SGX Nifty down 130 points; here’s what changed for market while you were sleeping

STATE OF THE MARKETS


SGX Nifty signals negative start
Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange traded 132 points, or 0.74 per cent, lower at 17,668, signaling that Dalal Street was headed for a negative start on Friday.

• Tech View: Nifty50 tanked for the third straight day on Thursday and formed a bearish candle on the daily chart. During the day, the index saw some intraday recovery near its important support of 17,600, which a few analysts believe should hold for now.
• India VIX: The fear gauge spiked less than a per cent to 17.79 level on Thursday over its close at 17.82 on Wednesday.

Asian shares trade lower
Asian stocks opened sharply lower Friday following a negative lead on Wall Street amid lingering worries over surging global inflation and the prospect of rising interest rates. Traders were also spooked by another plunge on Wall Street.

• Japan’s Nikkei plunged 1.25%
• South Korea’s Kospi tanked 0.69%
• Australia’s ASX 200 slumped 1.47%
• China’s Shanghai dropped 0.35%
• Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 0.24%

Wall Street end with cuts
Wall Street’s main indexes ended sharply lower on Thursday and a rally in US stocks evaporated late in the session as investors considered whether equities were bargains after a sell-off to start the year that has seen the Nasdaq fall into correction territory.

• Dow Jones dropped 0.89% to 34,715.39
• S&P 500 tanked 1.10% to 4,482.73
• Nasdaq plunged 1.30% to 14,154.02

Dollar takes a breather
The dollar took a breather from recent gains as a rally in US Treasury yields stalled, but was still headed for its best week in two months against a basket of major peers. The safe-haven yen gained versus the riskier Australian dollar on Friday.

• Dollar Index moved up to 95.795
• Euro edged slipped to $1.1303
• Pound was bought at $1.3586
• Yen gained to 113.915 per dollar
• Yuan exchanged hands at 6.3440 against the greenback

Oil prices ease from 2014 high
Oil prices slipped back on Thursday after hitting their highest levels since 2014 in the previous session on the back of strong demand and short-term supply disruptions, underlying factors that limited losses as investors took profits.

Crude oil tumbles
Oil dropped as OPEC+ struggled to meet its scheduled increases in production targets and the spectre of Russia invading Ukraine sent jitters through global markets. US crude fell 2.44 per cent to $83.46 per barrel on Friday morning and Brent crude lost 2.55 per cent to $86.14.

FPIs sell shares worth Rs 4,680 cr
Net-net, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) turned sellers of domestic stocks to the tune of Rs 4,679.84 crore, data available with NSE suggested. DIIs turned net buyers to the tune of Rs 769.26 crore, data suggests.

Q3 earnings today
Reliance Industries, JSW Steel, HDFC Life Insurance Company, Hindustan Zinc, SBI Life Insurance Company, Gland Pharma, IDBI Bank, Bandhan Bank, Polycab India, Vodafone Idea, PVR, Kajaria Ceramics and L&T Finance Holdings are among the companies that will announce their December quarter results today.

MONEY MARKETS

Rupee: The Indian rupee weakened by 7 paise to close at 74.51 against the US dollar on Thursday as sustained foreign fund outflows and rising crude oil prices hurt forex market sentiment.

10-year bonds: India 10-year bond jumped 0.15 per cent to 6.60 after trading in 6.58 – 6.61 range on Thursday.

Call rates: The overnight call money rate weighted average stood at 3.67 per cent on Thursday, according to RBI data. It moved in a range of 2.10-4.50 per cent.