Top stocks to look out for today

The Nifty may face intense selling pressure on Friday as a sell-off in equities and commodities deepens across the globe. Safe-haven demand in precious metals was back as bears pushed heavy sales on emerging market stocks and currencies.

Investors are in for a roller-coaster ride as the SGX Nifty signals a 100-point gap down on Nifty futures.

Overseas cues are strongly bearish. Major US indices plunged 2.1-2.8 percent overnight as the S&P 500 ended below the 200-day moving average. The index has now lost all its gains for 2015 and is sitting on a net loss of 1.1 percent year-to-date. Stocks in Europe ended 0.6-2.1 percent lower as a Chinese slowdown, renewed political unrest in Greece and a fall in emerging market currencies hit sentiment.

The commodities market spoke in different voices. Strong demand was seen for Gold and Silver futures as investors sought the relative safety of precious metals. Copper futures rebounded after a 4-day downdraft while Crude oil futures dipped further into their misery.

Equities were under modest selling pressure in Asia: Japanese, Chinese stocks, as well as those in Hong Kong were near 52-week lows. In fact, such is the lack of demand for stocks that valuations in Hong Kong are below those in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, the Nifty Index dropped 122 points to 8,373 on Thursday. Support is pictured at 8,290 points while resistance is seen at 8,430-8,520 points. The Bank Nifty plunged 420 points to 18,283 points on sustained selling in private and public sector banks.

The sentiment is mostly crushed in the cash markets on exchanges. Foreign Institutional Investors remained net sellers for the third day. They sold a net 1,007 crores of local shares while large domestic players made net purchases of 568 crore rupees yesterday.

The derivatives space was bearish. Traders pressed massive net sales of 1,771 crore rupees for Index Futures; Net purchases of 343 crore rupees for Stock Futures; Purchases of `751 crore rupees for Index options and net sales of 77 crore rupees for Stock Options.

Delivery based selling was seen in Yes Bank, Amtek Auto and Cairn India, while sustained buying was observed on Lupin

STOCKS TO WATCH

Maruti: Hikes prices between `3,000 rupees to 9,000 rupees on cars

Tata Communications: Major global companies in fray for buying a majority control in its data centre for up to $700 million.

Dredging Corp: Government sets 382 rupees per share as the floor price for its 5 percent offer for sale in the company.

(Image credits: Indiatimes)