Markets likely to get cautious start amid muted sentiment in global markets

Indian markets extended the winning run to a third session day on Wednesday, as fag-end buying in banking, financial and oil stocks helped the indices rebound from early lows amid a bearish trend in global equity markets. Today, markets likely to get cautious start on weekly F&O expiry amid muted sentiment in the global markets as traders bet on rising rate concerns. Traders will be concerned as pencilling in just 4 per cent GDP growth for the fourth quarter, India Ratings said the final growth numbers for the full year will be lower than the second advance estimate of 7 per cent. Traders may take note of report that capital markets regulator Sebi has imposed restrictions on the placement of bids, price and volume for the companies undertaking share buyback through the stock exchange route. However, foreign fund inflows likely to support domestic sentiments. Foreign institutional investors (FII) bought shares worth Rs 3,671.56 crore on March 8, the National Stock Exchange's provisional data showed. Meanwhile, U.S.-led international sanctions on Russia have begun to erode the dollar's decades-old dominance of international oil trade as most deals with India - Russia's top outlet for seaborne crude - have been settled in other currencies. Insurance industry stocks will be in focus with report that life insurance companies have reported a 17 per cent year-on-year (YOY) drop in new business premiums (NBP) in February, as state-owned insurer Life Insurance Corporation (LIC)’s premiums contracted by 32 per cent. Adani Group stocks may come under selling pressure once again after its promoters pledged additional shares with SBI Trustee and the National Stock Exchange imposed additional surveillance mechanism framework for Adani Enterprises, Adani Power and Adani Wilmar.

The US markets ended mostly higher on Wednesday as the US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reaffirmed his adherence to a higher size of rate hike in his second day of testimony to Congress. Asian markets are trading mixed on Thursday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said during a second day of congressional testimony that policymakers hadn't yet made up their minds on the size of the interest-rate increase later this month.

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks erased all of their initial losses to end in green on Wednesday propped up by robust fag-end buying in Utilities, Power and Capital Goods stocks. Markets made a negative start and stayed in red for most part of the day as traders got anxious amid a private report stating that like all emerging markets that rely upon the rest of the world for commodities and capital, India has spent the last two years battling the twin challenges posed by more expensive raw materials and a stronger dollar. A weak rupee against major rivals overseas weighed on market sentiment and restricted gains. Selling further crept in during afternoon deals, even as exchange data showing that Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net buyers in capital markets as they bought shares worth Rs 721.37 crore on Monday. However, recovery took place in last leg of trade and markets cut all of their initial losses. Traders took some support with Moody's Analytics’ statement that India's domestic economy, rather than trade, is its primary engine of growth and the slowdown in economic activity late last year will only be temporary. Some support also came as Finance Ministry data showed that there has been a rise of 133 per cent in collection of major cess and surcharges levied by the Central government on various products during the five-year period between 2017-18 and 2022-23, as it went up from Rs 2,18,553 crore in 2017-18 to Rs 5,10,549 crore in 2022-23. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 123.63 points or 0.21% to 60,348.09 and the CNX Nifty was up by 42.95 points or 0.24% to 17,754.40.