Business
Updated : 2021-01-18 07:50:12
The Indian market is likely to open lower on Monday following losses in Asian peers. At 7:45 am, the SGX Nifty was trading 36.50 points or 0.25 percent lower at 14,422.50, indicating a negative start for the Sensex and Nifty50.
1. Wall Street | US Stock fell on Friday, pressured by intensifying lockdowns and weak US retail sales data, while the dollar index posted its largest weekly gain in more than two months. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 177.26 points, or 0.57 percent, to 30,814.26, the S&P 500 lost 27.29 points, or 0.72 percent, to 3,768.25 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 114.14 points, or 0.87 percent, to 12,998.50. Wall Street will be closed on Monday for a holiday.
2. Asian Stocks | Asian share markets retreated from highs on Monday as disappointing news on US consumer spending tempered risk sentiment ahead of a closely-watched reading on the health of the Chinese economy. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost 0.3 percent having hit a string of record peaks in recent weeks. Japan’s Nikkei slipped 1 percent and away from a 30-year high.
3. Indian Market on Friday | Indian indices ended over a percent lower on Friday as major selling was seen in all sectors during the day. The Sensex ended 549 points lower at 49,034 while the Nifty lost 162 points to settle at 14,434. The IT sector fell the most, over 2 percent followed by the pharma index, which was down 1.5 percent. Nifty Bank, Nifty Auto, Nifty FMCG and Nifty Metals also lost between 0.5 percent and 1 percent for the day.
4. Crude Oil | Oil prices ran into profit-taking on worries the spread of increasingly tight lockdowns globally would hurt demand. Brent crude futures were off 12 cents at $54.98 a barrel, while US crude eased 11 cents to $52.25.
5. Rupee | The rupee snapped its three-session winning streak and settled for the day 3 paise lower at 73.07 against the US dollar on Friday, with weaker Asian peers and heavy selloffs in domestic equities weighing on sentiment. At the interbank forex market, the rupee opened at 73.07 and hit an intra-day high of 72.99 and a low of 73.15. It finally finished at 73.07, lower by 3 paise to US dollar. On a weekly basis, the rupee has appreciated by 17 paise or 0.23 per cent.
6. Bank Credit | Bank credit grew 3.2 percent to Rs 107.05 lakh crore in the first nine months of the current financial year, against a growth of 2.7 percent registered in the corresponding period of 2019-20. In the fortnight ended March 27, 2020, bank advances stood at Rs 103.72 lakh crore. Bank deposits rose 8.5 percent to Rs 147.27 lakh crore in the April-December 2020 period as against an increase of 5.1 percent a year ago, according to the recent data released by the Reserve Bank of India.
7. NBFCs | The RBI will soon issue a discussion paper on a scale-based regulation of NBFCs, governor Shaktikanta Das said. The focus of these new regulatory guidelines would be to ensure that all NBFCs, irrespective of their size, have sufficient flexibility to grow. Das said whether it is small banks and NBFCs or large banks and NBFCs, “the differentiating factor among them is the quality of governance,” and therefore, the emphasis would have to be on the quality of governance and the business models.
8. December Trade Deficit | India’s trade deficit in December 2020 rose to $15.44 billion as against $12.49 billion, YoY. Exports in December were at $27.15 billion, up 0.1 percent, while imports were at $42.59, up 7.6 percent, YoY. Overall exports (Merchandise and Services combined) in April-December fell 12.65 percent to $348.49 billion, while overall imports were down 25.86 percent to $343.27 billion. (Image: Reuters)
9. IRFC IPO Opens Today | Indian Railway Finance Corporation will open its initial public offering for subscription today and the same will close on January 20. The IPO comprises a fresh issue of 1,18,80,46,000 equity shares and an offer for sale of 59,40,23,000 equity shares by the government. The company has fixed price band for its public issue at Rs 25-26 per share. IRFC targets to raise Rs 4,455.17 crore – Rs 4633.38 crore. The company already garnered Rs 1,390 crore through anchor book on Friday.
10. FPI | Foreign portfolio investors (FPI) put in Rs 14,866 crore in Indian markets in the first half of January with participants expecting strong third-quarter results by companies. As per depositories data, FPIs invested a net Rs 18,490 crore into equities but pulled out Rs 3,624 crore from debt segment between January 1-15. This translated into a total net investment of Rs 14,866 crore during the period under review.
