Stock Market News: Trends in the SGX Nifty indicate a negative opening for the broader index in India on Monday with all major indices around the world trading in the red and foreign institutions continuing to sell off Indian equities
The market is expected to open in the red as trends in the SGX Nifty indicate a negative opening for the broader index in India with a loss of 41 points.
The BSE Sensex fell 142 points to 59,464, while the Nifty50 declined 45 points to 17,466, the lowest closing level since October 17 last year.
As per the pivot charts, the Nifty has support at 17,428, followed by 17,386 and then 17,318. If the index moves up, the key resistance levels to watch out for are 17,564, followed by 17,606 and 17,674.
US Markets
Wall Street’s main indices posted their biggest weekly drop of 2023 after sharp losses on Friday, as investors braced for the possibility of more aggressive rate hikes from the US Federal Reserve as US economic data pointed to resilient consumers.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 336.99 points, or 1.02 percent, to 32,816.92, the S&P 500 lost 42.28 points, or 1.05 percent, to 3,970.04 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 195.46 points, or 1.69 percent, to 11,394.94.
Asian Markets
Asian shares slipped on Monday as markets were forced to price in ever-loftier peaks for US and European interest rates, slugging bonds globally and pushing the dollar to multi-week highs.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.5 percent, having shed 2.6 percent last week. Japan’s Nikkei eased 0.4 percent and South Korea 0.9 percent.
SGX Nifty
Trends in the SGX Nifty indicate a negative opening for the broader index in India with a loss of 41 points. The Nifty futures were trading around 17,501 levels on the Singaporean exchange.
FPIs sell-off spree continues; withdraw Rs 2,300 crore from equities in Feb
Foreign investors have turned cautious and pulled out Rs 2,313 crore from Indian equities so far this month ahead of the release of Federal Reserve’s latest meeting minutes. However, the pace of selling has come down compared to January, when Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) took out Rs 28,852 crore.
According to the data, FPIs withdrew a net amount of Rs 2,313 crore from Indian equities during February 1-24.
US consumer spending posts biggest gain in nearly two years; inflation picks up
US consumer spending increased by the most in nearly two years in January amid a surge in wage gains, while inflation accelerated, adding to financial market fears that the Federal Reserve could continue raising interest rates into summer.
The report from the commerce department on Friday was the latest indication that the economy was nowhere near a much-dreaded recession. It joined data earlier this month showing robust job growth in January and the lowest unemployment rate in more than 53 years.
Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, shot up 1.8 percent last month. That was the largest increase since March 2021. Data for December was revised higher to show spending dipping 0.1 percent instead of falling 0.2 percent as previously reported. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast consumer spending rebounding 1.3 percent.
FII and DII data
Foreign institutional investors (FII) sold shares worth Rs 1,470.34 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors (DII) bought shares worth Rs 1,400.98 crore on February 24, the National Stock Exchange’s provisional data showed.
India’s economic growth appears to be very fragile, says RBI monetary policy committee member Jayanth R Varma
India’s economic growth appears to be ‘very fragile’ and it may fall short of what the country needs to meet the aspirations of its growing workforce, RBI Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) member Jayanth R Varma said on Sunday.
In India, Varma said he expects inflation to remain high in 2022-23 but come down significantly in 2023-24. “However, growth appears to be very fragile, and monetary tightening is compressing demand,” he said.
IMF flags debt restructuring hurdles, says banning crypto should be an option
There are some disagreements over restructuring debt for distressed economies, the chief of the International Monetary Fund said on Saturday on the sidelines of a G20 meeting, adding that banning private cryptocurrencies should be an option.
“On debt restructuring, while there are still some disagreements, we now have the global sovereign debt roundtable with consideration of all public and private creditors,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told reporters after the roundtable she co-chaired with Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
“We have to differentiate between central bank digital currencies that are backed by the state and stable coins, and crypto assets that are privately issued,” Georgieva said. “There has to be very strong push for regulation… if regulation fails, if you’re slow to do it, then we should not take off the table banning those assets, because they may create financial stability risk.”
Oil prices drop as rising inventories offset Russian output cuts
Oil prices fell below $82 a barrel on Februay 24 as rising inventories in the United States and concerns over global economic activity offset the prospect of lower Russian exports.
Brent crude futures were down 57 cents, or 0.7 percent, at $81.64 a barrel by 1423 GMT, having risen by more than $1 earlier in the session. West Texas Intermediate US crude futures (WTI) were down 69 cents, or 0.9 percent, at $74.70.
NSE Indices launches India’s first Municipal Bond Index
NSE’s index services subsidiary, NSE Indices Limited, on February 24 launched India’s first-ever Municipal Bond Index, Nifty India Municipal Bond Index at a SEBI workshop on Municipal Debt Securities in Bengaluru.
The Nifty India Municipal Bond Index tracks the performance of municipal bonds issued by Indian municipal corporations across maturities and having investment-grade credit rating. The index includes municipal bonds issued as per the Securities Exchange Board of India Issue and Listing of Municipal Debt Securities Regulations, 2015. Presently, the index has 28 municipal bonds issued by 10 issuers all having credit rating in the AA rating category. The index constituents are assigned weights based on their outstanding amount.
With inputs from Reuters and other agencies