Indian equity benchmarks traded with volatility, but in green terrain, throughout the day and ended Friday's session with gains of around a percent on the back of buying by participants amid positive cues from global markets. The benchmarks staged a gap up opening, as traders took encouragement from Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal's statement that India is keen to focus on certain sectors where it has competitive advantage, emphasising that the country cannot afford to remain dependent on low cost, low quality products. Some support also came with a report stated that India and the US will restart high level negotiations on a trade pact in the coming days. However, volatility struck the markets in noon deals as they pared most of gains to come off intraday highs, as investors turned anxious with FIEO's statement that the country's exports are likely to witness a 10-12% year-on-year decline during the ongoing fiscal, if the current trend persists, due to the contraction in global demand on account of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some concern also came with the US-India Business Council (USIBC) stating that the delay in clearance of shipments at customs would adversely affect the Make-In-India initiative, economic growth, and job creation amid increased vigilance at ports in view of border tension with China. But, key gauges strengthened once again in final hour of trade and settled near day's high, taking support from report that Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's statement that the government was in talks with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for a one-time restructuring of loans to help companies which are under stressed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 329.17 points or 0.94% to 35,171.27, while the CNX Nifty was up by 94.10 points or 0.91% to 10,383.00.

The US markets settled sharply lower on Friday as investors turned cautious and chose to exit counter following a sharp surge in new coronavirus infections in several states. Banking stocks, which had scored strong gains in the previous session reacting to reports US regulators plan to ease banking regulations and allow banks to more easily make investments in riskier funds, turned easy after the Fed released the results of the stress tests on banks. Disappointing earnings report from Nike also hurt sentiment. The Fed said the nation's biggest banks are healthy but could suffer up to $700 billion in losses on soured loans if the economy languishes. It also ordered certain banks to cap dividends and suspend share buyback to conserve funds. The surge in new cases due to the coronavirus has raised the possibility of states re-imposing restrictions on businesses. The Trump administration has ruled out another lockdown, but Texas Governor Greg Abbott has announced that the state will pause its reopening plan due to the spike in coronavirus cases. The US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned that the number of infected people in the US is most likely 10 times higher than what was officially reported. CDC Director Robert Redfield told that his estimate is based on growing data from antibody testing. That means as many as 24 million Americans might have contracted the coronavirus. Meanwhile, World Health Organization (WHO) head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that global infections are expected to top 10 million next week.

Crude oil futures ended lower on Friday amid concerns over energy demand outlook in the wake of sharp spikes in new coronavirus infections in several states in the US. With new cases rising sharply, raising possibilities of another lockdown where businesses have already reopened, and a delay in reopening in certain places, it is feared that demand for energy may fall in the near term or may not pick up as expected. Meanwhile, data released by Baker Hughes showed the US drilling rig count fell by 1 unit to 265 during the week ended June 26. The report shows an overall decrease of 702 units from year-ago levels. Offshore units were unchanged this week at 11 rigs. A total of 254 rigs were drilling on land, down 1 unit from last week. Crude oil futures for August fell 23 cents or 0.6 percent to settle at $38.49 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. August Brent crude declined 3 cents or 0.07 percent to settle at $41.02 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.

Indian rupee pared all of its early gains and ended flat against dollar on Friday, as rising coronavirus cases in the country weighed on investors' sentiment. Traders remained cautious with the Federation of Indian Export Organisations' (FIEO) statement that India's exports are likely to witness a 10-12% year-on-year decline during the ongoing fiscal (FY 2020-21), if the current trend persists. Market participants took note of report of National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) stated that the actual economic growth would depend on the effectiveness of the stimulus package announced by the government to mitigate impact of coronavirus pandemic. However, positive domestic stock markets supported the rupee to some extent. On the global front, US dollar steadied on Friday but was set for its biggest weekly drop in three weeks as caution over growing coronavirus infections cast doubt over the US economic outlook while a bounce in stocks pushed the kiwi dollar higher. Finally, the rupee ended flat from its previous close of 75.65 on Thursday.

The FIIs as per Friday's data were net sellers in both equity and debt segments. In equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 6418.92 crore against gross selling of Rs 6939.80 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 693.27 crore with gross sales of Rs 817.38 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was of Rs 4.24 crore against gross selling of Rs 2.15 crore.

The US markets closed sharply lower on Friday after Texas rolled back some of its reopening measures, raising concern about the latest spike in coronavirus cases and its impact on the economy. Asian markets are trading in red on Monday as the relentless spread of the coronavirus finally made investors question their optimism on the global economy. Indian markets ended considerably higher on Friday, with financials and information technology companies pacing the gainers on the back of positive global cues. Today, markets are likely to make negative start of new week following sell-off in the global markets coupled with continues rising coronavirus cases in the country. The Union Health Ministry said India recorded its biggest surge in the number of coronavirus cases in 24 hours for a second consecutive day with 19,906 new patients, taking the total to 5,28,859 infections. The country also witnessed 410 COVID-19-related deaths during the period, taking the total number of casualties due to the virus to 16,095. Also, traders will be concerned as S&P Global Ratings said that the Indian economy is in deep trouble with growth expected to contract by 5 percent in FY21. It added that difficulties in containing the virus, an anemic policy response, and underlying vulnerabilities, especially across the financial sector, are leading us to expect growth to fall this year before rebounding in 2021. Though, traders may take encouragement later in the day with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal's statement that adoption of technology and the digital economy would play a vital role in transforming business enterprises in the future and achieving the target of $5 trillion economy. Some support may come with the India Meteorological Department's statement that the Southwest Monsoon has covered the entire country nearly two weeks ahead of its schedule. Besides, reversing the three-month selling streak in June, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) pumped in a net Rs 21,235 crore in domestic markets amid increasing liquidity and gradual opening up of economy. There will be some buzz in the telecom stocks as Industry body COAI urged the government for urgent rationalisation of high burden of regulatory levies on telecom service providers (TSPs), including a cut in spectrum charges and licence fee, as it cited adverse impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the sector. Aviation stocks will be in focus as the aviation regulator DGCA said it is extending the suspension of scheduled international passenger flights in the country till July 15 but added that some international scheduled services on selected routes may be permitted on a case to case basis. There will be some reaction in the housing finance companies (HFCs) stocks with rating agency ICRA's statement that the asset quality of HFCs is likely to worsen, with severe economic disruptions impacting cash flows of borrowers.

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

Nifty Top volumes

• Hindustan Unilever has completed the acquisition of intimate hygiene brand Vwash from Glenmark Pharmaceuticals. 
• Coal India's coal supply to power sector declined 23.9 per cent to 61.84 million tonnes in the April-May period of the current financial year. 
• ICICI Bank has launched a facility that empowers retail customers to complete the KYC process, which is required to open a new relationship with the Bank, through video interaction. 
• IOC has launched a battery swapping facility for electric vehicles at its petrol pumps.