Market Ahead, December 24: All you need to know before the opening bell

In overnight trade, the S&P 500 and Dow Jones closed higher as an expected stimulus deal and falling jobless claims prompted investors to bet on economic recovery. However, the tech-heavy Nasdaq ended slightly lower.

Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.38 per cent, the S&P 500 gained 0.07 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.29 per cent.

A raft of mixed US economic data showed lower jobless claims and an uptick in new orders for durable goods, but also a pullback in consumer spending.

Britain and the European Union appeared close to clinching a long-elusive trade agreement, raising hopes that they were now set to avoid a turbulent economic rupture on New Year’s Day.  According to a media report, the announcement of UK-EU trade deal is expected Thursday morning.

A possible Brexit deal and economic recovery prospects cheered global investor who largely ignored U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to veto a long-awaited COVID aid package.

Asian equities were trading higher. Japan’s Topix index advanced 0.7%. South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.6% while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 0.5%.

However, investors will keep an eye on the developments on the Covid front after UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock on Wednesday informed of another new strain of more transmissible coronavirus that has been found in the UK.

Amid this backdrop, Indian markets were poised for a gap-up start as SGX Nifty traded 100 points higher at 13,712. Weekly options expiry, however, may keep trading volatile.

Now, a look at the stock-specific developments that are likely to sway the market today:

Mrs Bectors Food shares will debut on the bourses today. The IPO with 198 times bid is the most subscribed issue of CY 2020.

The stocks of DTH service providers such as Dish TV, Hathaway Cables, Den Networks will be in focus today after the Union Cabinet approved changes to the guidelines for providing Direct to Home (DTH) services to bring it in line with the existing policy that allows 100 per cent FDI in the DTH broadcasting services sector. It also said that licences will now be issued for 20 years with a renewal provision after every 10 years.

Telecom stocks are likely to react to the Trai data released on Wednesday that showed Bharti Airtel pipped Reliace Jio in mobile customer addition in October. This is the second consecutive month when Airtel added highest number of subscribers with 3.67 million new customers. Reliance Jio followed suit with 2.22 million new mobile customers whereas Voda Idea lost the maximum mobile customers during the month. The company lost 2.65 million subscribers.

Promoters of Vedanta Limited plan to launch an offer to qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) to buy up to 4.98 per cent stake in the India-listed base metals to crude oil producer through accelerated bookbuild purchase of equity shares (block deals) on Thursday.

The initial public offer of Antony Waste Handling Cell was subscribed 15 times on the last day of subscription on Wednesday. The portion for qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) was subscribed 9.67 times, non institutional investors 18.69 times and retail individual investors (RIIs) 16.55 times.