Market Ahead,November 18: Top factors that could guide markets this week

Progress in the US-China trade deal, other global cues, and macro numbers will be the top factors that will keep traders busy this week.

Doubts about Sino-US trade talks emerged early last week, although optimism gradually returned as US officials sounded more positive. On Saturday, Chinese state media said the two sides had “constructive talks” on trade in a high-level phone call that included top officials from both sides.

On Thursday, the minutes of the October policy meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will be announced. Investors will look for any indication for future rate cuts.

Apart from these, the start of the Winter Session of the Parliament from today brings with it hopes of any fresh stimulus to lift the economy. Any such announcement is set to perk up the investor sentiment.

Market participants will continue to track foreign fund flow, rupee's trajectory, stock-specific movement, and oil price movement. Foreign portfolio investors have pumped in a net sum of Rs 19,203 crore into the domestic capital markets in the first half of November amid encouraging domestic and global factors.

In another major development, the initial public offer by oil giant Saudi Aramco opened yesterday for institutional investors and will be open for subscription throughout the week. For retail investors, the issue will open on November 28.
 

For today, Asian share markets got off to a muted start on Monday. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped 0.06 per cent, Japan's Nikkei added 0.05 per cent. The SGX Nifty is indicating a flat to negative start for the domestic indices. 

In commodities, oil prices were supported after Brent touched a seven-week high on Friday. In early trade, Brent crude futures firmed 2 cents to $63.32,

According to analysts, if bank stocks continue to see the kind of traction they saw last week, the Nifty may soon clock record highs. Thus, the bias remains positive and traders should stick to a ‘Buy on decline’ strategy. 

Here's a trading idea by Angel Broking Limited which recommends buying Lupin at current levels for a target of Rs.798 over the next few weeks. The stop loss should be fixed at Rs.710.