Monday turned out to be a fabulous day of trade for Indian equity benchmarks, with frontline gauges recapturing their crucial 10,850 (Nifty) and 35,900 (Sensex) levels amid firm global cues. Markets made a gap-up opening and traded with traction in early deals with traders taking encouragement from industry body Assocham's statement that the government's decision to hike the minimum support price (MSP) for 14 khariff crops would boost farmers' income, resulting in a huge rural demand push to the Indian economy. Key indices gained momentum and there appeared not even an iota of profit booking in the session afterwards with benchmarks fervently gaining from strength to strength to end near intraday highs, as investors continued hunt for fundamentally strong stocks. Sentiments remained upbeat with a report by the World Trade Organization (WTO) showing that India has initiated far more number of measures widely considered to be trade restricting since last year, when the US and China began locking horns on a global trade war spanning hundreds of billions of dollars. Some support came in with Chief Executive Office and Managing Director of BSE Ashishkumar Chauhan's statement that India will hit double-digit growth rates soon with growing GDP, legislative reforms such as GST and IBC, bolstered trading sentiments. Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg's statement that India's macroeconomic story is quite good too aided sentiments. He also noted that the risks to the macro story and stability are far more manageable than ever. Adding to the optimism, foreign investors have pumped in over Rs 3,000 crore in the Indian capital markets in the last five trading sessions after pulling out hefty funds during April-June. The recent infusion comes following a net outflow of more than Rs 61,000 crore in the last three months. Prior to that, they had poured in Rs 2,662 crore in March. Finally, the BSE Sensex surged 276.86 points or 0.78% to 35,934.72, while the CNX Nifty was up by 80.25 points or 0.74% to 10,852.90.

The US markets extended their gains for third straight day on Monday, as U.S. stocks posted a broad rally, with strong economic data appearing to offset worries about rising trade tensions. Buying interest was generated in reaction to strength in the overseas markets, as traders shrugged off recent concerns about a global trade war.  Markets also got a boost from a positive jobs report released on Friday, which revealed that the U.S. economy added 213,000 jobs in June, beating expectations. The report helped divert attention away from the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and its biggest partners. Also lifting sentiment was a lack of headlines linked to the various trade disputes between Washington and its major economic allies and a steadying in global oil prices following consecutive weekly gains. Meanwhile, reflecting notable increases in both revolving and non-revolving credit, the Federal Reserve released a report showing a much bigger than expected jump in U.S. consumer credit in the month of May. The Fed said consumer credit surged up by $24.6 billion in May after climbing by an upwardly revised $10.3 billion in April. Street had expected consumer credit to rise by $12.5 billion compared to the $9.2 billion increase originally reported for the previous month. The report said revolving credit, which largely reflects credit card debt, climbed by $9.7 billion in May after edging up by $1.1 billion in April. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 320.11 points or 1.31 percent to 24776.59, the S&P 500 rose 24.35 points or 0.88 percent to 2784.17 and the Nasdaq was up by 67.81 points or 0.88 percent to 7756.20.

Crude oil futures ended higher on Monday, with Brent crude posting a considerable gain as traders fretted over production disruptions in Libya and Venezuela and expectations for big declines in Iranian exports. Longstanding, and expected, outages to supplies in Libya, Venezuela and Iran have helped lift crude prices, which had been on an uptrend amid efforts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies to balance supply and demand. Benchmark crude oil futures for August climbed 5 cents or less than 0.1 percent to settle at $73.85 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. September Brent crude rose 96 cents or 1.2 percent at $78.07 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.

Indian rupee ended stronger against dollar on Monday, owing to selling of dollar by exporters and banks. This was the second day of consecutive gains for the domestic currency. Sentiments remained up-beat with a report by the World Trade Organization (WTO) showing that India has initiated far more number of measures widely considered to be trade restricting since last year, when the US and China began locking horns on a global trade war spanning hundreds of billions of dollars. Some support also came in with Chief Executive Office and Managing Director of BSE Ashishkumar Chauhan's statement that India will hit double-digit growth rates soon with growing GDP, legislative reforms such as GST and IBC, bolstered trading sentiments. Besides, the rupee derived its strength from strong gains in the local equity markets and also the strengthening of other Asian currencies against dollar. On the global front, dollar was losing ground against its main rivals Monday, weighed down in part by the pound's leap following the resignation of U.K. Brexit Secretary David Davis. Finally, the rupee ended at 68.72, 16 paise stronger from its previous close of 68.88 on Friday.

The FIIs as per Monday's data were net sellers in equity and debt segments both. In equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 4087.45 crore against gross selling of Rs 5264.93 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 367.85 crore with gross sales of Rs 1779.63 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was of Rs 0.69 crore against gross selling of Rs 0.74 crore.

The US markets ended higher on Monday, as investors set aside concern about escalating trade tensions and rising political tension abroad to focus on the coming earnings season. Asian markets were trading in green in early trade on Tuesday, as recent trade-related concerns seemed to have faded for now. Indian equity markets ended at a five-month closing high on Monday, as investors put trade worries on the back burner and shifted focus to the upcoming earnings season. Today, the markets are likely to make an optimistic start, following firm global cues.  Traders will be looking for first-quarter corporate earnings for the financial year 2018-2019, with India's biggest software services exporter Tata Consultancy services (TCS) reporting quarterly results today. Investors will be eyeing the commerce and industry ministry's data on ease of doing business for states and union territories (UTs). Traders may get some support with rating agency Crisil's latest report that India Inc will deliver the highest quarterly revenue growth in three years at 12.8% in the April-June period, but high oil prices will narrow profit margins by 0.20%. Meanwhile, NITI Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar made a case for promoting Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) in states, saying it would help in doubling farmers' income by 2022. However, traders will be concerned with a private report that the US-China trade war will impact foreign investment into the country and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will have to sell foreign currencies to defend the rupee at the 69 level to a dollar. There will be some buzz in banking sector stocks with a private report that banking sector woes are expected to continue in the first quarter of the financial year with weak profits despite a pickup in retail-backed credit growth and easing of fresh bad loans.

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

Nifty Top volumes

• Tata Motors' subsidiary -- JLR has reported total retail sales of 52,049 vehicles in June 2018, up 0.9% year-on-year. 
• SBI Card, the second largest credit card issuer promoted by SBI, is planning to introduce four new products in the market during the three quarter of the current fiscal. 
• Vedanta will establish two ultra-modern pathology laboratories and diagnostic centres at Jharsuguda and Laikera blocks of the district by the end of August 2018. 
• Dr. Reddy's Laboratories and UCB have entered into a distribution and co-promotion agreement for Briviact, a brand of brivaracetam.