Key Indian stock indices logged moderate gains on Friday, October 18, drawing support from news that the UK and the EU finally reached a Brexit deal a day earlier. Notably, British PM Boris Johnson still needs to push the deal through Parliament. In India, the quarterly earnings season is under way, with companies turning in mixed reports so far. However, traders remain hopeful that local heavyweights will publish positive results as the government’s fiscal stimulus is widely expected to have boosted their financial performance. Meanwhile, downbeat sentiment prevailed in the rest of Asia as sentiment was marred by weak Q3 GDP data out of China. Specifically, the Chinese economy expanded 6.0% y-o-y for the period, missing 6.1% y-o-y expected. Recapping the benchmarks, the Nifty 50 increased 0.65% to 11,661.85, and the BSE Sensex advanced 0.63% to 39,298.38. The USD/INR pair ticked up 0.06% to 71.16. The 10-year Indian government bond yield widened 1.70% to 6.813%. In the blue-chip universe, Yes Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Power Grid, NTPC and other names climbed over 2%, while only Tata Motors shed over 1%. Yes Bank stood out, spiking 8.4%. Media player Zee Entertainment sank 5.4% after reporting worse-than-expected earnings. From a technical standpoint, the daily chart shows that the BSE Sensex has broken through a descending band, unlocking further upside potential in the short term.