Gaining significant ground, Indian equity benchmarks resumed their record closing spree on Thursday, with Sensex and Nifty settling above their psychological levels of 39,800 and 11,900, respectively. Key indices made a positive start of the day, as the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) proposed to formulate a national retail policy with an aim to support growth of domestic trade. The national retail policy will be formulated to support development of the sector that would benefit 65 million small traders. Adding comfort among market participants, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) extended minimum holding period requirement for Non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) to raise funds via loan securitisation to help the sector overcome liquidity shortage. Further, rally continued on the streets, after investments in the domestic capital market through participatory notes, led by equity allocation, rose to Rs 81,220 crore at the end of April on hopes of favourable market conditions. Out of the total investments made till April-end, Rs 58,820 crore was invested in the equities segment, Rs 21,542 crore in debt and Rs 123 crore in derivatives market. Some support also came amid reports that the RBI constituted a task force on the development of secondary market for corporate loans. Task Force will review the existing state of the market for loan sale/transfer in India as well as the international experience in loan trading. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 329.92 points or 0.84% to 39,831.97, while the CNX Nifty was up by 84.80 points or 0.71% to 11,945.90.

The US markets ended marginally higher on Thursday on account of bargain hunting following recent weakness. Some support also came in as bond yields halted their slide, giving the market a reprieve from selling sparked by continued US-China trade tensions and worries about global economic growth. However, upside remained capped as traders seemed reluctant to get back into the markets due to lingering concerns about the US-China trade dispute. Amid a continued escalation of the rhetoric, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Hanhui accused the US of economic terrorism by raising tariffs on Chinese goods. Zhang said we oppose a trade war but are not afraid of a trade war. This kind of deliberately provoking trade disputes is naked economic terrorism, economic homicide, economic bullying. On the economic front, US economic growth in the first quarter accelerated by slightly less than initially estimated, according to revised data released by the Commerce Department. The Commerce Department said real gross domestic product surged up by 3.1% in the first quarter, reflecting a slight downward from revision from the previously reported 3.2% jump. The downwardly revised increase in GDP, which matched street estimates, still represented a notable acceleration from the 2.2% growth seen in the fourth quarter of 2018. Meanwhile, a report released by the Labor Department showed a modest uptick in first-time claims for US unemployment benefits in the week ended May 25. The report said initial jobless claims edged up to 215,000, an increase of 3,000 from the previous week's revised level of 212,000. Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 43.47 points or 0.17 percent to 25169.88, Nasdaq gained 20.41 points or 0.27 percent to 7567.72 and S&P 500 was up by 5.84 points or 0.21 percent to 2788.86.

Crude oil futures ended sharply lower with cut of over three and half percent on Thursday after US government data revealed a weekly decline in domestic crude stockpiles that was much less than expected. The data also showed a further increase in production that was already in record territory. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that US crude supplies edged lower by 300,000 barrels for the week ended May 24. That marked the first weekly decline in three weeks, but it was significantly less than the 1.4 million-barrel declined expected by S&P Global Platts, on average. The EIA also estimated that domestic production rose by 100,000 barrels to 12.3 million barrels a day last week. Benchmark crude oil futures for July plunged $2.22 or 3.8 percent to settle at $56.59 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. July Brent crude dropped $2.58 or 3.7 percent to settle at $66.87 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.

Indian rupee ended marginally lower against US dollar on Thursday, due to fresh demand for the American currency from banks and importers. Traders remained cautious ahead for the Q4 GDP data to be released on May 31, while there are expectations that numbers are likely to be weak. Moreover, the domestic currency was also weighed down by dollar's strengthen against some other currencies overseas. However, losses were limited as traders found some support with a report that the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has proposed to formulate a national retail policy to support growth of domestic trade. On the global front, pound held near a four-month low against the dollar and the euro on Thursday as investors remained sidelined amid the contest to succeed Prime Minister Theresa May. Finally, the rupee ended at 69.87, 4 paise weaker from its previous close of 69.83 on Wednesday.

The FIIs as per Thursday's data were net sellers in equity segment, while they were net buyers in debt segment. In equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 4791.26 crore against gross selling of Rs 4892.75 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 2334.62 crore with gross sales of Rs 1800.20 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was of Rs 1.23 crore against gross selling of Rs 2.38 crore.

The US markets ended higher on Thursday, but gains were limited as investors remained nervous about the impact of the trade war with China even though the latest data showed economic growth was healthy in the first quarter. Asian markets are trading mixed on Friday as Chinese economic data came in below expectations. The official manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for May came in at 49.4. Indian markets ended F&O expiry session at record closing high on Thursday, led by gains in IT and banking stocks. Today, the start is likely to be cautious ahead of fourth-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) data due to be released later in the day amid mixed global cues. The industry body FICCI's economic outlook survey showed that India's GDP is likely to grow 6.5 per cent in the fourth quarter ended March 2019. FICCI said survey has put forth an annual median GDP growth forecast for 2019-20 at 7.1 per cent and the projection for fiscal 2020-21 has been put at 7.2 per cent. Traders may take note of a report that India Inc has welcomed the new term and team of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and hoped that it would be able to give new impetus to the economy, which is facing slowdown in several sectors. Meanwhile, the Narendra Modi government is likely to present the full Union Budget 2019 by the first week of July with prime focus on farmers' issue, agriculture and employment. Moreover, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced calendar for issuance of Sovereign Gold Bonds for the first half of the current fiscal. The Sovereign Gold Bonds (SGB) will be issued every month from June 2019 to September 2019. There will be some buzz in the metal industry stocks with report that Japan and South Korea strengthened their grip on the Indian steel market in April, supplying nearly three-fifths of the total imports. The increasing inroads the foreign steelmakers are making will add to pressure on the Indian government to take protectionist measures to support local mills.

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

Nifty Top volumes

• HDFC has disbursed subsidy of more than Rs 2,300 crore under the government's flagship housing scheme PMAY, benefiting over one lakh first time home buyers. 
• IOC has signed a MoU with Punjab's Cooperation Department. 
• M&M's electric vehicle sales grew over two-and-a-half times to 10,276 units in 2018-19, riding on the second phase of orders for electric cars from state-owned EESL. 
• L&T has acquired about 98,000 shares of Mindtree from open market on May 29.