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

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

US stocks turned lower in volatile trading on Friday as worries about rising coronavirus cases and a patchy economic recovery dampened risk sentiment, with technology-related stocks reversing early gains to extend their declines to a third day.

Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 45.63 points, or 0.16 percent, at 27,856.35, the S&P 500 was down 15.74 points, or 0.47 percent, at 3,341.27 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 71.77 points, or 0.66 percent, at 10,838.51.

Asian Markets

Asian shares held to tight ranges on Monday, as did currencies, as investors awaited developments on U.S. fiscal stimulus and coronavirus vaccines amid a resurgence of infections in Europe.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was a shade weaker, though it was not too far from a June 2018 peak at 568.84. Australian and New Zealand shares both opened in the red while South Korea's KOSPI was 0.1% up.

SGX Nifty

Trends on SGX Nifty indicate a negative opening for the index in India with a 42 points loss. The Nifty futures were trading at 11,477 on the Singaporean Exchange around 07:30 hours IST.

Oil prices slip on potential Libyan oil return; Gulf storm supports

Oil prices fell on Monday on the potential return of oil output from Libya even as rising coronavirus cases add to worries about global demand, although losses were limited as a new tropical storm heads for the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

Brent crude was down 20 cents, or 0.5%, at $42.95 a barrel by 0039 GMT, while U.S. crude fell by 27 cents, or 0.7%, to $40.84 a barrel.

India Inc's business sentiment recovers in July-September: CII’s business outlook survey

India Inc’s business sentiment has improved during July-September quarter as the government gradually unlocked the economy and business activity resumed, according to the CII’s business outlook survey. The latest CII Business Confidence Index has surged to the level of 50.3 in July-September 2020, bouncing back from its lowest reading of 41.0 recorded in April-June 2020, the industry chamber said in a statement.

"The stellar recovery in the index has been supported by the remarkable increase in the Expectations Index (EI), which rose 46 percent quarter-on-quarter, to the level of 55.2, as nationwide lockdown restrictions were lifted and businesses gradually began to reopen during the July-September quarter,” it added.

5% import duty on open cell used in TV manufacturing from October 1

A 5 percent customs duty will be reimposed on the import of open cell for TVs from October 1 following the end of one year exemption period, a finance ministry source said. The government had last year exempted customs duty on open cell, a kep component of TV, for a year till September 30 as the domestic industry had sought time to build capacity.

With the exemption coming to an end, 5 percent duty would be reimposed on open cell from October 1, a finance ministry source said.

PSBs report frauds worth over Rs 19,964 crore in the first quarter of FY21: RBI

Public sector banks (PSBs) reported frauds worth over Rs 19,964 crore in total 2,867 cases during the April-June quarter of the ongoing fiscal year, according to a reply to an RTI query.

The country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) saw the highest number of fraud cases; however, Bank of India was the worst hit in terms of value, as per a reply from the Reserve Bank on frauds reported by these lenders to RTI activist Chandra Shekhar Gaur. Of the 12 PSBs, SBI reported the maximum 2,050 fraud cases involving Rs 2,325.88 crore during April-June 2020.

Govt garners Rs 9,538 crore from direct tax dispute resolution scheme so far

The government has collected Rs 9,538 crore revenue from the Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas scheme, Parliament was informed on Sunday. Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur said as many as 35,074 declarations have been filed under the Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas scheme till September 8, 2020.

Stricter surveillance measures to tackle market volatility to be in force until October 29: SEBI

Capital markets regulator Sebi on September 18 said it has decided to keep in place measures to deal with market volatility till October 29 after reviewing the pandemic-related situation. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the watchdog had in March came out with various measures, including revision of market-wide position limits, to ensure orderly trading and settlement to contain high market volatility.

Besides ensuring orderly trading and settlement, these steps were aimed at effective risk management, price discovery and maintenance of market integrity. "On review of the COVID-19 pandemic related situation, it has been decided that the regulatory measures introduced vide Sebi press release dated March 20, 2020, shall continue to be in force till October 29," the regulator said in a release on Friday.

