The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) status quo cheered Indian equity markets on Thursday, with Sensex & Nifty ending higher by 0.40% each. The start of the day was on firm note, amid a private report that India can achieve the target, to become a $5 trillion economy by 2025, by using automation technologies such as, artificial intelligence, natural language processing and machine learning that will drive increased efficiencies and new jobs resulting in economic growth in the next few years. But, volatility hit over the street during late morning deals, as NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand said that Indian agriculture sector is facing issues in making available customised technology to farmers and implementation of policy reforms, especially at the state level. However, bourses again staged recovery to settle higher, after the RBI kept repo rate unchanged at 5.15% and tweaked maintenance of cash reserve ratio (CRR) norms by providing relaxation in calculation of total deposits, in a bid to increase lending to MSME as well as to auto and home segment. The move will encourage lending towards these targeted sectors having multiplier effect by banks as they will get exemption in CRR over incremental lending. The street paid no heed towards a report of US Chamber of Commerce's Global Innovation Policy Center stating that India's slipped to 40th position on the International Intellectual Property (IP) Index, which analyses the IP climate in 53 global economies, this year. Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 163.37 points or 0.40% to 41,306.03, while the CNX Nifty was up by 48.80 points or 0.40% to 12,137.95.

The US markets settled fresh closing records on Thursday, extending recent rally, on the heels of report that China plans to cut tariffs on approximately $75 billion worth of US goods in half. A statement from China's Ministry of Finance said tariffs on some US goods will be cut from to 5 percent from 10 percent, while tariffs on other goods will be lowered to 2.5 percent from 5 percent. The tariffs reductions, effective on February 14, will coincide with the US move to halve tariffs on $120 billion worth of Chinese goods as part of the phase one trade deal that was signed last month. Meanwhile, the Senate acquitted President Donald Trump on impeachment charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, as expected. He delivered a speech where he described the impeachment as a terrible ordeal. However, buying interest was somewhat subdued as some traders seemed reluctant to continuing picking up stocks following the rally seen over previous sessions. On the economic data front, a day ahead of the release of the more closely watched monthly jobs report, the Labor Department released a report showing first-time claims for US unemployment benefits fell by much more than expected in the week ended February 1. The report said initial jobless claims slid to 202,000, a decrease of 15,000 from the previous week's revised level of 217,000. Besides, after reporting a modest decrease in US labor productivity in the previous quarter, the Labor Department released a report showing a notable rebound in productivity in the fourth quarter. The Labor Department said labor productivity jumped by 1.4 percent in the fourth quarter after edging down by 0.2 percent in the third quarter.

Crude oil futures ended marginally higher on Thursday as a committee of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members and their allies advocated for cuts to global production to stabilize slumping crude values. The OPEC+ Joint Technical Committee recommended a cut to production of its members and other allies of 600,000 barrels a day. The proposal, however, encountered resistance from Russia, and it requires official approval from ministers of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. The recommendation was made as oil prices have taken a hit from expectations of a slowdown in energy demand, fed by the spread of coronavirus in China. Crude oil futures for March gained 20 cents or 0.4 percent to settle at $50.95 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. However, April Brent dropped 35 or 0.6 percent to settle at $54.93 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.

Indian rupee rose for the third straight day against dollar on Thursday, amid fresh selling of the American currency by exporters and banks. Traders took support as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), for the second straight time, kept its key policy rate unchanged at 5.15 percent, maintaining its accommodative policy stance as long as it was necessary to revive growth. Moreover, the RBI also pegged the GDP growth for the financial year 2020-21 (FY21) at 6 percent and in the range of 5.5-6.0 percent in the first half of the next fiscal. Positive trend in domestic equities and foreign fund inflows supported the local unit, but rising crude oil prices and strengthening of the US dollar weighed on the domestic currency. On the global front, British Pound came under pressure against the euro, dollar and other major currencies in the wake of headlines showing the EU would seek to impose tougher financial regulations on the City of London in upcoming trade negotiations. The last traded price of rupee was 71.19, 6 paise stronger from its previous close of 71.25 on Wednesday.

The FIIs as per Thursday's data were net buyers in both equity and debt segments. In equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 7158.40 crore against gross selling of Rs 6627.95 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 2811.76 crore with gross sales of Rs 595.04 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was of Rs 4.10 crore against gross selling of Rs 2.27 crore.

The US markets ended in positive territory on Thursday after China said it would cut in half tariffs on $75 billion of US imports, signaling it would follow through with parts of a recently signed trade agreement. Asian markets are trading mostly in red on Friday as the growing death toll and economic damage from a new virus spreading from China weighted over investors' sentiments. Indian markets extended their northward journey for fourth consecutive session on Thursday after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) relaxed conditions to boost credit growth to the real estate sector. Today, the markets are likely to make flat-to-negative start amid lackluster trade in Asian peers over rising concerns of coronavirus in China. Investors will be keeping an eye on the Delhi Assembly polls to be held February 08. There will be some cautiousness with ICRA's report that weak consumer sentiment, the slowdown in the infrastructure sector, and benign commodity prices have negatively impacted the performance of companies in Q3FY20. Also, traders will be reacting to report that the RBI projected the economy to expand by 6% during the next financial year, pegging it at the lower end of the GDP growth estimate of the Economic Survey. Besides, Central and state tax officers will share information about taxpayers for enforcement action as the government looks to tighten enforcement measures to check GST evasion. However, some support may come later in the day with RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das' statement that the Rs 1-lakh-crore of long-term repos are aimed at helping banks lower their lending rates, thus quickening the monetary policy transmission. Traders may take note of private report that if you want to reach a $5 trillion economy, the outstanding credit, which is around Rs 95-98 trillion, it will have to be doubled, which means need to grow (credit) at around 15 percent. Meanwhile, markets watchdog SEBI came out with guidelines for compulsory performance benchmarking for Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) as part of efforts to streamline disclosure standards. aviation stocks will be in focus with airlines body IATA's statement that after four years of double-digit growth, the Indian domestic passenger traffic rose by just 5.1 per cent in 2019, down from 18.9 per cent in 2018. There will be some reaction in public sector undertakings (PSUs) stocks with minister of state for telecom and IT Sanjay Dhotre's statement that five PSUs owe the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) 99% of the total Rs 2.65 lakh crore as dues on the basis of adjusted gross revenue (AGR). There will be lots of important earnings announcements too, to keep the markets in action.

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

Nifty Top volumes

• JSW Steel has bagged another iron mine Ganua in Odisha in the ongoing mine auctions with 118 million tonnes of reserves. 
• Maruti Suzuki India has unveiled the all new Vitara Brezza, equipped with the powerful 1.5 Litre K-series BS6 petrol engine. 
• IOC has signed first term contract for importing Russian crude oil. 
• M&M has unveiled an electric variant of its compact SUV KUV100 at starting price of Rs 8.25 lakh at Auto Expo.