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

The Indian stock market is expected to open in the green as trends on SGX Nifty indicate a positive opening for the index in India with a 30 points gain.

The BSE Sensex jumped 169.23 points to 40,794.74 on October 14 while the Nifty 50 rose 36.50 points to 11,971. According to pivot charts, the key support level for the Nifty is placed at 11,863.07, followed by 11,755.13. If the index moves up, the key resistance levels to watch out for are 12,038.07 and 12,105.13.

Stay tuned to Moneycontrol to find out what happens in currency and equity markets today. We have collated a list of important headlines across news platforms which could impact Indian as well as international markets:

US Markets

Wall Street finished weaker on Wednesday, led lower by Amazon and Microsoft, as investors lost hope that a U.S. fiscal stimulus would be approved before the presidential election in November.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.58% to end at 28,514 points, while the S&P 500 lost 0.66% to 3,488.67. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.8% to 11,768.73.

Asian Markets

Asian markets were off to a mixed start on Thursday as hopes of U.S. fiscal stimulus before the presidential election faded and a record number of new coronavirus infections in parts of Europe propelled investors toward safe-havens such as gold.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.1%. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.6%, while Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.3%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index futures were down 0.49%.

SGX Nifty

Trends on SGX Nifty indicate a positive opening for the index in India with a 30 points gain. The Nifty futures were trading at 11,991 on the Singaporean Exchange around 07:30 hours IST.

Oil holds gains on shrinking U.S. stockpiles

Oil prices rose slightly in early trade on Thursday after data showed U.S. crude stockpiles fell last week, adding to 2% gains overnight, as OPEC and its allies were seen fully complying in September with their pact to curb output.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures picked up 4 cents, or 0.1%, to $41.08 a barrel at 0032 GMT, while Brent crude futures rose 5 cents, or 0.1% to $43.37 a barrel.

IMF says Indian economy likely to fare worse than some global and South Asian peers

Whichever way you look at projections from various agencies, India is expected to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic worse placed than not only its peer countries, but also some of its neighbours. The International Monetary Fund, in its World Economic Outlook report late on October 13, said that Bangladesh is set to beat India in terms of per capita gross domestic product (GDP) in calendar year 2020.

The report said that Bangladesh’s per capita GDP in dollar terms is expected to grow 4 percent in 2020 to $1,888. India’s per capita GDP, on the other hand, is expected to decline 10.5 percent to $1,877 – the lowest in the last four years, thanks to the economy flat-lining due to a increase in COVID-19 cases as well as the strictest lockdown anywhere in the world from April-June.

Bank credit growth decelerates for sixth successive quarter in June: RBI data

Bank credit growth, on a year-on-year YoY basis, decelerated for the sixth successive quarter and stood at 5.7 percent in June, 2020, the RBI said on October 14 in its quarterly data release. Of this, industrial credit contracted by 0.6 percent in June 2020, YoY, and its share in overall credit declined to 30.8 percent from 32.8 percent a year ago; credit to household sector, on the other hand, increased by 9 percent YoY, and its share in the total credit rose to 50.2 percent from 48.7 percent a year ago, the RBI said.

The weighted average lending rate (WALR) on outstanding credit declined by 25 basis points during the quarter ended June 2020 and by 55 basis points over the last one year, the RBI said.

SEBI cautions investors against unsolicited investment tips

Markets regulator SEBI on Wednesday cautioned investors against unsolicited investment tips with respect to listed companies.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has noticed that unsolicited messages containing stock tips or investment advice with respect to listed companies are increasingly being circulated through bulk SMS, websites and social media platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram.

RBI launches latest round of quarterly survey of manufacturing sector

The Reserve Bank of India on October 14 launched the latest round of its quarterly Order Books, Inventories and Capacity Utilisation Survey (OBICUS) of the manufacturing sector which will provide valuable inputs for monetary policy formulation. "The survey (Round 51) is for the reference period July-September 2020 (Q2:2020-21)," the central bank said in a statement.

"The level of capacity utilisation is estimated from these responses. The survey provides valuable input for monetary policy formulation," the RBI said. Selected manufacturing companies will be approached by the central bank.

Likhitha Infrastructure debuts today

Oil and gas pipeline infrastructure service provider Likhitha Infrastructure makes its market debut on October 15, with the final issue price fixed at Rs 120 per share. Likhitha, which had the smallest initial public offering of Rs 61 crore, will be the 11th company to get listed this year. Given the tepid response from institutional investors initially, analysts expect Likhitha Infra to see a muted listing.

