Stock market today: Key things to know before the opening bell on January 6

Indian markets are expected to open cautiously on Monday morning amid mixed global cues. The US markets closed higher, led by buoyancy in tech stocks. Meanwhile, Asian markets opened lower, with Japanese indices losing 1.2% on Monday morning.

Domestic cues, such as monthly business updates for private and public sector banks, are expected to weigh heavily on investor sentiments. The GIFT NIFTY, with a 40-point higher opening, indicates a positive start for the Indian markets.

US markets

The US benchmark indices snapped the five-day selloff rally to close higher on Friday. The rally in tech stocks like NVIDIA, Microstrategy, and Palantir Technologies drove NASDAQ and S&P500 to close 1.7% and 1.2% higher, respectively, while Dow Jones closed at 0.8% higher.

Asian Markets

On the contrary, the Asian markets traded in a lull on Monday as Japanese benchmark indices fell over 500 points on Monday morning. The Chinese and Hong Kong indices, too, traded nearly 1% lower amid stimulus worries that failed to uplift the Chinese economy. The Chinese central bank vowed to increase the financial stimulus by lowering rates and the reserve ratio requirements.

Oil prices

International crude oil prices hold the weekly gains to trade flat on Monday morning. Brent crude oil traded at $76.5 per barrel, and WTI traded over $74 per barrel. Crude oil prices posted the best weekly gains by rising over 4.5% during the first week of 2025.

FII and DII data

The foreign institutional investors maintained their selling stance on Friday by selling over ₹4,550 crore. The domestic investors failed to hold the ground as they bought equities worth ₹820 crore, leading to nearly a 2% fall in the benchmark indices. On the derivatives side, the FII's added more short contracts on Friday totalling 2.29 lakhs increasing from 2 lakh contracts on Friday, indicating their pessimistic outlook on Indian markets.

Chart check

On a daily chart basis, NIFTY50 ans SENSEX faced resistence at 20SMA levels. The 20 SMA levels of 78,060 and 23,690 will act as strong resistence and any closing above these levels will be keenly watched out for by traders.