What changed for the market while you were sleeping? Top 15 things to know

The Nifty50 started off the last day on a positive note following positive global cues but immediately wiped out those gains to trade volatile for rest of the day and closed mildly in the red on Friday. Investors await another batch of earnings reports.

The index formed a bearish candle on the daily charts and a decent bullish candle on the weekly scale.

Flat close with a negative bias indicated that the market took a breather after rallying sharply in the previous session, but managed to hold the psychological 11,000-mark for the second consecutive session which hinted that bulls have not given up yet and may help the index hit earlier record high of 11,171 seen in January, experts said.

The 50-share NSE Nifty after opening at 11,056.90 extended gains to hit an intraday high of 11,071.35, but wiped out those gains in the morning trade itself to hit day's low of 10,999.75. It traded in a range of about 30 points for rest of the day but did not break previous day's intraday low of 10,999.65.

According to Pivot charts, the key support level is placed at 10,988.7, followed by 10,958.5. If the index starts moving upwards, key resistance levels to watch out are 11,060.2 and 11,101.5.

The Nifty Bank index closed at 26,935.95, down 90.6 points on Friday. The important Pivot level, which will act as crucial support for the index, is placed at 26,858.03, followed by 26,780.17. On the upside, key resistance levels are placed at 27,058.03, followed by 27,180.17.

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 rose slightly on Friday, putting the S&P 500 at its highest closing level in more than five months, as gains in industrials and other areas offset a drop in financials after results from three of the big banks mostly disappointed.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 94.52 points, or 0.38 percent, to 25,019.41, the S&P 500 gained 3.02 points, or 0.11 percent, to 2,801.31 and the Nasdaq Composite added 2.06 points, or 0.03 percent, to 7,825.98. The S&P 500 posted its highest closing level since February 1. The index is now just 2.5 percent from its January 26 record closing high and up 4.8 percent for the year so far.

Asian shares were lower on Monday, brushing off the firmer Wall Street lead as investor caution dominated ahead of the release of key Chinese economic data, which is expected to show signs of a slowdown.

In early Asian trade, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.1 percent. Australian shares were flat, and Seoul’s Kospi was down 0.1 percent. Japan’s markets are closed for a holiday today.

Trends on SGX Nifty indicate a flat to negative opening for the broader index in India, a loss of 5.5 points or 0.05 percent. Nifty futures were trading around 11,023- level on the Singaporean Exchange.

The finance ministry may approach markets regulator Sebi to seek relaxation on the minimum 25 percent public shareholding norm for some public sector banks (PSBs). There are 13 PSBs including IDBI Bank, Bank of India in which the government holding is more than 75 percent.

If these banks are unable to meet the norm by August deadline, the Department of Financial Services will have to approach the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for exemption, sources said.

Continuing their selling spree, foreign investors have pulled out nearly Rs 1,200 crore from the debt markets in the first two weeks of the month on higher fuel prices and possibilities of rate hike by the US Federal Reserve.

The latest sell-off comes after foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) withdrew an amount close to Rs 50,000 crore from the debt markets in last five months (February to July). Prior to that, overseas investors had infused over Rs 8,500 crore in January.

India's capital market regulator has proposed amendments to tighten laws governing auditors and other third-party individuals hired by listed companies for auditing financial results, among other things.

The Kotak Committee, formed to come up with proposals for improving corporate governance, last year recommended that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) should have clear powers to act against auditors and other third-party individuals or firms with statutory duties under the securities law.

On the macro front, the government will announce wholesale price inflation (WPI) for June 2018 on July 16, 2018. WPI rose by 4.43% year-on-year in May 2018, after a 3.18% rise in the prior month.

The rupee on Friday surged to a three-week high of 68.31 before closing marginally up by 4 paise at 68.53 against the US currency mirroring late losses in stock markets and capital outflows.

The rupee, however, managed to end at 68.53, up by just 4 paise or close to 0.06 per cent. For the week, rupee recovered by a smart 34 paise after two-straight weeks of downtrend.

The country's foreign exchange reserves declined by USD 248.20 million to USD 405.81 billion in the week to July 6, despite a rise in the foreign currency assets, RBI data showed. In the previous week, the forex reserves had declined by USD 1.76 billion to USD 406.06 billion.

Forex reserves had touched a record high of USD 426.028 billion in the week to April 13, 2018. Reserves had crossed the USD 400-billion mark for the first time in the week to September 8, 2017, but have since been fluctuating. In the week under review, foreign currency assets, a major component of the overall reserves, rose marginally by USD 73.9 million to USD 380.792 billion, the RBI data showed.

