Last hour volatility pushed the Indian equity markets lower on Thursday, with Sensex and Nifty closing flat with a negative bias. After a positive start, key indices traded higher for the most part of session, aided by Arvind Panagariya's statement that the escalating trade war between the US and China is an opportune time for India to attract the large multinationals looking for alternative locations outside the Communist country. Traders remained optimistic with the department for promotion of industry and internal trade's (DPIIT) Secretary Ramesh Abhishek's statement that National Retail Policy will streamline the retail trade in India and is poised to provide the ease of doing business, which may be to the advantage of both traders and Indian economy. However, markets failed to hold gains in the last leg of trade and ended in red terrain, amid a report stating that the cumulative debt of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has mounted to Rs 1.78 lakh crore in FY19 from around Rs 40,000 crore in FY14. The borrowing is expected to go up to Rs 3.31 lakh crore by FY23. Adding some more worries among market participants, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Indian telecom sector declined by around 43 percent to $2.6 billion in last financial year (FY19). The FDI equity inflow in the FY18 was $6,211.84 million whereas the FDI equity inflow in the FY19 was $2,667.91 million. Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 5.67 points or 0.01% to 39,586.41, while the CNX Nifty was down by 6.00 points or 0.05% to 11,841.55.

The US markets ended mostly higher on Thursday as traders looked ahead to the highly anticipated G20 meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump and Xi are not expected to come out of the meeting with a finalized trade deal, but traders will be looking for signs of progress toward kick-starting the stalled negotiations between the two economic superpowers. A private report said Xi plans to present Trump with a set of terms the US should meet before Beijing is ready to settle the trade dispute. Lifting the ban on the sale of US technology to Chinese telecom giant Huawei, removing all tariffs and dropping efforts to get China to buy more US exports are reportedly among the preconditions. However, Trump is not likely to appreciate Xi dictating terms and has repeatedly threatened to escalate the trade war with new tariffs on all remaining Chinese imports. On the economic front, pending home sales in the US jumped by slightly more than anticipated in the month of May, according to a report released by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), with pending sales rebounding after showing a steep drop in the previous month. NAR said its pending home sales index surged up by 1.1 percent to 105.4 in May after tumbling by 1.5 percent to 104.3 in April. Despite the monthly increase, pending home sales in May were down by 0.7 percent compared to the same month a year ago, reflecting the 17th straight month of annual decreases. Besides, the Labor Department released a report showing first-time claims for US unemployment benefits increased by more than expected in the week ended June 22. The report said initial jobless claims rose to 227,000, an increase of 10,000 from the previous week's revised level of 217,000. The Labor Department also said the less volatile four-week moving average crept up to 221,250, an increase of 2,250 from the previous week's revised average of 219,000. Nasdaq surged 57.79 points or 0.73 percent to 7967.76 and S&P 500 was up by 11.14 points or 0.38 percent to 2924.92, while Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 10.24 points or 0.04 percent to 26526.58.

Crude oil futures ended marginally higher on Thursday as traders awaited pivotal trade discussions out the Group of 20 leaders summit and watched simmering tensions between the US and Iran that could pose a risk to global supplies. Meanwhile, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies will hold meetings on July 1-2, after the original date was moved from June 25-26. Iran and any potential regional disruptions could feature as part of the talks. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that domestic supplies of natural gas rose slightly less than expected, by 98 billion cubic feet for the week ended June 21. Benchmark crude oil futures for August rose 5 cents or nearly 0.1 percent to settle at $59.43 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. August Brent gained 6 cents or about 0.1 percent to settle at $66.55 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.

Erasing all of the initial losses, Indian rupee ended marginally higher on Thursday on selling of dollars by banks and exporters. Sentiments remained positive with Arvind Panagariya's statement that the escalating trade war between the US and China is an opportune time for India to attract the large multinationals looking for alternative locations outside the Communist country. An easing of global oil prices also supported the rupee. On the global front, dollar hovered near a one-week high against the yen on Thursday, propped up by hopes of Sino-US trade talk progress though investors were nonetheless cautious ahead of a meeting between leaders of the two powers in Japan in days ahead. Finally, the rupee ended at 69.07, 8 paise stronger from its previous close of 69.15 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 4286.95 crore against gross selling of Rs 4086.95 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 3391.36 crore with gross sales of Rs 2865.95 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was of Rs 1650.23 crore against gross selling of Rs 1.41 crore.

The US markets ended mostly higher on Thursday ahead of US-China trade talks, but Boeing weighed on the Dow amid expectations that the 737 Max will remain out of service for longer. Asian markets are trading in red on Friday as investors await the kickoff of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, where US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to meet amid the ongoing trade standoff. Indian markets ended the June F&O expiry session almost flat, with negative bias, on Thursday, as gains in auto and realty sectors offset by losses in IT and metal space. Today, the markets are likely to make cautious start amid mixed cues from global markets. There will be some cautiousness with a report that India's monsoon rains were below average for the fourth straight week, with rainfall scanty over central and western parts of the country in the week ended on June 26, raising concerns about major crop production and the impact on the nation's economy. However, some respite may come later in the day with the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) Financial Stability Report (FSR) stating that the financial system remains stable despite some dislocation of late. It said the proportion of commercial lenders' non-performing assets (NPAs) may fall slightly to 9% by March, but recommended that the vigil on non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) continues. Besides, Governor Shaktikanta Das called for more cooperation between the government and the RBI to help boost the sagging growth engine and to ensure systemic stability. Meanwhile, SEBI has approved a new framework for issuance of differential voting right (DVR) shares from July and banned mutual funds from entering into standstill agreements with any company. Besides, the government has decided to constitute a working group for the revision of the current series of Wholesale Price Index (Base 2011-12). The current series of WPI with 2011-12 as base year was introduced in May 2017. There will be some buzz in the cement stocks with ICRA's report stating that owing to slower pace of project execution, the demand for cement has been tepid in the first quarter of the current fiscal. The agency, however, expects the demand to pick up from the third quarter of the fiscal, post-monsoon season and expects it to increase by nearly seven per cent during for FY2020. There will be some reaction in logistic stocks with Union Minister Piyush Goyal's statement that Ministries of commerce, road, civil aviation and railways should work in coordination with an aim to cut the logistics cost to 9 per cent of GDP from the current 14 per cent. There will be some reaction in telecom stocks with Moody's Investors Service's statement that the proposed spectrum auctions in India, which includes radiowaves for 5G technology, are likely to be held only in the second half of 2020 or later, given the stressed balance sheets of telecom operators.

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

Nifty Top volumes

• Infosys' subsidiary -- EdgeVerve Systems has launched AssistEdge Engage at CCW Vegas. 
• M&M's step down subsidiary -- Mahindra International UK has ceased to be a subsidiary of Mahindra Overseas Investment Company Mauritius and that of the Company. 
• SBI is planning to raise Additional Tier 1 Capital by way of issuance of Basel-III compliant debt instrument in USD and/ or INR from domestic/International market during FY 2020. 
• HCL Technologies will offer more than 3,000 job opportunities to freshers at its Noida campus.