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

After opening lower the Nifty50 traded in a negative territory amid consolidation. The index managed to recoup losses in the last hour of trade to end at record closing high for the fourth consecutive session Tuesday as investors eyed the monetary policy committee's rate decision on August 1.

The index formed bullish candle on the daily charts, which also resembles a 'Hanging Man' kind of pattern on the daily charts.

The 50-share NSE Nifty opened lower at 11,311.05 and hit an intraday low of 11,267.75, but it managed to recoup morning losses in the last hour of trade and touched an intraday all-time high of 11,366. The index closed 37 points higher at 11,356.50. India VIX dropped 1.25 percent to 12.43. Overall lower volatility suggests bulls are holding the tight grip on the market.

According to Pivot charts, the key support level is placed at 11,294.2, followed by 11,231.9. If the index starts moving upwards, key resistance levels to watch out are 11,392.4 and 11,428.3.

The Nifty Bank index closed at 27,764.15, down 78.45 points on Tuesday. The important Pivot level, which will act as crucial support for the index, is placed at 27,663.94, followed by 27,563.67. On the upside, key resistance levels are placed at 27,851.84, followed by 27,939.47.

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 rebounded on Tuesday, boosted by gains in industrial shares following reports of renewed trade negotiations between the United States and China.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 108.36 points, or 0.43 percent, to 25,415.19, the S&P 500 gained 13.69 points, or 0.49 percent, to 2,816.29 and the Nasdaq Composite added 41.79 points, or 0.55 percent, to 7,671.79.

Asian shares rose on Wednesday, following gains on Wall Street, as a report of attempts to renew talks between the United States and China eased trade war fears, but investors will be keeping a close eye on data due today.

In Asia, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.1 percent in early trade, while Japan's Nikkei stock index gained 0.5 percent. S&P E-mini futures were up a hair at 2818.

Trends on SGX Nifty indicate a positive opening for the broader index in India, a rise of 22.5 points or 0.2 percent. Nifty futures were trading around 11,399.50- level on the Singaporean Exchange.

The Trump administration plans to propose slapping a 25-percent tariff on USD 200 billion of imported Chinese goods after initially setting them at 10 percent, a source familiar with the plan said on Tuesday. President Donald Trump’s administration said on July 10 it would seek to impose the 10-percent tariffs on thousands of Chinese imports, ranging from food products and furniture to chemicals, steel and aluminum.

While the tariffs would not be imposed until after a period of public comment, raising the proposed level to 25 percent could escalate the trade dispute between the world’s two biggest economies.

Growth of eight core sectors expanded to 7-month high of 6.7 percent in June due to better performance by cement, refinery and coal segments, as per official data released yesterday. The eight sectors, which also include fertilisers, steel, natural gas, electricity and crude oil, had expanded by 1 percent in June last year.

The previous high rate of growth was recorded in November 2017 at 6.9 percent. The growth rate in May was 4.3 percent. As per the data released by the commerce and industry ministry, the expansion in cement, refinery products and coal was 13.2 percent, 12 percent and 11.5 percent respectively, year-on-year basis.

Government's finances have shown improvement in the June quarter of 2018-19 with fiscal deficit working out to 68.7 percent of the Budget Estimate, mainly on account of higher revenue collection, official data reveal. The deficit was at 80.8 percent of BE in the April-June quarter of last fiscal.

In actual terms, the fiscal deficit or gap between the total expenditure and receipts was Rs 4.29 lakh crore. As per the data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA), the tax collection at end-June was Rs 2.37 lakh crore or 16 percent of the BE. The total receipts of the government were Rs 2.78 lakh crore during April-June quarter or 15.3 percent of the BE. In the similar period of 2017-18, the collection was 13.1 percent of the BE.

All eyes are on the outcome of the Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) meeting on August 1. The central bank’s panel will release its third bi-monthly monetary policy statement for 2018-19. The decision of the MPC will be announced at 14:30 hours IST on August 1. Most economists expect the MPC to keep policy rates unchanged but the commentary would be a key thing to watch out for.

Dhananjay Sinha of Emkay Global sees the central bank hiking repo rate by another 25 basis points to 6.5 percent. “We now believe that with the sharp rise in both CPI and WPI inflation, RBI may do a cumulative tightening of more than 50 bps (basis points) during the rest of FY19,” he said in a note. CARE Ratings expects a status quo at the meeting.

Abheek Barua, Chief Economist, HDFC Bank, said balancing the risks and the comforts, the MPC is likely to keep the policy rates unchanged. "With already elevated bond yields, the MPC is unlikely to send very hawkish signals to the market with back-to-back rate hikes," he said.

The Federal Reserve began a two-day meeting on monetary policy. Investors are monitoring the Federal Open Market Committee's (FOMC) summer meeting. A policy decision is set to be announced later in the day which should reveal whether the Fed decides to change its stance in August.

Investors are not expecting a rise in interest rates, however, talk of trade or where the Federal Reserve is thinking of heading could be up for discussion.

Oil prices fell on Wednesday after industry data showed US stockpiles of crude unexpectedly rose, starting the new month in negative territory after the largest monthly decline in two years in July.

October Brent crude futures dropped 29 cents, or 0.4 percent, to USD 73.92 a barrel by 0044 GMT, adding to a 1.8 percent loss in the previous session. US crude futures were down 44 cents, or 0.6 percent, at USD 68.32 a barrel, having dropped nearly 2 percent on Tuesday.

The government has decided to withdraw the controversial FRDI bill and has informed about it to the Chairman of the parliamentary panel examining the proposed legislation. Trinamool Congress leader Saugata Ray said in the Lok Sabha that Finance Minister Piyush Goyal has written to the Chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee, saying the government has decided to withdraw the Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance (FRDI) Bill.

The Bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha, on 11 August last year, had a ‘bail-in’ clause, which some experts said had the potential to harm deposits in savings bank accounts. At present, each depositor is protected only up to Rs 1 lakh by the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee.

Indian banks stood on gross bad loans of more than Rs 9.61 lakh crore by the end of 2017-18 while loans to industries formed a major chunk of such non-performing assets, official data showed yesterday.

After the asset quality review (AQR) directed by the Reserve Bank to lenders in 2015, transparent recognition of stressed assets as non-performing assets (NPAs) began, Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla said in Parliament.

"As a result of transparent recognition of stressed assets as NPAs, aggregate gross non-performing assets of scheduled commercial banks, as per Reserve Bank data for domestic operations, increased to Rs 9,61,962 crore as on March 31, 2018," Shukla said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.

The Indian rupee on Tuesday closed at a two-week high against the US dollar as foreign investors started buying in local equities market. The rupee ended at 68.55 a dollar—a level last seen on 17 July, up 0.19 percent from its previous close of 68.68. The currency opened at 68.71 a dollar and touched a high of 68.54. Year to date, it declined 6.8 percent.

From 26 July to 27 July, FIIs have bought nearly USD 500 million in local equity. However So far this year, it remained net sellers of USD 524.30 million and USD 6.21 billion in local equity and debt market. The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 94.36, up 0.01 percent from its previous close of 94.348.

On the earnings front, as many as 51 companies will report results for the quarter ended June on Wednesday which include names like Apollo Tyres, Emami, Exide Industries, HEG, Gravita India, Jindal Saw, Orient Cement, Tata Global Beverages, Torrent Power and Zuari Agro among others.