Market Ahead, October 13: All you need to know before the opening bell

Lets begin with the global cues. Apple and Amazon drove main Wall Street indices higher overnight. The Nasdaq Composite staged its biggest one-day rally in a month, jumping 2.5 per cent overnight. The Dow Jones rose 0.88 per cent and the S&P 500 gained 1.64 per cent.

Asian stocks, meanwhile, were largely lower in early deals. Although Australian ASX 200 rose 0.94 per cent in early trading, Japan's Nikkei slipped 0.1 per cent and Korea's Kospi was down half a per cent.

Consequently, SGX Nifty was trading flat at around 11,938 levels at 7:30 AM.

In commodities, Brent crude settled down 2.6 per cent at $41.72 a barrel.

Back home, the Supreme Court will today hear a batch of petitions seeking a waiver of interest on loans during the moratorium period and seeking an extension of the moratorium. Investors will track the court proceedings, with bank stocks being in focus.

Telecom stocks are expected to trade actively today as Trai published the latest subscription data. Reliance Jio continued to expand its subscriber base, adding another 3.55 million users in July, the same month in which Vodafone Idea lost 3.72 million users. Bharti Airtel added a net 3.26 million wireless subscribers during the month.

Consumer price index-based inflation for September came in at 7.34 per cent, from 6.69 per cent in the previous month on account of rising food prices. Food inflation stood at 10.68 per cent in September, against 9.05 per cent in the previous month. Another key barometer of the economy, the Index of Industrial Production declined 8 per cent in August on the back of localised lockdowns and work restrictions in August.

On the Covid-front, India on Monday registered 66,757 new cases, taking the tally to 71.7 lakh and the death toll reached over 1 lakh 9 thousand mark.

A total of five companies including Wipro, Karnataka Bank, and Tata Steel Long Products are scheduled to announce their quarterly earnings today. According to analysts, Wipro's CEO's strategy to revive growth, growth guidance for the third quarter, demand and pricing scenario, and outlook on healthcare and energy verticals are the key things to watch out for in the result announcement.

And, now a quick look at some company-specific developments

Speciality Chemicals maker SRF Ltd yesterday launched a QIP offering to raise as much as Rs 750 crore from institutional investors. The floor price for the share sale has been decided at Rs 4,168.73 per share.

A meeting of the Board of directors of Lakshmi Vilas Bank will be held on October 15, to consider and approve the issue of Securities of the bank to existing shareholders on a rights basis.