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

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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 99 points.

The BSE Sensex declined 241 points to 60,826, while the Nifty50 fell 72 points to 18,127 and formed a bearish candle on the daily charts making a lower high lower low.

As per the pivot charts, the key support level for the Nifty is placed at 18,076, followed by 18,017 and 17,921. If the index moves up, the key resistance levels to watch out for are 18,267 followed by 18,326 and 18,422.

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's major averages closed lower on Thursday with technology-heavy Nasdaq's 2 percent drop leading losses as investors worried that data showing a resilient economy would lead the US Federal Reserve to keep hiking interest rates for longer than feared.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 348.99 points, or 1.05 percent, to 33,027.49, the S&P 500 lost 56.05 points, or 1.45 percent, to 3,822.39 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 233.25 points, or 2.18 percent, to 10,476.12.

Asian Markets

Asia-Pacific shares traded lower, taking the lead from losses on Wall Street while investors also looked ahead to some economic data in the region. Japan’s core consumer price index at 3.7 percent in November on an annualized basis, marking the fastest pace since December 1981.

The Nikkei 225 fell 1.28 percent and the Topix fell 0.76 percent. The Japanese yen stood at 132.62 against the U.S. dollar. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was down 1.06 percent and South Korea’s Kospi also fell 1.74 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped 1.36 percent in its first hour of trade. Mainland China’s Shanghai Composite lost 0.33 percent and the Shenzhen Component was down 0.34 percent.

SGX Nifty

Trends in the SGX Nifty indicate a negative opening for the broader index in India with a loss of 99 points. The Nifty futures were trading around 18,079 levels on the Singaporean exchange.

‘COVID-19 isn’t over’: PM Modi chairs high-level review meet

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 22 chaired a high-level meeting to assess the Covid-19 situation in the country, the preparedness of health infrastructure and logistics, the status of the vaccination campaign, and the emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants and their public health implications for the country.

At the Covid-19 review meet, a comprehensive presentation was made regarding the global coronavirus situation including the rising cases in countries by Secretary, Health and Member, NITI Aayog.

The prime minister was briefed that India has been witnessing a steady decline in cases with average daily cases falling to 153 and weekly positivity down to 0.14 percent in the week ending December 22, 2022. However, 5.9 lakh daily average cases have been reported globally in the past six weeks.

US weekly jobless claims rise modestly; third-quarter GDP revised up

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits increased less than expected last week, pointing to a still-tight labor market, while the economy rebounded faster than previously estimated in the third quarter.

Labour market strength, which also was underscored by some shrinking of unemployment rolls in early December after mostly expanding since October, raises the risk that the Federal Reserve could continue raising interest rates to a higher level and keep them there for a while as it tackles inflation.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 216,000 for the week ended Dec. 17, leaving the bulk of the prior week's decline intact, the US Labor Department data showed on Thursday.

Japan's November core consumer inflation hits fresh 40-year high

Japan's core consumer inflation hit a fresh 40-year high of 3.7 percent in November as companies continued to pass on rising costs to households, data showed on Friday, a sign price hikes are spreading to broader sectors of the economy.

The increase casts doubt on the Bank of Japan's view recent cost-push inflation will prove temporary and may keep alive market expectations the central bank will further roll back its massive stimulus next year, analysts say. The year-on-year increase in Japan's core consumer price index (CPI), which excludes volatile fresh food but includes energy costs, matched a median market forecast and followed a 3.6 percent rise in October.

Jefferies' Chris Wood adds REC to his portfolio, reduces exposure to Bajaj Finance

In the India long-only equity portfolio, Chris Wood added REC Limited, formerly Rural Electrification Corporation, with a 4 percent weighting. He did this by shaving investments in HDFC Bank, Bajaj Finance, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance and ICICI Lombard General Insurance by one percentage point each.

Apart from the names mentioned above, the India long- only portfolio holds ICICI Bank, SBI, CAMS, Reliance Industries, ONGC, Godrej Properties, Century Textiles, DLF, Macrotech Developers, Maruti Suzuki, L&T, Adani Ports and Concor.

Besides, Woods also cut exposure to Bajaj Finance in the Asia ex-Japan long-only portfolio. With this step, the total allocation to Indian equities came down to 36 percent from 37 percent. India still remains the biggest allocation in the portfolio.

Oil falls by $1/bbl as rate hike fears outweigh tighter US stockpiles

Oil fell by around $1 a barrel on Thursday in volatile trade as the impact of tighter US crude stocks due to a winter storm in the United States was outweighed by fears that Federal Reserve interest rate hikes and China’s rising Covid-19 cases would dent demand.

Brent crude futures settled at $80.98 a barrel, losing $1.22, while 1.5 percent. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures settled at $77.49, falling by 80 cents, or 1 percent.

FII and DII data

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have bought shares worth Rs 928.63 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased shares worth Rs 2,206.59 crore on December 22, as per provisional data available on the NSE.

Stocks under F&O ban on NSE

The National Stock Exchange has retained Indiabulls Housing Finance under its F&O ban list for December 23. 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