Market Ahead, September 23: All you need to know before the Opening Bell

The top headlines of the day:

>> FM Sitharaman rules out any immediate plan for expenditure reduction

>> Corporate tax rate cut may not benefit auto buyers, say analysts

>> Credit rating agency CARE downgraded Reliance Capital's rating to "CARE D" for the company’s long-term debt program

Moving on to the market cues for this week: 

Indices may continue to trade in the positive territory as sentiment is expected to remain positive post-Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's announcement to cut effective corporate tax rate from 35% to 25%. Moreover, the FM's comments to keep the fiscal deficit target intact at 3.3% could further boost the market.

Markets may, however, turn volatile during the later part of the week as investors would roll-over their positions for the Sept-series of Futures and Options contracts on Thursday.

Investors would also eye Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s week-long visit to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in the US.

That apart, market participants would track progress in US-China trade talks after the two countries described their last week's talks as “productive” and “constructive”. Delegations from both sides will meet again later this week. 

Besides, oil price movement, rupee's value against the dollar, Deposit and bank loan growth print slated to be released later this week, investment pattern by foreign investors, and stock-specific developments would influence trading sentiment this week. 

For Monday, trends on SGX Nifty suggest a positive start for the domestic indices. 

Asian shares, too, started higher on hopes of an interim Sino-US tariff deal. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.5%, Japan's Nikkei opened 0.2% higher while Australian shares added 0.5%. 

On Friday, benchmark indices back home logged their biggest gains in a decade. The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex added 1,921 points or 5.32% to settle at 38,015 level, while the Nifty50 index ended at 11,274 levels, up 569 points or 5.32%. 

On Wall Street, shares ended in the red during the overnight trade on Friday. The Nasdaq dipped 0.8%, while the Dow Jones and the S&P500 slipped over 0.5% each.

In the commodities market, oil gained more than 1% as Middle East tensions remained elevated. Brent crude futures jumped 1.2%, to a little over $65 a barrel-mark.

Here is an intra-day trade recommendation by Prabhudas Lilladher:

The brokerage recommends BUYING LARSEN AND TOUBRO  between Rs 1,550 – Rs 1,580 levels. The stop loss has been placed at Rs 1,280.