Indian equity benchmarks rallied sharply in the last half an hour of trade and ended at fresh record closing highs on Friday. Spectacular rally in IT stocks following better-than-expected earnings from select frontline technology companies triggered late upsurge. Markets made a positive start and stayed in green for whole day, as foreign fund inflows aided domestic sentiments. Foreign institutional investors (FII) bought shares worth a net Rs 2,237.93 crore on July 13, 2023. Some optimism also came with private report stating that the India growth story remains intact and recession in certain parts of the world is unlikely to seep into the country; on the contrary this would be a golden decade for India. Sentiments remained positive with Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal's statement that there is work ongoing with a number of economies, including the UK, on the issue of intellectual property (IP) rights and modernisation in an effort to improve Indian protocols. Markets added gains in late hour of trade as sentiments remained up-beat with data showing that India's inflation based on wholesale price index (WPI) deflated for the third straight month in June, on the back of fall in prices of mineral oils, non-food Articles, crude petroleum & natural gas and electricity. WPI inflation stood at (-) 4.12% for the month of June 2023 against (-) 3.48% recorded in May 2023. Adding to the optimism, Reserve Bank of India data report showed that reflecting surge in quarter-end business, Commercial Bank credit expanded by 16.22 per cent Year on Year (YoY) basis to Rs 143.91 trillion at the end of fortnight ended June 30, 2023. The credit had expanded by 14.4 per cent YoY a year ago. Traders took note of report that Cooperation Minister Amit Shah said the contribution of agriculture and allied sectors to the country's GDP can be further enhanced by strengthening marketing, for which Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) are the key. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 502.01 points or 0.77% to 66,060.90 and the CNX Nifty was up by 150.75 points or 0.78% to 19,564.50.

The US markets gave up most of their initial gains and ended mostly in red on Friday. initial strength on Wall Street was reflected ongoing optimism about the Federal Reserve being close to ending its monetary policy tightening following recent encouraging inflation data. Some optimism also crept in reacting to upbeat earnings news from financial giants JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Wells Fargo (WFC) and Citigroup (C). However, shares of JPMorgan and Wells Fargo subsequently pulled back near the unchanged line, and shares Citigroup came under pressure as the company's second quarter earnings beat street estimates but decreased year-over-year. On the economic data front, a report released by the Labor Department showed a modest decrease in import prices in the month of June. The Labor Department said import prices dipped by 0.2 percent in June after falling by a revised 0.4 percent in May. Street had expected import prices to edge down by 0.1 percent compared to the 0.6 percent decrease originally reported for the previous month. Meanwhile, the report said export prices slumped by 0.9 percent in June after tumbling by 1.9 percent in May. Export prices were expected to slip by 0.2 percent. A separate report released by the University of Michigan showed consumer sentiment has improved by much more than anticipated in the month of July The report showed the consumer sentiment index soared to 72.6 in July from 64.4 in June. Street had expected the index to tick up to 65.5. With the much bigger than expected surge, the consumer sentiment index reached its highest level since hitting 72.8 in September 2021.

Crude oil futures ended sharply lower on Friday on account of profit booking after recent gains. Also, a small recovery in the dollar from lower levels, weighed a bit on oil prices. A stronger greenback reduces oil demand, making crude more expensive for investors holding other currencies. Besides, a report from Baker Hughes showed the total number of total active drilling rigs in the U.S. fell by 5 this week, after a 6-rig increase last week. The total rig count fell to 675 this week. The number of oil rigs declined by 3 this week to 537, while the number of gas rigs fell by 2, to 133. Benchmark crude oil futures for August delivery fell $1.47 or about 1.9 percent to settle at $75.42 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for September delivery declined $1.49 or about 1.8 percent to settle at $79.87 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.

Rupee settled lower against dollar on Friday, following a rebound in the American currency against global peers and firm crude prices. Traders overlooked report that India's inflation based on wholesale price index (WPI) deflated for the third straight month in June, on the back of fall in prices of mineral oils, non-food Articles, crude petroleum & natural gas and electricity. WPI inflation stood at (-) 4.12% for the month of June 2023 against (-) 3.48% recorded in May 2023. On the global front, Russian rouble firmed on Friday, on course for its first weekly gain in more than two months, edging back past the 90 mark against the dollar supported by high oil prices and as pressure from capital outflows eases. Finally, the rupee ended at 82.16 (Provisional), weaker by 8 paise from its previous close of 82.08 on Thursday.

The FIIs as per Friday's data were net buyers in both equity and debt segments. In equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 13298.41 crore against gross selling of Rs 7647.76 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 1068.82 crore with gross sales of Rs 1026.77 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was of Rs 11.46 crore against gross selling of Rs 5.55 crore.

The US markets ended mostly lower on Friday as traders opted to book some profits after recent rally. Asian markets are trading mixed on Monday as investors look ahead to key economic data out of China. Indian markets ended at new highs on Friday on account of robust foreign portfolio investor (FPI) flows, unprecedented gains for IT bigwigs, and optimism around the peaking of interest rates. Today, markets are likely to start week on cautious note amid mixed global cues. There will be some cautiousness as India's exports contracted by 22 per cent, the steepest decline in the last three years, to $32.97 billion in June on account of global demand slowdown, especially in the Western markets like the US and Europe. According to the data of the commerce ministry, the trade deficit in June stood at $20.3 billion against $22.07 billion in the same month last year due to a fall in exports and imports. The inbound shipments during the month under review declined by a steep 17.48 per cent to $53.10 billion. However, some respite may come later in the day amid foreign fund inflows. Provisional data from the National Stock Exchange (NSE) showed that foreign institutional investors (FII) have net bought shares worth Rs 2,636.43 crore on July 14. Some support will come as the Reserve Bank of India said India's foreign exchange reserves jumped $1.229 billion to $596.28 billion in the week ended July 7. Traders may take note of Cooperation Minister Amit Shah's statement that the contribution of agriculture and allied sectors to the country's GDP can be further enhanced by strengthening marketing, for which Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) are the key. Besides, IMF has said that India has taken a very proactive approach toward making progress on the priorities of the G20 and its presidency's key priorities are enhancing financing for global public goods and strengthening macroeconomic coordination. Auto stocks will be in focus as the latest data shared by industry body SIAM showed that automobile exports from India declined 28 per cent in the April-June period this year hit by monetary crisis in Africa and various other developing countries. There will be some reaction in oil & gas sector stocks amid report that the Indian government has reimposed a windfall tax on domestic petroleum crude, effective July 15. The Special Additional Excise Duty (SAED) on crude petroleum is raised to Rs 1600/per metric tonne, from nil. Coal industry stocks will be in limelight as the government is considering a Rs 6,000 crore scheme to promote coal gasification in India. The Ministry of Coal said the adoption of gasification technology in India will revolutionise the coal sector, reducing reliance on imports of natural gas, methanol, ammonia and other essential product. Investors will closely follow earnings of key companies on Monday, including that of HDFC Bank and LTIMindtree, to gauge the health of India Inc.

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

Nifty Top volumes

• Tata Steel has planned to offer Rs 83 lakh funding for research and development projects in low carbon segment under the partnership with British High Commission in India. 
• HDFC Bank has launched UPI QR code interoperable with India's sovereign digital currency, Central Bank Digital Currency. 
• Larsen & Toubro has supplied various components for India's moon mission Chandrayaan-3.
• HCL Technologies has launched HCLTech Advantage Analytics, an AI-powered business intelligence solution.