"We are expecting flat listing, though the company's order book is healthy, which gives strong revenue visibility going forward and has a zero-debt status," Astha Jain, Senior Research Analyst at Hem Securities told Moneycontrol.

Infosys Q2 beats estimates

Infosys, the India's second largest software services provider, reported a 14.4 percent sequential growth in consolidated profit at Rs 4,845 crore for the September quarter, and revised its full year revenue as well as margin guidance given the highest ever deal wins in Q2.

Consolidated revenue from operations increased to Rs 24,570 crore in Q2FY21, up by 3.8 percent QoQ, while dollar revenue grew by 6.1 percent sequentially to $3,312 million for the September quarter, with constant currency revenue growth of 4 percent.

"The second quarter performance is a clear reflection of our ability to help clients on their digital transformation journeys. Digital and cloud capabilities combined with intense client relevance are helping us achieve differentiated results in the market as is visible in 2.2 percent year-on-year overall revenue growth and 25.4 percent growth from digital offerings, which now are at 47.3 percent of revenues," said Salil Parekh, CEO and MD.

Residential real estate sales rise 85 percent QoQ in Q3 2020: Report

Despite the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, residential home sales aggregated to 35,132 units during the third quarter of 2020, an increase of 85 percent over the previous quarter. The growth can potentially be attributed to pent-up demand due to the prolonged lockdown across the country, a report by real estate brokerage firm PropTiger.com said.

Compared to the third quarter of 2019, there was a significant decline of 57 percent year-on-year across eight major cities, the report said. During July-September 2019, sales of residential properties across eight cities stood at 81,886 units.

Equitas Small Finance Bank files red herring prospectus for Rs 280 crore IPO

Equitas Holdings on Wednesday said its subsidiary Equitas Small Finance Bank has filed red herring prospectus (RHP) with the Registrar of Companies for initial public offer to raise Rs 280 crore. On October 11, 2020, ESFB had filed the RHP with the RoC Chennai in connection with the proposed initial public offering of equity shares for an amount of Rs 2,800 million, Equitas Holdings (EHL) said in a regulatory filing.

As per the proposed offer, Equitas Small Finance Bank (ESFB) will raise fresh capital up to Rs 2,800 million, where the promoter EHL will sell up to 7,20,00,000 equity shares, it said. The bid/offer opening date is October 20, while the closing is set for October 22. The expected date of the listing has been fixed for November 2, 2020.

Investments into renewables seen rising 35% by FY23: Report

Positive investor interest and enabling regulations can boost the investments into the renewables sector by a healthy 35 percent to Rs 1.5 lakh crore between now and the end of fiscal 2023, says a report. The past three years saw fresh investments into the renewables sector led by solar and partly by wind power, surging to Rs 1.1 lakh crore, showed a Crisil report in a sectoral analysis.

"Global investor interest and enabling regulations can fuel addition of 35 GW of renewables (solar and wind) capacity, involving Rs 1.5 lakh crore of fresh investments in the three years through fiscal 2023. This will be a 35 percent growth over Rs 1.1 lakh crore invested in the past three fiscals," the report said on Wednesday. It can be noted that the push towards clean energy has been driving global investor interest into the domestic renewables sector which has been visible in tenders getting oversubscribed amid strong participation by global investors despite the prices plunging to rock bottom of under Rs 1.4 a unit for solar.

Results on October 15

Mindtree, South Indian Bank, Cyient, Trident, Hathway Cable & Datacom, Rane Brake Lining, Boston Leasing and Finance, Bonlon Industries, Chennai Ferrous Industries, Dolat Investments, Interactive Financial Services, Jupiter Infomedia, Moschip Technologies, RS Software, Systematix Securities and Vimta Labs will announce quarterly earnings on October 15.

FII and DII data

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net bought shares worth Rs 821.86 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors (DIIs) net sold shares worth Rs 1,276.14 crore in the Indian equity market on October 14, as per provisional data available on the NSE.

11 stocks under F&O ban on NSE

Adani Enterprises, BHEL, Canara Bank, Escorts, Indiabulls Housing Finance, Vodafone Idea, Jindal Steel & Power, Mindtree, Punjab National Bank, PVR and SAIL are under the futures & options (F&O) ban for October 15. Securities in the ban period under the F&O segment include companies in which the security has crossed 95 percent of the market-wide position limit.