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Indian markets ended slightly lower on Monday, marking the second consecutive day of fall, amid weakness in the autos, metal and FMCG space. Today, markets are likely to get positive start tracking cues from the global peers. A dip in US Treasury yields may aid domestic sentiments. Some support will come with a private report that India Inc’s net profit as a percentage of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) is just shy of reaching 5 per cent, bolstered by strong earnings growth in the second quarter of 2023-24. Traders may take note of Moody's Investors Service’s statement that the RBI's decision to tighten norms for unsecured personal loans is credit positive because lenders will need to allocate higher capital for such loans, thus improving their loss-absorbing buffers. However, foreign fund outflows may dampen sentiments. Provisional data from the National Stock Exchange showed that foreign institutional investors net sold shares worth Rs 645.72 crore on November 20. Besides, retail inflation for agricultural labourers and rural workers rose marginally to 7.08 per cent and 6.92 per cent in October, respectively, from 6.70 per cent and 6.55 per cent respectively in September 2023 due to higher prices of certain food items. There may be some cautiousness with a private report that India's real GDP growth will decline marginally to 6.3 per cent in 2024 from the 6.4 per cent estimated for 2023. Traders may be concerned as fresh formal job creation cooled for the second consecutive month to decline to a six-month low in September, signalling a downturn in the labour markets this financial year. The latest payroll data released by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) showed that the number of new monthly subscribers under the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) declined by 6.45 per cent to 891,583 in September from 953,092 in August. Meanwhile, SEBI chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch has said she is ‘confused and surprised’ at investor interest in Futures and Options (F&O) despite 90 per cent of individuals losing money in the segment. Stocks related to gold may remain in focus as India's October gold imports surged 60% from a year earlier to a 31-month high as a drop in prices ahead of a key festival prompted jewellers to ramp up purchases. In primary market, The IPO of Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) is set to open on November 21. 

The US markets ended higher on Monday amid ongoing optimism about the outlook for interest rates. Asian markets are trading mostly in green on Tuesday following overnight gains on Wall Street after a tech-fueled rally.

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks stayed on the back foot for the second straight session on Monday due to selling in Auto, Basic Materials and Utilities stocks. After the flat start, markets oscillated in a narrow range as traders were cautious with S&P Global Ratings stating that the hike in risk weights for consumer loans like personal loan and credit cards may shave-off tier I capital of banks by 60 basis points, hit loan growth, and squeeze the nonbank sector in particular. S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Geeta Chugh said the finance companies will be worse affected as their incremental bank borrowing costs will surge, in addition to the capital adequacy impact. Some concern also came with exchange data showing that Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 477.76 crore on Friday. Markets added losses in late morning deals, as sentiments remained down-beat with the Reserve Bank’s statement that India’s forex kitty decreased by $462 million to $590.321 billion for the week ended November 10. In the previous reporting week, the overall reserves had increased by $4.672 billion to $590.783 billion. Investors continued to trade with caution amid uncertainty over the ongoing West Asia conflict and global economic slowdown concerns. However, in last hours of trade, losses remained capped as traders took some support with Additional Secretary and DGFT Director General Santosh Kumar Sarangi’s statement that Indian e-commerce exports are likely to touch $200 billion in the next 6-7 years and will play a critical role in achieving the $2 trillion goods and services export target. Some support also came as Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) to the Union government V Anantha Nageswaran stated that startups will play an important role in helping India become the third largest economy in the world. Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 139.58 points or 0.21% to 65,655.15 and the CNX Nifty was down by 37.80 points or 0.19% to 19,694.00.

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