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

After initial volatility, the Nifty50 staged a smart comeback in late morning deals and extended rally to move near 10,400 levels. Strong global cues, and buying in technology, banking & financials and FMCG stocks boosted sentiment.

The index almost recovered all the losses made in the previous week and formed a bullish candle on daily scale.

The Nifty after opening marginally higher at 10,209.55 immediately dropped to hit an intraday low of 10,105.10, but managed to recover nearly 300 points from that low point and surpassed immediate hurdle of 10,280 zones to hit a day's high of 10,396. The index closed 188.20 points higher at 10,386.60.

According to Pivot charts, the key support level is placed at 10,195.8, followed by 10,005. If the index starts moving upwards, key resistance levels to watch out are 10,486.7 and then 10,586.8.

The Nifty Bank index closed at 25,153.25, up 345.50 points on Wednesday. The important Pivot level, which will act as crucial support for the index, is placed at 24,720.56, followed by 24,287.93. On the upside, key resistance levels are placed at 25,393.56, followed by 25,633.93.

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 rebounded for a second day on Wednesday as investors snapped up beaten-down technology and internet favourites and strong company results lifted spirits, even as the S&P 500 closed out its worst month in seven years. On Wednesday, shares of Facebook Inc gained 3.8 percent after the social media giant said margins would stop shrinking after 2019 as costs from scandals ease.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 241.12 points, or 0.97 percent, to 25,115.76, the S&P 500 gained 29.11 points, or 1.09 percent, to 2,711.74 and the Nasdaq Composite added 144.25 points, or 2.01 percent, to 7,305.90.

Asian stocks rose on Thursday as bruised investor sentiment got some relief from another robust Wall Street session thanks to upbeat corporate earnings, while the dollar hovered near a 16-month high on further signs of strength in the world’s largest economy.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.15 percent, adding to modest gains the previous day, though this came after a brutal October month.

The improved mood filtered down to Asia, with Australian stocks up 0.55 percent and South Korea's KOSPI putting on 0.5 percent. Japan's Nikkei slipped 0.3 percent following two days of big gains.

Trends on SGX Nifty indicate a positive opening for the broader index in India, a rise of 35.5 points or 0.34 percent. Nifty futures were trading around 11,422-level on the Singaporean Exchange.

India leapfrogged to the 77th rank in the World Bank's latest Ease of Doing Business rankings, jumping 23 notches from last year, a news that is likely to bring cheer for the Narendra Modi-government that is caught in an apparent turf battle with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The report also recognises India as one of the top 10 improvers in this year’s assessment, for the second successive time. India is the only large country this year to have achieved such a significant shift.

In the World Bank Group’s annual ease of doing business rankings, the top 10 economies are New Zealand, Singapore and Denmark, which retain their first, second and third spots, respectively, for a second consecutive year, followed by Hong Kong SAR, China; Republic of Korea; Georgia; Norway; United States; United Kingdom and FYR Macedonia.

Growth of eight infrastructure sectors slowed down to 4.3 percent in September, the lowest in the last four months, as production of crude oil and natural gas declined. Eight infrastructure sectors of coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity had grown by 4.7 percent in September 2017.

During April-September 2018, the core sector growth was 5.5 percent as against 3.2 percent in the year-ago period. These eight segments comprise 40.27 percent of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).

Hours after the government publicly stated that the Reserve Bank of India’s autonomy is “essential”, sources told Moneycontrol that the Finance Ministry believes the central bank is not recognising the "real issue".

"Whatever is being leaked from Mumbai is not even the real issue... You have to look at the bigger picture," said a source close to the development.

"(Activity in) Real estate and auto sales are down due to the liquidity crisis but they (RBI) are not recognising it,” another Finance Ministry source said, indicating that steps taken by the Reserve Bank to alleviate systemic liquidity are not enough.

Oil prices fell early on Thursday, extending losses in previous sessions, amid signs of rising supply and growing concerns that demand might weaken on the prospect of a global economic slowdown.

The Brent crude January futures contract lost 44 cents, or 0.32 percent, to trade at $74.72 per barrel by GMT 0054 GMT. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 46 cents to $65.01 a barrel.

The rupee depreciated by 27 paise to close at nearly three-week low of 73.95 against the US dollar on October 31 as the American currency strengthened against major global currencies overseas amid steady capital outflows.

Forex traders said increased demand for the US currency from importers and concerns around the rift between the government and the RBI weighed on the local unit.

The rupee finally settled down by 27 paise or 0.37 percent at 73.95, a level not seen since October 11. The rupee on October 30 had also depreciated 23 paise to close at 73.68 against the US dollar.

Industry chamber FICCI on October 31 said more measures are needed to make adequate liquidity available in the system and strengthen the financial sector for attaining 8 percent plus GDP growth. In a statement, the chamber said the tight liquidity situation in the festive season and rising interest rates will impact the SMEs, MFIs and sectors like housing. The SME credit issue is the most crucial one and all measures should be explored to address this.

It said the present situation demands that the RBI and the government work to bring in measures to improve the liquidity scenario in the coming months. "While a 21-point suggestion has been submitted to the government and RBI to tackle the NBFC liquidity problem, the chamber also took part in the FSDC deliberations on the issue yesterday," FICCI said.

OPEC has boosted oil production in October to the highest since 2016, a Reuters survey found, as higher output led by the United Arab Emirates and Libya more than offset a cut in Iranian shipments due to US sanctions.

The 15-member Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has pumped 33.31 million barrels per day this month, the survey on October 31 found, up 390,000 bpd from September and the highest by OPEC as a group since December 2016.

Tata Motors on Wednesday has reported consolidated loss of Rs 1,048 crore for the quarter ended September 2018, impacted largely by disappointing performance of Jaguar Land Rover which also reported loss of 101 million pound. Profit for the September quarter 2017 stood at Rs 2,483 crore. On sequential basis, loss has been narrowed from Rs 1,902.4 crore in June quarter.

Consolidated revenue from operations during the quarter increased 3.3 percent year-on-year to Rs 72,112 crore driven by domestic sales volume. Numbers missed analyst expectations. Analysts on an average had estimated loss of around Rs 500 crore for the quarter.

Larsen & Toubro, reported a net profit of Rs 2,230.49 crore for the September quarter. This is a jump of 23 percent year on year against Rs 1,819.88 crore during the corresponding quarter of last year. It reported a revenue growth of 21 percent year on year to Rs 32,080.83 crore from Rs 26,446.76 crore during previous year.

The company reported an earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of Rs 3,770.5 crore during the quarter, a jump of 27 percent to Rs 2,962.2 crore posted during last year. The operating margin has been reported at 11.8 percent.

As many as 138 companies will be declaring their results for the quarter ended September later today which include names like Aarti Industries, Arvind, Bajaj Electricals, Berger Paints, DLF, Firstsource Solutions, Godrej Properties, Greaves Cotton, HCC, HDFC, IIFL Holdings, Marico, Parag Milk, Tata Communications, Welspun Corp and Zuari  Agro among others.