A tight grip of bears over the Dalal Street pulled Indian equity benchmarks to end near their intraday low points, amid worries that the U.S. Fed would keep interest rates higher for longer while rising concerns after North Korea fired more ballistic missiles. After a cautious start of the day, markets managed to keep their heads above water during morning deals, as traders took support with Federation of Indian Export Organisations' (FIEO) statement that India's exports are expected to grow by 3-5 per cent to $435-445 billion in this fiscal. However, in noon deals, indices turned negative and witnessed a sharp fall, amid weak cues from European markets along with heavy selling at oil & gas and banking counters. Sentiments got hit amid a private report stating that India's economic activity cooled off at the start of the year as higher borrowing costs tempered demand at home and abroad, signaling more pain ahead as the global economy slows down. Besides, traders took note of a report that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has predicted that 2023 would probably be characterised by a milder global slowdown than anticipated earlier, but added that the trajectory remains unpredictable. Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 311.03 points or 0.51% to 60,691.54 and the CNX Nifty was down by 99.60 points or 0.56% to 17,844.60.

The US markets were closed on Monday on account of Washington's Birthday. 

Indian rupee ended higher against dollar on Monday, as the American currency retreated from its elevated levels. Sentiments were upbeat as Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President A Sakthivel has said India's exports are expected to grow by 3-5 per cent to $435-445 billion in this fiscal. In 2021-22, the country's exports touched an all-time high of $422 billion. Besides, expressing optimism over growth of Indian economy, former Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar has said that the country is likely to clock 6 percent growth rate next fiscal (FY24) and it can persevere with a high growth rate because of several reforms undertaken during the last eight years by the government. On the global front, dollar was on the front foot on Monday, supported by a strong run of economic data out of the United States that traders bet will keep the Federal Reserve on its monetary policy tightening path for longer than initially expected. Finally, the rupee ended at 82.72 (Provisional), stronger by 10 paise from its previous close of 82.82 on Friday.

The FIIs as per Monday's data were net sellers in equity segment, while net buyers in debt segment. In equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 4420.41 crore against gross selling of Rs 5164.95 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 481.34 crore against gross selling of Rs 19.18 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was of Rs 1.67 crore against gross selling of Rs 11.74 crore.

The US markets were closed on Monday for Washington's Birthday. Asian markets are trading mixed on Tuesday as investors reacted to weak purchasing manager index reports from Japan and Australia and kept a wary eye on the latest geopolitical developments. Indian markets finished a volatile session in the red for a second straight session on Monday, due to weakness in financial, oil & gas and FMCG amid lingering concerns over interest rates and inflation. Today, markets are likely to get flat-to-positive start amid mixed cues from Asian counterparts. Traders will be taking engorgement as Credit rating agency Acuite Ratings and Research reiterated India's gross domestic product (GDP) growth estimate for FY23 at 7 per cent. It also anticipates the economic growth trajectory in FY24 to slip to 6 per cent, which would still make India one of the highest growth economies in the world. Some support will come as Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the government is taking a lot of steps to control inflation and will continue to focus on it. For instance, in the case of pulses, the government is encouraging farmers to grow pulses to boost domestic production and has also reduced the import duty on some of the pulses to improve local availability. However, foreign fund outflows likely to dampen sentiments in domestic markets. Foreign institutional investors net offloaded Indian equities to the tune of Rs 159 crore on February 20 - a second straight day of net outflow for Dalal Street, according to provisional exchange data.  Traders may be concerned as Retail inflation for farm and rural workers rose to 6.85 per cent and 6.88 per cent, respectively, in January, mainly due to higher prices of certain food items. Besides, the latest payroll data released by the Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) showed fresh formal job creation declined sequentially in December and remained below the 1 million mark for the third consecutive month, signaling pressure in the employment market. Sugar stocks will be in focus as the Indian Sugar Mills Association said Indian mills have produced 25.4 million tonnes of sugar since the current season began on Oct. 1, up 5.39% year on year. There will be some reaction in aviation industry stocks with private report that domestic airlines flew 12.54 million passengers in January this year, witnessing a near two-fold rise compared to the numbers in January 2022. Airlines carried 6.4 million passengers last January.

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

Nifty Top volumes

• Tata Motors has signed a MoU with Uber, India's leading ridesharing app, to bring 25,000 XPRES-T EVs into their premium category service. 
• The USFDA has conducted a current Good Manufacturing Practices inspection at Cipla's Pithampur manufacturing facility from February 6 - 17, 2023. 
• Hero MotoCorp is planning to expand its electric two-wheeler range over the next 18-24 months as it looks to cater to demand across multiple customer segments.
• BPCL is planning to raise up to Rs 1,500 crore during the current financial year 2022-23 through private placement of unsecured non-convertible debentures subject to market conditions.