Market Ahead, October 7: Top factors that could steer markets this week

Top headlines for today -- 

>> YES Bank plans to raise $1 billion by December through rights issue

>> Corporate tax cut will not benefit banks, says PNB's MD & CEO S S Mallikarjuna Rao

>> FPIs pull out Rs 3,000 crore from equities in 3 trading sessions of October

Factors that will guide markets this week -- 

Corporate earnings, macro-data, trade talks between US and China, and FPI inflows will be some of the biggest factors which will guide investors' sentiment during the truncated week.

Markets, that will remain shut on Tuesday on account of Dussehra, will watch out for Sept quarter results of large-cap companies like TCS, and Infosys, scheduled to be announced on Thursday and Friday, respectively. IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Consumer Care, and Goa Carbon are among the 21 other companies scheduled to announce their results this week. 

Besides, Industrial production data for the month of August 2019, slated to be released on Oct 11, will be on investors' radar to gauge the health of the economy.

Globally, investors would eye US-China trade talks, scheduled to take place at the end of the week, along with minutes of the US Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting, that are slated to be released on Wednesday.

Other factors like stock-specific developments, movement of rupee against the US dollar, change in oil prices, and inflows from FPIs and DIIs will be closely watched.

For today, trends on SGX Nifty suggest a flat to positive start for domestic indices. 

Shares in Asian markets, too, were trading higher on Monday after data showed that U.S. unemployment rate dropped to the lowest in almost 50 years, easing concerns of a slowdown in the world’s largest economy.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.25 per cent,  Japan's Nikkei stock index added 0.29 per cent, while Australian shares were up 0.48 per cent.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones, the S&P500 and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.4 per cent each during the overnight trade on Friday.

Back home, markets fell on Friday after the Reserve Bank of India cut FY20 GDP forecast to 6.1 per cent from 6.9 per cent during its October monetary policy review meeting.

The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex dropped 434 points or 1.14 per cent to settle at 37,673, while the Nifty50 ended at 11,175, down 139 points or 1.23 per cent.