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Indian markets ended lower on Thursday amid renewed pressure due to escalating tensions in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and heightened the nuclear concerns. Additionally, the fresh Adani case with the US DoJ added to the market's woes. Today, markets are likely to get an optimistic start tracking overnight gains on Wall Street as well as broadly positive cues from Asian counterparts in early deals. Some support will come with a private report that India is expected to remain relatively unaffected from the global financial disruptions that might occur due to a trade war between the US and China in 2025. The report stated that India’s structural growth prospects in the long run will remain strong despite ongoing global unpredictability. Traders may take note of Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das’ statement that stable inflation acts as the foundation for sustained economic growth, boosts people’s purchasing power, and creates a stable environment for investment. However, there may be some cautiousness as crude oil prices surged overnight after Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed the launch of a hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile into Ukraine, escalating geopolitical tensions with warnings of potential further actions. Foreign fund outflows likely to dent domestic sentiments. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued their selling on November 21 as they sold equities of more than Rs 5,300 crore worth. Meanwhile, investors will keep a close eye on India’s Manufacturing, Composite, and Services PMI Flash data for November, alongside movements in Adani Group stocks and the NTPC Green Energy IPO. There will be some buzz in the aviation industry stocks as Civil Aviation Secretary Vumlunmang Vualnam said Indian carriers, which currently have approximately 800 planes in their fleet, are projected to add about 600 planes in the next five years. Telecom company’s stocks like Reliance Industries (RIL), Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel, MTNL, and other telcos will be in focus as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) released subscribers' data. There will be some reaction in EV stocks as the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) urged the government to launch a second phase of the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme (PLI 2.0), tailored to startups and smaller players in the electric vehicle (EV) sector. 

The US markets ended higher on Thursday as investors digested lackluster revenue forecasts from artificial-intelligence chipmaker Nvidia and bitcoin approached the $100,000 milestone. Asian markets are trading mostly in green on Friday as investors assessed Japan’s October consumer price index (CPI) data. The CPI came in at 2.3 per cent, down from 2.5 per cent in the prior month.

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks ended over half percent lower on Thursday amid a sharp fall in Adani group stocks after billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani was charged in the US for alleged bribery and fraud. Besides, the domestic markets faced renewed pressure due to escalating tensions in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and heightened nuclear concerns. Markets made a cautious start and soon extended fall, as traders got anxious with exchange data showing that Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 3,411.73 crore on Tuesday. Traders were concerned as domestic rating agency Icra said India's real GDP growth for the September quarter is likely to decline to 6.5 per cent due to heavy rains and weaker corporate performance. Some cautiousness came as Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth said India’s economic growth may have slowed in the September quarter, but overall, there is not much downside risk to 6.5-7 per cent growth in the current fiscal year. Markets continued to reel under pressure in late afternoon session as sentiments remained downbeat with the Reserve Bank of India's state of the economy report stated that the rise in headline inflation can damage the real economy if not checked, even as the festive consumption demand and farm sector recovery have helped the Indian economy to overcome a lull seen in the second quarter and put it back on track. Traders paid no heed towards the retirement fund body, Employees' Provident Fund Organisation’s (EPFO) latest ‘Provisional payroll data’ report showing that 18.81 lakh net members have been added in the month of September 2024, a 9.33% year-on-year growth as compared to September 2023, signifying increased employment opportunities and heightened awareness of employee benefits, bolstered by EPFO’s effective outreach initiatives. Traders also overlooked a report by think tank GTRI stating that India is set for a major change in its export trends, with outbound shipments of the services sectors expected to overtake merchandise exports by 2030 and touch $618 billion. Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 422.59 points or 0.54% to 77,155.79, and the CNX Nifty was down by 168.60 points or 0.72% to 23,349.90.

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