What changed for the market while you were sleeping? 12 things you should know

The bulls remained in control of D-Street on the first day of January series on Friday and closed above its crucial level of 10500 levels. It took support at the 5-days exponential moving average (DEMA) placed at 10,494 and made a strong bullish candle on the daily candlestick charts.

The Nifty opened at 10,492 slipped marginally to an intraday low of 10,488. But, then bulls took control and pushed the index above 10500 to hit its intraday high of 10,538.70. The index closed 52 points higher at 10,530.70.

The Nifty closed at 10,530.7 on Friday. According to Pivot charts, the key support level is placed at 10,500.03, followed by 10,469.37. If the index starts to move higher, key resistance levels to watch out are 10,550.03 and 10,569.37.

The Nifty Bank closed at 25,539.4. Important Pivot level, which will act as crucial support for the index, is placed at 25,470.93, followed by 25,402.46. On the upside, key resistance levels are 25,587.13, followed by 25,634.87.

Stay tuned to Moneycontrol to find out what happens in currency and equity markets today. We have collated a list of important headlines from across news agencies.

There were no fireworks on Wall Street for the last trading day of the year, as US stocks closed out their best year since 2013 on a down note, with losses in technology and financial stocks keeping equities in negative territory for the session.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 118.29 points, or 0.48 percent, on Friday to close at 24,719.22, the S&P 500 lost 13.93 points, or 0.52 percent, to 2,673.61 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 46.77 points, or 0.67 percent, to 6,903.39.

Trends on SGX Nifty indicate a negative opening for the broader index in India. Nifty futures were trading around 10,524-level on the Singaporean Exchange.

North Korea said on Saturday that it will never give up its nuclear weapons as long as the United States and its allies continue their "blackmail and war drills" at its doorstep.

In its report Saturday, KCNA said North Korea had taken steps for "bolstering the capabilities for self-defense and pre-emptive attacks with nuclear force" in the face of a continued "nuclear threat and blackmail and war drills" by the United States and its "vassal forces", AP reported.

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The Insolvency and Bankrutpcy Code (Amendment) Bill, 2017, that debars wilful defaulters and existing promoters from bidding for stressed assets of companies undergoing insolvency proceedings, was passed in the Lok Sabha on Friday.

The Bill prohibits certain persons from submitting a resolution plan in case of defaults. These include: (i) wilful defaulters, (ii) promoters or management of the company if it has an outstanding non-performing debt for over a year, and (iii) disqualified directors, among others.

Ending suspense, Tamil superstar Rajinikanth today announced his entry into politics and said he will launch his own party. Addressing fans on the valedictory of a six-day-long meet, the actor said he will launch a political party which will contest all 234 assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu.

He said the party will be launched ahead of assembly elections at an appropriate time. The policies of the party will be taken to the people, he said and added that truthfulness, hard work and growth will be the slogan of his party.

Lenders have decided to refer 25 of 28 companies on the Reserve Bank of India’s second list of large corporate defaulters to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for initiation of insolvency proceedings.

Among the 28 companies are Videocon Industries, Anrak Aluminium and Jayaswal Neco Industries, companies where bankers had sought an extension in deadline to finalize a resolution plan, Mint reported.

US oil prices closed above USD 60 a barrel on the final trading day of the year, the first time since mid-2015, as the commodity ended 2017 with a 12 percent gain spurred by strong demand and declining global inventories.

Brent crude futures ended the year with a 17 percent rise, supported by ongoing supply cuts by top producers OPEC and Russia as well as strong demand from China, Reuters reported.

Growth in China’s manufacturing sector slowed slightly in December as a punishing crackdown on air pollution and a cooling property market start to weigh on the world’s second-largest economy.

The data support the view that the economy is beginning to gradually lose steam after growing by a forecast-beating 6.9 percent in the first nine months of the year, but the findings did not appear to suggest a risk of sharper slowdown at this point, Reuters reported.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc said on Friday it would take a USD 5 billion earnings hit in the fourth quarter for the new US tax law, becoming the first major US bank to detail the law’s one-time impact on corporate profits held overseas.

Goldman has stored away billions of dollars in profits abroad. It did so under a law that lets multinationals avoid the present 35-percent, US corporate tax rate as long as those profits did not enter the United States, Reuters reported.

Overseas investors have pulled out close to Rs 5,900 crore from domestic equities this month, with widening fiscal deficit and higher crude prices making market participants cautious on macro-economic front. In spite of December performance, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) ended the year with a net inflow of over Rs 51,000 crore.

The government has extended by 10 days the last date for filing of final sales return GSTR-1 till January 10 under the Goods and Services Tax, sources said. Businesses with turnover of up to Rs 1.5 crore will have to file GSTR-1 for July-September by January 10, 2018, as against December 31, 2017 earlier.

The finance ministry has asked public sector banks (PSBs) to explore options for selling and swapping of loan assets with other lenders with a view to strengthen their balance sheets.

Depending on their competencies, banks can look at opportunities to buy or swap loan assets, sources said, adding this was one of the issues discussed during PSB Manthan last month.