Indian equity benchmarks snapped their three-day losing streak and ended higher by around half percent on Thursday led by strong buying interest in Metal, Basic Materials and Realty stocks. Strong global cues also helped the sentiments. The benchmarks staged a gap up opening and held on to gains as futures and option contracts for the month of July expired. Sentiments got a boost as Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) K V Subramanian said that India is expected to hit a growth rate of 6.5-7 percent in 2022-23 and accelerate further to 8 percent in the subsequent years on the back of reforms undertaken by the government. Sentiments remained positive as Securities and Exchange Board of India's (SEBI) Chairman, Ajay Tyagi asserted that a large part of the non-banking financial intermediation is happening through the capital markets. Going forward, the capital markets are going to play a bigger role in funding the economic growth. Benchmarks continued to trade in green in second half of the session, as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed payment system providers, prepaid card issuers, card networks and white label ATM operators access to its Centralised Payment Systems (CPS), such as real time gross settlement (RTGS) and National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) systems in the first phase of its plan bring non-banks in the same platform.  Some support came after Centre has launched the Secured Logistics Document Exchange along with a Calculator for Green House Gas Emissions, in order to further improve ease of doing business. The Digital initiative is now set to improve logistics efficiency, reduce logistics cost, and promote multi-modality and sustainability in a big way.  However, upside remained capped as some cautiousness prevailed  in the markets with a private report that the Indian economy is expected to face some pressure in the current financial year due to the second wave of the pandemic, coupled with weaker consumer sentiment, but a large capex by the government can be a saving grace for the economy. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 209.36 points or 0.40% to 52,653.07, while the CNX Nifty was up by 69.05 points or 0.44% to 15,778.45. 

The US markets ended higher on Thursday after the Labor Department released a report showing a modest pullback in initial jobless claims in the week ended July 24th. The report said initial jobless claims dipped to 400,000, a decrease of 24,000 from the previous week's revised level of 424,000. Street had expected jobless claims to drop to 380,000 from the 419,000 originally reported for the previous week. Meanwhile, a report released by the Commerce Department showed a significant increase in US gross domestic product in the second quarter of 2021, although the pace of growth fell short of street estimates. The Commerce Department said real GDP surged up by 6.5 percent in the second quarter following a 6.3 percent jump in the first quarter. Street had expected GDP to spike by 8.5 percent. The GDP growth in the second quarter reflected increases in consumer spending, non-residential fixed investment, exports, and state and local government spending. The report showed consumer spending skyrocketed by 11.8 percent in the second quarter after soaring by 11.4 percent in the first quarter. However, decreases in private inventory investment, residential fixed investment, and federal government spending limited the upside along with an increase in imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP. Pending home sales in the US unexpectedly showed a notable decrease in the month of June, according to a report released by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). NAR said its pending home sales index tumbled by 1.9 percent to 112.8 in June after soaring by 8.3 percent to a revised 115.0 in May. The pullback surprised participants, who had expected pending home sales to edge up by 0.3 percent compared to the 8.0 percent spike originally reported for the previous month.

Crude oil futures ended higher on Thursday as supplies in the United States further tightened after shrinking to the smallest levels since January 2020. Data from information provider Genscape indicated that the inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma storage hub have continued to draw. Cushing stockpiles were seen at 36.299 million barrels by Tuesday, down 360,917 barrels from July 23. Further, a weak dollar contributed as well to the jump in oil prices. The dollar index dropped to 91.91, losing more than 0.4%. The dollar drifted lower after the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday that it has not yet set a time to start tapering its bond purchases. Crude oil futures for September rose $1.23 or 1.7 percent to settle $73.62 barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. September Brent crude gained $1.30 or 1.7 percent to settle at $76.04 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.

Indian rupee ended significantly stronger against dollar on Thursday amid favorable US Fed meet outcome. Federal Reserve kept its accommodative monetary policies and signaled that economic recovery was on track. Investors also remained energized as Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) K V Subramanian stated that India is expected to hit a growth rate of 6.5-7 percent in 2022-23 and accelerate further to 8 percent in the subsequent years on the back of reforms undertaken by the government. Adding more support, SEBI Chairman Ajay Tyagi asserted that a large part of the non-banking financial intermediation is happening through the capital markets. Going forward, the capital markets are going to play a bigger role in funding the economic growth. Besides, healthy gains in domestic equity markets also supported rupee. On the global front, dollar slipped to a one-month low on Thursday after the U.S. Fed's reassurance that interest rate hikes remain distant. Finally, the rupee ended 74.29, stronger by 9 paise from its previous close of 74.38 on Wednesday.

The FIIs as per Thursday's data were net sellers in equity segment and net buyer in debt segment. In equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 6882.89 crore against gross selling of Rs 9325.85 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 725.61 crore with gross sales of Rs 410.38 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was of Rs 8.62 crore against gross selling of Rs 14.45 crore.

The US markets ended higher on Thursday helped by strong company earnings and solid economic growth data. Asian markets are trading mostly in red on Friday with a gauge of regional equities set for its biggest monthly drop since the height of global pandemic lockdowns last March. Indian markets ended higher on Thursday led by gains in metals and IT stocks amid positive global cues. Today, the markets are likely to open lower following losses in Asian peers. There will be some cautiousness as 3 southern states report spike in new infections. Kerala reported more than 22,000 fresh Covid-19 cases for the third day straight: the spike prompting the state to announce a weekend lockdown. Karnataka and Tamil Nadu recorded a rise in new infections on Thursday as well, taking India's daily case count to nearly 45,000, the highest in 22 days. A state-backed committee of experts recommended conducting a study on mixing doses of Covishield and Covaxin vaccines for Covid-19. however, traders may take encouragement later in the day with India Ratings and Research's statement that outbound shipments from India, which have been languishing for quite some time, can benefit from the favourable trade growth outlook of 2021 and consolidate further from the level achieved in the first quarter of this fiscal. Some support may come as Chief Economic Advisor K V Subramanian said headline inflation will come down under the 6 percent mark in July itself but will stay at an elevated level of over 5 percent for some time. Traders may take note of report that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the Factoring Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2021 will expand credit facilities for small businesses, and will help them in accessing funds from 9,500 non-banking financial companies (NBFC). There will be some buzz in the telecom stocks reacting to telecom regulator Trai's subscribers' data. Jio added 35.54 lakh mobile users during the month, raising its subscriber base to 43.12 crore. Both Airtel and Vodafone Idea suffered massive subscriber losses in May. Aviation stocks will be in focus as the Lok Sabha passed the Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) Amendment Bill paving the way for privatisation of a small loss making airport by clubbing it with a larger airport. There will be some reaction in oil and gas sector stocks as the government permitted 100 per cent foreign investment under the automatic route in oil and gas PSUs which have received in-principle approval for strategic disinvestment. Meanwhile, some interest is likely in the primary markets as Rolex Rings IPO closes today. The IPO has been subscribed 9.2 times so far.

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

Nifty Top volumes

• Tata Motors has launched Nexon EV in Nepal. 
• Infosys has unveiled a new set of Enterprise Agile DevOps capabilities that will help businesses strengthen customer centricity and innovation. 
• M&M is adopting a 58 MWp captive solar plant that is expected to generate about 100 million units of power annually beginning 2022.
• HDFC has enhanced its existing limit to raise capital through medium-term notes to up to $ 2.8 billion (about Rs 20,875.65 crore).