Indian equity benchmarks ended flat amid the volatile session on Wednesday, a day ahead of the monthly F&O expiry session. Some buying interest is seen in selected Oil & Gas, Power and Energy stocks while some pressure is seen in Consumer Durables, Telecom and Realty stocks. Market opened positively and stayed in green for most part of the day, with positive comments by the World Health Organisation (WHO) chief scientist on the Covid-19 situation in India. He said coronavirus in India may be entering some kind of stage of endemicity where there is low or moderate level of transmission going on. Some optimism also came in as Minister of State of Commerce and Industry Anupriya Patel said India is likely to record exports worth $46 billion to the ASEAN region. She noted that as one of the largest destinations for Indian exports, the Association of South East Asian Nations will be an important region for India in meeting the global export target of $400 billion in financial year 2021-22. Domestic sentiments remained positive in late afternoon deals, taking support with Chief financial advisor (CEA) Krishnamurthy V Subramanian's statement that India is well-poised to climate the ripple impact of taper tantrum if the US Federal Reserve begins to cut back its $120-billion-a-month quantitative easing later this year. Some support also came with private report stated that India has overtaken the United States (US) to become the second-most sought-after manufacturing destination globally, driven mainly by cost competitiveness. However, markets erased gains and closed on a flattish note, as traders turned wary with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) stating that the coronavirus pandemic may have pushed as many as 80 million people in developing Asia into extreme poverty last year, threatening to derail progress on global goals to tackle poverty and hunger by 2030. Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 14.77 points or 0.03% to 55,944.21, while the CNX Nifty was up by 10.05 points or 0.06% to 16,634.65.   

The US markets ended higher on Wednesday helped by banks and reopening stocks as the 10-year Treasury yield edged higher. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose as high as 1.352% Wednesday, hitting its highest level since earlier in the month when it yielded as much as 1.364%. Further, sentiments got boost amid continued optimism about growth and on hopes the Federal Reserve might not begin tapering its bond-buying program anytime soon. Investors looked ahead to the upcoming Jackson Hole Symposium. The Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is expected to provide cues on the central bank's tapering timeline. At the virtual conference on Friday, the Federal Reserve's policymakers are expected to present a timeline for tapering the central bank's bond-buying program. On the economic data front, data released by the Commerce Department showed durable goods orders edged down by 0.1 percent in July following a 0.8 percent increase in June. Street had expected orders to decrease by 0.3 percent. Excluding a steep drop in orders for transportation equipment, durable goods orders climbed by 0.7 percent in July after rising by 0.6 percent in June. Ex-transportation orders were expected to increase by 0.5 percent.

Crude oil futures ended higher for third straight day on Wednesday after data showed a drop in US crude inventories last week, and fuel demand rose to the highest level since March 2020. According to the data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA), crude inventories in the US fell by 3 million barrels in the week ended August 21. The data also showed gasoline stockpiles dropped by 2.2 million barrels last week, and stockpiles rose by 600,000 barrels. The EIA data also showed the four-week average of fuel supply in the US climbed to almost 21 million barrels per day, the highest level since March 2020. The American Petroleum Institute's latest crude oil inventory data released on Tuesday showed a draw of 1.622 million barrels for the week ending August 20. Crude oil futures for October surged $0.82 or 1.2 percent to settle $68.36 barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. October Brent crude gained $1.20 or 1.7 percent to settle at $72.25 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.

Indian rupee ended marginally weaker against dollar on Wednesday, on increased demand for the US currency from importers. Traders remained cautious with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) stating that the coronavirus pandemic may have pushed as many as 80 million people in developing Asia into extreme poverty last year, threatening to derail progress on global goals to tackle poverty and hunger by 2030. The domestic currency was also weighed down by dollar's strengthen against some other currencies overseas. However, losses remain capped as traders found some solace with Minister of State of Commerce and Industry Anupriya Patel's statement that India is likely to record exports worth $46 billion to the ASEAN region. On the global front, the safe-haven dollar gained on Wednesday to trade above a one-week low versus major peers amid concerns that the highly contagious Delta coronavirus variant could derail a global economic recovery. Finally, the rupee ended 74.24, weaker by 5 paise from its previous close of 74.19 on Tuesday.

The FIIs as per Wednesday's data were net seller in equity segment and net buyer in debt segment. In equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 8924.94 crore against gross selling of Rs 8955.25 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 515.76 crore against gross selling of Rs 394.82 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was of Rs 43.87 crore against gross selling of Rs 14.48 crore.

The US markets ended higher on Wednesday extending recent uptrend amid continued optimism about growth and on hopes the Federal Reserve might not begin tapering its bond-buying program anytime soon. Asian markets are trading mixed on Thursday after South Korea became the first country to raise interest rates in the pandemic era. Indian markets slipped from intra-day record highs to close flat on Wednesday. Today, the start of a day of F&O expiry of August contracts likely to be cautious amid mixed Asian cues. Also, volatility may creep in the markets as investors are keeping their powder dry ahead of the Jackson Hole Symposium. There will be some cautiousness as India recorded a massive spike of 46,307 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours out of which, over 31,000 were from Kerala. The country also witnessed 608 deaths, taking the death toll to 436,396. So far, India has recorded 32,557,677 corona cases in total. Traders may take note of report that finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said State-run banks will undertake a nation-wide loan outreach programme around October, as the government seeks to stir economic growth through sustained credit push, especially to Covid-hit small and medium businesses, retail and farm sectors, amid fears that bankers have turned risk-averse. Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has extended its card tokenisation services to any token requestor, including consumer devices such as laptops, desktops, wearables (wrist watches, bands, etc.), Internet of Things (IoT) devices, etc. Tokenisation refers to generating random numbers instead of the actual card numbers keyed in during transactions. There will be some buzz in sugar industry stocks as the Centre hiked the minimum price that mills have to pay to sugarcane growers, also known as the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP), by Rs 5 per quintal to Rs 290 a quintal for 2021-22 (October-September) sugar season while ruling out any immediate commensurate increase in the sale price of sugar. Auto stocks will be in focus as SIAM President Kenichi Ayukawa said the Indian automobile industry is going through a deep structural slowdown and the COVID-19 pandemic has further impacted the sector pushing it back by many years. Ayukawa noted that all auto segments like passenger vehicles and two-wheelers have witnessed a drastic drop in growth rates over the last 5-10 years. There will be some reaction in insurance industry stocks with a private report that the government is mulling allowing foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country's largest insurer LIC, a move which would help overseas investors take part in the company's proposed mega IPO.

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

Nifty Top volumes

• Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone has received an approval for proposal of acquisition of 10.4% stake of Gangavaram Port from Government of Andhra Pradesh. 
• Tata Steel has signed a MoU with Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, a global marine transport group, to develop and deploy environment friendly shipping solutions. 
• IOC is deploying drones to monitor its vast network of pipelines across the country as it doubles down on the use of technology to thwart attempts to steal fuel. 
• Cipla has entered into a joint venture agreement with Kemwell Biopharma for incorporation of a joint venture company.