Top stocks to look out for today

Bears may tighten their grip further on main Indices on Thursday as persistently weak cues from across the globe crush sentiment on Dalal Street. Oil hit a fresh 6-1/2 year low on a global glut of supplies. Local banks will be in focus post regulatory moves.

The Reserve Bank of India chose 11 business groups and private individuals to grant permission for payment banks, ushering in a strong dose of digital banking in a sector dominated by brick-and-mortar PSU banks. Reliance Industries, Aditya Birla Nuvo, Airtel and Vodafone were those that won the lottery.

Meanwhile, the SGX Nifty signals a 57-point gap down at opening for Nifty futures today.

Overseas cues are strongly bearish. Major US indices fell between 0.8-0.9% on Wednesday after the US Fed's meeting's minutes were released which showed policy makers judged the time for raising rates wasn't ripe yet. Stocks in Europe dropped 1.8-2.1% on continuing worries about the Chinese slowdown.

The commodities market was the worst hit, but it may be the best possible news for our local markets. Oil Futures dropped to 6-1/2 year lows as Saudi Arabia, the top producer, jacked up its monthly output and US inventories showed a surprise uptick. A fall in oil prices is good news for Indian stocks, at least for the refining giants. Coming back in focus were the precious metals, both Gold and Silver futures saw strong demand and rose in trade.

Copper Futures fell for the 4th day in a row on sustained problems in China, the biggest consumer of the industrial metal. Equity markets in Japan, China and Hong Kong experienced strong down drafts in Thursday's trade.

Meanwhile, the Nifty Index rose 29 points to close at 8,495 points on Wednesday. The Bank Nifty lost a step as traders booked profit after a smart rally in PSU stocks. The index slipped 78 points lower in the previous session.

The sentiment was mixed in the cash market. Foreign Institutional Investors remained net sellers for the second day. They sold a net 424 crores of local shares while large domestic players made net purchases of 383 crore rupees on Thursday.

The derivatives space was bearish. Traders pressed net purchases of 522 crore rupees for Index Futures; Net purchases of 503 crore rupees for Stock Futures; Purchases of `515 crore rupees for Index options and net sales of 44 crore rupees for Stock Options.

Delivery based buying was seen in Kotak Bank and ICICI Bank. Major selling was witnessed in Amtek Auto

(Image credits: Indiatimes)