India's exports soared by 17.57 percent to USD 27.7 billion in June but the trade deficit widened to a more than three-and a-half-year high of USD 16.6 billion due to costlier crude oil imports. Imports too rose by 21.31 percent to USD 44.3 billion during the month, according to the data released by the commerce ministry.

The trade deficit in June 2018 is the highest since November 2014 when the gap was USD 16.86 billion. The deficit in June 2017 stood at USD 12.96 billion.

During April-June this fiscal, exports rose by 14.21 percent to USD 82.47 billion. Imports during the first quarter of the fiscal increased by 13.49 percent to  USD 127.41 billion, leaving a trade deficit of USD 44.94 billion.

Oil prices fell on Monday as concerns about supply disruptions eased and Libyan ports resumed export activities, while traders eyed potential supply increases by Russia and other oil producers.

Brent crude futures were down 26 cents, or 0.4 percent, at USD 75.07 a barrel at 0057 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was down 27 cents, or 0.4 percent, at USD 70.74 a barrel.

FDI inflows in the services sector declined by about 23 per cent to USD 6.7 billion in 2017-18, according to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).

The sector had attracted FDI worth USD 8.68 billion in 2016-17. The services sector includes finance, banking, insurance, outsourcing, R&D, courier, tech testing and analysis. As far as overall FDI inflows are concerned, the growth rate recorded a five-year low of 3 per cent at USD 44.85 billion in 2017-18.

Hindustan Unilever is likely to report a 18.6 percent year-on-year (YoY) increase in its April-June net profit to Rs 1,538 crore, according to a Reuters poll of analysts. In the first quarter of FY18, the company had posted a net profit of Rs 1,296 crore. In the quarter under review, the Indian subsidiary of the Anglo-Dutch Unilever Plc is seen reporting a 14.73 percent YoY rise in net sales to Rs 9,638 crore.

Brokerages expect the company's volume growth to be in the range of 11-14 percent. HUL had witnessed flat volume growth in the year-ago period because of the disruption in trade channels before the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Rating agency Moody’s has downgraded the corporate family rating (CFR) and senior unsecured instrument ratings of Tata Motors by a notch from Ba1 to Ba2 based on expectation of “continued weakness” in the company’s consolidated credit metrics over the next two years, led by its wholly-owned subsidiary Jaguar Land Rover (JLR).

The rating outlook for the auto company, however, remains stable reflecting subsidiary JLR’s relative strength and on the expectation from Tata Motors to get its free cash flow back to positive banking on its consolidated cash balances, strong operating cash flow and long-dated debt-maturity profile, Economic Times reported.

The IPO lane is getting busy as at least seven companies, including Lodha Developers and HDFC Mutual Fund, are expected to hit the capital market in the coming week to raise over Rs 14,000 crore.

The first among the lot would be TCNS Clothing, which sells its products under W, Aurelia and Wishful brands, that will launch its Rs 1,125-crore initial share-sale this week.

While six others -- Lodha Developers, HDFC Mutual Fund, Nekkanti Sea Foods, Flemingo Travel Retail, Patel Infrastructure and Genius Consultants -- are expected to launch their respective IPOs in the coming week, according to merchant banking sources.

Brokerage BNP Paribas today said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will go for another 0.25 percent hike in key policy rates at its August monetary policy review, a day after an official data showed retail inflation rising to a five-month high of 5 percent in June.

"Consumer price inflation points out to a hike in August," the French Brokerage said in a note, adding it expects the RBI to hike the repo rate by 0.25 percent to 6.5 percent.

Markets regulator SEBI on Friday said that allotment of shares to foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) in initial public offers would need to be verified with PANs to check against any breach of investment limit through multiple entities. Under the rules, purchase of equity shares of each company by a single FPI or an investor group would have to be below 10 percent of the total issued capital of the company.

"At the time of finalization of basis of allotment during primary market issuances, Registrar and Transfer Agents (RTAs) shall use Permanent Account Number (PAN) issued by Income Tax Department of India for checking compliance for a single FPI," SEBI said in a circular.

Market regulator Sebi has given its go-ahead for the initial public offering (IPO) of rail PSU IRCON, which could hit the markets in September to raise about Rs 500 crore, an official said.

The share sale is expected to fetch about Rs 500 crore to the exchequer. Besides IRCON, the Finance Ministry is also readying share sale plans of IRFC (Indian Railway Finance Corporation) and would file draft prospectus with Sebi soon.

Securities in ban period for the next day's trade under the F&O segment includes companies in which the security has crossed 95 percent of the market-wide position limit.

For July 16, Jet Airways is present in this list.