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

The market continued to rally for the third consecutive session on December 28, following positive lead from global peers. Easing tensions between Donald Trump and the Federal Reserve, and hope of likely positive talks between US and China over trade lifted investors sentiment. Stability in crude oil prices and rupee also aided the rally.

The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 269.44 points to 36,076.72 and the 50-share NSE Nifty climbed 80.10 points to 10,859.90. Both indices gained a percent in the week gone by.

The Nifty 50 formed a bullish candle on the daily charts and Hammer kind of pattern on weekly scale.

According to Pivot charts, the key support level is placed at 10,820.2, followed by 10,780.5. If the index starts moving upward, key resistance levels to watch out are 10,896.6 and then 10,933.3.

The Nifty Bank index closed at 27,125.25, up 246.70 points on December 28. The important Pivot level, which will act as crucial support for the index, is placed at 27,038.74, followed by 26,952.27. On the upside, key resistance levels are placed at 27,212.54, followed by 27,299.87.

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.

The S&P 500 ended marginally lower in a choppy session on Friday, but major indexes posted weekly gains for the first time in December following a wild few days of trading that saw equities rebound from a prolonged slide.

Major indexes moved in and out of positive territory during the day, action that was emblematic of recent volatility though lacking the huge swings of the past week. The Dow finished modestly lower, while the Nasdaq eked out a slight gain.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 76.42 points, or 0.33 percent, to 23,062.40, the S&P 500 lost 3.09 points, or 0.12 percent, to 2,485.74 and the Nasdaq Composite added 5.03 points, or 0.08 percent, to 6,584.52.

Asian stocks crept higher on Monday as hints of progress on the Sino-US trade standoff provided a rare glimmer of optimism in what has been a rough year-end for equities globally. Survey data out of China, however, proved unhelpfully mixed with manufacturing activity contracting for the first time in two years even as the service sector improved.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.2 percent, but was still down 16 percent for the year. E-Mini future for the S&P 500 firmed 0.68 percent. Japan's Nikkei was closed for a holiday having ended the year with a loss of 12 percent.

Trends on SGX Nifty indicate a flat to positive opening for the broader index in India, a rise of 46 points or 0.42 percent. Nifty futures were trading around 10,967-level on the Singaporean Exchange.

Oil prices edged higher on the last trading day of the year on Monday, taking a cue from firmer stock markets, but remain on track for the first yearly decline in three years amid concerns of a supply glut. Hints of progress on a possible US-China trade deal helped bolster sentiment, which has been battered by concerns over a weaker global economic outlook.

Brent crude futures - the international benchmark for oil prices - rose 17 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $53.38 a barrel by 0115 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $45.52 a barrel, up 19 cents, or 0.4 percent, from their last close. WTI is down nearly 25 percent this year.

The country is expected to witness strong economic growth in 2019, after it has emerged as the fastest growing major world economy this year despite growing global vulnerabilities, industry body CII said Sunday. The positive outlook is buttressed by strong drivers emanating from services sector and better demand conditions arising out of poll spend, with the general elections slated next year, according to the chamber.

"Better demand conditions, settled GST implementation, capacity expansion from growing investments in infrastructure, continuing positive effects of reform policies and improved credit offtake especially in the services sector at 24 percent will sustain the robust GDP growth in the range of 7.5 percent in 2019," CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee said.

British Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday said a parliamentary vote on her controversial Brexit deal will take place in the week starting January 14, 2019.Amid raucous scenes in the House of Commons, May insisted that the deal she had secured with the European Union (EU) was still the best option on the table as she urged parliamentarians to get behind it.

Earlier, Opposition Labour Party had threatened to force a confidence vote in the government if May did not set a date for the vote, which was to be held last week but was postponed amid ongoing turmoil over aspects unacceptable to nearly all sides of the Commons.

In a parliamentary statement on Monday, May said lawmakers would resume the debate on her Brexit deal – which was halted last week – in the week of January 7, with a “meaningful vote” on the Withdrawal Agreement with the EU taking place the following week.

Banks have seen a significant improvement in recovery of stressed assets helped by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) and amendments in the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interests (SARFAESI) Act, during FY18, according to the RBI data.

In the fiscal ended March 2018, banks recovered Rs 40,400 crore worth of bad loans as against Rs 38,500 crore recovered in FY17. The various channels through which lenders recovered their bad loans include the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), SARFAESI Act, debt recovery tribunals (DRTs) and Lok Adalats.

Public sector banks' provision coverage ratio -- which measures the provisioning for bad loans -- has gone up from less than 50 percent in 2015 to 66.85 percent as of September 2018, reflecting improvement in their financial health, a senior official said.

The provision coverage ratio (PCR) gives an indication of the provision made against bad loans from the profit generated. Higher the PCR, lower is the unexposed part of the bad debts.

"The PCR of public sector banks has risen steeply from 46.04 per cent as of March 2015 to 66.85 per cent as of September 2018, giving banks cushion to absorb losses," Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar said.

The rupee jumped 40 paise on December 28 to finish at an over one-week high of 69.95 against the US currency on strong dollar buying by banks and exporters amid the greenback's weakness overseas. Domestic stock markets extending gains for the third session also supported the local currency.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange, the rupee opened strong at 70.05 a dollar against the previous close of 70.35. The local unit moved in a range of 70.12 to 69.89, before finally ending at 69.95, showing a gain of 40 paise or 0.57 percent. This is its highest closing level since December 20, when the rupee ended at 69.70.

Foreign investors have infused more than Rs 5,400 crore in the Indian capital markets this month so far on a persistent drop in global crude oil prices and a strengthening rupee. This comes following a 10-month high net inflow of over Rs 12,266 crore in the capital markets (equity and debt) by Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) in November.

According to data available with the depositories, FPIs put in a net amount of Rs 1,900 crore in equities and Rs 3,577 crore in the debt markets, taking the total to Rs 5,477 crore during December 3-28.

Various initiatives taken by the government have yielded results, with the bad loans of public sector banks declining by over Rs 23,000 crore from a peak of Rs 9.62 lakh crore in March 2018, said a senior finance ministry official.

At the same time, public sector banks (PSBs) have also made a record in recovery of Rs 60,726 crore in the first half of the current financial year, which is more than double the amount recovered in the corresponding period last year.

"Gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of PSBs have started declining after peaking in March 2018, registering a decline of Rs 23,860 crore in the first half of the current financial year," Financial Service Secretary Rajiv Kumar said.

The country's foreign exchange reserves increased by $167.2 million to $393.287 billion in the week to December 21, mainly due to a rise in foreign currency assets, according to RBI data. In the previous week, the reserves had declined by $613.9 million to $393.12 billion.

Expressed in US dollars, foreign currency assets include the effects of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies such as the euro, pound and yen held in the reserves. The reserves had touched a record high of $426.028 billion in the week to April 13, 2018. Since then, the forex kitty has been on a slide and is now down by over $31 billion.

Capital markets regulator SEBI expanded its offer for sale (OFS) framework to all the companies with market capitalisation of Rs 1,000 crore and above. Currently, the OFS framework is available to top 200 companies by market capitalisation.

Also, if the seller fails to get sufficient demand from non-retail investors at or above the floor price on the first day of offer, then the seller may choose to cancel the offer post bidding, in full (both retail and non-retail), on the first day itself and not proceed with the offer to retail investors on the second day.

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 31, 2018, Adani Power is present in this list.