As India heads for elections in few months, the last budget for the current government could end up as a budget for the people. Markets are expecting some positive announcements from the Finance Minister in the upcoming budget. Epic Research has offered its expectations from Union Budget for the next year.

The budget has always been an event when we expect volatility to expand with perception to safeguard the portfolio and hedge the overall risk in the market we see a lot of activity in the derivatives. This budget is no different than previous but the fact remains it is coming in an Election year.

Oil prices have entered a bear market. OPEC members are meeting in early December to decide about oil production cuts and this would be important for the direction of crude oil. With lower oil and strengthening currency, Indian markets can expect strong support if there is a decline in major indices during next week. Indian market will also be looking for GDP data.

Nifty ends down making a bearish engulfing pattern on the weekly chart on Thursday indicating a bearish bias in short term. Nifty shredded its previous two weeks of gains and ended below 10550. Despite a fall in crude oil, appreciation in rupee, the jitters were seen in investors as Nifty struggled around 10700 marks.

Indian Markets staged a smart recovery as global cues were positive. As NIFTY and BSE Sensex are in positive zone now, traders can expect markets to remain positive in the coming week. Even if there is a small decline, there could be buying at lower levels. On the positive side, Indian currency also recovered. Forex experts feel that the worst could be over for the Indian currency and we can expect further rally in coming months.

Nifty posted biggest weekly gains since 2016 as Nifty rebounds almost 4.8% to close above 10500 marks. Nifty took an important support of 100 SMA on the weekly chart and rebound was accompanied with a drop in Volatility Index, a measure of fear and buying across was board was visible as Blue-chips rebounded along with Small-cap and Midcap.

Indian stock markets recovered smartly during the last two trading sessions of October. The massive intraday movements of benchmark indices led to panic for traders and investors. Indian markets were mimicking the trend in the global markets but Indian market is additionally troubled by liquidity issues. SBI Chairman said that the issues caused by IL&FS to financial sector would return to normal situations within two weeks.

Indian companies have so far reported strong quarterly results. Markets have witnessed stock specific action with companies declaring strong results witnessing sharp pullback in stock valuations.

Indian Stock Markets witnessed sell-off at higher levels and markets closed nearly one percent lower on Friday. The sell-off led to lower stock valuations after the recent pullback in the markets. The markets will see stock specific action as quarterly results will be announced by companies in the coming weeks. Epic Research has shared the following viewpoints about market direction in coming week.

Bears Engulf on the streets as Bulls were being onslaught at higher levels of 10700 - 10680. The crash and Sell-off was amid multiple factors that were being discounted at one point of time from stock-specific quarterly earnings to FOMC Meeting. A lot was there for investors to be nervous about and that resulted in a sharp sell-off with a rise in volatility.

Indian stock market recovered smartly on Tuesday with BSE Sensex convincingly above 35,000. NSE Nifty closed slightly lower than 10,600 but market breadth remained positive. Many mid-cap companies have recovered during the last three trading sessions.

Indian markets were also supported by decline in USD compared to Indian currency. The recent decline in Crude Oil has also helped Indian currency. This year, Indian currency has been the worst performer among emerging market currencies.

Mid-cap stocks have recovered ground during the last few trading sessions. Many stocks were available at deep discount compared to levels witnessed few weeks back.

After massive decline in the U.S. stock markets on Wednesday due to trade-war worries and rising interest rates, markets across Asia opened with major decline. Indian markets opened nearly 3 percent lower and at one time BSE Sensex declined more than 1,000 points. Commenting on the strong movement in Indian stocks, Mr. Rahul Sharma, Sr. Technical Research Analyst, Equity99 said that Indian markets could see volatility in near term.

As part of this month’s Fast Forward India season, BBC World News Business Correspondent Sameer Hashmi interviewed Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, India's first billionaire woman entrepreneur and founder of the country’s largest biopharmaceutical company Biocon. She spoke to new series India’s Game-Changers about her rise to the top, developing new drugs to treat diseases at an affordable cost and her success in a country where women find it hard to get past the first rung in business.

On the challenges of being a woman starting a business in the 1970s:

Indian markets scaled new highs this week as many companies posted strong quarterly results and global markets were buoyant. Investors are expecting markets to remain strong and select counters have witnessed renewed selling after sell-off seen few weeks back. Markets could face a correction as well but all that would depend on global cues.

Nifty posts a third week of continued gains taking positive cues from the global market, falling crude oil prices and FII coming back to Indian equity market. Nifty made a fresh all-time high yet again for a third consecutive week of 11495.20 while profit booking dragged it lower to close it at 10429.

According to the German press agency (dpa), the German cabinet took a notable decision on Wednesday --- to grant tax relief for electric or hybrid company cars. The move is apparently aimed at increasing the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in Germany.

As a result of the decision by the German government, the large scale subsidy will be applicable to electric or hybrid company cars which are either purchased or leased between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2021.

