Everything you need to know before the opening bell

Global cues:

Asian share markets crept cautiously higher on Monday, encouraged both by the prospect of extended stimulus in the United States and real economic reform in China.A weaker yen helped Tokyo’s Nikkei.N225add another 0.2 percent to reach a six-month peak. The index amassed its biggest weekly rise in four years last week.MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS added 0.5 percent, having gained 1.3 percent on Friday for its best daily rise in almost two months.

US markets ended higher on Friday on expectations that the Federal Reserve would continue with its quantitative easing programme after new chief Janet Yellen struck a dovish tone at the confirmation hearing before the Senate banking committee last week.

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[caption id=“attachment_1178367” align=“alignright” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters.[/caption]

Gulf airlines splashed out over $150 billion on new plane deals on day one of the Dubai Airshow, underscoring a shift in power in the aviation industry and giving a boost to the formal launch of Boeing’s newest jet, as well as to Airbus’s A380 superjumbo.

Business/Stock news:

Axis Bank Ltdwill become a foreign-owned lender, following the go-ahead to its proposed increase in foreign investment holding to 62% from 49% which will lead to inflow of overRs.6,200 crore.

Facing arbitration claims by Daiichi Sankyo, Ranbaxy’s former Indian promoters are counting on ‘representations and warranties’ made in the share purchase agreement signed with the Indian drugmaker’s current Japanese owners in 2008.

Reliance Industries will repair a third of the wells shut at its main gas field in the eastern offshore KG-D6 block to boost output in the first quarter of 2014.

Economy news:

India’s foreign exchange (forex) reserves rose by $819.5 million to $282.11 billion for the week ended Nov 8, helped by a sharp increase in foreign currency assets, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showed.

Rserve Bank of India chief Raghuram Rajan said on Friday that no single data point or number will determine the central bank’s next move on managing India’s high inflation. Rajan said that demand needs to be reduced without having severe effects on investment and supply.

“This is a balancing act, which requires the Reserve Bank to act firmly so that the economy is disinflating, even while allowing the weak economy more time than one would normally allow for it to reach a comfortable level of inflation,” he said in a speech.

With the greenshoots of recovery visible, Finance Minister P Chidambaram exuded confidence that the economy will pick up in the second half and record a growth of 5-5.5 per cent in 2013-14. He, however, sounded a note of caution for investigative authorities, saying all commercial decisions should not be seen as “motivated or malicious.”