Indian equity benchmarks showed smart recovery despite snapping the day in the negative territory as they managed to outclass most of the Asian and Europe peers by fat a margin. Sentiments got a boost after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) projected India's growth to strengthen to 7.4% in 2017-18 from 6.7% in 2016-17. The central bank has maintained status quo on policy rate by leaving the repurchase rate (or repo rate) unchanged at 6.25% in its first bimonthly policy of FY18. However, it raised the reverse repo rate by 25 basis points to 6%. Further, RBI projected inflation to average around 4.5% in the first half of 2017-18 and 5% in the second half. Investors also got some confidence with Asian Development Bank's (ADB) report that India's growth rate will improve to 7.4% during 2017-18 and go up further to 7.6% in the next fiscal. According to the ADB, India has taken a host of economic reforms initiative, including the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and liberalization of the FDI regime, with a view to improve business climate and promote growth. Some support also came after the country's services sector registered second straight month of growth in March, driven by strong rise in new work orders amid softer inflationary pressures. The Nikkei India Services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), which tracks the services sector output on a monthly basis, rose from 50.3 in February to 51.5 in March. Meanwhile, Real estate shares gained traction after RBI allowed banks to invest in Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs). Further, shares of railway related companies such as Texmaco Rail & Engineering, Kernex Microsystems and Stone India surged after the government approved setting up of Rail Development Authority. Finally, the BSE Sensex decreased 46.90 points or 0.16% to 29927.34, while the CNX Nifty was down by 3.20 points or 0.03% to 9,261.95. 

The US markets closed higher on Thursday, as investors sought clues how the leaders of the world's economic powerhouses will tackle trade and geopolitical issues. Investors are closely watching the Trump-Xi summit amid some concerns that the two-day meeting could end in acrimonious fashion, spooking global financial markets. The mood in the market, however, remained cautious as investors awaited nonfarm-payrolls data due on Friday.  On the economy front, the number of Americans who applied for unemployment benefits last week sank by 25,000 to 234,000, marking the second-lowest level of the current economic expansion and reflecting a tight labor market in which firms say that it's hard to find good help. The new jobless claims in the US have been under the key 300,000 threshold for 109 straight weeks, the second-longest stretch since the early 1970s. The economy has added nearly a half-million jobs in the first two months of 2017, knocking the unemployment rate down to 4.7%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 14.8 points or 0.07 percent to 20,662.95, the Nasdaq was up 14.47 points or 0.25 percent to 5,878.95, while S&P 500 gained 4.54 points or 0.19 percent to 2,357.49.

Crude oil futures strengthened on Thursday to close near $52 a barrel, as a strong U.S. jobs market signaled imminent demand for energy products. Also there was expectations that an OPEC-led cut would be extended beyond June offset bearish US inventories data. Benchmark crude oil futures for May delivery gained $0.55 or 1.12 percent to $51.70 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent crude for May delivery ended higher by $0.52 at $54.88 on the ICE.

After making a weak start, Indian rupee recouped substantial ground and ended considerably stronger against dollar on Thursday, mainly on account of dollar's weakness against other currencies overseas. This is the second consecutive session when the rupee traded higher against American currency. Local currency got a boost after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) projected India's GVA growth to strengthen to 7.4% in FY18 from 6.7% in FY17. Besides, the central bank maintained status quo on policy rate by leaving the repo rate unchanged at 6.25% in its first bimonthly policy of FY18. Though, it raised the reverse repo rate to 6% from 5.75%. On the global front, the greenback came under pressure after the minutes of the Federal Reserve's March meeting indicated that the central bank would likely begin trimming its $4.5 trillion balance sheet of Treasury and mortgage securities later this year. Finally, the rupee ended at 64.53, 34 paise stronger from its previous close of 64.87 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 7909.95 crore against gross selling of Rs 7428.83 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 5168.25 crore with gross sales of Rs 1781.52 crore.

The US markets closed modestly higher in last session but were off the highs of the day, as traders looked ahead to the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday. The Asian markets have made mostly a soft start with some indices suffering cut of around half a percent, after the US launched a cruise missile attack against Syria two days after Bashar al-Assad's regime used poison gas to kill scores of civilians. The Indian markets after a choppy trade ended marginally in red in the last session after the Reserve Bank of India in its first monetary policy meeting decided to keep the repo rate unchanged. Today, the start is likely to be in red tailing the Asian peers and the markets will be showing the impact of geopolitical tension with US launching cruise missiles attack against Syria. Marketmen will also be analyzing the RBI's stance which has now turned to liquidity control, while the repo rate was kept unchanged, the reverse repo rate was increased to 6 percent and the Marginal Standing Facility (MSF--the amount one can borrow from the RBI beyond the repo under specified conditions) was decreased to 6.5 percent. It has also projected retail inflation to increase to 5 percent in the second half of the current fiscal citing risks of El Nino impacting the monsoon and one-off effects of the Goods and Services Tax. Market however, may get some support with the Rajya Sabha passing four supplementary legislations which will enable the government to rollout the landmark Goods and Services Tax Bill on July 1. Also, the Lok Sabha passed a bill which will ensure continuance of levy of excise on petroleum products and abolition of cess on some other items following GST rollout from July 1. There will be some buzz in the aviation stocks on a report that India`s domestic passenger traffic grew by 17 percent in February.

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

Nifty Top volumes

• ICICI Venture, an alternate investment arm of top private sector lender ICICI Bank, is reportedly planning to invest $20 million to acquire a significant stake in Theobroma.
• Tata Power Company surpassed power generation of 51,000 Million Units for the first time, collectively from all its power plants in the year 2016-17.
• Mahindra & Mahindra's Farm Equipment Sector has launched Mahindra JIVO, a new age, superior technology small tractor.
• Power Grid Corporation of India has entered into loan agreement(s) with Asian Development Bank for an amount of $225 million.