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

This week is unexpected to be the same as last week as there could be a knee-jerk reaction to weak global cues amid fears of another United States-China trade war and disappointing HUL earnings. Overall, the week is expected to be volatile.

Nifty ended in the green in all sessions of the holiday-shortened week that ended on April 30. The index ended on a 7-week high amid positive global cues, progress in trials of a COVID-19 vaccine, hopes of easing of lockdown and another stimulus package from the government. Short covering and rollovers on April expiry also helped the market.

According to pivot charts, the key support level for Nifty is placed at 9,764.58, followed by 9,669.27. If the index continues moving up, key resistance levels to watch out for are 9,922.13 and 9,984.37.

The important pivot level, which will act as crucial support for the index, is placed at 21,269.8 followed by 21,005.1. On the upside, key resistance levels are placed at 21,883.1 and 22,231.7.

Wall Street sold off sharply on Friday after President Donald Trump revived a threat of new tariffs against China in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has brought global economies to a grinding halt. All three major US stock averages closed down well over 2%, and for the week they all lost ground.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 622.03 points, or 2.55%, to 23,723.69, the S&P 500 lost 81.72 points, or 2.81%, to 2,830.71, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 284.60 points, or 3.2%, to 8,604.95.

Asian markets traded lower on Monday morning, with major markets regionally closed for holidays. Hang Seng index dropped 3.43% in early trade. South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.87% in morning trade while the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index traded 2.2% lower.

Trends on SGX Nifty indicate a negative opening for the index in India with a drop of more than 500 points. The Nifty futures were trading at 9,350 on the Singaporean Exchange around 08:00 hours IST. The index closed at 9,850 on Thursday, CNBC-TV18 reported.

Oil prices fell in early trade on Monday, paring last week’s gains, on worries the global oil glut may persist as US-China trade tension could hold back an economic recovery even as coronavirus pandemic lockdowns start to ease.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell as low as $18.32 a barrel and were down $1.46, or 7.6%, at $18.27 at 0008 GMT. Brent crude futures were down 90 cents, or 3.4%, at $25.54, after touching a low of $25.53. Brent rose about 23% last week following three consecutive weeks of losses.

March eight core industries growth has come at -6.5 percent versus 7.1 percent month-on-month. Except coal, all the other sectors have reported a decline in growth in the month of March.

For FY20, the eight core industries remained flat over FY19 with 0.6 percent growth versus 4.4 percent in FY19. This performance is particularly disturbing considering the coronavirus-induced lockdown began from mid-March of the financial year.

Industry body Ficci has suggested various measures like infrastructure status to the steel industry, zero duty on critical raw materials, and another three-month moratorium to revive the sector, which has been impacted by the lockdown.

In its suggestions to the government, Ficci said: "It...recommends for an extension of additional three months moratorium granted on payment of interest and repayment of loans without any penal interest and interest free financing/at nominal rates for MSMEs in the sector to revive".

The Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) on May 3 claimed that net redemptions under Credit Risk Funds have dropped 81.5 percent after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced a special liquidity measure of Rs 50,000 crore for the mutual fund industry. Net redemptions under Credit Risk Funds stood at Rs 2,949.49 crore as on April 24 and peaked at Rs 4,294.36 crore on April 27, AMFI has said.

At a time when the government has decided to provide some relaxations in restrictions during the third phase of the nationwide lockdown starting from May 4, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Sunday called for greater industrial activities in districts with high economic performance. The industry body also called for "economic contribution of districts to be taken into consideration while classifying lockdown zones."

"Districts with high economic activity should resume all industrial and business operations, including those in containment zones, with highest safety protocols," CII said in a report, 'Strategy Note on Resumption of Economic Activities in Industrial Area.'

The coronavirus lockdown has brought economic activity to a grinding halt, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said on Sunday, citing findings from its CEOs survey, which indicated that 65 percent of the firms expect revenues to fall more than 40 percent in April-June quarter.

The survey results reveal that the country may experience a protracted slowdown in economic activity, as 45 percent of the CEOs polled feel it will take over a year to achieve economic normalcy once the lockdown ends.

Continuing their selling spree for the second straight month, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) withdrew a net Rs 15,403 crore from the Indian capital markets in April amid the coronavirus crisis. As per the depositories data, FPIs pulled out a net sum of Rs 6,884 crore from equities and a net Rs 8,519 crore from the debt segment between April 1-30.

The total net outflow during the month stood at Rs 15,403 crore. In March, FPIs had withdrawn a record Rs 1.1 lakh crore on a net basis from the Indian capital markets (both equity and debt).

Click here for Moneycontrol’s full coverage of the novel coronavirus pandemic

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc posted a higher operating profit on May 2, but the coronavirus pandemic pummeled its common stock investments and led to a record net loss. Berkshire's first-quarter net loss totaled $49.75 billion, or $30,653 per Class A share, reflecting $54.52 billion of losses from investments, mainly common stocks. A year earlier, net earnings totaled $21.66 billion, or $13,209 per share.

Quarterly operating profit, which Buffett considers a better performance measure, rose 6 percent to $5.87 billion from $5.56 billion.

Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das on Saturday held a meeting with the heads of banks and reviewed the economic situation and implementation of various measures announced by it to reduce stress in the financial system amid the COVID-19 crisis. The meeting, which happened in two separate sessions through video conference, saw participation of managing directors and CEOs of major public and private sector banks, the RBI said in a statement after the meeting.

In his opening remarks, the governor appreciated the efforts of banks in ensuring normal to near normal operations during the lockdown period. During the meeting, among other matters, review of the current economic situation and stability of the financial sector among other things were discussed.

The government on Friday deferred the release of April GST revenue collection data due to the ongoing lockdown, sources said. The government had last month extended the deadline to file GST returns for March to May 5, from April 20.

As per convention, the government releases GST revenue collection number on the basis of cash collection in a particular month. However, with the situation arising out of COVID-19, the government has decided to wait till the extended deadline for filing returns before release of the collection figure.

Sources said due to the "unprecedented situation" arising out of the coronavirus outbreak, it has been decided to defer the April GST collection data release. No date has yet been decided to release this data, they said.

After rising for the past few weeks, the country's foreign exchange reserves declined $113 million to $479.45 billion in the week to April 24, due to a fall in foreign currency assets, according to the latest data from the Reserve Bank of India. In the previous week, the reserves had increased by $3.09 billion to $479.57 billion.

The reserves had touched a lifetime high of $487.23 billion in the week to March 6, after it rose by $5.69 billion. During 2019-20, the country's foreign exchange reserves rose by almost $62 billion.

In its efforts to shore up the economy ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic, the government is looking to raise up to Rs 10,000 crore via its its maiden tax-free bond issue, according to a report in The Economic Times. The Ministry of Finance is looking to raise money in multiple instalments and is already in talks with bankers on the tax-free bond issuance, sources told the publication.

Currently, it is unclear whether the ministry will raise the funds through sale of bonds by direct public issue or involve a public sector company as it has done multiple times in the past. Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.

Markets regulator SEBI on Thursday gave three more months till June 30 for liquid funds to comply with the requirement of holding at least 20 percent of their assets in liquid assets like cash and government securities.

Besides, the timelines for submission of cyber security audit reports as mandated by SEBI has been extended by two months till August 31, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said in a circular. Also, the timelines for filing scheme annual reports for 2019-20 has been extended by one month till August 31, it added.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs 1,968.8 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), too, bought shares worth Rs 579.03 crore in the Indian equity market on April 30, provisional data available on the NSE showed.