Buying in second half of the trade helped Indian equity benchmarks to end near intraday high points. Markets started the session on pessimistic note as traders remained worried over the second wave of COVID-19 in the country and tightening of restrictions in various states weighted down on the markets. India reported 315,802 fresh coronavirus infections on Thursday, taking the cumulative caseload to 15,924,806. Sentiments also remain dampened after Care Ratings revised down its forecast for GDP growth to 10.2 per cent in 2021-22 from earlier projection of 10.7-10.9 per cent, with economic activities getting affected across the country due to curbs imposed by states amid surge in COVID-19 cases. Adding to the worries, domestic rating agency ICRA has cut its 2021-22 GDP growth estimate by 0.5 per cent on the upper end. The agency now expects the economy to grow 10-10.5 per cent in 2021-22, against the 10-11 per cent estimated earlier. Starting with Maharashtra, a slew of other pockets in the country like Delhi have been taking to localised lockdowns to arrest the climbing COVID-19 cases, which derails economic activity. However, markets started paring losses as traders took some support with Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan's statement that the country's exports are reviving and the shipments are expected to be in the solid positive territory in this financial year. He said that exports recorded a significant contraction in April last year but gradually things started improving and the shipments have entered the positive territory. Key gauges entered into green terrain in second half of the trade as traders opted to buy beaten down but fundamentally strong stocks. Traders also took some solace after the Retirement fund body, Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) in its latest Provisional Estimate of Net Payroll data report has showed that India created 1237489 new jobs in the month of February 2021 as against revised figure of 1195383 in January 2021. Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 374.87 points or 0.79% to 48,080.67, while the CNX Nifty was up by 109.75 points or 0.77% to 14,406.15.   

The US markets ended lower on Thursday following private report said that President Joe Biden plans to propose nearly doubling the capital gains tax rate for wealthy individuals to fund spending on child care and education. Biden is planning a capital gains tax hike to as high as 43.4% for wealthy Americans. The proposal would hike the capital gains rate to 39.6% for those earning $1 million or more, up from 20% currently. The report raised concerns the Biden administration's tax policies could halt the nearly persistent advance by the markets throughout the past year. Further, growth stocks, which could come under selling pressure on higher capital gains taxes, led the intraday decline with shares of Tesla and Amazon falling 3.3% and 1.6% respectively. The iShares S&P 500 Growth ETF fell 1%, more than its value counterpart. On the economic data front, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released a report showing another steep drop in US existing home sales in the month of March. NAR said existing home sales tumbled by 3.7 percent to an annual rate of 6.01 million in March after plunging by 6.3 percent to a revised rate of 6.24 million in February. Street had expected existing home sales to dip by 0.5 percent to a rate of 6.19 million from the 6.22 million originally reported for the previous month. Meanwhile, Labor Department report unexpectedly showing a continued decline in initial jobless claims in the week ended April 17. The report said initial jobless claims fell to 547,000, a decrease of 39,000 from the previous week's revised level of 586,000. With the unexpected decrease, jobless claims slid to their lowest level since hitting 256,000 in the week ended March 14, 2020.

Crude oil futures ended marginally higher on Thursday on report about production in Libya seeing a significant drop. Libya's oil production fell to about 1 million barrels per day in recent days and there is likelihood of further decline due to budgetary issues. However, worries about the energy demand outlook following a massive surge in new coronavirus cases in India weighed on oil prices. Meanwhile, Japan has also been witnessing a surge in new cases of infections, and according to private report, officials are looking at a state of emergency for Osaka and Tokyo to curb the spread. Crude oil futures for June rose $0.08 or 0.1 percent to settle at $61.43 barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. June Brent crude gained $0.13 or 0.12 percent to settle at $65.40 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.

Indian rupee ended lower against dollar on Thursday, on increased demand for the greenback from importers and banks. Investors were worried on fears that virus led restrictions will now extend beyond the bigger cities, to smaller towns and states as cases continue to rise. The localised lockdowns and severe restrictions on movements are also going to take toll on the expected GDP growth for FY22. However, downfall remain limited as Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan stated that the country's exports are reviving and the shipments are expected to be in the solid positive territory in this financial year. On the global front; pound slipped on Thursday before a European Central Bank meeting, as investors weighed up the outlook for an economic recovery from COVID-19 in the UK. Finally, the rupee ended 74.94, weaker by 6 paise from its previous close of 74.88 on Tuesday.

The FIIs as per Thursday's data were net seller in both equity and debt segment. In equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 9046.81 crore against gross selling of Rs 9774.98 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 799.58 crore with gross sales of Rs 1412.83 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was of Rs 28.74 crore against gross selling of Rs 26.12 crore.

The US markets ended lower on Thursday following losses in global peers and worries over a continuous spike in coronavirus cases in the county. Asian markets are trading mixed on Friday following an overnight drop on Wall Street. Indian markets pared early losses and ended higher on Thursday led by metals and financials. Today, the markets are likely to make negative start tracking weakness in global peers and worries over a continuous spike in coronavirus cases in the county. India reported 332,503 fresh coronavirus infections on Friday, taking the cumulative caseload to 16,257,309, Worldometer showed. Delhi recorded its highest ever single-day fatalities -- 306 people died as more than 26,000 fresh cases were logged. Meanwhile, Maharashtra reported 67,013 new Covid-19 cases and 568 deaths in the last 24 hours. Uttar Pradesh recorded highest single-day spike of 34,379 cases. Coronavirus cases rise unabated across the globe with 145,312,232 infected by the deadly contagion. There will be some cautiousness as S&P Global Ratings said the Indian economy is projected to grow at 11 per cent in the current fiscal, but flagged the substantial impact of broader lockdowns on the economy. In its report on Asia-Pacific Financial Institutions, S&P said the control of COVID-19 remains a key risk for the economy. New infections have spiked in recent weeks and the country is in the middle of a second pandemic wave. Also, rating agency Fitch Ratings has affirmed India's long-term foreign-currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at BBB- with a negative outlook. However, traders may take note of report that amid reports of shortage of oxygen in the hospitals during the second wave of Covid across the country, India will be importing oxygen generation plants and containers from Germany to cater the shortage. Meanwhile, Initial public offerings (IPO) activity in India jumped massively in the January-March period of 2021, fuelled by ample liquidity, robust demand and investor appetite. On the BSE and NSE, there were 17 IPOs in Q1CY2021 as compared to 1 IPO in the same period last year and 10 IPOs in Q4CY2020. Banking stocks will be in focus as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that in order to stay resilient during the Covid-19 crisis banks could pay maximum 50 per cent of dividend from their profits in 2020-21. There will be some important earnings announcements too to keep the markets buzzing.

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

Nifty Top volumes

• Hero MotoCorp and Gogoro Inc. have entered into strategic partnership to accelerate the shift to sustainable electric mobility in India. 
• L&T's Buildings and Factories business has secured a significant contract from Oilfields Supply Company Saudi owned by the Dubai based Oilfields Supply Center. 
• Infosys and bp have signed a MoU under which both companies intend to work together to develop an integrated EaaS. 
• Maruti Suzuki India -- Cargo Variants of EECO have been upgraded to new version of Reverse Park Alert Systems system.