Market Ahead, December 1: All you need to know before the opening bell

Among the Indian benchmark indices, the Sensex advanced 0.6 per cent and the Nifty50 rose 0.85 percent last week, but underperformed the broader markets.

For this holiday-shortened week, macroeconomic data, auto sales numbers and the RBI policy decision would be among the driving factors for stock markets. The Indian markets were closed on Monday for ''Gurunanak Jayanti''.

Globally, investors would watch out for Joe Biden transition and developments over stimulus announcement from the new US government.

Back home, investors will first react to the September quarter GDP data. India''s economy recovered faster than expected in the September quarter as a pick-up in manufacturing helped GDP clock a lower contraction of 7.5 per cent and held out hopes for further improvement on consumer demand bouncing back.

Meanwhile, this week will also see release of PMI readings in India, and the world over.

Besides, auto companies would be in focus as November sales data would start coming from today. Banks and financial stocks would be in focus as RBI''s monetary policy is scheduled on Friday.

The Monetary Policy Committee is scheduled to meet this week and the final outcome will be released by the RBI on December 4, that is the next Friday. Apart from the interest rate decision, investors will focus on the RBI's growth commentary.

Participants would also track development related to coronavirus vaccine. Moderna Inc plans to request clearance for its coronavirus vaccine in the United States and Europe, after a new analysis showed the vaccine was highly effective in preventing Covid-19, with no serious safety problems.

Meanwhile, India reported 39,000 fresh Covid-19 cases, taking its tally to 94.49 lakh while the country's death toll mounted to 1.37 lakh.

Burger King India, a quick-service restaurant chain, is set to launch its Rs 810-crore initial public offering on December 2 and the same will close on December 4. The price band has been fixed at Rs 59-60 per share. You can read the details of the IPO and analysts view on the same on our website www.businessstandard.com.

And now, let's look at today's trade setup.

In the overnight deals Wall Street dipped as investors took profits at the end of a record-breaking month while still remaining upbeat about the prospect of a Covid-19 vaccine fuelling gains into next year

Moderna Inc applied for U.S. emergency authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine after full results from a late-stage study showed it was 94.1 per cent effective with no serious safety concerns.

Overall, the Dow fell 0.9 per cent while the S&P 500 lost 0.46 per cent. The tech-heavy Nasdaq ended down 0.06%.

Asian stock markets, meanwhile, rose in early deals, with Australia’s ASX 200 rising 1.3 per cent. Japan's Nikkei also gained 1.4 per cent and Hong Kong's main index was up half a per cent..

Oil prices fell on uncertainty about whether the world’s major oil producers would agree to extend its deep output cuts at talks this week. OPEC and allies led by Russia postponed talks on oil output policy for 2021 to Thursday, Reuters reported.

SGX Nifty, meanwhile, was trading slightly higher at 13,000-odd levels, at 7:30 AM on Tuesday.

Volumes in the futures and options segment are expected to shrink by a third in the coming months as the new peak margin norms come into effect from today. The F&O segment contributes about 90 per cent to the overall market volumes, nearly half of which is intra-day and heavily reliant on excess leverage.

And, auto stocks will be in focus today as monthly volume sales data for November will be released by the company.