Benchmarks to open in red on Thursday

Indian markets ended choppy trading session modestly lower on Wednesday amid escalating border tensions with China and a spike in coronavirus cases both at home and abroad. Today, the markets are likely to make negative start amid India-China border tensions and weak global cues. The spike in Covid-19 cases is also likely to weight on investor sentiment. India has added nearly 13,000 cases of coronavirus in 24 hours, taking its total to 367,264, while death toll stands at 12,262. Traders will be eyeing the Supreme Court hearing on AGR dues later in the day. Supreme Court bench wanted the telcos to furnish bank guarantees or the directors of the companies involved to give personal guarantees. Though, some respite may come later in the day as Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the Chief Ministers of 14 States and the Lieutenant-Governor of a Union Territory to think about Unlock 2, following the graded opening of economic activities under Unlock 1 since June 1. Some support may come with report that the finance ministry has released Rs 15,187 crore to 28 states as grants to rural local bodies to help them restart economic activity. The basic grants can be used by the local bodies for location-specific felt needs, except for salary or other establishment expenditure. Meanwhile, markets watchdog Sebi has amended regulations to provide more leeway for companies to raise funds, including reducing the time gap between two qualified institutional placements to two weeks, amid the coronavirus pandemic. There will be some buzz in the NBFCs stocks with Crisil’s report that the liquidity cover for non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) has not been affected much in April and May, as they managed partial collections and on lack of fresh disbursements. Banking stocks will be in focus with report that no new cars, no interior decoration items, no unnecessary travel, no refurbishment of guesthouses, and a freeze on revision of prerequisites - these are part of a finance ministry diktat to state-owned banks to defer avoidable expenditure until the next fiscal. There will be some reaction in agriculture stocks as the government's wheat procurement so far in the 2020-21 marketing year has reached an all-time record of 38.2 million tonnes, with Madhya Pradesh surpassing Punjab as the country's biggest wheat procuring state.

The US markets ended mostly lower on Wednesday amid data pointing to a quick economic recovery against reports showing a spike in new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in a number of southern states. Asian markets are trading in red on Thursday as rising coronavirus cases and prospects of new lockdowns erased earlier confidence about a global economic recovery.

Back home, in a highly volatile session, Indian equity benchmarks gyrated between green and red terrain for most part of the day and finally settled with marginal losses on Wednesday, amid concerns over border tensions with China and the impact of spiking coronavirus on economic recovery. The domestic markets made pessimistic start but soon gave up all losses and entered into green territory, as traders found some support with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that ‘green shoots’ had started to emerge in the economy and called for the need to focus on both lives and livelihood while ensuring that economic activity gathered pace, with the lifting of various lockdown-related curbs over the past two weeks. However, some selling crept in, as gross direct tax collection fell 31 percent to Rs 1,37,825 crore till June 15 of the first quarter of FY21 with advance corporate tax mop-up declining 79 percent amid coronavirus lockdown, which resulted in shuttering of most of the country's economic activities. In afternoon session, key indices once again entered into in positive zone as some optimism remained among traders with RBI Director S Gurumurthy’s statement that the Centre is likely to announce the final stimulus package in the ‘post-COVID era’ in September or October. He added that in the post-COVID era, the world will shift from ‘multilateralism to bilateralism’, and revival of the Indian economy will be faster. Though, Indian bourses failed to hold gains and ended with minor cut, as India has dropped out of the 2020 Kearney FDI Confidence Index.  In the previous year's index, India was ranked at 16th out of the 25 countries. It was 11th in 2018 and 8th in 2017 and 9th in 2016 index. Finally, the BSE Sensex lost 97.30 points or 0.29% to 33,507.92, while the CNX Nifty was down by 32.85 points or 0.33% to 9,881.15.