Market Ahead, September 22: All you need to know before the opening bell

The Indian markets witnessed a brutal sell-off in the final hour of yesterday's trade. The global markets, too, witnessed a similar trend. In overnight trade on the Wall Street, the Dow Jones fell 1.84 per cent, the S&P 500 lost 1.16 per cent, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.13 per cent on concerns about new pandemic lockdowns in Europe and after reports about financial institutions allegedly moving illicit funds hurt global banking stocks.

In Asia, Australia’s ASX 200 declined 0.86 per cent% while South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.55 per cent in Tuesday's early deals. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was also down 0.6 per cent.

In commodity markets, Brent was flat at $41.44 after plunging 5 per cent overnight as rising coronavirus cases stoked worries about global demand.

Meanwhile, the SGX Nifty was trading in the green, up 31 points at around 11,275 levels, indicating a flat-to-positive open for the Indian markets today. Meanwhile, the impending monthly expiry of derivative contracts might also keep the indices volatile.

Apart from this, investors might focus on stock-specific moves, while tracking a set of important cues including the India-China newsflow, Covid-19 trends, oil price movement and the Rupee's trajectory.

India on Monday pressed for an early and complete disengagement of Chinese troops from friction points in eastern Ladakh as their senior army commanders held a sixth round of talks that primarily focused on implementing a five-point bilateral agreement to ease the prolonged border standoff, government sources said.

On the Covid front, India on Monday witnessed the addition of 74,493 new cases, taking the overall tally past 55 lakh, according to Worldometer. The number of deaths, meanwhile, reached 88,965

According to media reports, Tromoters of GMM Pfaudler plan to sell up to 28 per cent stake worth up to Rs 1,433 crore in the company via offer for sale. The OFS will be open for non-retail investors today, while for retail investors it will be open tomorrow. The floor price for the OFS has been set at Rs 3,500 per share, which is a discount of 33 per cent to closing prices as on Monday.

And, now, a quick look at other top news.

Fitch Ratings on Monday took rating action on the long-term issuer default ratings of four non-bank financial companies. The global rating agency has removed the Rating Watch Negative from Shriram Transport Finance, Muthoot Finance, and Manappuram Finance while the same has been maintained for IIFL Finance. The stocks may react to the development today.

Markets regulator Sebi on Monday permitted foreign portfolio investors to write off shares of all the companies which they are unable to sell.

And, finally, some news from the primary market.

The initial public offering of Computer Age Management Services was subscribed 82 per cent on Monday, the first day of the issue. The portion reserved for retail investors was fully subscribed. 

The IPO of Chemcon Speciality Chemicals received strong response on the very first day of bidding itself. The Rs 318-crore public issue was subscribed 5.18 times. Retail investors seem to be in a strong position as they put in 9.8 times higher bids against their reserved portion.

And today, the IPO of Angel Broking opens for retail subscription at a price band of Rs 305-306 per equity share. The offer will close on September 24. Yesterday, Angel Broking raised nearly Rs 180 crore from anchor investors.