India-China standoff | Indian Army occupies six new major heights along LAC: Report

Six new major hill features have been occupied by the Indian Army along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) over the past three weeks, news agency ANI reported.

"The Indian Army has occupied six new heights between August 29 and the second week of September. The new hill features being occupied by our troops include the Magar hill, Gurung Hill, Recehen La, Rezang La, Mokhpari and the dominating height over Chinese positions near Finger 4," sources in the government told the news agency.

HSBC, StanChart Hong Kong shares fall after 'FinCEN' leak

HSBC and Standard Chartered's Hong Kong shares fell on Monday after media reports that they and other banks moved large sums of allegedly illicit funds over nearly two decades despite red flags about the origins of the money. BuzzFeed and other media reports were based on leaked suspicious activity reports (SARs) filed by banks and other financial firms with the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen).

HSBC and StanC were among the five banks that appeared most often in the documents, the ICIJ reported.

Parliament’s Monsoon Session: Rajya Sabha passes two farm bills amid ruckus

Two contentious farm bills, cleared by the Lok Sabha earlier, were passed in the Rajya Sabha by voice vote on September 20 despite some ruckus.

The House had been adjourned for a brief period earlier in the day after heated exchanges between sides supporting and opposing the bills. Farmers, especially in Punjab and Haryana, have been protesting against this legislation.

21 states accept Rs 97,000 crore borrowing proposal to meet GST shortfall

As many as 21 states, mostly ruled by BJP or parties which have supported it on various issues, have opted to borrow Rs 97,000 crore to meet the GST revenue shortfall in the current fiscal, sources said on Sunday.

The states and union territories (UTs) which have intimated their decision to the Centre are Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Puducherry, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.

No significant mutation of coronavirus in India: Harsh Vardhan

No significant or drastic mutation in strains of SARS-CoV-2 has been found in India till now, Union Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Sunday during an interaction with his social media followers.

He also said the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has been conducting large-scale sequencing of nationally representative strains collected over a few months and detailed results on mutations of the virus will be available in early October.

India's forex reserves down by $353 million to $541.66 billion: RBI

After touching a life-time high in the previous week, the country's foreign exchange reserves declined by $353 million to $541.660 billion in the week ended September 11, according to the Reserve Bank data.

During the reporting week, the fall in reserves was due to a decline in foreign currency assets (FCAs), a major component of the overall reserves. FCAs decreased by $841 million to $497.521 billion in the reporting week, the data showed. Expressed in dollar terms, the foreign currency assets include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units like the euro, pound and yen held in the foreign exchange reserves.

CAMS IPO to open today

Warburg Pincus-backed Computer Age Management Services (CAMS) will hit the Street with initial public offering. Equity shares are expected to list on the BSE on October 1. The book running lead managers to the issue are Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, HDFC Bank, ICICI Securities and Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India).

The public issue will open for subscription on September 21 and close on September 23. The finalisation of basis of allotment is expected to be completed by September 28, followed by initiation of refunds on September 29, and equity shares are likely to be credited to eligible investors by September 30. The offer would constitute at least 37.40 percent of post-offer paid-up equity share capital. Minimum bid lot is 12 equity shares and in multiples of 12 equity shares thereafter.

Route Mobile to list on bourses today

After a strong debut of Happiest Minds Technologies, Route Mobile is also expected to witness stellar listing in the coming week given the strong financials and management, market leadership in cloud-communication, expected solid growth in digitalisation and hefty subscription. Experts feel the listing premium could be in the range of 55-70 percent, i.e. Rs 550-600 per share against issue price and are bullish on prospects of the company citing rapid increase in digitalisation post COVID-19.

FII and DII data

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net bought shares worth Rs 205.15 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors (DIIs) net sold shares worth Rs 100.83 crore in the Indian equity market on September 18, as per provisional data available on the NSE.

10 stocks under F&O ban on NSE

Adani Enterprises, BHEL, Canara Bank, Glenmark Pharma, Vodafone Idea, Jindal Steel & Power, L&T Finance Holdings, SAIL, Tata Chemicals and Vedanta are under the F&O ban for September 21. 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.

With inputs from Reuters & other agencies