Indian equity markets are likely to make negative start on Friday tracking weak global cues. Sentiments may remain subdued amid foreign fund outflows. On February 26, Foreign Institutional Investors were net sellers, offloading equities worth Rs 3,465.99 crore. Besides, traders will be looking forward to India’s GDP growth rate data, which will due later in the day.

Some of the key factors to be watched:

India, Israel FTA talks to resume in May 2026: The commerce ministry said that India and Israel will hold the next round of negotiations for the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries in May.

AI creating opportunity for India, not job threat: Seeking to address fears of job losses in the Indian IT sector due to the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI), Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has exuded confidence that the new technology would rather enhance opportunities for Indian enterprises.  

Modi, Carney to chart India-Canada roadmap: India said that the talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Canadian counterpart Mark Carney next week will provide an opportunity to advance a forward-looking partnership between the two nations.

Goyal, Lutnick discuss US-India trade and partnership: Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and his US counterpart Howard Lutnick discussed ways to expand trade relationship between the two countries, days after the US Supreme Court struck down Donald Trump's tariffs.

Sebi revises valuation methodology for gold silver held by mutual funds: Capital markets regulator Sebi revised the valuation methodology for physical gold and silver held by mutual fund schemes, mandating the use of polled spot prices published by stock exchanges for calculating the worth.

On the global front: The US markets ended mostly in red on Thursday amid a negative reaction to earnings news from Nvidia (NVDA), with the artificial intelligence chipmaker tumbling by 5.5 percent. Asian markets are trading mostly in red on Friday following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. 

Back home, Indian equity benchmarks ended flat after a volatile day of trading on Thursday, dragged down by Utilities, Consumer Durables and Power stocks. Also, caution ahead of the US-Iran talks as well as key data releases including US initial jobless claims and India's GDP print, made investors stay on the sidelines. Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 27.46 points or 0.03% to 82,248.61 and the CNX Nifty was up by 14.05 points or 0.06% to 25,496.55. 

Some of the important factors in trade:

Private listed non-financial companies’ Q3FY26 revenue growth rises to 10.1%: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said that private listed non-financial companies’ revenue growth came at 10.1 per cent in Q3FY26, led by substantial improvement in sales growth of manufacturing sector. 

Geopolitical heat lifts inflation fears but RBI's repo rate hike unlikely: External member of RBI's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) Saugata Bhattacharya has said that chances of benchmark interest rate going up are negligible notwithstanding building up of inflationary pressure on account of geopolitical tensions.

RBI to conduct Rs 25000 crore switch auction on March 2: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will conduct a switch auction of government securities worth Rs 25,000 crore on March 2. This is the third switch auction announced by the RBI this month.