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Indian equity benchmarks ended higher on Monday on account of hectic buying in Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra, NTPC and Larsen & Toubro companies’ stocks. Today, markets are likely to make positive start on firm cues from other Asian markets. Falling crude oil prices overnight may also provide some support to domestic sentiments.  Traders may get support as European Parliament think tank expert, Angelos Delivorias said that India’s GDP growth exceeding that of China reflects New Delhi’s emergence as a formidable economic powerhouse in the global arena. Meanwhile, traders may take note of private report that India's consumer price inflation likely eased to a five-month low of 4.91% in March but was still above the Reserve Bank of India's 4% medium-term target as food price rises persist. However, foreign fund outflows likely to put pressure on domestic sentiments. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net sold shares worth Rs 684.68 crore on April 8, provisional data from the NSE showed. Further, some cautiousness may also prevail in the markets as Reserve Bank of India in its report said frequent weather shocks caused by climate change pose challenges for the monetary policy as well as downside risks to economic growth. Global average temperatures are on a rise, with accompanying increase in extreme weather events (EWE), and the economic and social impact of global warming is becoming increasingly evident. 

The US markets ended mostly lower on Monday as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of closely watched inflation data later in the week. Asian markets were trading mostly in green in early deals on Tuesday amid investors awaited business confidence surveys from Australia and consumer confidence data from Japan, with focus also on U.S. inflation numbers to assess the Federal Reserve’s rate cut path.

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks gained over half a percent on Monday amid positive global cues and easing crude oil prices. Markets opened higher and sustained gains for most part of the session as traders took support with provisional data from the NSE showing that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net bought shares worth Rs 1,659.27 crore on April 5, 2024. Traders took encouragement as a recent bi-monthly survey conducted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) from March 2 to March 11, 2024 showed that consumer confidence in India has soared to its highest level since mid-2019. The survey, which included 6,083 respondents, with females comprising 50.8 percent of the sample, revealed a significant uptick in consumer sentiment. Markets added some gains in late afternoon session, taking support with a latest data by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showing that India’s foreign exchange reserves rose to a new high for the third straight week, reaching $645.58 billion in the week ended March 29. The total reserves rose by $2.95 billion in the previous week. Some optimism also came as India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) has put out a report maintaining a neutral outlook on the finances of Indian states for the fiscal year 2024-2025 (FY25), showing States' aggregate revenue deficit is projected to be 0.4 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) for FY25, down from 0.5 per cent in FY24. The buoyancy in sentiment continued, led by sectorial tailwinds and Q4 earnings growth expectations. The Nifty, Sensex scaled fresh all-time highs in today's session but pared some of the early gains to settle around the day's highs. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 494.28 points or 0.67% to 74,742.50 and the CNX Nifty was up by 152.60 points or 0.68% points to 22,666.30. 

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