Till now, employees driving company cars privately were required to file a monetary benefit of 1 percent of the official list price of the car. This tax will be reduced by half -- to 0.5 percent -- for electric and hybrid vehicles in the future.

In an evident effort to explore the use of technology for transforming the transport system in the UK, the country’s government is drafting new plans that underline the ways in which congestion and pollution levels in city centers can be reduced.

The government’s plans, aimed at finding ways to tackle the traffic problem in cities, have been put together in the recently-published Whitehall’s ‘Last Mile and Future of Mobility’ document. The document highlights the fact that the UK is apparently on the verge of a green ‘transport revolution.’

As part of the plans underlined in the document, UK ministers are considering a possible ban on van and lorries that make deliveries into city centres, and replace them fleets of environmentally-friendly electric cargo vehicles.

Indian Markets have been buoyant during the week, helped by strength in the global markets. Indian maA Fresh new all-time in benchmark indices with Nifty hitting 10283 while Sensex breached 37K mark to hit 37368.62. Backed by buying in broader indices, positive global cues, and strong rollover numbers indices managed to close near the day’s high. Heavyweights lead the rally again while sectorial indices with higher weight like Pvt. banks, Energy, FMCG, and Metals were shining 1% - 2.5%.

UK industry regulator Ofgem has recently announced plans aimed at encouraging electric-vehicle (EV) owners to charge their vehicles during off-peak periods or during sunny/windy periods when plenty of renewable energy -- from solar farms or wind turbines -- is being generated.

With cheaper ‘time of day’ tariffs already available in the UK to around 11 million homes in which smart meters have been installed, the plans announced by Ofgem are essentially aimed at promoting the practice of ‘flexible’ or smart charging among EV owners in the country.

In a move which underscores an effort by the European Union (EU) to clamp down on the dumping of Chinese electric bicycles (e-bikes) in Europe, new tariffs have been imposed on e-bikes imported from China.

The European Union’s implementation of new tariffs on China-produced e-bikes has come after a fairly long review period. For determining the amount of new tariffs levied on Chinese e-bike companies and the proper course of action for levying the tariffs, the European Commission visited several Chinese e-bike companies, including Bodo, Giant, Suzhou Rununion and Jinhua Vision.

Stock specific action can be expected as many companies will declare their quarterly results. Some of the companies which Epic Research has tracked, will be announcing results. Have a look at what you can expect from some of the blue chip companies declaring results.

CEAT - Ahead of good Q1 results stock has surged nearly 9% in intraday. The stock has also given a breakout of double bottom chart pattern on the daily chart and given closing above the neckline. We recommend buying from the current level for the target of 1400 with the stop loss of 1310.

Nifty ends the week on flat basis making a Doji pattern as indecisiveness near all-time highs mounted on the back of mixed global cues. Profit booking was seen and consolidation in a small range of 10930 to 11080 was observed.

The week for Nifty was sideways due to mixed cues from global markets as despite positive momentum in leading indices we have seen some profit booking due to higher inflation numbers. This also pointed to concerns of another rate hike by the RBI in its August meet. The Trade war concerns further mounted as a threat of it escalating further between US and China may push commodity prices higher. This would lead to higher pricing of commodities such as Crude. No confidence motion in the parliament, higher inflation numbers also weighed on investors.

In a move which will potentially increase the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in the UK by making their recharging easier and wireless, the government has plans underway to install a new generation of Scalextric-style EV charging points.

According to a UK government plan recently unveiled by the Department for Transport (DfT), an investment of £40 million will be earmarked for developing wireless charging systems which will enable EV drivers to charge their vehicles on the road, in car parks, or at the roadside, without having to plug the vehicles. As the wireless charging will be easier, drivers would be more inclined to buy electric vehicles.

US electric vehicle maker Tesla’s exports to China are possibly on the verge of a possible slowdown because of a recent move by the Chinese government to increase import duties from the current 25% to a significantly high 40%.

The tariff-hike move by the Chinese government apparently underscores a retaliatory decision, resulting from the US government’s latest list of tariffs for Chinese goods. The move by the US government has escalated the ongoing trade war between the two countries.

The recent announcement by the Chinese government about an increase in tariff to 40% has delivered a hard blow to Tesla Motors, in terms of the cost of the electric vehicles which the company is presently selling in China.

According to the latest car-sales figures from Norway, the best-selling car in the country for June 2018 and year-to-date is Japanese automaker Nissan’s LEAF electric compact hatchback.

With Norway having recorded its third best monthly result for passenger plug-in electric car sales in June, the Nissan LEAF topped the charts among all the models available in the country for all types of cars --- electric, gas, diesel and others.

As per the latest figures, the number of new registrations of the LEAF in Norway in June was 1,152, which accounted for 7.3% of all new registrations in the country during the month. The total new registrations for the vehicle year-to-date were 5,791, which underscores a 7.5% market share.

Nifty ends positively for the third consecutive week on the back of positive global cues but upside remained capped as profit booking was seen with Trade war concerns and US federal rate hike. Bank Nifty lags while defensive sectors shine on the back of value hunting.