Market may open higher on firm Asian stocks

The market may open higher on firm Asian stocks. Trading of S&P CNX Nifty futures on the Singapore stock exchange indicates that the Nifty could gain 17.50 points at the opening bell. Asian stocks gained on Wednesday, 12 December 2012, amid sustained optimism for an agreement on upcoming US tax hikes and spending cuts, ahead of the conclusion of a Federal Open Market Committee that may see it undertake more asset buying. Closer home, the Central Statistical Organization (CSO) will unveil industrial output data for October 2012 today, 12 December 2012. Industrial production is seen expanding 4.7% in October 2012, as per the median estimate of a poll of economists carried out by Capital Market. Industrial production declined 0.4% in September 2012. PSU OMCs and GAIL (India) may edge lower after Oil Minister Veerappa Moily on Tuesday, 11 December 2012, said the government is likely to increase the limit of subsidized cooking-gas supplies to nine 14.2-kilogram cylinders per family a year from six now. An announcement in this regard will be made shortly, Moily said. In September, the government capped the number of cylinders that can be bought at discounted prices as part of measures to reduce its spending on subsidies. The government has been under pressure since to increase the limit, both from within and outside the ruling coalition and from consumer groups. Shares of oil exploration firms will be in focus as Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) holds a meeting in Vienna today, 12 December 2012, to discuss its production quota. OPEC is likely to leave its group production quota of 30 million barrels a day of oil unchanged at Wednesday's meeting. Wipro said after market hours Tuesday, 11 December 2012, that the Securities and Exchange Board of India has approved the proposal for achieving compliance with minimum public shareholding requirement under Clause 40A of the listing Agreement pursuant to the Scheme of Demerger including the tender offer therein. It may be recalled that the Board of Directors of Wipro on 1 November 2012, approved the demerger of the Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting (including Furniture business), Wipro Infrastructure Engineering (Hydraulics & Water businesses), and Medical Diagnostic Product & Services business (through its strategic joint venture), into a separate company to be named Wipro Enterprises. Wipro will focus exclusively on information technology. Wipro Enterprises will be an unlisted company. Nestle India turns ex-dividend today, 12 December 2012, for interim dividend of Rs 18 per share for the year ending 31 December 2012. Kingfisher Airlines after trading hours on Tuesday, 11 December 2012, said that the company is currently in discussion with various investors, including Etihad Airways, for equity investments in the company. However, no agreement has been reached either with Etihad or any other airline and the matters are merely at negotiation stages, Kingfisher Airlines said. The company issued this clarification after media reports suggested that Etihad Airways is set to buy stake in Kingfisher Airlines. Bajaj Corp said after market hours on Tuesday, 11 December 2012, that the company has incorporated a wholly owned subsidiary viz. Bajaj Bangladesh to take up hair oil and other related business in Bangladesh. The Government of India (GoI) is divesting 10% stake in state-run iron ore miner NMDC through the Offer for Sale (OFS) mechanism via the stock exchanges route. The OFS will begin at 9:15 IST and end at 15:30 IST today, 12 December 2012. GoI after trading hours Tuesday, 11 December 2012, announced the floor price for the OFS at Rs 147. Shares of NMDC had risen 2.94% to settle at Rs 159.30 on BSE on Tuesday, 11 December 2012. GoI is selling 39.64 crore shares constituting 10% stake in NMDC through the OFS. Bank stocks will be in focus as the government will once again move the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2011, for consideration and passing in Lok Sabha today, 12 December 2012, after the opposition parties on Monday, 10 December 2012, blocked introduction of the bill. BJP leader Yashwant Sinha on Monday, 10 December 2012, said the amendments go far beyond those cleared by the finance standing committee he heads. Supported by Left leaders Gurudas Dasgupta and Basudeb Acharia, Sinha argued that it will not be unusual for a bill to be sent back to the committee as this was happened in the case of the companies bill which had been thoroughly recast. The Indian government's wide fiscal deficit and a heavy debt burden are the most "significant rating constraints" to the country's sovereign rating, Standard & Poor's