Indian equity benchmarks recovered all their intraday losses to end with gains on Wednesday, supported by buying in Financial, Banking and Realty counters. After making slightly negative start, markets extended losses, as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in its latest 'World Economic Outlook' report, has said that India's Gross domestic product (GDP), severely hit by the coronavirus pandemic, is projected to contract by a massive 10.3 percent in 2020. However, it said the country is likely to bounce back with an impressive 8.8 percent growth rate in 2021, thus regaining the position of the fastest growing emerging economy, surpassing China's projected growth rate of 8.2 percent. Some concern also came as domestic rating agency Crisil said securitisation transactions dived 80 per cent in April-September period of the ongoing fiscal year to just over Rs 20,000 crore largely because of the pandemic and the loan moratoriums. Sentiments remained down-beat in late afternoon session, as India's inflation based on wholesale price index (WPI) surged to 1.32% for the month of September, 2020 as compared to 0.33% during the corresponding month of the previous year. Component wise, primary articles index having weight of 22.62%, increased by 2.73% to 150.3 (provisional) in September, 2020 from 146.3 (provisional) for the month of August, 2020. However, late hour buying helped benchmark indices rebound smartly from day's low and extend the rally to the 10th day, as traders found some solace with Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant's statement that the government has been working on multiple fronts to position India as a truly global manufacturing hub with a strong focus on exports. He also said the government is finalising its plans to expand its production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme to more sectors for boosting domestic manufacturing. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 169.23 points or 0.42% to 40,794.74, while the CNX Nifty was up by 36.55 points or 0.31% to 11,971.05.

The US markets ended lower on Wednesday, extending the pullback seen in the previous session, as Congress and the White House wrangled over further pandemic aid and big banks kicked off third-quarter corporate earnings season with a cautious tone. The weakness that emerged on markets came following comments from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin offsetting recent optimism about a new stimulus bill. Mnuchin said getting something done on a new stimulus bill before the election would be difficult. Mnuchin about negotiations with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said we continue to make progress on certain issues, but on certain issues we continue to be far apart. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has also cast doubts about whether a bill can pass before the election and recently announced plans to vote on a more limited relief package. Besides, concerns about the global spread of coronavirus in the autumn and winter in the Northern Hemisphere were rising. Paris and eight other Franch cities imposed a new curfew on Wednesday in a bid to contain outbreaks, as European cities battle with a second wave of coronavirus infection that threaten to overwhelm hospitals. The US death toll from the coronavirus illness COVID-19 was heading for 216,000 on Wednesday, driven by a spike in new cases in the Midwest and Mountain West that are starting to fill hospital beds and squeeze health care systems.

Crude oil futures ended higher for 2nd straight day on Wednesday as Saudi Arabia and Russia reportedly held a discussion by phone, reiterating the OPEC+ commitment to abide by the production-cut agreement. However, a report by the International Energy Agency underlined fears an acceleration in new COVID-19 cases around the world will dent demand for crude, limiting gains for prices. Meanwhile, the global tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 climbed to 38.2 million on Wednesday, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University, with 16 US states adding more new cases in the last seven days through Monday that in any other since the start of the pandemic. Crude oil futures for November rose 84 cents or 2.1 percent to settle at $41.04 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. December Brent crude gained 87 cents or 2.1 percent to settle at $43.32 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.

Indian rupee ended higher against the American currency on Wednesday, due to selling of the US currency by exporters and banks. Sentiments were positive despite IMF's, in its latest 'World Economic Outlook' report stated that the India's Gross domestic product (GDP), severely hit by the coronavirus pandemic, is projected to contract by a massive 10.3 percent in 2020. However, upside was capped due to the weakness in domestic equity markets. Meanwhile, India's inflation based on wholesale price index (WPI) surged to 1.32% for the month of September, 2020 as compared to 0.33% during the corresponding month of the previous year. On the global front, dollar index extended its gains on Wednesday and demand for riskier currencies was subdued, as investors became more cautious over rising COVID-19 cases, vaccine trials being paused and U.S. fiscal stimulus talks hitting a new impasse. Finally, the rupee ended at 73.31, 4 paise stronger from its previous close of 73.35 on Tuesday.

The FIIs as per Wednesday's data were net buyers in both equity and debt segment. In equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 6760.52 crore against gross selling of Rs 4884.49 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 866.20 crore with gross sales of Rs 667.75 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was of Rs 17.83 crore against gross selling of Rs 28.54 crore.

The US markets ended lower on Wednesday following comments from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin offsetting recent optimism about a new stimulus bill. Asian markets are trading in red on Thursday, amid fading U.S. stimulus hopes and concerns about rising new coronavirus infections in parts of Europe. Indian markets recovered from the day's low and ended higher on Wednesday led by gains in banking and realty stocks. Today, the markets are likely to get cautious start amid weakness in global peers. There will be some cautiousness with Chief Economic Adviser K V Subramanian's statement that there will be a temporary impact on investment flow to start-ups due to the curbs imposed by the government to stop opportunistic takeover by firms from countries with which India has border tensions. Traders will be concerned with report that India on Wednesday registered a spike of 67,988 new Covid cases, taking the total count to 7,305,070, and the death toll reached 111,311. Market participants may take note of report that ushering in a new era of movie watching, the Union government allowed multiplexes, cinema halls and theatres to reopen from Thursday within the framework of a set of standard operating procedures (SOPs). Auto stocks will be in limelight with ICRA's report that passenger vehicle industry's FY21 volumes are expected to witness a 22-25 per cent decline. There will be some buzz in the real estate industry stocks with a private report stating that the coming festive season is likely to witness a surge in demand for residential properties and the housing sales may rise 35 per cent across the top seven cities during the October-December period on a quarter-on-quarter basis. Pharma stocks will be in focus as Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister D V Sadananda Gowda invited Latin American and Carribean countries to invest in the Indian pharma sector, which he said could grow to become a $65 billion industry by 2024. There will be some reaction in aviation stocks with aviation regulator DGCA's statement that a total of 3.94 million domestic passengers travelled by air in September this year, 66 per cent lower than the corresponding period last year. There will be some earnings announcements too to keep the markets buzzing. Meanwhile, oil and gas pipeline infrastructure service provider Likhitha Infrastructure will list its shares on bourses today, with the final issue price fixed at Rs 120 per share. Overall, the issue was subscribed 9.51 times.

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

Nifty Top volumes

• Wipro has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Eximius Design, a leading engineering services company with strong expertise in semiconductor, software and systems design. 
• NTPC has decided to raise Rs 4,000 crore on October 15, 2020, through private placement of unsecured non-convertible bonds in the nature of debentures at a coupon of 5.45% p.a. 
• Bajaj Finance, IDFC First and Vivo have entered into partnership to waive dealer charges paid by retailers for selling devices under installment schemes. 
• Axis Bank, in collaboration with Google Pay and Visa, has launched the ACE Credit Card.