Indian equity benchmarks ended the volatile day of trade near intraday highs on Thursday. Key gauges started the day slightly in green but soon entered into red terrain as Maharashtra announced lockdown-like stricter restrictions amid a continued spike in COVID cases. Selling in IT, Auto and TECK stocks dented the sentiments. Rising coronavirus cases weighted down on the markets. Breaking all records, India registered its biggest-ever single day spike with 199,569 fresh cases. With this, India's Covid tally has shot up to 14,070,890 cases. Markets extended losses as Moody's said that the re-imposition of virus management measures following a surge in Covid infections will dent economic activity and could hurt market and consumer sentiment, and it warned of a threat to recovery. However, it said targeted containment measures, versus last year's complete lockdown, and rapid vaccination will soften the hit on the economy. Sentiments also remain dampened on report that wholesale price-based inflation shot up to over 8-year high of 7.39 per cent in March on rising crude oil and metal prices. Also, the low base of March last year, when the data was computed with a low response rate due to the nationwide lockdown, contributed to a spike in inflation in March 2021. However, markets started recovering as traders opted to buy beaten down but fundamentally strong stocks. Hefty buying around last leg of trade mainly helped markets to end near intraday high points as traders turned optimistic after the Ministry of Finance in its latest report has showed that fund raising in FY 2020-21 was better than that in FY 2019-20 for both Public Issues and Rights Issues, despite the uncertainty prevailing in FY 2020-21 owing to COVID-19 pandemic. As per the report, during FY 2020-21, Rs. 46,029.71 crore and Rs. 64,058.61 crore were raised through Public Issues and Rights Issue respectively, as against Rs. 21,382.35 crore and Rs. 55,669.79 crore raised last year. Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 259.62 points or 0.53% to 48,803.68, while the CNX Nifty was up by 76.65 points or 0.53% to 14581.45.   

The US markets ended higher on Thursday with the Dow and the S&P 500 reaching new record closing highs. The rally on markets came following the release of a batch of largely upbeat US economic data, including a Commerce Department report showing retail sales spiked by much more than expected in the month of March. The Commerce Department said retail sales skyrocketed by 9.8 percent in March after tumbling by a revised 2.7 percent in February. Street had expected retail sales to surge up by 5.9 percent compared to the 3.0 percent slump originally reported for the previous month. Excluding sales by motor vehicle and parts dealers, retail sales soared by 8.4 percent in March after plunging by a revised 2.5 percent in February. Ex-auto sales were expected to jump by 5.0 percent. A separate report released by the Labor Department showed first-time claims for US unemployment benefits pulled back by much more than anticipated in the week ended April 10th. The Labor Department said initial jobless claims tumbled to 576,000, a decrease of 193,000 from the previous week's revised level of 769,000. Street had expected jobless claims to decline to 700,000 from the 744,000 originally reported for the previous week. Meanwhile, the National Association of Home Builders also released a report showing a modest increase in US homebuilder confidence in the month of April. The report said the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index inched up to 83 in April after dipping to 82 in March, matching market participants estimates.

Crude oil futures ended higher for 4th straight session on Thursday continuing to ride on the recent upward revision in the global oil demand forecast by the International Energy Agency. Official data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) that showed a larger than expected drop in crude inventories in the US last week also continued to support oil prices. The IEA has sharply raised its world oil demand estimate for 2021, pointing to further signs that the global economy is recovering faster than previously expected, particularly in the U.S. and China. Crude oil futures for May rose $0.31 or 0.5 percent to settle at $63.46 barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. June Brent crude gained $0.54 or 0.54 percent to settle at $66.94 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.

Erasing previous session losses, Indian rupee ended substantially stronger on fresh selling of American currency by banks and exporters. Traders took some solace as Ministry of Finance in its latest report has showed that fund raising in FY 2020-21 was better than that in FY 2019-20 for both Public Issues and Rights Issues, despite the uncertainty prevailing in FY 2020-21 owing to COVID-19 pandemic. However, upside remain capped as wholesale price-based inflation shot up to over 8-year high of 7.39 per cent in March on rising crude oil and metal prices. Also, the low base of March last year, when the data was computed with a low response rate due to the nationwide lockdown, contributed to a spike in inflation in March 2021. On the global front, dollar sank to a four-week low against other major currencies on Thursday as Treasury yields pulled back from last month's surge, with investors increasingly convinced the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates low for some time. Finally, the rupee ended 74.93, stronger by 12 paise from its previous close of 75.05 on Monday. The currency touched a high and low of 75.33 and 74.93 respectively.

The FIIs as per Thursday's data were net seller equity segment, while net buyer in debt segment. In equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 15443.81crore against gross selling of Rs 17925.73 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 1313.94 crore with gross sales of Rs 969.09 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was of Rs 16.05 crore against gross selling of Rs 31.60 crore.

The US markets ended in green on Thursday as a suite of stellar data suggested the recovery for the economy and corporate profits is accelerating. Asian markets are trading mostly higher on Friday as investors await the release of Chinese economic data. Indian markets ended Thursday's volatile session higher led by gains in metals and pharma stocks. Today, the markets are likely to get flat-to-positive start tracking gains in global peers. Traders will be taking encouragement with the government data showing that the country's exports jumped by 60.29 per cent to $34.45 billion in March even as the outbound shipments contracted by 7.26 per cent during the full 2020-21 fiscal to $290.63 billion. Imports too grew by 53.74 per cent to $48.38 billion in March, but dipped by 18 per cent to $389.18 billion during April-March 2020-21. Traders may take note of report that as Reserve Bank of India (RBI) concluded the first security acquisition programme (G-SAP) auction buying of Rs 25,000 crore in government bonds. As part of this, the government is scheduled to buy bonds worth 1 lakh crore from the secondary market in the three months to June 30 (Q1 of the current financial year). However, rising coronavirus cases may dampen sentiments in the markets. India reported 216,850 coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases, the highest single-day spike so far since the pandemic broke out, Worldometer showed. The single-day spike comes a day after 200,739 Covid-19 cases were recorded. With this, India's Covid tally has shot up to 14,287,740 cases. Last week India replaced Brazil as the 2nd worst-hit nation in terms of total Covid-19 cases, now it has the second highest active cases too. The death toll from the deadly infection stands at 174,335. Meanwhile, according to the RBI data, India Inc's outward foreign direct investment in March 2021 nearly halved to $1.93 billion (around Rs 14,495 crore). Domestic firms had invested $3.86 billion as outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) in the year-ago month of March 2020. Aviation stocks will be in focus with Crisil's report that lower domestic air traffic compared with pre-pandemic levels, together with high fuel prices and only a gradual recovery in international operations would result in domestic airlines posting Rs 9,500-10,000 crore net loss in FY 2022. There will be some reaction in consumer durables industry stocks with a private report stating that the consumer durables industry is likely to contract 12-15 per centin 2020-21, compared to the previous year mainly due to the loss witnessed in June quarter and the worst hit was the air conditioner segment. There will be some earnings announcements too to keep the markets buzzing.

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

Nifty Top volumes

• Bharti Airtel has rearranged its corporate structure to sharpen the company's focus on driving the rapidly-unfolding digital opportunities while enabling it to unlock value. 
• HDFC Bank is planning to raise funds by issuing various Instruments up to total amount of Rs 50,000 crore over the period of the next twelve months through private placement mode. 
• L&T's subsidiary -- Heavy Engineering has won significant contracts for its various business segments in Q4 of FY21. 
• Bajaj Auto has expanded its CT range of bikes with the launch of CT110X, priced at Rs 55,494 (ex-showroom).