What changed for the market while you were sleeping? Top 12 things to know

The Nifty50 continued to be rangebound for the second consecutive session and closed the August expiry day on a flat note with a negative bias on Thursday.

The index opened flat and remained weak throughout the session, forming small bearish candle, which resembles like a 'Hammer' kind of pattern on the daily candlestick charts.

The market recovered from intraday low in the late trade but that does not change the short term outlook, experts said, adding the index is expected to be weak and remained in a consolidation mode.

The Nifty Midcap index continued to outperform frontline indices, rising 0.13 percent while the sectoral trend remained mixed with Nifty Bank, Auto and Financial Service falling around half a percent each. FMCG and Pharma indices gained over a percent each.

The Nifty50 opened below 11,700-mark at 11,694.75, tad higher over previous day's close of 11,691.90. In early trade itself, it touched an intraday high of 11,698.80 but immediately turned lower to hit an intraday low of 11,639.70 (down 52 points) in the last hour of trade. It managed to recoup some losses in the late trade and closed 15.10 points lower at 11,676.80.

According to Pivot charts, the key support level is placed at 11,644.73, followed by 11,612.67. If the index starts moving upwards, key resistance levels to watch out are 11,703.83 and 11,730.87.

The Nifty Bank index closed at 28,103.25, down 120.85 points on Thursday. The important Pivot level, which will act as crucial support for the index, is placed at 27,965.44, followed by 27,827.67. On the upside, key resistance levels are placed at 28,237.34, followed by 28,371.47.

Stay tuned to Moneycontrol to find out what happens in currency and equity markets today. We have collated a list of important headlines from across news agencies.

US stocks ended their four-day winning streak on Thursday as trade anxieties resurfaced and investors sold risk ahead of the long Labor Day holiday weekend.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 137.51 points, or 0.53 percent, to 25,987.06, the S&P 500 lost 12.91 points, or 0.44 percent, to 2,901.13 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 21.32 points, or 0.26 percent, to 8,088.36.

Asian shares came under renewed pressure on Friday after reports US President Donald Trump was preparing to step up a trade war with Beijing and ready to impose more tariffs on Chinese imports. Many emerging market currencies were also frail after Argentina’s peso sank on Thursday despite the central bank’s interest rate hike.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.2 percent in early trade while Japan's Nikkei dropped 0.8 percent.

Trends on SGX Nifty indicate a negative opening for the broader index in India, a fall of 28 points or 0.24 percent. Nifty futures were trading around 11,708-level on the Singaporean Exchange.

Top NAFTA negotiators from Canada and the United States increased the pace of their negotiations Thursday to resolve final differences to meet a Friday deadline, with their Mexican counterpart on standby to rejoin the talks soon. Despite some contentious issues still on the table, the increasingly positive tone contrasted with US President Donald Trump’s harsh criticism of Canada in recent weeks, raising hopes that the year-long talks on the North American Free Trade Agreement will conclude soon with a trilateral deal.

“Canada’s going to make a deal at some point. It may be by Friday or it may be within a period of time,” US President Donald Trump told Bloomberg Television. “I think we’re close to a deal.”

India’s economy likely sustained strong growth momentum for a second straight quarter in April-June, but the depreciating rupee and monetary tightening pose risks for coming periods. The Reuters poll median forecast was 7.6 percent annual growth, compared with the 13-quarter low of 5.6 percent for a year earlier, when many companies cut production before the launch of a nation-wide sales tax.

Data on gross domestic product change in the quarter will be released on Friday around 1200 GMT. For the first three months of 2018, India reported 7.7 annual growth, the fastest in nearly two years.

South Korea’s central bank kept monetary policy steady on Friday for a sixth straight monetary meeting, pressured by the worst employment conditions since the global financial crisis and international trade tensions. The Bank of Korea decided to keep its seven-day repurchase rate at 1.50 percent, as was expected by 18 of 19 economists in a Reuters poll.

India is likely to surpass the UK to become the world's fifth largest economy next year on growing consumption and strong economic activity, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said yesterday. He also exuded confidence that India would be among the top three global economies in the next 10-20 years.

"This year, in terms of size, we have overtaken France. Next year we are likely to overtake Britain. Therefore, we will be the fifth largest (economy)," he said while inaugurating the office building of the Competition Commission India (CCI).

India's gross domestic product (GDP) was valued at USD 2.597 trillion at the end of 2017 overtaking French economy, which was amounted at USD 2.582 trillion last year.

The economic growth is expected to rise to 7.6 percent in the April-June quarter of 2018-19 from a sub-6 percent figure in the year-ago period mainly due to a low-base effect, says a report by HDFC Bank. According to a HDFC Bank research report, growth numbers across sectors in the first quarter are likely to get a boost from a favourable base effect even as there are some genuine signs of revival in the economy.

The major push to growth is likely to come from the manufacturing and the services sector while agricultural growth is also likely to be supportive, the report added.

India’s e-commerce market, dominated by Flipkart Pvt. Ltd and Amazon.com Inc., can potentially grow more than fourfold to USD 150 billion by 2022, fuelled by rising incomes and a surge in internet users, according to a latest report. During the period, the size of India’s middle-class is expected to swell to 540 million from 380 million in 2017, showed the report by software industry lobby group Nasscom and consulting firm PwC India. The e-commerce market was pegged at USD 36 billion last year.

“A ‘Make-for-India’ solution approach along with conducive policy environment can potentially make e-commerce a $150 billion market by 2022 with a globally leading compounded annualized growth rate of 35%,” the report said, as reported by Mint.

Some of the members of a Parliamentary panel have suggested that the government should look at linking airfares with inflation instead of dynamic pricing system and also cap the ticket prices, sources said.

The suggestions were made by some members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture during a meeting with senior officials of the Civil Aviation Ministry on Wednesday.  Against this backdrop, some members of the panel recommended that airfares should be linked with inflation, rather than the prices being determined on the basis of demand, a source, who was present at the meeting on Wednesday, told PTI.

Buying a car or two-wheeler is set to become expensive from Saturday as long-term third party insurance policy has been made mandatory by the Irdai following a Supreme Court order. The three-year third-party insurance will cost Rs 5,286 crore for cars with engine capacity of less than 1,000 cc, Rs 9,534 cr (1,000 - 1,500 cc) and Rs 24,305 for cars with engine capacity of 1,500 cc and more.

In case of two-wheelers, the five year-third party insurance will cost Rs 1,045 for vehicles with engine capacity below 75 cc, Rs 3,285 (75-150 cc), Rs 5,453 (150-350 cc) and Rs 13,034 (exceeding 350 cc).

India yesterday pitched for ratings upgrade with S&P as the US-based agency discussed macro economic situation with the Finance Ministry here against the backdrop of depreciating rupee and widening current account deficit (CAD), according to an official. Rising oil prices, their impact on government finances and increasing GST collections figured in the discussions between the Finance Ministry officials, led by Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg, and representatives of the global credit ratings firm.

“We have asked S&P for a rating upgrade citing macro economic stability of the country,” the official said. The officials explained to S&P that debt-to-GDP ratio is a long term consideration and should not be immediate concern for rating upgrade, he said. Credit rating agencies have been raising red flag over high debt to GDP ratio of India. Currently, the ratio stands at around 68.5 percent.