The market is expected to open on a flat note as trends in the SGX Nifty indicate a muted start for the broader index in India with a gain of 26 points.
On Friday, the BSE Sensex plunged 981 points, the biggest single-day loss since September 23, to 59,845 on Friday, while the Nifty50 tanked 321 points, its worst single-day loss since September 16, to 17,807 and formed a long bearish candle on the daily charts after a sharp gap-down opening.
According to the pivot charts, the key support level for the Nifty is placed at 17,775, followed by 17,711 and 17,608. If the index moves up, the key resistance levels to watch out for would be 17,982, followed by 18,046 and 18,150.
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
Wall Street shuffled to a modestly higher close on Friday and Treasury yields advanced as investors digested a deluge of economic data ahead of the Christmas holiday long weekend, capping a week fraught with worries over the Fed’s restrictive monetary policy and related recession fears.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 176.44 points, or 0.53 percent, to 33,203.93 the S&P 500 gained 22.43 points, or 0.59 percent, to 3,844.82 and the Nasdaq Composite added 21.74 points, or 0.21 percent, to 10,497.86.
Asian Markets
Muted trading seen in the Asian Markets with Nikkei up 0.4 percent, while Taiwan, Kospi and Shanghai Composite are trading flat.
SGX Nifty
Trends in the SGX Nifty indicate a flat opening for the broader index in India with a gain of 26 points. The Nifty futures were trading around 17,890 levels on the Singaporean exchange.
India's forex reserves decline $571 million to $563.5 billion
After rising for five consecutive weeks, India's forex kitty dropped $571 million to $563.499 billion for the week ended December 16, according to RBI data released on Friday. In the previous reporting week, the overall reserves had swelled $2.91 billion to $564.06 billion, making it the fifth straight week of an increase in the kitty after a protracted decline.
In October 2021, the country's foreign exchange kitty had reached an all-time high of $645 billion. The reserves had been declining as the central bank deployed the reserve to defend the rupee amid pressures caused majorly by global developments.
Covid
The key factor to watch out for would be resurgence of Covid cases. A new new Covid variant, in several parts of the world (including China, the US, Japan, South Korea and France), has been making the market participants cautious since the last week.
The severity of the BF.7 variant of coronavirus in India may not be as serious as it is prevailing in China as Indians have already developed herd immunity, a top official of CSIR- Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) said.
Oil
Oil prices settled about $3 per barrel higher on Friday for a second straight week of gains after Moscow said it could cut crude output in response to the G7 price cap on Russian exports.
Brent crude settled at $83.92, up by $2.94 or 3.6 percent, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude settled at $79.56 a barrel, up $2.07, or 2.7 percent. Both benchmarks recorded their biggest weekly gains since October.
US Dollar
The dollar slid against most currencies in choppy, thin trading on Friday as data signaled that the US economy is cooling a bit, reinforcing expectations of smaller interest rate increases from the Federal Reserve and improving investors' risk appetite.
CBI arrests former ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar, husband Deepak Kochhar
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on 23 December arrested former ICICI Bank Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar in connection with the Rs 3,250 crore Videocon loan scam.
The central probe agency alleged cheating and irregularities in loans sanctioned by the bank to the Videocon group between 2009 and 2011 when Kochhar was heading the bank. This arrest is significant in the case after a prolonged probe over years. Earlier, the bank had terminated Kochhar as CEO denying the former executive retirement benefits.
FII and DII data
Foreign institutional investors (FII) have net sold shares worth Rs 706.84 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DII) net purchased shares worth Rs 3,398.98 crore on December 23, per provisional data available on the NSE website.
Stocks under F&O ban on NSE
The National Stock Exchange has retained Indiabulls Housing Finance in its F&O ban list for December 26 as well. Securities thus banned under the F&O segment include companies where derivative contracts have crossed 95 percent of the market-wide position limit.
With inputs from Reuters and other agencies