Stock Market Today: Top 10 things to know before the market opens today

Representative image

The market is expected to open in the red as trends in the SGX Nifty indicate a negative opening for the broader index in India with a loss of 32 points.

The Sensex rose 21 points to 62,294, while the Nifty50 climbed 29 points to 18,513 and formed a Doji pattern on the daily charts, indicating indecisiveness among the bulls and the bears about the market direction.

As per the pivot charts, the key support for the Nifty is at 18,463, followed by 18,442 and 18,408. If the index moves up, the key resistance levels to watch out for are 18,532, by 18,553 and then 18,587.

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

The Nasdaq closed Friday's shorter session lower with pressure from Apple Inc, while the dollar gained as investors shied away from risk as they worried about consumer spending and monitored China's reaction to a resurgence of Covid cases.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 152.97 points, or 0.45 percent, to 34,347.03, the S&P 500 lost 1.14 points, or 0.03 percent, to 4,026.12 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 58.96 points, or 0.52 percent, to 11,226.36.

Asian Markets

Stocks and oil weakened on Monday as rare protests in major Chinese cities against the country's strict zero-Covid policy raised worries about management of the virus in the world's second-largest economy.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.6 percent, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild losses. Australian shares lost 0.47 percent, while Japan's Nikkei stock index was down 0.37 percent.

SGX Nifty

Trends in the SGX Nifty indicate a negative opening for the broader index in India with a loss of 32 points. The Nifty futures were trading around 18,629 levels on the Singaporean exchange.

Oil edges lower with China unrest rippling through world markets

Oil edged lower as unrest in China hurt risk appetite and the demand outlook, adding to stresses in an already-fragile global crude market.

US crude dipped 0.25 percent to $76.08 a barrel. Brent crude fell 0.16 to $83.48 per barrel. Both benchmarks slid to 10-month lows last week and declined for a third consecutive week

Government seeks to shrink fiscal deficit by at least 50 bps

India wants to narrow its budget deficit by at least 50 basis points, according to people familiar with the matter, as authorities balance global investor scrutiny with the need for higher spending as the nation enters an election year.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will seek to shrink the shortfall to less than 6 percent of the gross domestic product in the year starting April 1, the people said, asking not to be identified as the deliberations are private. Her presentation due Feb. 1 will be the final full-year budget before citizens elect their new prime minister in the summer of 2024, a time when Indian governments typically loosen the purse strings.

What complicates matters for Sitharaman is that her food and energy bills are inflated by the war in Ukraine and given India runs a current-account deficit as well, the rupee has been weakening to successive record lows. Subsidies on food, fertiliser and fuel will cost at least $67 billion in the year ending March 2023 -- or 2.1 percent of GDP -- against the budget estimate of 3.2 trillion rupees ($39.2 billion), Bloomberg News had reported earlier.

China's industrial profits drop further as Covid woes take toll on economy

China's industrial firms saw overall profits decline further in the January-October period as Covid-19 outbreaks flared up and cities imposed new virus curbs, including targeted lockdowns, dampening economic activity.

Industrial profits fell 3 percent in the first 10 months of 2022 from a year earlier. That compares with a 2.3 percent drop for January-September, National Bureau of Statistics data released on Sunday showed.

"Recent outbreaks of domestic epidemics have frequently occurred, the risk of global economic recession has intensified, and industrial enterprises are facing greater pressure," the bureau said in a statement.

JP Morgan sees global bond yields dipping in 2023

Global bond yields will likely fall slightly in 2023 as the balance between demand and supply will improve by $1 trillion, strategists at J.P. Morgan said in a note.

There will be a $700 billion contraction in global bond demand next year compared to 2022, while bond supply will likely drop by $1.6 trillion, JP Morgan strategists, led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, estimated in the note issued on Thursday.

"Based on the historical relationship between annual changes in excess supply and the Global Aggregate bond index yield, a $1 trillion improvement in the demand/supply balance would imply downward pressure on Global Aggregate yields of around 40 basis points," the Wall Street bank said.

FPIs flock to Indian market; buy shares worth Rs 31,630 crore in November

Foreign portfolio investors have rediscovered their liking for Indian equities, making a net investment of Rs 31,630 crore in November on hopes of an end to the aggressive rate hikes, and positivity about overall macroeconomic trends. According to experts, after remaining net sellers in August and September, Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) are unlikely to be major sellers going forward.

Rising expectations of aggressive rate hike cycles nearing an end on relatively easing inflationary curve, better than expected US macroeconomics data and resilience of the Indian economy compared to global counterparts are also driving FPI inflows.

According to data available with the depositories, FPIs invested a net sum of Rs 31,630 crore in equities during November 1-25. In comparison, there was a net outflow of Rs 8 crore and Rs 7,624 crore in October and September, respectively.

Indian pharma exports rise by 4.22% to $14.57 billion during April-Oct in current fiscal

Pharmaceutical exports from India registered a growth of 4.22 percent to reach $14.57 billion during the April-October period despite a negative trend last month, according to a senior official of an export promotion body under Government of India.

Udaya Bhaskar, Director General of Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) which is an organisation under the Ministry of Commerce, said he was hopeful of ending the current fiscal at around $27 billion as against $24.62 billion during the last financial year.

"There was a dip (-0.32 percent) in July and (-5.45 percent) and there was 8.47 percent positive growth in September. I am optimistic that it will be revived in the coming months and may touch USD 27 billion at the end of the fiscal," Bhaskar told PTI.

FII and DII data

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net bought shares worth Rs 369.08 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) net sold shares worth Rs 295.92 crore on November 25, as per provisional data available on the NSE.

With inputs from Reuters and other agencies