WPI in focus: 10 things you should know before the opening bell

Global cues:

Asian shares made guarded gains on Wednesday as surprising strength in U.S. consumer spending reassured investors the recovery in the world’s largest economy had not been derailed, lifting the dollar and Wall Street.MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was dead flat.

U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday, erasing much of the previous session’s steep drop, as a strong December retail sales reading eased concerns that economic growth might be slowing.

[caption id=“attachment_1260303” align=“alignright” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption]

Googlerose 2.4 percent to $1,149.40, giving a large boost to the outperforming Nasdaq, a day after the company announced plans to acquire Nest Labs Inc. The $3.2 billion deal will give Google a promising line of products and a prized design team.

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Business/ Stock news:

Aviation stocks will be in focus today. The aviation ministry has said it will seek the Union cabinet’s approval by next month to scrap a rule that requires domestic airlines to be in operation for at least five years and have 20 aircraft to be eligible to fly international routes.

Coal India Ltdwill be in the limelight. The company has declared a special dividend aggregating to a recordRs.18,317 crore orRs.29 a share for the current financial year. Of this,Rs.16, 485 crore will go to the government.

Keep an eye onOil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd(ONGC). The copany estimates its deep-water block off the east coast holds an additional 25 million tonnes of oil reserves.

HCL Technologies Ltdmay continue to witness action. According to The Times of India, Computer Sciences Corporation is planning to tie-up with HCL Technologies to leverage the latter’s offshore delivery capabilities.

ITC will be watched too. The company has raised Bristol cigarette price by 15 percent to Rs 45/pack.

Economy news:

India’s December wholesale price inflation at 12:00 IST. India’s retail inflation in December eased to a three-month low as vegetable prices fell, giving some relief to policymakers struggling to contain price pressures as growth hovers at a decade low.

Wednesday is the last day for Indian companies to submit interest in participating in the mobile phone spectrum auction scheduled to start on 3 February

Having spent about 94 percent of the full-year expenditure target in the first eight months of the financial year, the government has gone into an overdrive to mop up any bit of revenue it can lay its hands on. During the budget last year, finance minister P Chidambaram had outlined a 4.8-percent-of-GDP target for financial year 2013-14, or Rs 5.42 trillion.