Market Ahead, December 3: All you need to know before the opening bell

Mixed global cues and weekly derivative contract expiry might keep the Indian markets volatile in today's session. At 7:30 AM, the SGX Nifty was trading 20 points higher at 13,175 levels, indicating a flat to positive start for the benchmark indices today.

Globally, the main Wall Street indices ended mixed, with the S&P 500 climbing to a record high close, as investors weighed upbeat vaccine developments and a potential coronavirus fiscal package against a bleak private jobs report.

The Dow Jones rose 0.2 per cent, while the S&P 500 gained 0.18 per cent. The Nasdaq, meanwhile, dropped 0.05 per cent.

Investors in Asia, meanwhile, were holding on to minor gains in Thursday's early deals. Japan's Nikkei was flat while Hong Kong's main index gained 0.3 per cent in early trade. Australian ASX 200 was also up 0.4 per cent.

In commodities, oil prices rose also after Britain approved a Covid-19 vaccine and investors hoped producing countries would keep limits on their output.

Back home, investors are likely to stick to stock-specific trading. Tech stocks may register some gain today after a California federal judge in the US struck down two of Donald Trump administration's recent rules meant to drastically curtail the number of visas issued to skilled foreign workers every year.

IndiGo yesterday said it has reached 70 per cent of its pre-Covid capacity and is operating 1,000 daily international and domestic flights.

According to media reports, Standard Life is looking to sell up to 2.78 crore shares of HDFC Life through a block deal today to raise up to Rs 1,770 crore The sale price has been fixed at Rs 605-636.50 apiece, which is up to 5 per cent discount to Wednesday’s closing price.

Meanwhile, Standard and Poor's has warned that many potential “fallen angel” banks — including ICICI Bank and public sector lender Indian Bank — face risks from a more severe economic downturn due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

On the Covid front, India's tally has increased to 95.33 lakh cases while the country's death toll has mounted to 1.38 lakh.

And, in the end, some news from the primary market.

Burger King India’s IPO was subscribed three times on the first day of the issue. The retail investor portion of the IPO was subscribed 15.6 times, the high networth individual portion was subscribed 16 per cent and institutional investor portion was  subscribed 70 per cent.