Market Ahead, January 8: Top factors that could guide markets today

In overnight trade, stocks on Wall Street hit record levels as investors bet a Democrat-controlled Congress will deliver more stimulus spending to help the US economy overcome a steep pandemic-induced downturn.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.69%, the S&P 500 gained 1.48% and the Nasdaq Composite added 2.56%.

Tracking a firm close for Wall Street, Asian stocks opened higher, with Japan hitting a three-decade high as investors looked beyond rising coronavirus cases and political unrest in the United States and bet on an economic recovery later in the year.

Futures for the S&P 500 jumped 1.48% while Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.84%. Gains in Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 were more moderate at 0.16% after Covid-led lockdown in one of the states.

In the backdrop of this, Indian markets too looked set to kick off Friday's session on a firm footing after suffering losses for two days in a row. SGX Nifty futures traded 58 points higher at 14,268 at around 7.30 am.

Besides cues from global peers, market participants are likely to react to the FY21 GDP estimates and all eyes would be on TCS, who'll kick off the Q3 earnings season today.

According to an estimate released by the Central Statistics Office, India’s economy is expected to contract 7.7% in the current financial year ending in March. This could prompt the finance minister to make a push for growth in the budget next month.

Meanwhile, top economists and experts are slated to hold a virtual interaction with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, FM Nirmala Sitharaman and NITI Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar among others today on the state of Indian Economy.

That apart, it looks like there is no stopping bitcoin. The cryptocurrency has doubled in less than a month and surged to $40,000 for the first time.

Now, a look at the stock-specific developments that are likely to sway the market today:

Five companies, inclusing TCS, are set to report their December quarter results today. The Tata Group company is expected to post a robust performance in Q3, with analysts projecting up to 8% jump in net profit.

Biocon has announced that the board of its subsidiary Biocon Biologics has approved a capital injection of $75 million from Abu Dhabi-based ADQ.

Vodafone Idea has moved the Supreme Court to seek a modification on orders which had held that the Rs 58,400 crore claimed by the telecom department to be the final AGR due amount, pointing out arithmetical errors in the government’s calculations, a media report stated.

Bharat Rasayan will consider the proposal of buyback of equity shares on January 12.

JSW Steel on Thursday posted a marginal growth of 2 per cent in crude steel output at 4.08 million tonnes during the October-December period of the ongoing fiscal.