Gaining for third session in a row, Indian equity benchmarks ended Tuesday's session with marginal gains, as a slowdown in daily coronavirus cases raised hopes that the government will further ease restrictions. After making cautious start, domestic bourses turned positive, as traders found solace with a private report that COVID-19 vaccines will be the fastest vaccine to be ever developed and they will be available by the summer of 2021. Some support also came as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman exhorted large central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) to achieve by December 75 per cent of their planned capital expenditure (capex) target for 2020-21, to support economic growth hit by the COVID-19 crisis. Markets added more gains in the afternoon session, taking support from data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) in the quarterly bulletin of the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) showing that unemployment in urban areas fell to 8.4% in July- September 2019 from 8.9% in the June quarter last year. However, key indices gave up some of their initial gains in final hour of trade, as some cautiousness remained among traders with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's statement that the government has begun an exercise to assess the impact of the pandemic on the economy and likely contraction in GDP, even as she did not rule out the possibility of another stimulus to boost growth. Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry said banks have covered 1.5 crore farmers under the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) scheme to sanction credit limit of Rs 1.35 lakh crore to help them meet financial requirements during the COVID-19 crisis. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 112.77 points or 0.28% to 40,544.37, while the CNX Nifty was up by 23.75 points or 0.20% to 11,896.80.

The US markets ended higher on Tuesday after negotiations on a new round of fiscal stimulus chugged along with the Trump administration and House Democrats continuing to talk. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California and US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin held talks on Tuesday, her previously imposed deadline for a deal to happen before the election. Pelosi said an agreement could still happen before the election and appeared to play down the Tuesday deadline, saying that a bill would need to be written by the end of the week for it to get through Congress by November 3. Meanwhile, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said he was confident the economic recovery would continue apace, but underlined the importance of further government support. Some support also came in on reports that Moderna's coronavirus vaccine could be available for emergency use in December if it gets positive results from interim trial in November further aided sentiment. Besides, stronger than expected earnings reports from Procter & Gamble (PG) and Travelers Companies Inc. (TRV) contributed as well to the firm trend in the market.

Crude oil futures settled higher on expectations of a drop in US crude inventories in the week ended October 18. Further, prospects of OPEC and its allied scaling back production helped as well. OPEC and its allies are reportedly planning to further scale back production from January 1 to 5.8 million barrels per day from the existing 7.7 million barrels per day. Besides, sentiments were upbeat despite lingering concerns about outlook for energy demand due to surging coronavirus cases and tightening of lockdown measures in several parts across the world. Crude oil futures for November gained 63 cents or 1.5 percent to settle at $41.46 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. December Brent crude rose 54 cents or 1.3 percent to settle at $43.16 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.

Indian rupee ended weaker against the US dollar on Tuesday, extending its previous session's losses, on increased demand for the greenback from importers and banks. Traders took note of report that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government has begun an exercise to assess the impact of the pandemic on the economy and likely contraction in GDP, even as she did not rule out the possibility of another stimulus to boost growth. She said the ministry has started doing some assessment since the beginning of October and would soon come with a projection. On the global front, Sterling traders kept the currency afloat on Tuesday as they searched for clues on how likely it was for Britain to reach a trade deal with the European Union by the end of the year. Finally, the rupee ended at 73.49, 12 paise weaker from its previous close of 73.37 on Monday.

The FIIs as per Tuesday's data were net buyer in equity segment, while net seller in debt segment. In equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 6348.97 crore against gross selling of Rs 4358.34 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 1024.78 crore with gross sales of Rs 1045.68 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was of Rs 0.72 crore against gross selling of Rs 5.66 crore.

The US markets ended higher on Tuesday on renewed US stimulus hopes, although wobbles in the tech sector kept a lid on investors' sentiment. Asian markets are trading mostly in green on Wednesday as investors continue to watch for developments on US coronavirus stimulus. Indian markets ended higher after a volatile session on Tuesday mainly led by IT stocks and some financials after the banking index turned positive. Today, the start of session is likely to be positive on the back of firm global cues. Traders will be getting some encouragement with the Commerce and Industry Ministry's statement that foreign direct investment (FDI) in India has increased by 16 per cent year-on-year to $27.1 billion during April-August this year. During April-August last year, India had received FDI worth $23.35 billion. Some support will come with ratings agency ICRA's statement that India's economic recovery has broadened and strengthened in September from the pandemic-induced lows seen in April 2020. ICRA said that as many as nine of the tracked 15 non-financial high frequency indicators recorded growth in September 2020, while five posted a narrower year-on-year contraction in that month. However, there may be some cautiousness with an RBI analysis showing that aggregate sales of private sector manufacturing companies recorded a sharp contraction of 41.1 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2020-21, reflecting the impact of the pandemic induced lockdown. Traders also may be concerned with report that a day after witnessing a significant drop in new Covid-19 cases, India on Tuesday recorded 54,422 cases, taking the tally to 7,649,158. Death toll rose to 115,888. Meanwhile, SEBI has amended norms pertaining to alternative investment funds (AIFs), including defining relevant professional qualifications. Under the new norms, qualification and experience criteria of the investment team may be fulfilled individually or collectively by personnel of key investment team of the manager. Agriculture industry stocks will be in focus as Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution claimed that the Paddy procurement in current season has exceeded by 22.43 per cent as compared to the previous season and the Government continues to procure Kharif 2020-21 crops on MSP from the farmers. 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

• Wipro has won an Application Management and Services Integration & Management contract from Fortum. 
• Hero MotoCorp has launched a new edition of the iconic Splendor motorcycle - the Splendor plus Black and Accent. 
• Dr. Reddy's Laboratories has re-launched OTC Famotidine Tablets USP, 10 mg and 20 mg in the US market, as approved by the USFDA. 
• M&M is going to increase production of its all-new Thar SUV substantially after its bookings crossed 15,000 units since the launch of the vehicle.