Indian equity benchmarks ended lower for a seventh consecutive session on Monday, owing to weakness in TECK, IT and Telecom stocks amid a bearish trend in global markets. Fresh foreign fund outflows also dented investor sentiments. Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) offloaded shares worth Rs 1,470.34 crore on Friday, according to exchange data. Foreign investors have also turned cautious and pulled out Rs 2,313 crore from Indian equities so far this month. Benchmarks opened on a weak note and witnessed volatile trading action throughout the day, as traders were concerned with latest central bank data showing that the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) foreign exchange reserves declined by $5.7 billion to an 11-week low of $561.27 billion in the week ended February 17. Sentiments remained downbeat with RBI Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) member Jayanth R Varma's statement that India's Gross domestic product (GDP) growth appears to be very fragile and it may fall short of what the country needs to meet the aspirations of its growing workforce. However, key gauges managed to cut most of their early losses in late afternoon deals, on the back of firm cues from European markets. Traders also found some solace with Union minister Piyush Goyal's statement that the country would become the third largest economy in the world (from fifth position at present) in the next five years and by 2047 could be at the level the United States of America is at present. He added the 1.4 billion people of India are going to make the economy a $30-40 trillion one. But, markets failed to erase all the losses and ended lower as some pessimism remained among traders with a private report stating that India's economic growth may show lower than 5 per cent print in the December quarter of fiscal year 2022-23 (FY23) on a normalising base even though many high frequency indicators signal a sequential improvement in performance. Besides, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman highlighted rising debt vulnerabilities in many developing countries and sought views from G20 member nations on 'multilateral coordination' for managing the burden. Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 175.58 points or 0.30% to 59,288.35 and the CNX Nifty was down by 73.10 points or 0.42% to 17,392.70.

The US markets ended higher on Monday as some traders looked to pick up stocks at reduced levels following the steep drop seen last week. However, buying interest waned over the course of the session, as traders continued to express concerns about the outlook for interest rates. Recent economic data has led to worries the Federal Reserve will raise rates more than currently anticipated and hold rates at an elevated level for an extended period. On the sectoral front, oil service stocks turned in a strong performance on the day, driving the Philadelphia Oil Service Index up by 1.4 percent. The strength among oil service stocks came despite a decrease by the price of crude oil, with crude for April delivery falling $0.64 to $75.68 a barrel. Significant strength was also visible among transportation stocks, as reflected by the 1.3 percent gain posted by the Dow Jones Transportation Average. On the economic data front, the Commerce Department released a report showing a sharp pullback in new orders for durable goods in the month of January. The report said durable goods orders plunged by 4.5 percent in January after surging by a downwardly revised 5.1 percent in December. Street had expected durable goods orders to tumble by 4.0 percent compared to the 5.6 percent spike that had been reported for the previous month. The steep drop by durable goods orders came as orders for transportation equipment plummeted by 13.3 percent in January after soaring by 15.8 percent in December. Meanwhile, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released a separate report showing pending home sales in the U.S. spiked by much more than expected in the month of January. NAR said its pending home sales index soared by 8.1 percent to 82.5 in January after jumping by 1.1 percent to a downwardly revised 76.3 in December.

Crude oil futures ended lower on Monday as traders expressed continued concerns higher interest rates will tip the global economy into a recession. With recent economic data suggesting the Federal Reserve will raise rates more than previously anticipated, worries about the outlook for global demand continue to weigh on oil prices. Meanwhile, traders largely shrugged off news that Russia has halted exports of oil to Poland via the Druzhba pipeline. Benchmark crude oil futures for April delivery fell $0.64 or 0.8 percent to $75.68 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for April delivery lost $0. 20 to $82.45 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.

Indian rupee ended considerably lower against the US dollar on Monday as a stronger dollar in the overseas market and a muted trend in domestic equities weighed on investor sentiments. Traders were worried as latest central bank data showed that the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) foreign exchange reserves declined by $5.7 billion to an 11-week low of $561.27 billion in the week ended February 17. Besides, continued sell-off by foreign investors dampened sentiments in domestic markets. Foreign investors have turned cautious and pulled out Rs 2,313 crore from Indian equities so far this month. On the global front, dollar wavered near a seven-week high on Monday, as investors took stock of last week's strong economic data and rapid reconsideration of where interest rates will peak. Data on Friday showed U.S. consumer spending rebounded sharply in January, while inflation accelerated. Finally, the rupee ended at 82.85 (Provisional), weaker by 10 paise from its previous close of 82.75 on Friday.

The FIIs as per Monday's data were net sellers in both equity and debt segments. In equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 5966.04 crore against gross selling of Rs 7319.10 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 241.67 crore against gross selling of Rs 564.17 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was of Rs 11.87 crore against gross selling of Rs 31.84 crore.

The US markets ended higher on Monday as investors engaged in some bargain hunting after last week's losses, the biggest percentage declines of 2023 for Wall Street's main benchmarks, as jitters persisted about coming interest rate hikes to tame stubbornly high inflation. Asian markets are trading in green on Tuesday tracking small gains on Wall Street. Indian markets ended lower for the seventh consecutive session on Monday amidst weakness in the IT majors and fears about rate hikes by major central banks. Today, markets are likely to get cautious start amid slightly positive close on Wall Street. Investors will be keeping eye on the gross domestic product (GDP) data of the country for the third quarter of October-December of FY23 to be release later in the day. Continued selling by foreign fund flows likely to dent sentiments. Foreign institutional investors (FII) sold shares worth Rs 2,022.52 crore on February 27, the National Stock Exchange's provisional data showed. There may be some cautiousness with private report that the above-normal temperature that has prevailed for most part of the current month will continue for the next four months, while the summer months of April, May and June are expected to be searing, with mercury climbing to record levels. Traders may take note of report that KV Kamath, chairperson of the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID), expects the digital sector to contribute a quarter of the incremental GDP by the time the economy becomes a $7 trillion giant by FY29. Currently, the contribution of the digital economy is a low 4 per cent, whereas it is as much as 40 per cent in China. There will be some buzz in the banking stocks as RBI data showed that backed by robust demand and healthy financials, public sector banks (PSBs) improved their business - advances and deposits - during the third quarter ended December 2022 (Q3). Sugar industry stocks will be in focus as the All India Sugar Trade Association (AISTA) said that India's sugar production is projected to decline by 1 million tonne to 33.5 million tonnes in the ongoing 2022-23 season (October-September) from earlier estimate of 34.5 million tonnes, on account of lower sugarcane yields and sugar recovery. There will be some reaction in fertilizer industry stocks as the Fertiliser Ministry data showed that the country's fertiliser imports rose by 3.9 per cent to 19.04 lakh tonnes in January this year compared to the year-ago period. The country imported 18.33 lakh tonnes of fertilisers during January 2022.

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

Nifty Top volumes

• Power Grid Corporation of India's wholly owned subsidiary -- POWERGRID Teleservices has received Registration Certificate for IP-I from Department of Telecommunications. 
• IOC is planning to set up green hydrogen plants at all its refineries as it pivots a Rs 2-lakh crore green transition plan to achieve net-zero emissions from its operations by 2046. 
• Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone has crossed 300 MMT of cargo handling on February 23, 2023, in just 329 days. 
• HDFC Life Insurance Company has unveiled HDFC Life Guaranteed Income Insurance Plan.