10 things you need to know before the opening bell on January 14

SUMMARY

The Indian market is expected to open higher on Tuesday, tracking gains in global markets ahead of the signing of a US-China trade deal. At 6:52 am, the SGX Nifty was trading higher by 34.50 points or 0.28 percent at 12,392, hinting at a higher opening for the Sensex and Nifty50. We bring to you the key things to know before the market opens:

By CNBC-TV18Jan 14, 2020 7:50:55 AM IST (Updated)

1. Asia: Asia shares rose on Tuesday as investors await China’s trade data ahead of a long-anticipated phase one deal signing with the U.S. this week. Optimism also rose as the U.S. removed China from a list of currency manipulators. Japan's Nikkei bounced 0.74 percent in trade, KOSPI rose 0.73 percent and Australia's ASX200 climbed 0.73 percent.

2. US stocks: Apple, Alphabet and other tech favourites propelled Wall Street to record highs on Monday, fuelled by optimism about the signing of a preliminary US-China trade deal, as well as upcoming fourth-quarter earnings reports. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.29 percent to end at 28,907.05, while the S&P 500 gained 0.70 percent to 3,288.13, its highest close ever. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.04 percent to 9,273.93, also a record high.

3. Markets At Close On Monday: Indian markets ended at a record close on Monday, with Infosys leading gains, rising 4 percent after the IT bellwether beat quarterly profit estimates and cleared its top executives of financial misconduct allegations. The Sensex settled 260 points higher at a record close of 41,859, while Nifty also ended at a new closing high of 12,329, up 73 points. Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors bought Rs 68 crore in the cash market while the domestic institutional investors bought Rs 47 crore.

4. Rupee Close: The rupee rose 8 paise to settle at 70.86 against the US dollar on Monday as investor sentiment strengthened amid positive global cues and gains in the domestic equity market. This is the fifth straight session of gains for the domestic currency, during which it has appreciated by 106 paise. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local unit opened on a strong note at 70.82 and shuttled between a high of 70.75 and a low of 70.93 during the day. It finally closed at 70.86, higher by 8 paise over its previous close. The rupee had settled at 70.94 against the US dollar on Friday.

5. Crude Oil: Oil prices fell about 1 percent on Monday as Middle East tensions eased and investors turned their focus to lacklustre seasonal demand following last week's bearish U.S. report showing a large fuel stockbuilds. Brent crude settled down 78 cents at $64.20 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude settled at $58.08 a barrel, down 96 cents.

6. December Retail Inflation Accelerates: The December retail inflation has come in at 7.35 percent versus a CNBC-TV18 poll of 6.5 percent and 5.54 percent in the month of November. The main culprit for inflation shooting above 7 percent is food prices. The vegetable price inflation reading has come at a whopping 60.5 percent versus an already very high 35 percent in November. Consumer food prices have also accelerated to 14.1 percent from 10.01 percent in November. It is noteworthy that food inflation comprises 40 percent of the CPI basket.

7. PFRDA Act May Be Introduced In Budget 2020: The government is moving ahead to make Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) as the sole watchdog for all pension products in the country and aims to bring the amended PFRDA Act in the upcoming budget session, a senior official in the know has told CNBC-TV18. The inter-ministerial consultations on proposed amendments are over. It is further reliably learnt that the government aims to differentiate between pension and insurance products and that the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) may regulate only insurance products.

8. SEBI On MD, Chairman Posts: Markets regulator Sebi has deferred by two years till April 2022 its directive for companies to separate the roles of chairman and managing director in view of demand from the corporates and to keep compliance cost lower amid a slowing economy. Under the Sebi norms, the top 500 listed entities by market capitalization were mandated to comply with the requirement of separation of the roles of chairperson and managing director (MD)or chief executive officer (CEO) with effect from April 1, 2020.

9. Raghuram Rajan On Budget Expectations: Budget 2020 is expected to include measures that could boost demand in rural areas, said Raghuram Rajan, former governor of the Reserve Bank of India. “I hope that the package emphasizes the structural reforms more but there are places where fiscal spending can produce an immediate boost in demand certainly in some of the rural areas, which have not done well in the past few years," Rajan said in an interview with CNBC-TV18. Building more roads there and more transfers enhancing spending in the national rural employment guarantee plan are among the ways of alleviating the stress in some of the poorest households, he said.

10. RBI Remains Net Buyer Of Dollars In November: The Reserve Bank of India remained a net purchaser of the US dollar in November as it bought USD 6.928 billion from the spot market, central bank data showed. The RBI had bought USD 7.458 billion of the greenback and sold USD 530 million in the spot market in the reporting month. In October, the RBI had net bought USD 7.102 billion of the US currency. It had purchased USD 7.302 billion and sold USD 200 million in the spot market.