Indian equity benchmarks ended the volatile day of trade with marginal gains on Thursday. Sentiments remained up-beat in the beginning of the trade with traders eyeing on Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council meeting starting in Guwahati today. GST Council is likely to slash the indirect tax rates on as many as 165 items at its meeting in Guwahati, which begins later today. At present, these 165 items attract 28% tax, which could be moved to the 18% category. The street took note that a year after demonetization, India is getting ready to give digital payments yet another push. It could consider providing incentives in the GST regime for payments that are settled electronically. Investors took note that in a move that could unlock defence contracts of more than Rs 25,000 crore, the government is amending its defence procurement manual (DPM), which will enable the armed forces to procure the latest tech in a speedy manner. Markets pared all of their early gains to enter into red terrain in noon deals, as traders turned cautious with Grant Thornton's latest International Business Report (IBR) highlighting that India slipped to the 7th position in the September quarter from the 2nd spot in the previous three months in its ‘business optimism index', showing clear signs of lag in the economy. Investors also took note of the finance ministry's statement that raising the individual limit of foreign investment up to 15% in power exchanges would be unwise unless a clear business case is established and a strong and adequate regulatory mechanism exists. However, short covering in last leg of trade helped markets to end tad above their neutral lines. Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 32.12 points or 0.10% to 33,250.93, while the CNX Nifty was up by 5.80 points or 0.06% to 10,308.95.

The US markets closed lower on Thursday in their worst session in two weeks with the Dow snapping a seven-day winning streak on worries over a possible delay in much-anticipated corporate tax cut. However, main indexes trimmed losses after the House Ways and Committee approved a bill to overhaul the tax code, setting up a vote by the full House. Meanwhile, a popular measure of implied volatility, as measured by the CBOE Volatility index VIX, soared as much as 20%, but pared gains to be up 11% at 10.86, still below its historic average at around 19 but pointing to elevated levels of market anxiety. Stocks were initially battered by fears that tax cuts would be delayed as the Senate Finance Committee released its version of a tax plan that would defer implementing a 20% corporate tax until 2019, versus next year, as proposed by House Republicans. On the economy front, initial US jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, rose by 10,000 to 239,000 in the week ended November 4. The more stable monthly average of claims decreased by 1,250 and stood at 231,250 to the lowest level since March 1973. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 101.42 points or 0.43 percent to 23,461.94, the Nasdaq dropped 39.065 points or 0.58 percent to 6,750.05, and the S&P 500 edged lower by 9.76 points or 0.38 percent to 2,584.62. 

Crude oil futures bounced back and ended higher on Thursday despite a report tempering expectation for further supply cuts from OPEC. Traders got some support with the ongoing unrest in the Middle East, while Saudi Arabia's plan to slash crude exports too lifted sentiment. It was reported that Saudi Arabia plans to cut its crude exports by 120,000 barrels per day in December compared with November, slashing allocations to all regions. In recent days oil has jumped to the highest in two years on speculation the global oil market will re-balance in the near future. Benchmark crude oil futures for December delivery ended higher by $0.36 at $ 57.17 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for January delivery was up by $0.47 to $63.96 a barrel on the ICE.

Indian rupee ended marginally higher against dollar on Thursday due to selling of the US currency by exporters and banks. The domestic currency got the support of dollar's weakness against major world currencies overseas. This was the second consecutive session when the rupee traded higher against dollar. However, further gains were restricted as some concern came with Grant Thornton's latest International Business Report (IBR) highlighting that India slipped to the 7th position in the September quarter from the 2nd spot in the previous three months in its ‘business optimism index', showing clear signs of lag in the economy. On the global front, dollar slipped against yen on Thursday on the sudden plummeting of the Nikkei stock index as well as uncertainties over the US tax reforms. Finally, the rupee ended at 64.94, 1 paise stronger from its previous close of 64.95 on Wednesday.

The FIIs as per Thursday's data were net buyers in equity segment, while they were net sellers in debt segment. In equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 12524.10 crore against gross selling of Rs 6536.61 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 1848.90 crore with gross sales of Rs 2235.65 crore.

The US markets despite coming off the worst levels of the day ended lower in the last session, reacting to reports regarding the Senate version of tax reform legislation, which has several key differences with the House version, including a delay in the implementation of the cut in the corporate tax rate. Also, there was report of bigger than expected increase in initial jobless claims for the week. The Asian markets have made mostly a lower start tailing the US markets and led by the Japanese broader index, which is down by over a percent after the yen strengthened against the dollar. Investors in the region appeared to be growing pessimistic about the prospects for meaningful US fiscal reform. The Indian markets after a volatile day of trade managed modestly higher close in the last session and snapped their two days declining trend. Today, the mood once again is looking somber on weak global cues and traders will be cautious ahead of the key macro data of industrial production and the GST Council meeting outcome later in the day. Though, it is expected that the GST Council would rationalize tax rates for 100-150 items in the 28 percent tax slab along with taking a call on recommendations of the ministerial panel's suggestions to make the composition scheme attractive, but traders will look for the final outcome. Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who heads the panel on the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN), has indicated that the rates on over 200 daily-use items are expected to come down from 28 per cent to 18 per cent. There will be buzz in the realty sector, as the government in its bid to give a fillip to the housing sector and push construction activities has announced that central government employees can get loans up to Rs 25 lakh from the government under the house building advance (HBA) scheme, which is more than three times of the earlier norm. There will be lots of important earnings announcements too, to keep the markets in action.

Support and Resistance: NSE (Nifty) and BSE (Sensex)

Nifty Top volumes

• TCS and Cisco have deployed the Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure architecture for the TCS Enterprise Cloud Platform.
• Cipla is planning to enter the branded formulation market in China in coming quarters either by acquiring a company or collaborating with a local partner.
• IOC has commenced trading crude oil through its Singapore unit, buying a million barrels of Nigerian oil Akpo.
• Tata Motors has reported around 3-fold jump in its net profit at Rs 2501.67 crore for Q2FY18 as compared to Rs 848.16 crore for Q2FY17.