Stock Market Today: Top 10 things to know before the market opens today

The market is expected to open higher on October 27 as trends in the SGX Nifty indicate a positive opening for the equity benchmarks in India with a gains of 104 points.

On Tuesday, the Sensex closed 288 points lower at 59,544, while the Nifty declined 75 points to 17,656 and made a bearish candle, which resembled a Bearish Belt Hold formation, generally formed in an upward trend, on the daily charts.

As per the pivot charts, the key support for the Nifty is at 17,635, followed by 17,594 and 17,527. If the index moves up, key resistance levels to watch out for are 17,768, 17,809 and 17,876.

Stay tuned to Moneycontrol to find out what happens in the currency and equity markets today. We have collated a list of important headlines across news platforms which could impact Indian as well as international markets:

US Markets

The S&P 500 ended a three-day winning streak on Wednesday, closing in negative territory as gloomy earnings guidance added to growing fears of a global economic slowdown.

But those fears, along with a smaller-than-expected interest rate hike from the Bank of Canada, continued to feed hopes that the Fed might consider easing the size of its rate hikes after its November 1-2 policy meeting

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.37 points, or 0.01 percent, to 31,839.11, the S&P 500 lost 28.51 points, or 0.74 percent, to 3,830.6 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 228.12 points, or 2.04 percent, to 10,970.99.

Asian Markets

Asian Markets are trading higher with Hang Seng up 2 percent and Taiwan Weighted and Kospi up 1.5 percent each.

SGX Nifty

Trends on SGX Nifty indicate a positive start for the broader index in India, with a gain of 104 points. The Nifty futures were trading around 17,917.50 level on the Singaporean Exchange.

GoI to hold roadshows for Hindustan Zinc divestment by November-December: CEO

Hindustan Zinc reported more or less an in-line set of quarterly numbers. However, the company is expecting the zinc’s division cost of production to rise by more than $100/ tonne for the financial year to $1,225-$1,275/ tonne, due to issues with coal availability, which have led to higher coal costs. Having said that, the company’s management expects coal availability to improve in Q3 and Q4.

In an interview with Moneycontrol, Arun Mishra, CEO and whole-time managing director of the company, spoke about the privatisation plans for Hindustan Zinc. Laying out a more detailed timeline for the process, he suggested that the company expects the government to hold a roadshow for Hindustan Zinc by November/December this year.

ECB to hike interest rates, likely to trim bank subsidies

The European Central Bank will raise interest rates again on Thursday and likely reel in a key subsidy to commercial banks, taking another huge step in tightening policy to fight off a historic surge in inflation.

Fearing that rapid price growth is becoming entrenched, the ECB has already raised rates at the fastest pace on record, and there is little let-up in sight as unwinding a decade worth of stimulus could take it well into next year and beyond.

The ECB is almost certain to raise its 0.75% deposit rate by 75 basis points – for a cumulative 2 percentage-point increase in three meetings – and signal that it is not yet done, even if the size of subsequent moves remains open to debate.

Oil prices continue climb on strong crude demand, weaker dollar

Oil prices continued to rise in early Asian trade on Thursday after surging more than 3% in the previous session, driven by record U.S. crude exports and a weaker U.S. dollar.

Brent crude futures rose 25 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $95.94 a barrel by 0015 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 19 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $88.10.

US crude stocks rose 2.6 million barrels last week, according to weekly government data on Wednesday, with crude exports rising to 5.1 million barrels a day, the most ever.

Results on October 27

Indus Towers, Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC, SBI Cards and Payment Services, PNB Housing Finance, REC, Tata Chemicals, Anupam Rasayan India, Balaji Amines, Latent View Analytics, Lloyds Steels Industries, CE Info Systems, PC Jeweller, Supreme Petrochem, Tamilnad Mercantile Bank, Vaibhav Global and V-Guard Industries will be in focus ahead of quarterly earnings on October 27.

Medanta hospital chain IPO to open on November 3

The initial public offering (IPO) of Global Health Ltd, which operates and manages Medanta hospitals, will open for subscription on November 3, RHP filed on Kotak Mahindra Capital, one of the book runners for the issue, website said.

The IPO, which closes on November 7, consists of a fresh issue of Rs 500 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of up to 50.76 million shares by shareholders and promoters—50.66 million by Anant Investments and one lakh shares by Sunil Sachdeva (jointly held with Suman Sachdeva).

Dabur Q2 profit slips 2.8% to Rs 490.86 crore; revenue up 6% at Rs 2,986.5 crore

Dabur India Ltd on Wednesday reported a 2.85 percent decline in its consolidated net profit to Rs 490.86 crore for the second quarter ended September 30.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 505.31 crore in the July-September quarter a year ago, Dabur India said in a regulatory filing.

However, its revenue from operations rose 6 percent to Rs 2,986.49 crore during the quarter under review against Rs 2,817.58 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.

FII and DII data

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net sold shares worth Rs 247.01 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors (DIIs) net bought shares worth Rs 872.88 crore on October 25, provisional data available on the NSE shows.

Stocks under F&O ban on NSE

BHEL and Punjab National Bank are on the NSE F&O ban list for October 27. Securities banned under the F&O segment include companies where derivative contracts have crossed 95 percent of the market-wide position limit.

With inputs from Reuters and other agencies