Pre-market: What changed overnight & top cues for you before Opening Bell

How will investors react to the exit poll projections suggesting big gains for the BJP in the recently-concluded state elections? Will it trigger a sharp upmove?

Let’s check out what all might matter to Dalal Street on Friday.

Cues from Singapore positive
At 6.10 am, Nifty50 futures on the Singapore Stock Exchange were trading 10 points higher at 8,965 indicating a positive opening for the domestic market.

Upper hand for the BJP
There seemed to be no clear, overarching theme that emerged from Thursday night’s exit poll projections that showed an edge for the BJP. Uttar Pradesh, India’s politically most significant state, could see a BJP government or a hung House with the saffron party projected to emerge as the single-largest party ahead of the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance, with the BSP placed in third place. Two projections gave the BJP a clear shot at forming the government.

Nifty50 formed Spinning Top pattern
The Nifty50 inched up on Thursday in a range bound session to form a pattern similar to a ‘Spinning Top’ on the daily chart, suggesting indecisiveness among market participants ahead of exit polls on the assembly election. Friday’s session would be dominated by exit poll results, said Mazhar Mohammad, chief strategist for technical research & trading advisory at Chartviewindia.in. “Even though the exit poll results are positive, any rally would not last long. But the bulls may buy time before surrendering. We advise traders to use any euphoric gapup opening to exit part of their positional portfolio as the Nifty50 is likely to hit its intermediate top following the election outcome,“ Mohammad said.

Telecom tribunal reserves order on Jio offer
The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal on Thursday reserved its order on an interim appeal seeking a stay on Reliance Jio Infocomm's free promotional offer. The plea was filed by Airtel and Idea who wanted the tribunal to order Trai to ask Jio to stop its promotional offer of free voice and data services.

Rupee ends at 66.71
The rupee ended virtually unchanged at 66.71 against the US dollar on Thursday as traders avoided taking any positions ahead of the exit polls outcome and concerns over an impending Fed rate hike. The domestic currency resumed lower at 66.81 compared to Wednesday's closing of 66.71 on renewed demand for the dollar from importers and banks. It largely moved in a range of 66.70 and 66.87 throughout the day before ending little changed at 66.71, PTI reported.

Crude oil traders face margin calls
The bulls on crude futures contracts on MCX have faced a spate of margin calls over two days through Thursday following an almost 8 per cent fall in international prices in two sessions reverberated locally. Fresh bearish positions are now being created, indicating further downside in crude. The local crude contract broke below its 200-day moving average of $51.19 a barrel on Wednesday.

12% RIL shares changed hands in block deals
Over 396 million equity shares of Reliance Industries (RIL), representing about 12.2 per cent equity stake, changed hands on the BSE through three block deals in early morning trade on Thursday. The precise details of the buyers and sellers were not known, but RIL had informed the stock exchanges on March 2, 2017, that the promoter group of the company may restructure their respective shareholding via an `inter-se' transfer of shares aggregating up to 1,190 million shares.

Asian markets mixed
Asian markets across Japan, Korea and Australia were trading mixed in early morning trade. On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index advanced 2.46 points, or 0.01 per cent, at 20,858.19. The S&P500 index rose 1.89 points, or 0.08 per cent, to 2,364.87. The Nasdaq Composite inched up 1.26 points, or 0.02 per cent, to 5,838.81.