The Penultimate trading day of the week turned out to be a disappointment for the Indian frontline equity indices, as they remained choppy throughout the session and ended near day's lows. The benchmarks suffered hefty bouts of profit booking especially in Oil & Gas, PSU and IT counters and got dragged below the psychological 9,600 (Nifty) and 31,100 (Sensex) levels.  Sentiments remained weak with the report that the likely increase in farm loan waivers will weigh on PSU banks, NBFCs. The agri stress indicates that Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Haryana may follow up with farm loan waivers, taking the total farm loan waivers to about $28 billion from $10 billion. Besides, soft US economic data, a relatively hawkish Federal Reserve statement and worries of political turmoil in the world's largest economy also weighed on the sentiments.  Adding pessimism among traders, Moody's Investors Services in its report indicated that Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) move to reduce the amount of money that banks have to set aside (as security) on home loans is negative from the perspective of the ratings of lenders. According to the rating agency, the move is credit negative for Indian banks because lower capital requirements will weaken their protection related to the exposure to the housing sector and encourage greater lending. Some concerns also came with report that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 161.13 crore on June 14, 2017. Meanwhile, with less than two weeks to go, the Centre and States are hoping to wrap up discussions on the goods and services tax (GST) this weekend. The GST Council will meet on June 18 to finalize the tax rate on lottery and will discuss the remaining draft rules. Finally, the BSE Sensex declined 80.18 points or 0.26% to 31075.73, while the CNX Nifty was down by 40.10 points or 0.42% to 9,578.05.

The US markets closed mostly lower on Thursday, as large-cap names in the technology sector extended losses, but major indexes finished off of their intraday lows. A more hawkish tone from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday continued to contribute to the cautious mood, as did reports that a special counsel was investigating whether President Donald Trump obstructed justice, inserting a new bit of political uncertainty into markets. On the economy front, the number of Americans applying for and receiving benefits after losing their jobs keeps going lower. Initial jobless claims fell by 8,000 to 237,000 in the seven days stretching from June 4 to June 10. The less-volatile four-week average of new claims rose by 1,000 to a still-low 243,000. In May the monthly average fell to a 44-year bottom. Initial claims reflect people who apply for benefits after losing their jobs. New applications for benefits have registered less than 300,000 for 119 straight weeks, the longest run since the early 1970s. Separately, two gauges of manufacturing sentiment showed strength in June. The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index in June retreated to a reading of 27.6 from 38.8 in May. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 14.66 points or 0.07 percent to 21,359.90, Nasdaq was down 29.39 points or 0.47 percent to 6,165.50, and S&P 500 edged lower by 5.46 points or 0.22 percent to 2,432.46.

Crude oil futures extended their slump and once again hit their seven-month lows on Thursday, as high global inventories fed fears that rising crude production in Nigeria, Libya and the United States will feed the global supply glut despite output cuts from OPEC and other producing countries . In a surprisingly hawkish move that strengthened the U.S. dollar and dented commodity prices, the Fed maintained its interest rate outlook for the next two years despite downbeat economic data. Meanwhile, OPEC is worried that global supplies will continued to outstrip demand. It said that as per its estimates US crude oil production will rise by 800,000 bpd in 2017. Benchmark crude oil futures for July delivery ended lower by $0.27 or 0.6 percent to $44.46 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent crude for July delivery ended lower by $ 0.08 to $46.92 on the ICE.

Indian rupee ended considerably weaker against the US dollar on Thursday due to fresh demand for the American currency from banks and importers. Sentiments remained dampened as the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates, citing continued US economic growth and job market strength, and announced it would begin cutting its holdings of bonds and other securities this year. Some concern also came with media reports that US President Donald Trump is being investigated by a special counsel for possible obstruction of justice. Moreover, lackluster local equities along with modest capital outflows too weighed on the currency trade. On the global front, dollar inched higher against yen on Thursday, with expectations of another Federal Reserve rate hike this year pointing the way to a trimming of the huge emergency funds pumped into the economy since 2009. Finally, the rupee ended at 64.54, 25 paise weaker from its previous close of 64.29 on Wednesday.

The FIIs as per Thursday's data were net buyers in equity and debt segments both. In equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 6819.81 crore against gross selling of Rs 6733.70 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 1247.69 crore with gross sales of Rs 483.75 crore.

The US markets despite coming off the worst levels of the day, ended modestly in red in the last session, as traders continued to digest the Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates by a quarter point and they largely overlooked the report showing a bigger than expected drop in initial jobless claims in the week ended June 10th. The Asian markets have made a mixed start, though some of the indices are up by around half a percent in the early deals, led by the Japanese market ahead of a Bank of Japan's policy decision. The Indian markets gradually losing their hold ended with cut of around half a percent in last session. Today, the start is likely to be flat-to-cautious, as there will be some concern with the current account deficit soaring to $ 3.4 billion, or 0.6 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017, from $ 0.3 billion a year ago. The widening of the CAD on a year-on-year basis was primarily on account of a higher trade deficit which stood at $ 29.7 billion. However, on a sequential basis, the gap between forex earnings and expenses, narrowed from $ 8 billion in the third quarter of FY17. There will be some buzz in the chemical sector stocks, as the Finance Ministry has imposed definitive anti-dumping duty on Hydrogen Peroxide imports from six countries. The IT and tech  stocks are likely to remain under pressure tailing the slump in global counterparts and as the board of directors at Infosys will set revised growth targets in place of the much-touted goal of $20 billion by 2020. The oil companies too will be in focus, as after the successful pilot in five cities, state-owned oil companies will from today revise rates on a daily basis across all the 58,000 petrol pumps in the country. Also, Reliance Industries and British Petroleum have announced an investment of $6 billion, or nearly Rs 40,000 crore, in new projects including developing new gas fields in the KG-D6 block.

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

Nifty Top volumes

• Dr. Reddy's Laboratories is recalling over 3.25 lakh cartons of Zenatane capsules, used for the treatment of severe acne, from the US market due to failed dissolution specifications.
• BPCL has inked an agreement with HPCL and IOC to jointly set up the world's largest refinery and petrochemical complex at Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra at a cost of $40 billion.
• Yes Bank has collaborated with TerraPay to enable real-time international money transfers to bank accounts in India.
• Bajaj Auto has cut prices of its motorcycles by up to Rs 4,500 with immediate effect.