Indian equity benchmarks erased previous two-session losses and ended higher with gains of over half a percent on Thursday amid strong global cues and broad-based sectoral participation. Markets made gap-up start and stayed in green for whole day as traders took encouragement with data showing that India's goods and services tax (GST) collections in October grew 13 per cent over a year earlier to Rs 1.72 trillion, mainly on account of stricter anti-evasion measures and higher festival-season consumer spending. This was the second-highest monthly figure ever, next only to the Rs 1.87 trillion collected in April this year. Some optimism also came as data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed India’s services trade surplus bounced back in the September quarter of 2023-24 (FY24), growing 26.6 per cent after falling to a three-quarter low in June. Sentiments remained positive with a private report that Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation wave is likely to create a need to reskill and upskill 16.2 million workers in India in the next five years. According to report, the rise of emerging technologies such as AI may create around 4.7 million new technology jobs in India. Traders took a note of report that India and Sri Lanka have resumed talks for an economic and technology cooperation agreement (ETCA), after a gap of nearly five years. Traders overlooked private report stating that India’s unemployment rate climbed to the highest in more than two years in October as joblessness in rural areas increased. The overall rate rose to 10.05% last month from 7.09% in September. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 489.57 points or 0.77% to 64,080.90 and the CNX Nifty was up by 144.10 points or 0.76% to 19,133.25.

The US markets ended with gains of over one and half percent on Thursday amid optimism about the outlook for interest rates following the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday. The Fed left interest rates unchanged for the third time in the past four meetings, leading to optimism that the central bank is done raising interest rates. Treasury yields moved notably lower on Wednesday and showed another significant move to the downside Thursday, adding to the buying interest. The latest economic data added to the optimism about rates, with the Labor Department releasing a report showing an unexpected uptick in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended October 28th. The report said initial jobless claims crept up to 217,000, an increase of 5,000 from the previous week's revised level of 212,000. Street had expected jobless claims to come in unchanged compared to the 210,000 originally reported for the previous week. A separate report from the Labor Department also showed an unexpected decrease in unit labor costs in the third quarter. The Labor Department said unit labor costs fell by 0.8 percent in the third quarter after shooting up by a revised 3.2 percent in the second quarter. On the sectoral front, banking stocks moved sharply higher over the course of the session, resulting in a 4.5 percent spike by the KBW Bank Index. Interest rate-sensitive housing also saw substantial strength on the day, with the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index surging by 3.4 percent.

Crude oil futures ended sharply higher on Thursday as the dollar weakened on bets the Federal Reserve is done with its rate hiking cycle. The dollar index, which dropped to 105.81, recovered to 106.13 later on in the session, but still remained well below the flat line, losing about 0.72%. Besides, oil was also supported by recent data showing just a small increase in crude stockpiles in the U.S. in the week ended October 27th. Benchmark crude oil futures for December delivery rose $2.02 or 2.5 percent to settle at $82.46 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for January delivery surged $2.02 or 2.38 percent to settle at $86.85 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.

Rupee settled higher against dollar on Thursday as the American currency retreated from its elevated levels after the US Federal Reserve was a bit dovish in its policy meeting. Local unit got support from positive domestic equity markets. Sentiments got boost as India's goods and services tax (GST) collections in October grew 13 per cent over a year earlier to Rs 1.72 trillion, mainly on account of stricter anti-evasion measures and higher festival-season consumer spending. The highest-ever revenue from GST was recorded in April 2023 at Rs 1.87 lakh crore, while in September, it was Rs 1.63 lakh crore. On the global front, the pound edged higher on Thursday ahead of an interest rate decision from the Bank of England, while the dollar fell after the U.S. Federal Reserve held borrowing costs steady on Wednesday. Finally, the rupee ended at 83.26 (Provisional), stronger by 2 paise from its previous close of 83.28 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 6687.13 crore against gross selling of Rs 8478.01 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 419.95 crore with gross sales of Rs 331.26 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was of Rs 9.47 crore against gross selling of Rs 8.18 crore.

The US markets ended higher on Thursday on hopes that the U.S. Federal Reserve has reached the end of its interest rate hiking campaign and a batch of upbeat quarterly financial updates added to the bullish mood. Asian markets are trading in green on Friday with investors awaiting a fresh round of data for more clues on the health of services activity through the region. Indian markets ended higher on Thursday reflecting the global trend as the US Federal Reserve kept key rates unchanged and indicated that it could be the end of the rate hike cycle. Today, the markets are likely to continue their bull run and make gap-up opening tracking firm trade in global markets. Investors will be eyeing Services PMI data to be out later in the day for more directional cues.  Some support will come as Union Labour Secretary Arti Ahuja said maintaining high industrial safety standards is necessary as these are influencing free trade agreements and their non-compliance can lead to trade barriers affecting India's economic growth. Ahuja underscored the pivotal role of robust industrial safety standards in safeguarding India's trajectory towards becoming the third-largest global economy. Traders may take note of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement that India will work closely with Sri Lanka to deepen their civilisational ties, with connectivity as a new focus area. India, the Finance Minister said, continues to work closely with the government of Sri Lanka on debt restructuring discussions as well as on its path of economic recovery. However, some cautiousness may come amid foreign fund outflows. Provisional data from the National Stock Exchange showed that foreign institutional investors offloaded shares worth Rs 1,261.19 crore on November 2. Stocks related to gaming industry will be in focus with a private report that the Indian gaming market, currently valued at $3.1 billion, is expected to hit the $7.5 billion valuation mark by financial year 2028 (FY28). The report added that the industry is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 20 per cent, driven by increasing in-app purchases and advertising revenues in casual and mid-core games. Among individual stocks, Chambal Fertilisers, Crompton Greaves, Escorts, Godfrey Phillips, IDFC, IndiGo, Krsnaa Diagnostics, MRF, Shipping Corporation of India, Sundaram Fasteners, Thermax, Titan, TTK Healthcare, Uco Bank and Whirlpool will be in focus ahead of results today. Meanwhile, ESAF Small Finance Bank IPO opens for subscription today in the price band of Rs 57 - Rs 60 per share.

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

Nifty Top volumes

• Coal India’s coal production has increased by 15.4% to 61.1 million tonnes in October 2023 as against 52.9 million tonnes in October 2022.
• TCS has launched a new Cyber Insights Platform that leverages AI and Amazon Security Lake to help customers enhance their cyber security and compliance. 
• BPCL has entered into an agreement with GAIL (India) for 15 years supply commitment of Propane, a crucial petrochemical feedstock, for GAIL's PDH-PP project in Usar, Maharashtra.
• Adani Enterprises’ wholly owned subsidiary -- AMG Media Networks, QML, QDL and QBML have executed a SPA for the acquisition of remaining 51% stake in QBML.