The Indian benchmark indices are likely to open higher on Friday, ahead of GST council meeting. Trends in the SGX Nifty Index Futures for September delivery, which were trading at 10,740.00, up by 35.50 points or 0.33 per cent, at 10:54 AM, Singapore Time, also indicated a positive start for local bourses.

Investors think that the markets could remain volatile today amid hopes on rate cut by the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, scheduled to meet later today, to arrest slowdown in sales.

GST Council meeting is likely to have more importance amid lot of expectations from industrialists from various sectors due to growth slowdown. The council is expected to have a discussion on possible rate rationalisation on automobiles, biscuits, real estate and hotels. Experts feel the government can think of losing revenue for short-to-medium term, then they can roll back. GST Council will also take up the proposal of linking new GST Registration with Aadhar. The council is likely to give a go-ahead to this proposal.

Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 52.29 points, or 0.19%, to 27,094.79. The S&P 500 gained 0.06 points, to 3,006.79 and the Nasdaq Composite added 5.49 points, or 0.07%, to 8,182.88.

Stocks in Asia inched higher on Friday as economic stimulus around the world eased fears of economic deceleration while crude oil prices climbed on concerns that last weekend’s attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities still pose supply risks.

Nirmala Sitharaman, the Finance Minister could also unveil measures today, including review of import tariffs on certain items, to boost economic growth.

On the macro front, the Reserve Bank of India has revised the norms for concurrent audit system of banks. Concurrent audit aims at shortening the interval between a transaction and its independent examination. The revised norms state head of internal audit in the bank should participate in selection of concurrent auditors where such function is outsourced and should be responsible for the quality review (including skills of the staff employed) of the work of the concurrent auditors reporting to her/him.

On the currency front, the rupee dropped 10 paise to close at 71.34 against the US dollar on September 19 as heavy selling in domestic equities, unabated foreign fund outflows and rising crude oil prices kept investors edgy. Back home, the 30-share index ended at 36093.47 down by -470.41 points or by -1.29 % and then NSE Nifty was at 10704.8 down by -135.85 points or by -1.25 %.

Top traded Volumes on NSE Nifty – YES Bank Ltd. 321270950.00, Tata Motors Ltd. 51011848.00, State Bank of India 23387797.00, Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd. 22849313.00, ICICI Bank Ltd. 22647508.00,

On NSE, total number of shares traded was 180.08 Crore and total turnover stood at Rs. 27382.76 Crore.

On NSE Future and Options, total number of contracts traded in index futures was 388847 with a total turnover of Rs. 25794.24 Crore. Along with this total number of contracts traded in stock futures were 876269 with a total turnover of Rs. 44691.92 Crore. Total numbers of contracts for index options were 40556198 with a total turnover of Rs. 2456562.28 Crore. and total numbers of contracts for stock options were 945382 with a total turnover of Rs. 49888.20 Crore.

The FIIs on 19/09/2019 stood as net buyer in equity and debt. Gross equity purchased stood at Rs. 2841.75 Crore and gross debt purchased stood at Rs. 1449.27 Crore, while the gross equity sold stood at Rs. 3773.98 Crore and gross debt sold stood at Rs. 1347.36 Crore. Therefore, the net investment of equity and debt reported were Rs. -932.23 Crore and Rs. 101.91