What changed for the market while you were sleeping? 10 things you should know

Experts expect some recovery in coming session but that would be short-lived as traders could remain cautious ahead of key economic data due Wednesday evening and Federal Reserve meeting next week.

According to Pivot charts, the key support level is placed at 10,399.6, followed by 10,250. If the index starts moving upward, key resistance levels to watch out are 10,633 and then 10,716.8.

The Nifty Bank index closed at 26,163.40, up 60.75 points on December 11. The important Pivot level, which will act as crucial support for the index, is placed at 25,765.57, followed by 25,367.73. On the upside, key resistance levels are placed at 26,394.57, followed by 26,625.73.

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.

S&P 500, Dow edge lower on US shutdown threat

The S&P 500 and the Dow closed marginally lower after volatile trading on Tuesday as investors swiveled their focus between China-U.S. trade talks, President Donald Trump’s threat to shut down the US government and political uncertainty in Britain.

Wall Street’s three major indexes oscillated between positive and negative territory before falling sharply in the last half hour of trading.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 53.02 points, or 0.22 percent, to 24,370.24, the S&P 500 lost 0.94 points, or 0.04 percent, to 2,636.78 and the Nasdaq Composite added 11.31 points, or 0.16 percent, to 7,031.83.

Asia stocks up on Sino-US trade hopes

Asian stock markets edged ahead on Wednesday as US President Donald trump sounded upbeat about a trade deal with China, while sterling struggled with talk of an imminent party coup against British Prime Minister Theresa May. In an interview with Reuters, Trump said talks were taking place with Beijing by phone and he would not raise tariffs on Chinese imports until he was sure about a deal.

Markets were careful to not get too optimistic and MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan firmed a modest 0.27 percent. Japan's Nikkei rose 1.5 percent, while E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 were up 0.07 percent.

SGX Nifty

Trends on SGX Nifty indicate a negative opening for the broader index in India, a fall of 19 points or 0.18 percent. Nifty futures were trading around 10,581-level on the Singaporean Exchange.

Government appoints Shaktikanta Das as new RBI Governor

Shaktikanta Das, member of the 15th Finance Commission and former Economic Affairs Secretary, will take over as the new Reserve Bank of India Governor, the government said on December 11.

Das’s appointment comes a day after Urjit Patel unexpectedly resigned as the central bank chief, amid festering disagreements between the RBI and the Finance Ministry on several issues.

"Besides his experience as the Revenue Secretary and Economic Affairs Secretary, he also had the experience in preparing several Budgets as Joint Secretary in charge of Budget division. Subsequently, he has been a G20 Sherpa on behalf of India. He's been a member of 15th Finance Commission. I think he has the right credentials and has been extremely professional. He has worked under various governments has excelled himself & I am sure he will excel in meeting the challenges before India's economy as a Governor of RBI," he said.

Oil prices rise as OPEC-led supply cuts expected to stabilize markets

US oil prices climbed on Wednesday, supported by expectations that an OPEC-led supply cut announced last week for 2019 would stabilize markets. Disruptions to Libyan oil exports after local militia seized the country’s biggest oilfield, El Sharara, were also buoying prices, traders said.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $52.15 per barrel at 0023 GMT, up 1 percent from their last settlement.

RBI to infuse Rs 10,000 cr liquidity into system on Dec 13 via OMOs

The Reserve Bank will infuse Rs 10,000 crore into the market through open market operations (OMOs) on December 13. Based on an assessment of prevailing liquidity conditions and also of the durable liquidity needs going forward, the Reserve Bank has decided to conduct purchase of government securities under Open Market Operations for an aggregate amount of Rs 100 billion on December 13, 2018, the RBI said in a release on December 11.

The RBI had earlier stated that the system liquidity will move into deficit in the second half of 2018-19 and the evolving liquidity conditions would determine its choice of instruments for both transient and durable liquidity management

OMOs are instruments to inject or drain out liquidity into/from the system. RBI resorts to purchase of bonds to infuse liquidity in the system while sucks it out by selling the in3279881struments.

Rupee tumbles 53 paise

The rupee staged a late rebound after plunging 110 paise in early trade on December 11 but still ended 53 paise lower at 71.85 against the US dollar following RBI Governor Urjit Patel's shock exit coupled with the loss of the ruling BJP in key state elections.

Analysts said the RBI governor's surprise resignation and the ruling BJP's loss in state elections unnerved forex traders initially but a fag-end rebound in domestic equities and dollar selling by some state-owned banks helped in the recovery of the domestic currency.

After opening lower at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (forex) market at 72.42, the rupee clawed back to 71.67 during the day and finally settled at 71.85, down 53 paise over its previous closing price.

RBI remains net seller of US dollar in October; sells $7.2 bn

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) continued to remain net seller of the US dollar in October, as it sold $7.204 billion of the greenback in the spot market, RBI data showed. In the reporting month, the central bank purchased $945 million, while sold $8.149 billion in the spot market, according to the data.

In FY18, the apex bank had net purchased $33.689 billion of US dollars from the spot market. It had bought $52.068 billion, while sold $18.379 billion. In the forward dollar market, the outstanding net forward sales at the end of October 2018 was $2.888 billion, compared with $1.358 billion in September, according to the RBI data.

India Inc's overseas direct investment drops 35% to $1.05 bn in Nov

India Inc's overseas investment fell 35 percent over the year to $1.05 billion in November, data from the Reserve Bank showed on December 11. Indian firms had invested $1.62 billion in their foreign ventures in November 2017.

Of the total investment in November, $447.52 million was infused as equity, $216.91 million as loan and rest of $384.71 million was in the form of issuance of guarantee, according to the RBI data on Outward Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI).

2 stocks under ban period on NSE

Securities in ban period for the next day's trade under the F&O segment include companies in which the security has crossed 95 percent of the market-wide position limit.

For December 12, 2018, Adani Enterprises and Adani Power are present in this list.

With inputs from Reuters & other agencies