Factors that will drive the markets this week

Domestic equity markets will be driven mainly by quarterly earnings, global trends, and the movement in crude oil prices in this holiday-shortened week, analysts said.

Investors would also keep an eye on the Middle East amid the ongoing Hamas-Israel conflict and the trading activity of foreign investors.

Markets will remain closed on Tuesday for Dussehra.

"Global markets are currently fragile due to heightened attention on the rising US bond yield, global economic uncertainty, and also the geopolitical situation.

"These factors will be closely monitored, as they have the potential to influence market sentiment.

"Market participants will be closely watching the movement of the rupee against the dollar and crude oil prices, as well as investments by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and domestic institutional investors (DIIs), during the results season," Pravesh Gour, senior technical analyst at Swastika Investmart Ltd, said.

Markets may face volatile trends amid monthly derivatives expiry on Thursday.

This week is a holiday-shortened one and we expect volatility to remain high due to the prevailing earnings season and scheduled expiry of October month derivatives contracts, Ajit Mishra, SVP - Technical Research at Religare Broking Ltd, said.

"The market will take further cues from the Israel-Palestine conflict.

"One should keep a watch on the earnings of major companies in India.

"Some major global and domestic events will be in focus such as the UK services PMI, US manufacturing and services PMI, US GDP, initial jobless claims, and crude oil inventories," Arvinder Singh Nanda, senior vice president at Master Capital Services Ltd, said.

Shrikant Chouhan, head of equity research (retail) at Kotak Securities Ltd, said markets worldwide, including India, will respond to geopolitical challenges, oil prices, and bond yield fluctuations, with continued stock-specific action tied to quarterly results.

"We expect earnings season to pick up pace in a truncated week which would direct the market trend along with global cues. On the global front, ECB (European Central Bank) will announce interest rate decision this week," Siddhartha Khemka, head - retail research at Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd, said.

Among the key results, Axis Bank, Tech Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki and Bajaj Finserv will announce financial numbers for the September quarter, he added.

Canara Bank, Asian Paints, PNB, BPCL and Reliance Industries will also announce their quarterly earnings during the week.