Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- ended flat with positive bias on Friday, as market participants remained cautious amid rising fears of global trade uncertainty after U.S. president Trump exempted the tariffs on goods come under USMCA, United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Index opened marginally lower, as some concern came with exchange data showed Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 2,377.32 crore on net basis on Thursday. But soon, index recovered as traders took support from Crisil Intelligence report stated that India’s real gross domestic product (GDP) growth would be steady at 6.5 per cent in fiscal 2026 despite uncertainties stemming from geopolitical tensions. Besides, the government has launched the New Credit Assessment Model based on the scoring of digital footprints of MSMEs, to boost liquidity into the market.
However, index failed to hold its gains and was oscillating between gains and losses throughout the day. Investors overlooked Anna Bjerde’s, a managing director of operations at the World Bank, statement that India could emerge as a developed country by 2047, provided it sustains high economic growth. Domestic traders avoided to take risk ahead of key macroeconomic data i.e. inflation data and industrial production data, which due on March 12.
