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Indian markets ended a choppy session on a flat note Tuesday after the recent rally. Today, markets are likely to get flat-to-positive start amid positive macroeconomic data. India’s retail inflation rate fell below the 7 per cent mark in August. Data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) showed that the consumer price index (CPI)-based retail inflation eased to 6.83 per cent in August, from a 15 month high of 7.44 per cent in July, on account of moderation in the rate of price increase for vegetables, clothing & footwear, housing and services. Separately, factory output growth measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) accelerated to 5.7 per cent in July, from 3.7 per cent in June, driven by robust growth in mining (10.7 per cent), power (8 per cent), and manufacturing (4.6 per cent) sectors. Some support will come as the State Bank of India in its latest Ecowrap said that India created 52 million formal jobs in the last four years, 47% of which were first jobs, citing the payroll data of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and the National Pension Scheme (NPS). However, weakness in global markets coupled with a fresh spurt in crude oil prices may weigh on the sentiment. Also, foreign fund outflows may dent sentiments. Provisional data from the National Stock Exchange (NSE) showed that foreign institutional investors (FII) sold shares worth Rs 1,047.19 crore on September 12. Meanwhile, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has officially inaugurated 90 infrastructure projects constructed by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO). According to the official release by the Ministry of Defence, these projects cumulatively exceeded Rs 2,900 crore. Metal stocks will be in focus as the US allowed imports of 336,000 metric tonne of steel and aluminium from India without paying additional duties that were imposed under a national security law by the Trump administration. There will be some reaction in banking stocks after the RBI directed banks to classify investments in three categories with effect from April 2024. Fair value through profit and loss (FVTPL) will be the new category, under which there will be held for trading (HFT) - over 5 per cent sale from HFT will need prior approval. 

The US markets ended lower on Tuesday as investors looked towards the release of the consumer price index for more insights on inflation. Asian markets are trading mostly in red on Wednesday following overnight losses on Wall Street.

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks ended flat in a highly volatile session on Tuesday as traders remained on sidelined ahead of the India’s August consumer inflation and July Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data, which will be released after market hours. Markets made a gap-up start as provisional data from the National Stock Exchange (NSE) showed that foreign institutional investors (FII) purchased shares worth Rs 1,473.09 crore on September 11. Some support also came with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that the country and Saudi Arabia can look at doubling bilateral trade to $100 billion in the coming years from about $52 billion at present. He said the two countries can also look at a more balanced trade. However, markets soon came under pressure and witnessed high volatility till the end of trading session amid a private report stating that foreign institutional investors have sold around $800 million in local equities in the past four sessions even as the benchmark Nifty 50 index hit a record 20,000 mark for the first time. Traders paid no heed towards Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement that India and the UK have expressed their commitment to an early conclusion of the free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries. She said there is definitely some discussion on the FTA, especially the investment aspects, which comes under the finance ministry, and the intention on both the sides to expedite the discussion so that some quick agreement could lead to finally signing. Meanwhile, Secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Rajesh Kumar Singh has said that the government is looking at further easing foreign direct investment (FDI) norms in the space sector to attract overseas players. He said ‘there is tremendous scope for collaboration such as in artificial intelligence, robotics, cyber security, automation and space, where we are looking to further liberalise our foreign direct investment norms to bring in private sector and foreign investment in our space sector’. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 94.05 points or 0.14% to 67,221.13 and the CNX Nifty down by 3.15 points or 0.02% to 19,993.20.