Stock Market Today: Top 10 things to know before the market opens today
By The Moneycontrol
Stock Market News: Trends in the SGX Nifty indicate a positive opening for the broader index in India with a gain of 56 points on Monday amid tepid trading in Asian markets, a narrowing current account deficit, and rising hope for demand recovery in China.
The market is expected to open in the green as trends in the SGX Nifty indicate a positive opening for the broader index in India with a gain of 56 points.
The BSE Sensex fell 461 points to 61,338, while the Nifty50 plunged 146 points to 18,269 and formed a bearish candle with a long upper shadow.
As per the pivot charts, the key support level for the Nifty is placed at 18,251, followed by 18,207 and 18,136.
If the index moves up, the key resistance levels to watch out for are 18,393 followed by 18,436 and 18,507.
Stay tuned to Moneycontrol to find out what happens in the currency and equity markets today.
We have collated a list of important headlines across news platforms which could impact Indian as well as international markets:
US Markets
US stocks dropped for a third straight session and suffered a second straight week of losses on Friday as fears continued to mount that the Federal Reserve’s campaign to arrest inflation would tilt the economy into a recession.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.85 percent to 32,920.46, the S&P 500 lost 1.11 percent to 3,852.36, and the Nasdaq Composite 0.97 percent to 10,705.41.
Asian Markets
Asia-Pacific markets were mixed as investors struggled to shake off recession fears.
Stocks on Wall Street marked their second consecutive week of losses for the first time since September as concerns grew over the US Federal Reserve continuing to hike rates.
The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia was flat after paring earlier losses.
In Japan, The Nikkei 225 fell 1 percent and the Topix fell 0.54 percent. South Korea’s Kospi was also flat.
SGX Nifty
Trends in the SGX Nifty indicate a positive opening for the broader index in India with a gain of 56 points.
The Nifty futures were trading around 18,374 levels on the Singaporean exchange.
FY23 CAD may mildly moderate to 3.3% as imports fall, exports stall
With exports continuing to remain under stress for the second consecutive month in November, and imports also falling, the current account deficit is likely to moderate in the second half and close the fiscal with a 3.3 percent of GDP or $108-112 billion, which still be a record high, says a report.
Falling exports and commodity prices will also help the country print in a moderate CAD at $24-26 billion in Q3FY23 from a likely high of $31-34 billion in Q2FY23, Icra Ratings said in a report.
Merchandise exports remained flat in November with an on-year growth of 0.6 percent.
This came in after the first steep contraction of 16.6 percent in October, the first since February 2021. Imports also moderated in November to 5.4 percent but declined by 1.4 percent month-on-month, aided by marginally lower commodity prices.
India’s forex reserves rise for 5th straight week
India’s foreign exchange forex reserves rose by $2.91 billion to $564.07 billion for the fifth consecutive week ending on December 9, according to the Weekly Statistical Supplement released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The forex reserve rose $11.02 billion to $561.16 billion during the week ending December 2.
The uptick in the foreign exchange reserves is a result of the rise in the Foreign Currency Assets (FCA), which is a major component of the overall reserves.
The FCA rose $3.14 billion to $500.13 billion for the week ending December 9.
However, gold reserves fell $296 million to $40.73 billion.
Crude oil prices climb on optimism over China’s demand recovery
Oil prices reclaimed ground on Monday after tumbling more than $2 a barrel in the previous session as optimism from China’s reopening and oil demand recovery outweighed concerns of a global recession.
Brent crude futures rose 72 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $79.76 a barrel by 0103 GMT while US West Texas Intermediate crude was at $74.89 a barrel, up 60 cents, or 0.8 percent.
India’s economic activity looks set to slow as resilience wanes
India’s economy appeared to slow rather than accelerate last month, as high-frequency indicators tracked by Bloomberg signaled worsening business and consumption activity.
Although a dial measuring so-called animal spirits showed activity was steady for a fifth straight month in November, the needle was just one bad data point away from swinging to the left.
Exports, a key growth lever in the past year, were among three of eight metrics that performed poorly. The rest were unchanged.
Bloomberg’s dashboard reflects a broadly grim outlook for 2023 as tighter global interest rates take a toll on demand. The gauge uses a three-month weighted average to smooth out volatility in single-month readings.
FII and DII data
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have net-sold shares worth Rs 1,975.44 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) net-purchased shares worth Rs 1,542.50 crore on December 16, as per provisional data available on the NSE.
South Korea’s economic slump to bottom in the first half of 2023
South Korea’s finance minister said on Monday the economy is slowing at a more rapid pace than previously expected and would bottom in the first half of next year.
“Our economy’s growth is expected to slow next year due to the effects from a global economic slump, and the difficulty will be focused on the first half,” Minister Choo Kyung-ho said at the opening of a meeting with the ruling party leadership.
Stocks under F&O ban on NSE
The National Stock Exchange has added Balrampur Chini Mills and retained IRCTC, Punjab National Bank, Indiabulls Housing Finance, BHEL, Delta Corp, and GNFC under its F&O ban list for December 19. Securities thus banned under the F&O segment include companies where derivative contracts have crossed 95 percent of the market-wide position limit.
