What changed for the market while you were sleeping? Top 10 things to know

Late recovery helped the market close higher for the sixth consecutive session on March 18, but the Nifty50 failed to hold on to 11,500 levels due to some profit booking.

Positive Asian cues, and buying in banking and financials and FMCG stocks pushed the BSE Sensex 70.75 points higher to 38,095.07 while the Nifty50

climbed 35.35 points to 11,462.20 and formed Long-Legged Doji pattern on daily charts.

As far as Nifty options activities are concerned, fresh writing took place in 11,500-11,700 call options. On the other side, open interest addition was seen in 11,400 and 11,500 put options. Now, the maximum open interest concentration for March series is placed at 11,500 call and 11,000 put options.

As the outstanding contracts in futures segment is heavy now, she would advise traders to lighten up their positions in index and prefer trading in individual counters for better risk reward ratio.

According to the Pivot charts, the key support level is placed at 11,406.4, followed by 11,350.6. If the index starts moving upward, key resistance levels to watch out are 11,524.1 and 11,586.

The Nifty Bank index closed at 29,596.10, up 214.65 points on March 18. The important Pivot level, which will act as crucial support for the index, is placed at 29,367.86, followed by 29,139.63. On the upside, key resistance levels are placed at 29,818.16, followed by 30,040.23.

Stay tuned to Moneycontrol to find out what happens in currency and equity markets today. We have collated a list of important headlines from across news agencies.

Wall Street advances ahead of Fed policy meeting

Banks and tech helped lead Wall Street higher on Monday, while Boeing and Facebook were a drag and investors eyed this week’s US Federal Reserve

meeting for affirmation of its commitment to “patient” monetary policy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 65.23 points, or 0.25 percent, to 25,914.1, the S&P 500 gained 10.46 points, or 0.37 percent, to 2,832.94 and the Nasdaq Composite added 25.95 points, or 0.34 percent, to 7,714.48.

Asian shares steady ahead of Fed meeting

Asian shares treaded water on Tuesday ahead of a US Federal Reserve policy meeting, hovering near six-month highs, while sterling was choppy as the

speaker of Britain’s parliament banned another vote on same Brexit deal.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was virtually flat, just a hair away from the highest level since September 21. Japan’s Nikkei average dropped 0.5 percent, while Australian stocks eased 0.1 percent.

SGX Nifty

Trends on SGX Nifty indicate a positive opening for the broader index in India, a rise of 21 points or 0.18 percent. Nifty futures were trading around 11,532-level on the Singaporean Exchange.

Oil prices hover near 2019 highs as OPEC supply cuts support

Oil prices hovered just below 2019 highs early on Tuesday, supported by ongoing supply cuts led by producer club OPEC. US sanctions against oil producers Iran and Venezuela are also boosting crude prices, although traders say the market looks capped by rising American output.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were down four cents at $59.05 per barrel at 0026 GMT, close to the 2019 high of $59.23 reached the previous day. Brent crude oil futures were down six cents at $67.48 per barrel, within a dollar of this year’s high of $68.14 reached late last week.

Rupee spurts 57 paise to scale new 7-month peak against USD

The Indian rupee on Monday surged by 57 paise to close at an over seven-month high of 68.53 against the US dollar, also marking a sixth straight session of gains, driven by sustained foreign fund inflows and narrowing trade deficit. Besides, weakness in the greenback against major global currencies and a heavy buying in domestic equities aided the forex market sentiment domestically.

The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, fell 0.20 percent to 96.40. At the Interbank Foreign Exchange, the rupee opened at 68.92 and advanced to a high of 68.45 during the day. It finally settled at 68.53, a rise of 57 paise against the dollar over its previous close.

OPEC scraps April meeting but keeps oil cuts in place

Oil producer group OPEC on Monday scrapped its planned meeting in April and will decide instead whether to extend output cuts in June, once the market has assessed the impact of US sanctions on Iran and the crisis in Venezuelda. A ministerial panel of OPEC and its allies recommended that they cancel the extraordinary meeting scheduled for April 17-18 and hold the next regular talks on June 25-26.

The energy minister of OPEC's de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, said the market was looking oversupplied until the end of the year but that April would be too early for any decision on output policy.

General insurers' premium rises 23% to Rs 12,959 cr in Feb: IRDAI

General insurers registered 23 percent growth in their premium at Rs 12,959.44 crore in February, data from IRDAI showed on March 18. The gross premium collected by all the 34 insurers in the general sector stood at Rs 10,573.70 crore during the same month a year ago.

In a break-up of premium collected by these firms, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) showed that 25 of these firms garnered Rs 10,916.33 crore premium during February 2018-19, a 18.1 percent rise over the same period last fiscal. Among others, seven standalone private sector health insurers registered a rise of 38 percent in their premium at Rs 1,123.08 crore.

European shares hit 5-month high after no-deal Brexit rejected

European shares hit a five month high in morning trading on Thursday after the British parliament voted to reject a disorderly Brexit. Markets remained in a cautious mood however as another crucial vote to delay leaving the European Union is pending on Thursday evening.

The pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.3 percent at 0817 GMT while the FTSE 100 was down 0.1 percent. Sterling was experiencing a similar retreat after its gains during the previous session.

Gold prices edge up on tepid dollar ahead of Fed meeting

Gold prices rose for a third consecutive session on Tuesday as the dollar weakened on expectations that the US Federal Reserve will maintain a dovish tone at its monetary policy meeting this week.

Spot gold was up 0.1 percent at $1,304.91 per ounce as of 0058 GMT. US gold futures rose about 0.3 percent to $1,304.70 an ounce. Spot palladium dipped

0.1 percent to $1,582 an ounce, after registering its highest on record at $1,585.59 in the previous session on sustained supply tightness.

Seven stocks under ban period on NSE

Securities in ban period for the next day's trade under the F&O segment include companies in which the security has crossed 95 percent of the market-wide position limit.

For March 19, Adani Enterprises, BEML, IDBI Bank, Jet Airways, Just Dial, Reliance Capital and Reliance Power are present in this list.

With inputs from Reuters & other agencies