing as it combines unparalleled design capabilities with $10 billion of incentives to draw manufacturers to set up new fabs and units that will cut dominance of Taiwan, South Korea and China.  There will be some reaction in infrastructure industry stocks as the finance ministry said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman virtually launched seven infrastructure projects worth over Rs 1,000 crore.

The US markets ended higher on Friday ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's testimony before Congress on March 6 and 7. Asian markets are trading mixed on Monday ahead of China's 2024 growth expectation figure later in the week.

Back home, a Saturday special trading session ended on a higher note, with both Sensex and Nifty hitting fresh record closing highs. Stock exchanges -- BSE and NSE -- conducted two special trading sessions on Saturday, aimed at testing their preparedness in case of any unexpected disaster in the system. After a positive start, markets remained higher during the first special trading session from 9:15 am to 10 am, as foreign fund inflows aided domestic sentiments. The provisional data from the NSE showed that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net bought shares worth Rs 128.94 crore on March 1. Indices resumed their second trading session at 11:30 am and continued positive trend. Markets settled their trade in green terrain with marginal gains at 12:30 pm. Sentiments were positive as GST collections rose by 12.5 per cent to Rs 1.68 lakh crore in February 2024 compared to the year-ago period buoyed by an increase in domestic sales as well as imports. With this, the gross GST collection in April-February of the current fiscal stood at Rs 18.40 lakh crore, up by 11.7 per cent year-on-year. Adding more optimism, the Reserve Bank of India data showed foreign exchange reserves rose by $2.9 billion to $619 billion in the week ended February 23. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 60.80 points or 0.08% to 73,806.15 and the CNX Nifty was up by 39.65 points or 0.18% to 22,378.40.

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