said, reiterating its warning that India faces a one-in-three chance of being downgraded to junk over the next 24 months. Broadly, India's fiscal profile is a rating weakness, S&P said in a note, echoing views made in an October note. "Given the political cycle -- with the next elections to be held by March 2014 -- and the current political gridlock, we expect only modest progress in fiscal and public sector reforms," S&P said. The rating agency, which in April cut India's outlook rating to negative from stable, said it did not expect the government to reach its fiscal deficit target of 4.5 percent of gross domestic product in the fiscal year that ends in March 2014. India has a BBB- rating from S&P, the lowest investment grade among the BRIC economies. A small decline pushed key benchmark indices to one-week closing low Tuesday, 11 December 2012, as investors doubted the government's ability to get key financial sector reforms bills passed during the ongoing winter session of the parliament as the Opposition on Tuesday, 11 December 2012, continued to derail both the Houses of Parliament over US retail giant Wal-Mart lobbying report. The BSE Sensex shed 22.55 points or 0.12% to 19,387.14 on that day, its lowest closing level since 4 December 2012. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 1309.88 crore on Tuesday, 11 December 2012, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges. The winter session of the parliament which began on 22 November 2012 has heavy legislative agenda. The key financial sector reforms bills that the government intends to pass this session include insurance and pension bills and the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2011. The insurance bill will aim to raise the limit for foreign direct investment in the sector to 49% from 26%, while the pension bill will seek to allow foreign investments of up to 49% in local pension-fund managers. The Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2011 calls for increasing the voting rights of large shareholders in private banks to 26% from 10%, increase in voting ceiling in state-run banks to 10% from 1%, and giving the central bank more powers. The Reserve Bank of India has held back approvals of new bank licenses, urging the government to first get the bill passed in parliament. Asian stocks gained on Wednesday, 12 December 2012, amid sustained optimism for an agreement on upcoming US tax hikes and spending cuts, ahead of the conclusion of a Federal Open Market Committee that may see it undertake more asset buying. Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea rose by between 0.32% to 0.84%. China's Shanghai Composite fell 0.03%. Japan's machinery orders rose for the first time in three months, a sign that companies may expect the world's third largest economy to return to growth in 2013. The Bank of Japan's two-day policy meeting on Dec. 19 and 20 will take place after general elections on Dec. 16. North Korea has successfully placed a satellite in orbit, Kyodo News service reported today, 12 December 2012, citing the country's official Korean Central News Agency, even as several nations protested Pyongyang's rocket launch earlier in the day. Meanwhile, Japan, South Korea, the US and the UK were among the countries that condemned the rocket launch, according to media reports. US stocks rose on Tuesday, 11 December 2012, amid fresh hope for a deal to avoid billions of dollars of automatic spending cuts and tax hikes early next year. The US fiscal cliff refers to the year-end deadline for the expiration of hundreds of billions of dollars worth of tax cuts and the triggering of $109 billion in across-the-board spending cuts, if the US Congress fails to act. The US Congress created the hazardous deadline of 31 December 2012 in August 2011 when it agreed to a deficit deal as a way out of a deadlock over raising the US debt ceiling. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the US economy would drop into a recession in the first half of the new year if a deal is not reached. The Federal Reserve wraps up its two-day monetary policy meeting later in the global day today, 12 December 2012. The US central bank is expected to outline whether it will continue purchases of longer-dated securities under a policy that is popularly known as Operation Twist. Operation Twist, the name given to the Fed policy of selling short-term Treasurys in exchange for buying longer-term securities, expires at the end of this year. A two-day European Union (EU) summit is scheduled in Brussels on 13 and 14 December 2012 to examine a detailed plan for completing a banking union and strengthening euro zone fiscal policy aimed at resolving euro zone fiscal crisis.