Snapping their six-session losing run, Indian equity benchmarks displayed spirited performance on Friday by clocking handsome gains of over two percent in the session, due to across-the-board buying even as the risks and worries over Covid-19 and economy remained. Key gauges traded on positive note since the beginning, as traders took encouragement with report that the government has extended the suspension of insolvency proceedings for any COVID-19 related default by a period of three months, effective from September 25. The Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code (IBC) was suspended for a period of six months with effect from March 25, 2020, by the government earlier, to protect those experiencing financial distress on account of the pandemic. However, Indian equities climbed off the opening highs in late morning deals as domestic rating agency India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) has maintained a negative outlook on non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and housing finance companies (HFCs) for the second half of 2020-21 (2HFY21) amid Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) related business disruptions. Though, domestic indices regained traction by adding more strength in second half of the session, supported by stronger Asian peers on hopes of US stimulus. Some support came in with report that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced it will conduct simultaneous purchase and sale of government securities under open market operation (OMO) for an aggregate amount of Rs 10,000 crore each on October 1. Adding the optimism among the investors, International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Aatmanirbhar Bharat is an important initiative. The economic package under this self-reliant India initiative, which was announced in the aftermath of the coronavirus shock, has supported the Indian economy and mitigated significant downside risks. Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 835.06 points or 2.28% to 37,388.66, while the CNX Nifty was up by 244.70 points or 2.26% to 11,050.25.

The US markets settled considerably higher on Friday as technology stocks moved sharply higher, once again attempting to rebound from recent weakness. Big-name tech stocks like Apple, Amazon and Microsoft posted significant gains on the day. The advance by Microsoft reflected substantial strength in the software sector, with the Dow Jones US Software Index surging up by 2.6 percent. Notable strength also emerged among biotechnology and healthcare stocks, with the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index and the Dow Jones US Healthcare Index both climbing by 1.8 percent. Within the biotech sector, Novavax (NVAX) posted a standout gain after announcing it has initiated a Phase 3 trial of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Traders largely shrugged off a report from the Commerce Department showing a much smaller than expected increase in durable goods orders in the month of August. The Commerce Department said durable goods orders rose by 0.4 percent in August after soaring by an upwardly revised 11.7 percent in July. Street had expected durable goods orders to surge up by 1.5 percent compared to the 11.4 percent spike that had been reported for the previous month. Traders also kept an eye on developments in Washington amid reports House Democrats plan to unveil a new $2.4 trillion coronavirus relief bill. The price tag for the bill is $1 trillion less than a stimulus package the House passed back in May but may still be too high for Republicans.

Crude oil futures closed slightly lower on Friday, weighed down by concerns about the outlook for energy demand due to rising coronavirus cases and reports of fresh lockdown measures in several countries. Reports about the resumption of crude exports from Libya also weighed on oil prices. Meanwhile, recent data showing a drop in crude inventories in the US helped limit oil's decline a bit. According to Baker Hughes, the oil-drilling rigs count in the US moved up for the first time in three weeks, rising by 4 this week to 183. Crude oil futures for October declined $0.06 or 0.2 percent to settle at $40.25 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. November Brent crude lower $0.07 or 0.2 percent to settle at $41.87 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.

Erasing prevision session losses, Indian Rupee ended fairly higher against US dollar on Friday, on the back of selling of the American currency by exporters. Besides, gains in domestic equity markets also provided support to the rupee. Sentiments were buoyant as government has extended the suspension of fresh insolvency proceedings under the insolvency law by three months till December 25. This provides breathing time for companies to recover from coronavirus pandemic-induced financial stress. The six-month period of suspension, which was effective from March 25, was to end on September 24. Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said it will conduct simultaneous purchase and sale of government securities under OMO for an aggregate amount of Rs 10,000 crore each on October 1, 2020 on a review of the current liquidity and financial conditions. On the global front; dollar stabilised below its recent two-month highs on Friday and riskier currencies erased some of their weekly losses, while equity markets got a lift from hopes that US fiscal stimulus talks would resume. Finally, the rupee ended at 73.61, 28 paise stronger from its previous close of 73.89 on Thursday.

The FIIs as per Friday's data were net seller in both equity and debt segment. In equity segment, the gross buying was of Rs 7132.74 crore against gross selling of Rs 8798.31 crore, while in the debt segment, the gross purchase was of Rs 253.56 crore with gross sales of Rs 278.69 crore. Besides, in the hybrid segment, the gross buying was of Rs 4.12 crore against gross selling of Rs 14.44 crore.

The US markets ended in green on Friday boosted by a strong rebound in several tech giants. Asian markets are trading higher on Monday as investors react to Chinese economic data released over the weekend. Indian markets ended considerably higher on Friday led by enormous buying in all key sectors amid positive momentum in the Asian peers. Today, the start of new week is likely to be positive taking lead from Asian peers. Investors will be focusing the Reserve Bank of India's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meet which will begin from September 29 and end on October 1. The Reserve Bank is likely to keep interest rates unchanged in the forthcoming bilateral monetary policy review in view of the rising retail inflation driven mainly by supply-side issues. Some support will come with the RBI data showing that bank credit grew 5.26 per cent to Rs 102.24 lakh crore while deposits rose 11.98 per cent to Rs 142.48 lakh crore in the fortnight ended September 11. Market participants may take note of report that India on Sunday saw over 80,000 new Covid-19 cases, a notch less than the average daily additions since last month. Total caseload currently stands at 6,073,348. Though, traders may be concerned as the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) projected the economy to contract by 12.6 per cent during the current financial year. It said all the remaining three quarters of 2020-21 were projected to witness a fall in the gross domestic product (GDP). There may be some cautiousness as global rating agency S&P said India's economy may experience a record contraction in the current financial year mainly due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, and the real GDP growth is expected to recover from next fiscal onwards. The agency has also affirmed its BBB- long-term and A-3 short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on India. There will be some buzz in the agriculture stocks as Care Ratings report stated that with yet another record food production at 301 million tonnes expected on the back of a bumper kharif crop this year, recent MSP hikes can leave the farmers with an additional liquidity of Rs 50,000 crore. Banking stocks will be in focus with report that the Finance Ministry is likely to provide capital support from the Rs 20,000 crore fund approved by Parliament in recently concluded session to some Public Sector Banks (PSBs) in the third quarter itself. There will be some reaction in transport, energy infra stocks as India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) maintained a negative outlook on transport and energy infrastructure for second half of the current financial year.

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

Nifty Top volumes

• Cipla has received final approval for its ANDA for Dimethyl Fumarate DR Capsules 120mg, 240mg and 120mg/240mg Starter Pak from the USFDA. 
• Kotak Mahindra Bank has partnered with Kolkata Knight Riders to launch cricket-themed debit and credit cards to boost digital spending. 
• Reliance Industries' telecom arm Reliance Jio Infocomm has added 44,99,474 customers in June 2020. 
• Dr. Reddy's Laboratories has launched Dexmedetomidine Hydrochloride in 0.9% Sodium Chloride Injection approved by the USFDA.