Indian equity benchmarks ended volatile day in red terrain on Thursday, despite firm global markets. Markets made a positive start, after India jumped 14 places to the 63rd position on the World Bank's ease of doing business ranking, riding high on the government's flagship Make in India scheme and other reforms attracting foreign investment. The country also figured among the top 10 performers on the list for the third time in a row. Adding some support, the commerce and industry ministry said that India has recorded continuous improvement in its ease of doing business ranking issued by the World Bank on account of steps taken by the government in this regard. But, bourses turned volatile to settle lower, as share of FPIs in domestic capital markets through P-notes stood at Rs 76,611 crore in September-end, registering the fourth consecutive month-on-month decline. Some concerns also came, after Fitch Ratings slashed India's GDP growth forecast in the current fiscal to 5.5% saying a large credit squeeze emanating from shadow banks has pushed economic growth to a six year low. Traders got cautious with Economist Intelligence Unit's statement that India is not likely to benefit from the US-China trade tensions largely owing to existing policy barriers to large-scale production, strict labour laws & difficult land-acquisition process. Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 38.44 points or 0.10% to 39,020.39, while the CNX Nifty was down by 21.50 points or 0.19% to 11,582.60.

The US markets ended mostly higher on Thursday, however the Dow Jones Industrial Average pinned lower by a tumble in shares of 3M, amid a flurry of corporate quarterly results. A steep drop by shares of 3M (MMM) weighed on the day after the diversified manufacturer reported third quarter earnings that beat estimates but lowered its full-year earnings outlook. Meanwhile, shares of Twitter came under pressure after the social media giant reported weaker than expected third quarter results and provided disappointing guidance. Besides, traders were digesting a slew of US economic data, including a report from the Commerce Department showing a steep drop in orders for transportation equipment contributed to a bigger than expected decrease in durable goods orders in September. The Commerce Department said durable goods orders tumbled by 1.1 percent in September after rising by a revised 0.3 percent in August. Street had expected durable goods orders to decline by 0.8 percent compared to the 0.2 percent uptick that had been reported for the previous month. Excluding the nosedive in orders for transportation equipment, durable goods orders dipped by 0.3 percent in September after climbing by 0.3 percent in August. Ex-transportation orders had expected to edge down by 0.2 percent. A separate report from the Commerce Department showed new home sales pulled back in September after a sharp increase in the previous month. The report said new home sales slid by 0.7 percent to an annual rate of 701,000 in September after spiking by 6.2 percent to a revised rate of 706,000 in August. Street had expected slump by 1.7 percent to a rate of 701,000 from the 713,000 originally reported for the previous month.

Extending their previous session's gains, crude oil futures ended higher on Thursday amid rising hopes the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies will extend output cuts beyond March 2020, and might even consider increasing the quantum of cuts. A surprise drop in crude inventories in the US last week and the likelihood of the US and China signing the first phase of a trade deal by mid-November too supported oil's uptick. Besides, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that domestic supplies of natural gas rose by 87 billion cubic feet for the week ended October 18. Benchmark crude oil futures for December gained 26 cents or 0.5 percent to settle at $56.23 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. December Brent rose 50 cents or 0.8 percent to settle at $61.67 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.

Erasing all of its initial gains, Indian rupee ended marginally weaker against the US dollar on Thursday, due to increased demand of the greenback from the importers and the banks. Investors remained cautious as Fitch Ratings slashed India's GDP growth forecast in the current fiscal to 5.5 per cent saying a large credit squeeze emanating from shadow banks has pushed economic growth to a six year low. Besides, lackluster trade in local equity markets along with dollar's strength against other currencies overseas weighed on the rupee. However, losses remain capped as traders found some solace with the commerce and industry ministry's statement that India has recorded continuous improvement in its ease of doing business ranking issued by the World Bank on account of steps taken by the government in this regard. On the global front, euro erased its earlier gains on Thursday after business surveys pointed to stagnating economic momentum in the euro zone. Finally, the rupee ended at 71.02, 11 paise weaker from its previous close of 70.91 on Wednesday.

The FIIs as per Thursday's data were net sellers in both equity and debt segments. In equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 5327.09 crore against gross selling of Rs 5476.16 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 863.40 crore with gross sales of Rs 1480.97 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was of Rs 22.03 crore against gross selling of Rs 19.15 crore.

The US markets ended mostly higher on Thursday, with strong results from Tesla and Microsoft offsetting weak profits from Ford and some other companies. Asian markets are trading mostly lower on Friday amid a raft of lingering uncertainties, ranging from corporate earnings to the US-China trade war. Indian markets ended range-bound session in red on Thursday led by fall in banking and IT heavyweights like Infosys, State Bank of India, HDFC Bank and IndusInd Bank. Today, the start is likely to be flat-to-negative amid weak cues from Asian peers. There will be some cautiousness with report that the government might be impelled to steeply cut its direct tax collection target, with growth in this regard slumping to 3.5 per cent up to mid-October from the same period in the earlier financial year, as against the Budget target of 17.3 per cent. However, some respite may come later in the day with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's statement that efforts will be made to further simplify Goods and Services Tax, and expressed hope that it will help in further improving India's ranking in the World Bank's ease of doing business index. Some support may also come with report that notwithstanding global and domestic economic uncertainties, private equity funds recorded an all-time-high investment of $9.4 billion in the third quarter this year, driven by big-ticket transactions. Traders may take note of Director of Development Economics at the World Bank Simeon Djankov's statement that India needs a fresh set of bold reforms in the next three to four years if it wants to be among the top 50 countries with ease of doing business. Besides, a private report indicated that the Reserve Bank of India may go for rate cuts in December as well as next year as a modest rise in recent inflation is outweighed by downside risks to the central bank's growth estimates. Non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) stocks will be in focus with report that the financial metrics of mortgage lenders and NBFCs could deteriorate further due to non-availability of funding and the possibility of large loans to builders turning into bad loans next year when the moratorium expires. There will be some reaction in telecom stocks with report that in a setback to telecom service providers, the Supreme Court has allowed the Centre's plea to recover adjusted gross revenue (AGR) of about Rs 92,000 crore from them. There will be some buzz in the sugar stocks with report that the country's sugar production is expected to decline by 12.38 per cent to 28-29 million tonnes in the 2019-20 marketing season starting this month, due to sharp fall in the output in Maharashtra. There will be lots of earnings reaction based on the performance of the companies.

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

Nifty Top volumes

• TCS has launched a next-generation blockchain-based multi-brand customer loyalty platform using R3's Corda. 
• Tech Mahindra has entered into a collaboration with Quantoz to offer Blockchain-as-a-Service for secure digital payments. 
• Titan Company has incorporated a wholly owned subsidiary company namely Titan Holdings International FZCO, Dubai. 
• Coal India is planning to switch over to mechanised transportation of coal through piped conveyor belts in its large mines by 2023-24, replacing the existing road movement of the dry fuel.