Market Ahead, December 28: Top factors that could guide markets this week

The benchmark indices ended the holiday-shortened week flat as markets rebounded swiftly in the ensuing sessions following a steep decline on Monday. The BSE Sensex rose 13 points to 46,974, while the Nifty50 was down 11 points at 13,749 for the week.

The last week of Calender 2020 is likely to be volatile given the worries on the new strain of coronavirus that is wreaking havoc across Europe and South Africa and expiry of December derivative contracts.

However, global developments such as a Brexit deal between European Union and UK over the weekend and US President Donald Trump's go-ahead to the Covid relief and govt funding bill are likely to enthuse stock market bulls. Most global financial markets will remain closed for trading on January 1.

Back home, investors will track development related to Covid-19 vaccination. In India, the daily death rate has dropped to the lowest level since early June, while the rate of new infections is at the lowest since early July.

The government has planned for a dry run of Covid-19 vaccine in four states - Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, and Punjab - which will take place between December 28-29, ahead of actual implementation whenever the drug gets finalised.

Drugs Controller General of India may give nod to the Oxford vaccine this week, before deciding on giving emergency use authorisation to the Serum Institute that is manufacturing the shots here, PTI said quoting sources.

Meanwhile, the European Union kicked off a continent-wide vaccination campaign less than a week after clearing a shot developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE.

Apart from these, stock-specific developments would keep investors busy.

Auto stocks are likely to be in focus as auto majors would report their monthly sales data for December at the end of the week.

Shares of Antony Waste are expected to list on the bourses on Friday after it received a good response from investors for its Rs 300 crore IPO.

The share buyback offers of Wipro, Mayur Uniquoters and Kanchi Karpooram will open on December 29, December 30 and December 31 respectively.

Besides this, investors would keep a track of FII inflows, rupee trajectory and movement in oil prices.

And now, let's take a look at the trade setup for today

Global shares ticked up on Monday after a report said that US President Donald Trump signed into law a $2.3 trillion pandemic aid and spending package he had until now refused to sign. Japan’s Nikkei inched up 0.4% and MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.2%. Meanwhile, U.S. S&P futures last traded up 0.4%.

Back home, Indian markets too mirrored the positive mood as SGX Nifty was trading up 0.31 per cent at 13,801.

Shares of DHFL are likely to be in focus today after Oaktree Capital shot-off a letter to Reserve Bank of India on Sunday, ahead of voting by lenders on bids which begins this week, alleging that inspite of it offering maximum value to stakeholders, there is a consistent campaign to misrepresent information about its bid.

The core group of secretaries on divestment, headed by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba, is likely to meet on Monday to finalise the strategic sale of BEML.