Indian equity indices continued their northward journey for sixth consecutive day and ended the last trading session of the week with marginal gains. Sentiments got some support with International Monetary Fund (IMF) assessment report that the adoption of the GST could help raise India's medium-term GDP growth to over eight per cent and create a single national market for enhancing the efficiency of the movement of goods and services. Noting that India's tax revenue-to-GDP ratio (at around 17 and a half per cent) remains considerably below than its emerging market peers, the IMF said the implementation of a robust GST should be a key priority given its growth-enhancing effects. Adding optimism among inventors, RBI Governor Urjit Patel said faster remonetisation and return of discretionary consumer demand will push economic activity in the latter part the fiscal. Patel, during the two-day Monetary Policy Committee meeting on February 7-8, also said that shifting monetary policy stance from accommodative to neutral will provide sufficient flexibility to move the policy rate in either direction. However, upside remained capped with the SBI's report that the growth estimate in the country's economic output or gross domestic product (GDP) may be scaled down to less than 6% for the FYཌྷ as the impact of demonetisation hurt consumption and output. CSO is going to release Q3 F17 GDP estimate on February 28, 2017. The Q3 estimates will be very critical as they cover the two-month period of demonetisation and might give the glimpses of what happened in the economy during those two months. Furthermore, investors remained cautious with report that India's corporate debt repayment rate is abysmally low- around, only 25.7 cents to a dollar loaned (or Rs 17 on Rs 67 lent) ever returns to the lender after years of protracted recovery proceedings. Indian banks are staring at a bad-debt accumulation of Rs 6.68 lakh crore. Moreover, the existing legal and reparation infrastructure - such as debt recovery tribunals (DRTs) and SARFAESI Act - is inadequate for handling the volume of recovery cases. Finally, the BSE Sensex surged 28.26 points or 0.10% to 28892.97, while the CNX Nifty was up by 12.60 points or 0.14% to 8,939.50. Indian markets remained closed on Friday on account of Mahashivratri.

The US markets managed to keep their head above water and the major averages snapped Friday's session with marginal gains, with the Dow extending its winning streak to eleven sessions to reach a new record closing high. Markets made a choppy start as traders opted to book profit off the table, but buying in last leg of trade helped markets to regain green terrain amid optimism about lower taxes and reduced regulations under President Donald Trump. On the U.S. economic front, the Commerce Department released a report showing that new home sales rebounded in the month of January. The Commerce Department said new home sales climbed by 3.7 percent to an annual rate of 555,000 in January after slumping by 7.0 percent to a revised 535,000 in December. However, street had expected new home sales to jump by 7.5 percent to 576,000 from the 536,000 originally reported for the previous month. A separate report from the University of Michigan showed that consumer sentiment pulled back by less than initially estimated in the month of February. The report said the consumer sentiment index for February was upwardly revised to 96.3 from a preliminary reading of 95.7. Economists had expected the index to be upwardly revised to 96.0. Despite the upward revision, the index was still below the final January reading of 98.5, which represented a thirteen-year high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 11.44 points or 0.05 percent to 20,821.76, S&P 500 added 3.53 points or 0.15 percent to 2,367.34 and the Nasdaq was up by 9.80 points or 0.17 percent to 5,845.31. 

Crude oil futures declined on Friday after data showed U.S. oil rig count jumped for the 15th week in 16. According to oil Services firm Baker Hughes the US oil-rig count increased by five to a total of 602 this week. That's nearly double the lowest point after the oil market crash a few years ago, adding to concerns that record US crude production may curtail OPEC's effort to drain excess supply in the industry. Traders even overlooked some positive report showing that new home sales rebounded in the month of January.  Benchmark crude oil futures for April delivery lost $0.46 or 0.83 percent to $53.99 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent crude for April delivery ended lower by $0.59 at $55.98 on the ICE.

Indian rupee ended two-week high against dollar on Thursday, due to selling of greenback by banks and importers. Domestic currency got some support with International Monetary Fund (IMF) assessment report that the adoption of the GST could help raise India's medium-term GDP growth to over 8% and create a single national market for enhancing the efficiency of the movement of goods and services. Some support also came with RBI Governor Urjit Patel's statement that faster remonetisation and return of discretionary consumer demand will push economic activity in the latter part the fiscal. Besides, the dollar's weakness against some currencies overseas and a firm domestic equity market too contributed to the rupee gains. On the global front, dollar slipped against yen on Thursday, as the lack of a clearer signal from the U.S. Federal Reserve that it might raise interest rates next month countered surprise praise from the new Treasury Secretary for a strong currency. Finally, the rupee ended at 66.82, 14 paise stronger from its previous close of 66.96 on Wednesday.

The FIIs as per Thursday's data were net buyers in equity segment, while they were net sellers in debt segment. In equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 6454.69 crore against gross selling of Rs 6203.10 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 334.75 crore with gross sales of Rs 1707.06 crore.

The US markets posted modest gains in last session supported by some positive economic reports on housing and consumer confidence. The Asian markets have made a mixed start despite the positive cues from Wall Street, with some indices trading in red, led by the Japanese market which is down by over a percent, as a stronger yen hurt exporters' stocks. The Indian markets had managed a modestly positive close before going for a long weekend. Today, the start of the new week and new F&O series is likely to be cautious tailing mixed regional cues. All eyes will be on US President Donald Trump's first address to the US Congress on Tuesday. The president is expected to lay out his plans for tax and health-care reform and infrastructure spending. There will be some support with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's statement that the demonetisation process is almost complete, hailing it as the "smoothest possible replacement" of high denomination currency anywhere in the world. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that digital payment can check black money and play a key role in fighting graft. There will be some buzz in the power sector, as the power ministry has finally framed new rules to get electricity supply from independent power producers (IPP) in lieu of dry fuel. The new arrangement will replace the rigid practice of allocation of coal to state-owned generation plant.

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

Nifty Top volumes

• Bharti Airtel has entered into a definitive agreement with Telenor South Asia Investments to acquire Telenor Communications.
• NTPC has commissioned the 115 MW out of 260 MW of Bhadla Solar Power Project of the company.
• Tata Motors' subsidiary -- Jaguar Land Rover has launched its locally manufactured all-new Jaguar XF sedan at a starting price of Rs 47.50 lakh.
• ITC has launched a range of basic and blended spices under a newly created umbrella brand - ITC Master Chef - in the national capital.