Indian equity benchmarks extended previous session's rally to end the Thursday's trade at fresh record closing high levels, with Sensex and Nifty conquering their crucial 38,000 and 11,450 marks, respectively. After making a positive start markets traded in green throughout the day, as sentiments remained up-beat with the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) statement that India is on track to hold its position as one of the world's fastest-growing economies as reforms start to pay off. The $2.6 trillion economy was described by Ranil Salgado, the IMF's mission chief for India, as an elephant starting to run, with growth forecast at 7.3% in the fiscal year through March 2019 and 7.5% in the year after that. Adding some optimism among the investors, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu said that the exports are showing good sign and registering increase at the rate of 20%. Meanwhile, the government will shortly unveil a new industrial policy that aims to speed up regulatory reforms and lower power tariffs to make businesses more competitive and create more jobs. Markets witnessed some hiccups in noon deals but managed to end comfortably above their crucial levels, as traders took some encouragement with a private report stating that optimism level among India's chief financial officers for the July-September period has improved as compared to the previous quarter and going forward distribution of rainfall, raw material costs and revival in demand will be the key deciding factors. Sentiments remained buoyed with report that India's average per capita income in the last four financial years was higher at Rs 79,882 as compared to the preceding four fiscals. As per the report, the per capita income grew by 4.6% in 2013-14 to Rs 68,572; 6.2% to Rs 72,805 in 2014-15; 6.9% to Rs 77,826 in 2015-16 and by 5.7% to Rs 82,229 in 2016-17. Finally, the BSE Sensex jumped 136.81 points or 0.36% to 38,024.37, while the CNX Nifty was up by 20.70 points or 0.18% to 11,470.70.

The US markets ended mostly lower on Thursday, but the Nasdaq bucked the trend to rise for an eighth straight session, logging its best winning streak since October. Trade tensions between Washington and Beijing linger, threatening to derail the market's upside momentum. China warned that duties imposed by President Donald Trump's administration on some $50 billion of Chinese imports set to be enacted on August 23 would be matched, and China's Ministry of Commerce said that the country has to retaliate as necessary. On the economic front, the Labor Department released a report showing first-time claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly edged lower in the week ended August 4. The report said initial jobless claims dipped to 213,000, a decrease of 6,000 from the previous week's revised level of 219,000. Besides, a separate report released by the Labor Department showed producer prices unexpectedly came in unchanged in the month of July. The Labor Department said its producer price index was unchanged in July after rising by 0.3 percent in June. Street had expected producer prices to increase by 0.2 percent. Meanwhile, the Commerce Department released a report showing a modest uptick in wholesale inventories in the month of June. The Commerce Department said wholesale inventories inched up by 0.1 percent in June after rising by 0.3 percent in May. Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 74.52 points or 0.29 percent to 25509.23 and the S&P 500 declined 4.12 points or 0.14 percent to 2853.58, while Nasdaq was up by 3.46 points or 0.04 percent to 7891.78.

Crude oil futures ended marginally lower on Thursday, amid tempered expectations of lost Iranian supply even and fears that China - the second-largest economy and a big oil importer - may be signaling waning demand for oil. China's crude imports were lower in 2018 on account of waning appetite from the country's smaller independent, so-called teapot, refineries. Overall, investors wrestled with evidence of waxing inventories and waning demand, against geopolitical tensions that had threatened to push crude prices to new heights. Benchmark crude oil futures for September declined 13 cents or 0.2 percent to settle at $66.81 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. October Brent crude lost 21 cents or 0.3 percent at $$72.07 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.

Paring early gains, Indian rupee ended marginally lower against US dollar on Thursday, due to fresh demand for the American currency from banks and importers. Traders failed to get relief with International Monetary Fund's (IMF) report stating that the $2.6-trillion Indian economy is like an elephant starting to run and will remain one of the world's fastest-growing economies, aided by structural reforms. However, it needs to simplify the goods and services tax (GST) structure and take advantage of strong growth to trim debt more aggressively than planned. The domestic currency was also weighed down by dollar's strengthen against some other currencies overseas. On the global front, dollar gained against most major currencies on Thursday as investors bet that trade war rhetoric and a strong U.S. economy would continue to aid the currency. Finally, the rupee ended at 68.68, 6 paise weaker from its previous close of 68.62 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 4312.90 crore against gross selling of Rs 3395.97 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 1025.86 crore with gross sales of Rs 510.28 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was of Rs 0.04 crore against gross selling of Rs 2.74 crore.

The US markets ended mostly lower on Thursday, as traders remained reluctant to make significant moves as they weigh lingering trade war concerns against largely upbeat corporate earnings news. Asian markets were trading mostly in red on Friday, amid heightened global trade tensions. Indian equity benchmarks ended higher on Thursday, with Sensex and Nifty closing at fresh record highs, as strong corporate earnings results, falling oil prices and uninterrupted foreign and domestic fund inflows helped investors shrug off muted cues from global markets. Today, the markets are likely to make a cautious start, amid mixed global cues. Traders will be eyeing the macro data of industrial production for June scheduled to be announced post market hours. Investors will keep a close eye on unfolding weather in the country after data released by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) showed that 39 percent of the 681 districts in India have received less than normal rainfall in the week ended August 8. However, traders will be getting some encouragement later in the day, with the Lok Sabha passing four bills to amend the GST law, as Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said lower tax rates will improve compliance and enhance revenue collection. He said tax collection will not come down despite reduction in taxes as he allayed the concerns to that effect raised by some members and added that the lower rates will rather improve compliance and enhance revenue collection. Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in its annual report for 2017-18 has said that it is planning to put in place measures to curb insider trading and misuse of unpublished price-sensitive information through timely announcements by listed companies. There will be buzz in the Pharma stocks with report that India's pharmaceutical exports grew merely 3 percent to $17.3 billion in 2017-18 due to increasing regulatory concerns and pricing pressures in the global markets, including the US. There will be lots of important earnings announcements too, to keep the markets in action.

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

Nifty Top volumes

• Axis Bank is expected to add about 350 to 400 branches during current financial year.  
• SBI is planning to expand its Yono customer base to 250 million in the next two years. 
• Maruti Suzuki is all set to start bookings for the New Ciaz at its NEXA showrooms across India from August 10, 2018 onwards. 
• BPCL has reported 3-fold jump in its net profit at Rs 2,293.26 crore for Q1FY19 as compared to Rs 744.56 crore for Q1FY18.