SGX Nifty up 85 points; here’s what changed for market while you were sleeping

STATE OF THE MARKETS


SGX Nifty signals a positive start
Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange traded 84 points, or 0.50 per cent, higher at 16,767.5, signaling that Dalal Street was headed for a positive start on Thursday.

• Tech View: Nifty50 on Wednesday formed a bullish candle on the daily chart, as the index settled higher after two days of consecutive fall. The bullish candle engulfed the previous negative candle completely, signaling a formation of bullish Piercing Line type candle pattern.
• India VIX: The fear gauge dropped mildly, less than a per cent, to 18.13 level on Wednesday over its close at 18.17 on Tuesday.

Asian shares open higher
Asian stocks opened higher on Thursday morning after the head of the Federal Reserve indicated the bank’s pace of interest rate hikes could begin to slow down. MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up by 0.45 per cent.

• Japan’s Nikkei advanced 0.02%
• Australia’s ASX 200 added 0.29%
• New Zealand’s DJ jumped 1.44%
• South Korea’s Kospi surged .73%
• China’s Shanghai gained 0.53%
• Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.12%

US stocks settle sharply higher
Technology companies led a broad rally for stocks on Wall Street Wednesday as investors welcomed another interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve as sign the central bank is ratcheting up its campaign to fight surging inflation. In a widely expected move, the central bank raised its key interest rate by three-quarters of a point.

• Dow Jones rallied 1.37% to 32,197.59
• S&P 500 jumped 2.62% to 4,023.61
• Nasdaq surged 4.06% to 12,032.42

Dollar near 3-week low
The US dollar languished near a three-week low to major peers on Thursday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell assuaged trader worries about continued aggressive monetary tightening.

• Dollar index pinned at 106.54
• Euro was trading at $1.0191
• Pound hovered to $1.2146
• Yen was struggled at 136.325 per dollar
• Yuan exchanged hands at 6.7588 against the greenback

Oil prices rise mildly
Oil prices edged up on Thursday, extending gains from the previous session, buoyed by lower crude inventories and higher gasoline demand in the United States.

Brent crude futures for September rose 40 cents, or 0.4 per cent, to $107.02 a barrel by 0010 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) was at $97.78 a barrel, up 52 cents, or 0.5 per cent.

FIIs sell shares worth Rs 437 cr
Net-net, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) turned sellers of domestic stocks to the tune of Rs 436.81 crore, data available with NSE suggested. However, DIIs turned net buyers to the tune of Rs 712.03 crore, data suggests.

Q1 results today
Bajaj Finserv,

, , , and Payments, , Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, and Investments, , and are among the companies that will announce their earnings for the quarter ended June 2022.

Stocks in F&O ban today
Two stocks –

and – are under the F&O ban for Thursday, July 28. Securities in the ban period under the F&O segment include companies in which the security has crossed 95 per cent of the market-wide position limit.

US Fed raises rate by 75 bps
Federal Reserve officials raised interest rates by 75 basis points for the second straight month, delivering the most aggressive tightening in more than a generation to curb surging inflation — but risking a sharp blow to the economy.

Policymakers, facing the hottest price pressures in 40 years, lifted the target range for the federal funds rate on Wednesday to 2.25 per cent to 2.5 per cent. That takes the cumulative June-July increase to 150 basis points – the steepest rise since the price-fighting era of Paul Volcker in the early 1980s.

Digital payments rise 29% in FY22: RBI
Digital payments across the country registered a growth of nearly 29 per cent in a year through March 2022, as per the RBI’s latest index that measures the adoption of online transactions.

The newly constituted RBI’s digital payment index (RBI-DPI) stood at 349.3 in March 2022 against 304.06 in September 2021 and 270.59 per cent in March 2021.

RBI may increase rate by 35bps: BofA Securities
The Reserve

‘s rate-setting panel will go for a 0.35 per cent hike in the key repo rate at its meeting next week, an American brokerage said.

The hike will be accompanied by a change in the policy stance to “calibrated tightening”, Bofa Securities said in a report published ahead of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) resolution which is set to be announced on August 5.

Govt extends Rs 1.64 lakh cr lifeline to BSNL
The government on Wednesday approved a Rs 1.64 lakh crore revival package for BSNL, consisting of converting dues into equity, financial support and allocation of spectrum in a bid to turn around the loss-making telecom PSU.

Also, Bharat Broadband Network Ltd (BBNL) – the firm that created a fibre network called BharatNet – will be merged with BSNL to boost its infrastructure and support telephony services, Telecom and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told.

MONEY MARKETS

Rupee: The rupee declined 13 paise to close at 79.91 against the US dollar on Wednesday, following risk-off sentiment among investors ahead of the outcome of the US Federal Reserve meeting.

10-year bonds: India 10-year bond dropped about 0.39 per cent to 7.34 after trading in 7.33 – 7.38 range on Wednesday.

Call rates: The overnight call money rate weighted average stood at 5.09 per cent on Tuesday, according to RBI data. It moved in a range of 3.30-5.50 per cent.