Indian benchmark indices ended the range bound day of trade on a flat note with positive bias as market participants remained cautious ahead of IIP numbers for December, which is scheduled to be released later in the evening today. Sentiments got some support with the report that Government's revenue collection from indirect tax grew by an impressive 23.9% during the April-January period, while that from direct tax rose by 10.79%. Total direct and indirect tax collections at the end of January stood at Rs 12.85 lakh crore, 76% of the Rs 16.99 lakh crore target, according to revised estimate for 2016-17. Besides, better-than-expected earnings by some companies also fuelled the positive sentiment. State Bank of India, the nation's biggest lender, reported 70.88% jump in its consolidated net profit at Rs 2152.23 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2016, as compared to Rs 1259.49 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. Also, Edelweiss Financial Services reported 46.87% rise in its consolidated net profit at Rs 155.18 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2016, as compared to Rs 105.66 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. Meanwhile, Investors around the world turned bullish after US President Donald Trump promised to unveil a major tax announcement to lower the burden on businesses. Some support also came with the Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya's conformation that the government was examining a proposal to let the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) invest 15% of its corpus via exchange-traded funds compared with 10% at present. The issue would be taken up in the next meeting of the Central Board of Trustees (CBT) of the fund. However, gains remained capped as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley warned that economies will become more inefficient and GDP will shrink if protectionist trend emerges in developed economies. On the global front, Asian markets ended mostly in green on Friday, as investors cheered upbeat Chinese trade data and strong gains on Wall Street after US President Donald Trump promised to unveil a major tax announcement to lower the burden on businesses. Back home, finally, the BSE Sensex gained 4.55 points or 0.02% to 28334.25, while the CNX Nifty was up by 15.15 points or 0.17% to 8,793.55. 

US markets ended the session in green on Friday, as traders remained optimistic about corporate tax reform under President Donald Trump. At a meeting with airline executives on Thursday, Trump pledged to unveil a tax plan that includes a ‘big league' reduction in the tax burden on American business in the next few weeks. Trump has previously proposed reducing the corporate income tax rate to 15 or 20 percent from the current rate of 35 percent. Some support also came on reports that Trump spoke by phone with Chinese President Xi Jinping and agreed to honor the ‘one China' policy also eased concerns about tensions between the two economic superpowers.  On the U.S. economic front, Labor Department released a report showing import prices rose by more than expected in January amid another jump in fuel prices. The import prices increased 0.4 percent in January after climbing by an upwardly revised 0.5 percent in December. Though, the street had expected import prices to rise by 0.2 percent. The report also said export prices inched up by 0.1 percent in January after rising by 0.4 percent in December. The uptick in export prices matched street expectations. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 96.97 points or 0.48 percent to 20,269.37, the Nasdaq rose 18.95 points or 0.33 percent to 5,734.13 and S&P 500 gained 8.23 points or 0.36 percent to 2,316.10.

Crude oil futures strengthened further on Friday amid hopes the global supply glut is dwindling. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), most OPEC members have complied with their output quotas. The IEA also upgraded its forecast for 2017 demand growth to 1.4 million barrels a day, from 1.3 million barrels projected in its January report. Traders even overlooked the report of rig count increase, as the oil services firm Baker Hughes said the U.S. rig count rose 8 to 591 rigs this week, marking the most since the week of Oct. 23, 2015 when the count stood at 594. Drillers have added rigs at a furious pace this winter. Benchmark crude oil futures for March delivery gained $0.86 or 1.6 percent to $53.86 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent crude for March delivery ended higher by 1.92 percent at $55.70 on the ICE.

Indian rupee depreciated against US dollar on the last trading day of the week, as investors remained cautious ahead of key economic data i.e. December IIP scheduled to be released later in the session. Sentiments remained dampened as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley warned that economies will become more inefficient and GDP will shrink if protectionist trend emerges in developed economies. Rupee was unable to get any support with a US think tank report stating that India will be the world's fastest growing economy during the next five years as China's economy cools and growth elsewhere sputters, but internal tensions over inequality and religion will complicate its expansion. Besides, dollar's strength against other currencies overseas too hit the rupee sentiments. On the global front, dollar hit its highest level in 10 days against yen and a basket of currencies ahead of a meeting of the US and Japanese leaders on Friday, putting it on course for its best week since mid-December. Finally, the rupee ended at 66.88, 3 paise weaker from its previous close of 66.85 on Thursday.

The FIIs as per Friday's data were net buyers in equity and debt segments both. In equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 4964.41 crore against gross selling of Rs 4365.34 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 1168.22 crore with gross sales of Rs 1064.31 crore.

The US markets moved higher in last session and the indices registered fresh records and posted a third straight weekly gain. Wall Street remained fairly upbeat on the positive impact of lower taxes and regulatory reforms promised by Trump. The Asian markets have made an all green start tailing the gains in US markets and as recent actions by President Donald Trump helped soothe investor worries about ties between the U.S. and its key Asian trading partners. The Indian markets managed a flat closing with a positive bias in the last session, though the trade remained choppy and the traders were eyeing the industrial production data and corporate earnings. Today, the start of the new week is likely to be in green on sanguine global cues. However, there will be cautiousness too and traders may react negatively to Industrial production data which contracted by 0.4% in December 2016 from the same period a year ago, due to a sharp decline in production of consumer goods. The cumulative IIP growth for April-December was 0.3% against 3.2% for the same period in 2015. Meanwhile, RBI Governor Urjit Patel has attributed the banks grappling with high bad loans to legacy issues saying they are mostly on account of credit facility provided for long-gestation projects before 2011-12. There will be buzz in the Infra stocks, as the Road Transport, Highway and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that the government`s road and highway building programme has enough cash to build the crucial infrastructure. He said as many as 101 projects are ready for take-off and funding the same would not be a problem. There will be lots of earnings announcements to keep the markets buzzing.

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

Nifty Top volumes

• Tata Motors will soon launch compact sedan ‘Tigor', with an aim of continuing with its efforts to reclaim lost ground in the Indian passenger vehicles market.
• BPCL has reported 47.04% rise in its net profit at Rs 2271.94 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2016 as compared to Rs 1545.15 crore for the same quarter in the previous year.
• Tata Power has launched online application facility for customers who wish to apply for power supply.
• Tata Steel UK, a subsidiary of Tata Steel, has signed a definitive sale agreement to sell its Specialty Steels business to Liberty House Group for a total consideration of 100 million pounds.
• SBI has reported 70.88% jump in its consolidated net profit after minority interest at Rs 2152.23 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2016, as compared to Rs 1259.49 crore for the same quarter in the previous year.