Indian equity benchmarks succumbed to selling pressure on Thursday amid global growth worries. TECK, IT and Banking stocks were the major draggers. Markets opened on a weak note and continued to drift lower throughout the day as sentiments remained down-beat with Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran's statement that the performance of the manufacturing sector and growth rate in private consumption expenditure in the December quarter of 2022-23 is appearing depressed because of higher base. Continued foreign fund outflows dented domestic sentiments. Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) again offloaded shares worth Rs 424.88 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.   Traders overlooked a private report stating that India's FY24 GDP growth is likely to be higher than the threshold 6 per cent. It also said private final consumption expenditure (PFCE) is expected to increase to Rs 164 lakh crore in FY23 (2022-23), with the yearly growth moderating to 14.8 per cent. Traders also paid no heed towards Moody's Investors Service's report that the banking sector outlook remains stable and is supported by economic growth and improved financials. It said while we expect the country's real GDP growth to moderate in the fiscal year ending March 2024 (fiscal 2024), India's underlying growth potential is fundamentally strong, which will support banks' credit growth and asset quality. Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 501.73 points or 0.84% to 58,909.35 and the CNX Nifty was down by 129.00 points or 0.74% to 17,321.90.

The US markets ended higher on Thursday, shrugging off early losses as commentary from Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic appeared to help lift stocks in afternoon trading. Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic on Thursday said he was firmly in support of a 25 basis point rate increase at the Fed's late-March policy meeting, and that the central bank could be in a position to pause rate hikes by the summer. Bostic said I am still very much of a mindset that slow and steady is going to be the appropriate course of action. The turnaround has also reflected bargain hunting, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 bouncing off their lowest intraday levels in over a month. On the sectoral front, oil service stocks moved sharply higher over the course of the session, driving the Philadelphia Oil Service Index up by 2.1 percent. The rally by oil service stocks came amid an increase by the price of crude oil, with crude for April delivery climbing $0.47 to $78.16 a barrel. Substantial strength also emerged among software stocks, as reflected by the 2.1 percent jump by the Dow Jones U.S. Software Index. The index bounced off its lowest closing level in a month. On the economic data front, a report released by the Labor Department unexpectedly showed a modest decrease in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended February 25th. The Labor Department said initial jobless claims edged down to 190,000, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 192,000. Street had expected jobless claims to inch up to 195,000. Meanwhile, the report said the less volatile four-week moving average crept up to 193,000, an increase of 1,750 from the previous week's unrevised average of 191,250.

Crude oil futures ended higher on Thursday as optimism about higher demand from China. Manufacturing activity in China grew at the fastest pace in more than a decade last month, data showed on Wednesday, adding to evidence of a rebound in the world's second-largest economy after removal of strict COVID-19 curbs. However, data showing a faster than expected increase in consumer prices in some major Eurpean countries raised expectations of interest rate hikes by the ECB. The minutes from ECB's latest meeting also suggested that the central bank will continue to raise interest rates in the coming months. Benchmark crude oil futures for April delivery surged $0.47 or 0.6 percent to $78.16 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for May delivery rose $0.44 or 0.52 percent to $84.75 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.

After two days of gains, Indian rupee tumbled against dollar on Thursday, as a stronger dollar in the overseas market and a muted trend in domestic equities weighed on investor sentiments. Traders were cautious, amid reports that the government collected Rs 1.50 lakh crore as Goods and Services Tax (GST) in February. The GST collections for February down from Rs 1.58 lakh crore in January, which were the second-highest monthly collection ever under the indirect tax regime which was introduced in July 2017. On the global front, euro fell against the dollar on Thursday after data showed inflation in the euro zone was not as high as investors had feared based on national readings in recent days. Finally, the rupee ended at 82.60 (Provisional), weaker by 11 paise from its previous close of 82.49 on Wednesday.

The FIIs as per Thursday's data were net buyers in both equity and debt segments. In equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 7255.71 crore against gross selling of Rs 6414.78 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 436.89 crore against gross selling of Rs 310.25 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was of Rs 3.99 crore against gross selling of Rs 15.03 crore.

The US markets ended higher on Thursday after Federal Reserve's Atlanta President Raphael Bostic said that he is in favor of quarter-point hikes. Asian markets are trading mostly in green on Friday following Wall Street's gains overnight. Indian markets witnessed selling pressure and settled deeply in red on Thursday amid global growth worries and fears of sustained FII outflows. Today, benchmarks are likely to make gap-up opening taking positive cues from global markets amid growing investor optimism about slower hikes in benchmark interest rates in US. Investors will be looking ahead to the Services PMI data to be out later in the day for more cues. Traders will be taking encouragement as Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran expressed hope that the GDP growth for the current financial year will exceed the projected 7 per cent in view of the expected revision of high frequency data. Nageswaran said the rising interest rates need not necessarily be a cause of lower growth but simply reflects the fact that there is healthy underlying demand for credit. Some optimism may come with Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal's statement that PM GatiShakti national master plan and logistics policy together will help improve competitiveness of businesses and attract investments into India. Some support will come with report that the Centre has taken steps to enhance exports by micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector by setting up facilitation centers across the country. Foregin fund inflows likely to aid domestic sentiments. Foreign institutional investors (FII) bought shares worth Rs 12,770.81 crore on March 2, the National Stock Exchange's provisional data showed. Power stocks will be in focus as Crisil in its latest report said that power prices are expected to remain firm next fiscal on the back of elevated demand growth of 5.5-6 per cent, and the demand is set to close this fiscal up 9.5-10 per cent over 8.2 per cent last fiscal. There will be some reaction in solvent extraction industry stocks with a private report that India's February palm oil imports dropped 30% from January to their lowest in 8 months as refiners preferred to lower their stocks as inventories piled up following excessive imports during October-January. Agriculture industry stocks will be in limelight as the government fixed a wheat procurement target of 34.15 million tonnes for the 2023-24 marketing year starting April, higher than 18.79 million tonnes purchased in the previous year.

                               Support and Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)

Nifty Top volumes

• Tata Steel has acquired 7,40,00,000 - 12.17% NCRPS of face value Rs 10 each of TRF aggregating to Rs 74 crore, on private placement basis. 
• Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone's step down subsidiary -- Adani Agri Logistics has incorporated wholly owned subsidiary namely HM Agri Logistics.
• Tata Motors has signed a MoU with SBI to offer unique financing solutions for the purchase of the all-new Tata Ace EV.
• NTPC has commissioned India's first Air cooled condenser installed at North Karanpura Super Critical plant.