Snapping their three-days winning run, Indian equity benchmarks ended Tuesday's trading session in the negative territory, amid selling seen in TECK, IT and Banking sectors. Markets made a weak start and traded in a negative zone throughout the day as traders were anxious with provisional data from the NSE showing that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net sold shares worth Rs 3,309.76 crore on March 22. Some pessimism also came as the latest payroll data released by the Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) stated that the formal labour market in January experienced a slowdown as fewer fresh jobs were created during the month. In January 2024, the number of new monthly subscribers under the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) declined by nearly 4 per cent to 807,865 from 840,584 in December 2023. However, markets managed to trim some losses in afternoon deals, as traders took some support with report that S&P Global Ratings has raised India's Gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast for the next financial year (FY25) to 6.8 per cent, but flagged restrictive interest rates as a dampener for economic growth. In November 2023, it had projected India's growth to be 6.4 per cent in FY25 on robust domestic momentum. It said the Indian economy is estimated to have clocked a growth of 7.6 per cent in the current fiscal (FY24). But, markets failed to hold recovery and ended sharply lower in late afternoon deals, as traders turned wary after Ministry of Finance has warned the ongoing crisis along the Red Sea shipping route poses a risk to 80 percent of India's goods trade with Europe and could lead to higher inflation and lower growth in India due to rising transport costs.  Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 361.64 points or 0.50% to 72,470.30 and the CNX Nifty was down by 92.05 points or 0.42% to 22,004.70.

The US markets ended lower on Tuesday on concerns about the economic impact of the indefinite suspension of vessel traffic into and out of the Port of Baltimore. Vessel traffic was suspended after a cargo ship crashed into a pillar of the Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday morning, leading to the bridge's collapse. Networking stocks showed a notable move to the downside over the course of the session, dragging the NYSE Arca Networking Index down by 1.2 percent. A pullback by the price of crude oil also weighed on energy stocks, with the Philadelphia Oil Service and the NYSE Arca Oil Index falling by 1.2 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively. Utilities, semiconductor and telecom stocks also saw some weakness on the day, while strength remained visible among computer hardware stocks. On the economic data front, the Commerce Department released a report showing a notable increase in new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods in the month of February. The report said durable goods orders jumped by 1.4 percent in February after plummeting by a revised 6.9 percent in January. Street had expected durable goods orders to shoot up by 1.3 percent compared to the 6.2 percent slump that had been reported for the previous month. Orders for transportation equipment led the way higher, surging by 3.3 percent in February after plunging by 18.3 percent in January. Excluding the rebound in orders for transportation equipment, durable goods orders climbed by 0.5 percent in February after falling by 0.3 percent in January. Economists had expected a 0.4 percent increase.

Crude oil futures ended lower on Tuesday with traders assessing oil demand and supply positions amid the tensions in the Middle East, and the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. According to reports, Ukraine continues with its strikes against Russian oil refineries, resulting in an estimated drop of 900,000 barrels per day of capacity. Meanwhile, markets now await weekly oil reports from the American Petroleum Institute (API) and U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). The EIA data is due Wednesday. Benchmark crude oil futures for May delivery fell $0.33 or about 0.40% to settle at $81.62 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for May delivery dropped by $0.50 or about 0.57% to $86.25 per barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.

Indian rupee ended higher against the U.S. dollar on Tuesday on decline in the US dollar and positive Asian currencies. Traders got support as S&P Global Ratings has raised India's Gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast for the next financial year (FY25) to 6.8 per cent, but flagged restrictive interest rates as a dampener for economic growth. In November 2023, it had projected India's growth to be 6.4 per cent in FY25 on robust domestic momentum. It said the Indian economy is estimated to have clocked a growth of 7.6 per cent in the current fiscal (FY24). On the global front, the yen found some stability on Tuesday, just shy of its weakest level in 34 years, as verbal intervention by Japanese officials continued, while the dollar was on the back foot.  Finally, the rupee ended at 83.29 (Provisional), stronger by 32 paise from its previous close of 83.61 on Friday.

The FIIs as per Tuesday's data were net sellers in equity and debt segments both. In equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 16805.40 crore against gross selling of Rs 20676.83 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 530.70 crore with gross sales of Rs 4075.41 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was of Rs 13.13 crore against gross selling of Rs 6.97 crore.

The US markets ended lower on Tuesday after mixed economic reports and concerns about the economic impact of the indefinite suspension of vessel traffic into and out of the Port of Baltimore. Asian markets are trading mixed in early deals on Wednesday following negative cues from the US markets overnight. India equity markets ended in red on Tuesday on account of hectic selling in HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra, Wipro and Bharti Airtel. Today, markets are likely to make negative start on weak cues from the US markets overnight. Traders may be cautious as private report said the Red Sea crisis is expected to adversely impact trade volumes in a substantial way in 2024. It added that rising shipping, and insurance costs, delayed arrival of shipments will continue to disrupt global value chains, squeeze margins and make exports of many low margin products unviable from current locations. Countries like Asia, Africa and Europe will face the most disruption across industries. However, some respite may come later in the day as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that India's current account deficit declined to $10.5 billion or 1.2 per cent of the GDP in October-December quarter from $11.4 billion in the previous three months and $16.8 billion a year back. Further, some support may also come in as Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) V Anantha Nageswaran said various initiatives from the government and growing investment are going to create more job opportunities during the decade. Talking about various government initiatives for job creation, Nageswaran said, skill development, provision of 12 per cent contribution of employers towards EPFO by the government, New Education Policy, and important structural reform in human development have been undertaken.

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

Nifty Top volumes

• Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) has entered into a definitive agreement on March 25, 2024 to acquire 95% stake of Gopalpur Ports (GPL).
• Reliance Industries has received approval to acquire 100% equity shares of MSKVY Nineteenth Solar SPV and MSKVY Twenty-second Solar SPV.
• Maruti Suzuki India is recalling over 16,000 units of Baleno and WagonR to fix a possible defect in a part of the fuel pump motor.
• Axis Bank has introduced digital US dollar fixed deposit (FD) for NRI customers at the IFSC Banking Unit (IBU) at GIFT City, Gujarat.